No e-sign received, system errors, poor customer service

[marleyellis]

i’ve been with three for years and this is my first proper awful experience with them. i definitely don’t have any confidence in their service or team to be honest… being told one thing and then told another thing. i’ve never felt like a karen in my life but this entire experience definitely makes me feel like one 

firstly, i tried to order an iphone 16 with my student email so that i could have a specific data plan. 128gb ultramarine with 30gb £16 plan for 24 months. as i couldn’t upgrade my phone with my student email, this option never came up, i had to cancel my current phone number and give early termination fee of £100…  i tried to order this new phone and data plan online, and my credit check went through fine it told me it was accepted, but then just before i was to order a session timeout/expire error came up. i tried my steps again, filling out the form and credit check accepted and the same thing happened…

so i went to live chat to speak to someone. after finally getting my phone contract cancelled  i finally got an advisor to help me with ordering my new phone … which took ages because they kept trying to offer me other deals and i had to keep saying no. i will say, i understand it’s a job… but surely if someone has stated no more than twice you shouldn’t keep asking them

this was frustrating but they said they’d need to fill out another form and do another credit check. i agreed to this (i also had no idea that multiple credit checks would affect credit score…) anyway, my check was now denied … i have no idea why when i was told online using the website it was accepted. i don’t know if the error or having done it twice already has affected my score but the advisor asks me for more details and i pay £30 upfront payment.

everything seems to be going through okay but then they said i should receive an e-sign but i never go it. i kept telling them i don’t have it and they said i need to search in subject title, still don’t have it… so then they tell me to go to three store.

after trying to get this sorted over 2 hours i was pretty annoyed as it didn’t seem like they knew what was going on or how to hell me and something that should have taken 30 minutes tops has turned into a nightmare

i call three after this call who tell me that i should receive an e-sign within 24 hours… person seems understanding and knowledgable and i believe them. shortly after that call, i receive another call from three saying they’re fraud prevention and go through details with me. after everything confirmed they say everything is fine and i’ll receive my phone but will get a text message from dpd to confirm.

it’s the day after, i  haven’t received any e sign email or dpd text message, so i go on live chat again who are again, very unhelpful. tell me that my order didn’t go through because my check was declined even though i tried to explain my situation that it was accepted but i got errors then an advisor went through a form with me but i got no e-sign but i have a confirmation email that my order went through…, they kept saying it was declined and so i asked to speak to a manager … they said there is no number or person for manager  and that i need to go to three store. 

i call three again and explain my entire situation… they said everything looked fine but don’t know why i’m not receiving e sign so they talk to their team, who then say that i need to wait 72 hours in total for e sign because of technical issues that happens sometimes and if i don’t receive i call back.

i’m so unhappy with this experience , not only was it a hassle trying to cancel my contract in the first place (it’s like you have to go through all these hoops just to simply cancel) and then same thing with ordering the phone (constant offers and deals being thrown at me after i keep declining over and over, to not being listened to and being told it’s not gone through and then being told it is fine … not giving me a straight forward resolution.

it’s clear to me that their system is broken and their different teams seem to have different ideas of how things work and don’t actually help you. i really hope i get this resolved, but honestly after this if it’s not i’m never returning to three again, because this has been awful and stressful experience to deal with. i have a feeling my order will just be cancelled from getting no e-sign email and i’ll have to phone back just to be told there’s nothing they can do…

poor service honestly

[Paddiewack]

What a frustrating experience. I’m just a customer but I can sort of see this unfolding in the way you described. I’ll tag a forum admin who are Three uk staff to see if they can help or suggest or at least point you in a direction that stops you going  around in circles. I wish you well. @JonathanB Are you able to help or advise this customer pl?

[marleyellis]

hi, thank you for your kind words! it definitely was frustrating… i went into three store today as i wanted to speak to someone in person. they had to cancel the order for me…the girl said she even asked if they could just accept it because it originally worked for me using the website before the errors, but then told me they couldn’t do that now because it was denied when i had to do it again with the online advisor. i was told I need to wait 3 months till I can come back and try again because of check… I originally cancelled my sim contract because I wasn’t able to upgrade to the specific plan I wanted with my student status for iphone 16 and i made the order for the new phone and sim…  but now I don’t have either lol. pretty disappointed to be honest, I will be looking elsewhere in future 😕 I have seen other people online have these same issues so definitely seems like an issue with three!

[JonathanB]

Hi @marleyellis,

I'm really sorry to hear about this situation. It's really disappointing to hear about your experiences. I'll share feedback with some colleagues so we can hopefully find out what went wrong here. Just to clarify, the final result of this was that the order was cancelled, and you never received any messages to e-sign for your order in the end?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[marleyellis]

hi, yes i never received e-sign. i only received two emails, one with 2 contract summaries attached and another that said my order was confirmed and you put in your birthdate to view pdf, but no e-sign. my order has now been cancelled from the girl in the store and i have managed to undo my data contract cancellation for the time being, until that ends and i find somewhere else. it’s just disappointing as i’ve been with three since 5 years and have completed a contract with them before (iphone 11) which is now broken and i was advised there’s no point fixing this phone and should look into a new one. that is why i wanted to upgrade early to iphone 16 but it doesn’t seem like this is possible now. i will have to look elsewhere when my sim plan ends