Sorry to hear about that :-/

I've not personally, but they seem to be on Watchdog whenever I catch it.

Hell yeah, they suck.
I got a 3g modem from them ages ago and the bloody thing has almost no connectivity anywhere...

And everyone I know who has been with them has had rubbish phone signal no matter where they've been...

Hmm. I've not had a huge problem with them, although in June my 18 month contract with them is up and I'll probably move to a different provider. In the parts of the country I spend most of my time in I get an acceptable signal - it's only when I go to my parents or the in-laws that it's not there.

My dad works for them, and hates them, and enjoys pointing out their flaws to them in long internal documents (my sister's faff over trying to get a phone with them is currently a chapter in their big manual of things we will not do wrong again).

He's on holiday at the moment, but if this isn't sorted by 22nd May give me a poke and I can put you in touch with him. (If nothing else, he has access to the customer call centre records and can see whether they are actually writing down what you say)

I may well take you up on that. I'm on hold to them again. In brief the short version of the convoluted story is:

In January carphone warehouse called me up, offering to buy me out of my 3 contract which still had 6 months left to run. I jumped at this as 3 were not delivering on the service they'd promised. It then took over a month,10 hours and 8 seperate phone calls to get them to cancell my contact. They refused to send a final bill in advance, and to send it to the people that would pay it. I then passed on the bill to e2phone who are the parent company of carphone warehouse. (theres a seperate issue here between carphone/e2sure and not passing info, which complicates things further). I assume e2sure are paying it.

I then get letters and calls this month from westcott credit re the unpaid amount. I have patiently explained to them that i am not the person to hassle, and that all i can do is pass their messages on to e2save and that adding yet another company to the mix will only complicate things. They have no records as to the long convoluted story.

They say call 3 and ask them to withdraw the account, or give them the full information on the issue.

3 say "no we cant do that" and that it will stay with Westcott and the only way to get the full records to them is for ME to pay!

*scream*

still on hold to speak to a manager. I do now have address of customer services, and will be writing them a nasty letter at the weekend

sorry i mean e2save

As far as I can tell, there are also scammers that explicitly target 3 customers. When I was on 3, I got calls from people telling me my contract was ending when it wasn't - and wouldn't disclose the name of their company, just that they were 'an affiliate of 3'.

3 have their own area codes, so it's easy to pretend you know something about the customer when you don't. There are also genuine contractors from 3, so the problem is compounded.

Solution? No easy one, but first ask for their operating business name - it's a legal requirement for them to divulge it. Second, say the Holy Mantra:

"I do not want to be contacted about this or any other offer. In accordance with the Data Protection Act, I am making a formal request for you to remove my details from your records."

Repeat if necessary, or if they spout bullshit about needing your details for something else. Then hang up. Good luck!

It's like the people who phone up not-quite-purporting to be from BT: "as a valued BT customer, we have this amazing offer for you." When you actually demand whether they work for BT, they get all weaselly and elusive. Then people get pissed off and bitch at BT for cold-calling them when they haven't. Bah. Got me quite a few furious rants back when I worked on operator service...

My best friend has a phone with 3, he's counting down the days until he can afford to break the contract.

What did they do?

see my reply to vampire_kitten above!

Yup! I've been yelling at them for days now. Always having trouble, wont let me top up, them messing things up. So I'm unlocking my phone on saturday and goin to 02.

If it's any consolation I took advantage of them. I got a fairly expensive 3 only pay-as-you-go phone very cheaply when they were trying to lure people onto their network. As soon as I'd used up my starting credit, I got it hacked and used my original non-3 sim.

Having worked in the industry (Ex T-Mobile), I'd suggest contacting Ofcom and inquiring whether what they've done is within regulations. Beyond that, drop me a line and I'll see what else I can suggest

W-H-O-R-E-S

...whuh? me? Oh, I love them. Absolutely.

*sob* I SWORE TO LEAVE THEM but they offered me a phone in a colour the man said was "mystic purple"... it'd be okay if the thing picked up signal ANYWHERE USEFUL.

Not me, personally, but I saw a DVD of Alan Carr doing a standup thing that was really funny, in which he mocks "3" while talking about bullying by text. If you're on 3, you won't have any problems at school. 40 years later you'll get a text saying "your mom smells of pee" and you'll go " of course she does, she's 89!"

XD