Comments on: Leaving Three after a year-and-a-half for iPhone 3G http://gidden.net/tom/2008/07/10/leaving-three-after-a-year-and-a-half-for-iphone-3g/ Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:55:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Tom Gidden http://gidden.net/tom/2008/07/10/leaving-three-after-a-year-and-a-half-for-iphone-3g/comment-page-1/#comment-16947 Tom Gidden Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:33:43 +0000 http://gidden.net/tom/?p=54#comment-16947 Incidentally, I was just called by Three's customer retention department -- although I didn't hear what they call it, because a heated argument and/or fight apparently started in the call centre -- and I was offered a very low tariff... I didn't quite catch the details, due to the aforementioned fight, but it sounded like £10/month for 800 minutes, with a new Sony Ericsson phone. Better than the £15/month and then £12/month I was offered on Thursday, and far better (at least six times better) than the £30/month for 300 minutes I've been on for the past couple of months. I would definitely take them up on that, except it's not an iPhone, and I need an iPhone for software development. While I still have a very good opinion of Three and will continue to recommend them, the network exclusivity of the iPhone trumps that. I must compliment Three on their customer services incidentally. I asked the customer retentions guy to check the status of my PAC transfer to make sure Carphone Warehouse hadn't partially transferred it, and he immediately did the checks and knew what to say, even though he's effectively in a sales position. Incidentally, I was just called by Three's customer retention department -- although I didn't hear what they call it, because a heated argument and/or fight apparently started in the call centre -- and I was offered a very low tariff... I didn't quite catch the details, due to the aforementioned fight, but it sounded like £10/month for 800 minutes, with a new Sony Ericsson phone. Better than the £15/month and then £12/month I was offered on Thursday, and far better (at least six times better) than the £30/month for 300 minutes I've been on for the past couple of months.

I would definitely take them up on that, except it's not an iPhone, and I need an iPhone for software development. While I still have a very good opinion of Three and will continue to recommend them, the network exclusivity of the iPhone trumps that.

I must compliment Three on their customer services incidentally. I asked the customer retentions guy to check the status of my PAC transfer to make sure Carphone Warehouse hadn't partially transferred it, and he immediately did the checks and knew what to say, even though he's effectively in a sales position.

]]> By: Tom Gidden http://gidden.net/tom/2008/07/10/leaving-three-after-a-year-and-a-half-for-iphone-3g/comment-page-1/#comment-16903 Tom Gidden Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:10:11 +0000 http://gidden.net/tom/?p=54#comment-16903 Update: Carphone Warehouse completely screwed up the order. I've spent over three hours on hold to them since Thursday, and they've promised me delivery on Friday, then Saturday, Monday and now sometime before next Friday. As of today, Carphone Warehouse had promised me that there was an iPhone with my name on it in their warehouse ready-to-ship, but a few hours later it transpired that that wasn't the case. They also completely failed to notify me of this, and it was up to me to discover it for myself. I've cancelled the order, and I'm going to take a chance and try to get one while travelling through central London on Wednesday. Even though they may be out-of-stock, I have more trust in Apple Regent Street than either O2 or Carphone Warehouse. It's not that getting an iPhone is vital to my survival, but I don't like being dicked about and lied to in this manner, and companies just shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. Okay, it's not genocide or widespread famine, but it's shoddy behaviour, and I'm able to express my contempt with my wallet, so I have. The mess that those companies (and Apple, to be fair) have made over the past week has been documented ad nauseum, so I won't dwell on that any longer, suffice to say that a simultaneous launch in 22 countries of such an anticipated product was probably not the best idea after all. Update: Carphone Warehouse completely screwed up the order. I've spent over three hours on hold to them since Thursday, and they've promised me delivery on Friday, then Saturday, Monday and now sometime before next Friday.

As of today, Carphone Warehouse had promised me that there was an iPhone with my name on it in their warehouse ready-to-ship, but a few hours later it transpired that that wasn't the case. They also completely failed to notify me of this, and it was up to me to discover it for myself.

I've cancelled the order, and I'm going to take a chance and try to get one while travelling through central London on Wednesday. Even though they may be out-of-stock, I have more trust in Apple Regent Street than either O2 or Carphone Warehouse.

It's not that getting an iPhone is vital to my survival, but I don't like being dicked about and lied to in this manner, and companies just shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. Okay, it's not genocide or widespread famine, but it's shoddy behaviour, and I'm able to express my contempt with my wallet, so I have.

The mess that those companies (and Apple, to be fair) have made over the past week has been documented ad nauseum, so I won't dwell on that any longer, suffice to say that a simultaneous launch in 22 countries of such an anticipated product was probably not the best idea after all.

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