Three Store

Worst phone shop in the planet

On numerous occasions I end up knowing more about the products than the staff when going into the store. Quite disappointing service most times when in store. Which is a real shame considering the position Three holds in the mobile market place.

The first time I went into this store, I was helped with everything I needed.
The second time I went in I wanted to switch from PAYG to a SIM only contract. I was helped by a man called «Dan» who was very friendly, if not a little rushed as it was the end of the day. Dan told me that my number would be ported over to the new SIM in «a few days» and that in the meantime, a £15 credit that I had on my account could be used as PAYG payment for monthly unlimited data service. Being new to the UK and not knowing how the UK mobile services work, I asked him what I needed to do to be sure that the credit would kick in so that I would not experience a loss of coverage? Dan told me not to worry that it would occur automatically.
5 days later, I’ve realized Dan was wrong. Firstly, my phone number still has not ported over to the new SIM card. But also, I was not able to use my PAYG SIM card. I contacted 3 customer service to ask why this was happening and was told that I should have requested that the £15 credit be used to purchase the unlimited data package. Instead, since I didn’t, I was being charged for internet usage on a daily basis, and within 5 days, my £15 credit was used up. While we were on the phone, I asked him how much longer it would take for my number to port over so that I could begin using my new SIM card with my current phone number. The gentleman on the phone looked into my account and told me that there was no prior request to port my number. He put the request in for me. I was very happy with the customer service I received on the phone, but not at all happy with the service I received in the store.
I decided to go to the store and talk to Dan to find out what happened. Dan denied that he made any mistakes in porting over the number, telling me that he didn’t do it that night, but did the next morning. I asked to see some form of documentation showing this and he said «Oh, we wouldn’t have it in the system any longer» He suggested that maybe it was the fault of the system, but he did what he was supposed to do. No apologies were made on that matter. When I discussed the matter of him telling me the credit would automatically be used for an unlimited data plan, he said «oh, sorry about that» but made no effort to try and correct the situation or even offer a sincere apology acknowledging that he made a mistake.
I feel that I was deceived by a sales person in order to make a sale. His misinformation wasted £15 of my money. Now I will be waiting another 48 hours for the number to be ported over leaving me with 2 options — keep the original sim card in and be able to receive phone calls and texts on the number that my colleagues have, or switch to the new sim card (with a different phone number) to use data, while possibly missing important calls or texts in the meantime.
I recommend not going to this store. At this moment, I don’t even recommend using 3 as a mobile provider. Perhaps once my account has been straightened out, I will feel differently about them as mobile service, but I can promise you, I will never feel differently about the service I received in that store.

I’m traveling to continental Europe next month and I need a SIM card that will make for cheap roaming. Three does have operations in several other countries and I was hoping that the tech would be able to help me take the card from my WWAN dongle and use it in my iPhone, since data roaming on Three is less than a quarter the cost of data roaming on O2.
He was very polite but he was not able to help. Apparently, certain unscrupulous characters have been taking the SIM from their unlimited iPhone plan and using it in their WWAN dongle. And since then, he’s not allowed to tell customers how to move the SIM from one to another. Shocking!