How to get a refund for Data Passports?

[PhilH]

Hello, apologies this is pretty long winded...

My wife and I each purchased 14 data passports (a highly tedious process I will add) before traveling to Turkey for a 2 week holiday - on arrival they did not activate and very quickly I received a text message from Three saying my Spend Cap (£50) was reached and my out-of-allowance services had been stopped. I had no data roaming though I did get the "Welcome to Turkey" message with all the rate advice and my phone showed a 4G signal.

My wife had an unlimited spend cap set so did not get the same message as I did, though she also did not have roaming. She had previously in the month run out of data allowance in the UK so tried to add a data add-on in case that was the cause of her issue but it did not help.

So the next morning we both spent 2-3 hours on the Live Chat with Three support to work out why seemingly our data passports were not activating - during which we tried all the standard support steps (manually selecting a local network provider, turning off 5G, resetting the connection settings on our iphones, cycling airplane mode, restarting the phone) - none of the steps were successful.

On my case the support person suggested that my lack of credit limit was the problem (I had already updated my spend cap to unlimited before contacting support) so I duly paid the balance of £70 for the data passports - this also did nothing so a case was finally raised for my issue and I was told it could take up to 7 days to resolve (quite unfortunate on a 14 day holiday but ok).

For my wife all the same steps were tried on her support call; again none of those did anything though she was not asked to pay off any balance but again a case was raised.

2 days later and we were both called by Three support; we're on holiday and our phones are currently useless so we did not have them to hand - both missed the calls and this was enough for the agents to close our cases. So back to the digital assistant I went to find out why they closed my case considering I still did not have data roaming. The agent said an Incident had been raised to the senior technical team and so there was no need for my case to remain open - though he then bizarrely told me he would reopen it (though he did not do that). So again I was told to wait.

So to Sunday just gone (which was 2 days after the last contact with Three) and miraculously both our phones started getting data roaming and what a joyous (but short-lived) time it was. We assumed the technical team had resolved our issue but of course the roaming was again unavailable by lunch time; I believe this occurred due to entering a new billing cycle somehow as I was sent another message about my credit limit reaching 100% shortly before it going off again.

So back to Three live support; another hour of my holiday wasted chatting to different agents who again wanted to run through the same steps previously attempted by all the other agents. By now, nearly 7 days into our 14 day holiday we had decided that we would give up on data roaming and so try to get refunds for, by now, 31 data passports that had never activated (I bought a 15tth passport in the desperate hope it would work because I was already here, my wife had bought an extra one before we left to cover our last day and had an agent purchase one for her without her request or approval - he asked if she wanted them "activated" and then came back saying he'd added another to her account!).

To get a refund I was told I needed to be transferred to the complaints team so I was eventually transferred and he was very apologetic about it but due to a "process limitation" could not offer a refund. What a very fortunate process Three have that prevents them from refunding customers who pay for services they don't receive - instead he offered me credit (£20) to close the complaint - I pointed out that this did not cover even the cost of the passports purchased so he upped this to £40. Still not covering what I'd spent but it was late and I'd spent more than 6 hours total on chats to Three support members so I accepted the credit.

My wife, who was more persistent, got £50 credit applied (though she has spent £85 on data passports that do not work). I resolved to leave it there, leave Three (customer of 13 years) as soon as I get home and forget about it. But then my wife got a charge (to be included in her next bill) for £45 data roaming which I could believe happened but couldn't accept - so back to the support chat we went to raise how unacceptable it was to not only be charged for data passports that don't work but then on top of that be charged roaming charges. I was told to wait until the charges are on the bill (i.e. until Three already have more of our money) before they can do anything about it.

So I am sure the support team are unable to help us and I'm really wondering what recourse we have? Ultimately I feel a full refund of all the data passports and all the roaming charges is applicable here; we've had no services and have wasted plenty of vacation time on the topic but how can I speak to someone not constrained by "process limitations" that stop the support team refunding me? Do I need to take this to an ombudsman?

Credit to you if you've read all of this; even more if you have some advice? 🙂

[MZone]

It might be worth your time raising a complaint via this page https://bit.ly/3RaqpvS

[Geluk]

When posting in future keep your posts short & succinct; we don't read sermons 🙂

[JonathanB]

Hi @PhilH,

I'm really sorry to hear about all the disruption to your trip, and the subsequent dispute you've been dealing with over the billing. I've sent you a PM to get you in touch with some colleagues who can take a closer look into this, and will do their best to help.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
Jonathan