topic Re: Abandoned by Three after knife attack in Account and services

Abandoned by Three after knife attack

TonyD — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:06:47 GMT

We wife and I were attacked at knife point in Rio de Janeiro on the 24th March, despite being very shaken, we are both fine apart from an injured finger, however, my wife's bag was stolen, and it contained her iPhone. We have blocked the phone with Apple and contacted Three to block the iPhone.

We are both Three customers with the same type of contract and live at the same address, but Three are not providing us with support to get my wife's new phone working again. We are away until mid-May and my wife needs her phone for messaging and to do her online banking whilst travelling and have asked for her eSIM to be emailed to her (she has an iPad and can receive emails on her Three registered email addressed) and I have my phone.

We have offered to send Three the police report for the knife attack, copies of our passports, and to go to any location to have our IDs confirmed but they have not responded. We thought we had made progress when someone from Three called and said they would send my wife an eSIM and to contact them when we had a new phone, which we now have.

We called Three to get the eSIM and got through to customer services in India and they have no record and we are being sent round in circles, apparently the Executive Office must have called us.

Can I please ask the moderators or anyone on the group who have access to someone senior at Three to please either contact me on my mobile or email my wife. We are both very upset after having been attacked and would have hoped that Three would have made every effort to support us in the circumstances. Please note we are in New Zealand until the 20th April. Thank you.

Re: Abandoned by Three after knife attack

JonathanB — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:49:10 GMT

Hi @TonyD,

I'm really sorry to hear about you and your wife's experience it sounds like it was really distressing, and I appreciate that her not having access to her phone number must be causing further difficulties.

It sounds like the main challenge with getting a SIM replacement is that you're out of the country right now, and won't be able to receive a security code by text to her number. Customer services can send a physical SIM to your billing address, and a Three store can issue a replacement SIM to the account holder for any account.

In terms of eSIM, my understanding is the phone or chat teams aren't able to set these up if you can only pass email security. This restriction is necessary to help prevent fraud.

As the situation has put you both in a circumstance that could be termed as vulnerable, it may be worth a call or chat with our Customer Wellness Team. As well as accessibility needs, they also can sometimes offer further support with temporary vulnerability situations.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: Abandoned by Three after knife attack

TonyD — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 19:08:09 GMT

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for your reply. Felicity can obviously not receive a text on her number but I can. We are not back home until mid-May.

Concerning the eSIM and security, we offered Three several options to confirm our identity and also I have my mobile account with Three. Given our situation I would have hoped that any company would have worked with us to find a solution. Indeed, we did get a call from Three offering to send us an eSIM (I assume from Executive Office) but we asked them to wait until my wife had a new phone. We now can not get through to that person.

We contacted Three by chat again on the 5th April, see below. We have not heard back despite the assurances.

Agent: Yes, Your case was being handled by the Executive Office so it needs to be escalated back to them. A member of the Executive Office will be in touch within two working days.
You: OK, if I need to get back in touch how do I do this directly, I have spent the best part of an hour. I appreciate you have to go through the process. Can you please make a note on my account in capital letters to refer to the Executive Office under a new complaint number please.
You: Can you also please let them know that we are in New Zealand until the 20th April, we then go to Australia for a few days.
Just so that they know the time zone of they need to call me on my husband's phone. Thanks
Agent: There is no direct number that I can share usually they email you their details for now I will add everything on your account so they will be able to see it and take actions accordingly.
You: Thanks, can I have a new complaint number, the last one was closed when we thought we had a resolution.
Agent: Here is your complaint number : xxxxxxx
You: Thanks, appreciate your help. Can you please mark the email as urgent, this has been very traumatic and frustrating. Bye for now.
Agent: Yes do not worry we will take this on a priority
You: Many thanks.
Agent: Anything else I can help with today?
You: That's it. Thanks for your help ******.
You: Can you please close the chat so that I can download the transcript, thanks.
Agent: You can close

Re: Abandoned by Three after knife attack

TonyD — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 21:07:32 GMT

Just as a followup. We contacted the Communications Ombudsman and our MP in the UK for support. We eventually got through to the Executive Office in the UK yesterday and they kindly send an eSIM and activation code this morning (Saturday NZ time) and my wife's phone is working again. I hope Three review the chat transcripts with customer services, this issue could have been resolved very quickly and without wasting (a considerable amount of) everyone's time. A big thank you to Jemma in the Glasgow Office.