Dave Thorp's Blog

Well this one is quite a simple way to mess up the launch of a phone. Fail to deliver it on launch day but instead 3 days late and after performing 2 credit checks. The following email has been sent to 3′s executive office but should summarise the situation

Dear Sir/Madam,

I write with regards the above referenced mobile number and the saga I have had to endure in upgrading my sim only one plan sim to the recently announced iPhone 4S.

Having switched to you from O2 in July this year to benefit from your all you can eat data I was excited when the new iPhone 4S was announced and you announced you would be stocking it and taking pre orders. Whilst I was considering both you and O2 with a slight bias to you given I won a free iPad off you earlier this year, the fact that O2 wanted me to queue up in the cold and rain for my phone made my decision between yourselves and O2 quite easy however after all the problems I have experienced I am beginning to wonder if I made the right decision.

On 07/10/11 you opened pre orders and I telephoned to place my order for a 32GB White iPhone 4S on your £40 a month one plan. Having got through to upgrades to place my order at approx 12:30 I am advised that their systems hadn't updated for the iPhone 4S but I would be called back before 14:00 to place my order. At 14:05 with no callback having appeared and being aware of how in demand this phone would be I called back and my order was taken with a promised delivery date of 14/10/11 which is launch day. At 15:22 I received the callback I was promised before 14:00 and advised that I had called back and placed an order.

On 10/10/11 I receive an SMS survey which I filled out mentioning I never received a callback at the time I was promised.

On 13/10/11 a number of people expressed concerns on your twitter feeds about the status of their pre orders. I therefore enquired as to the status of my order and was told that all phone orders were fine, I would get a SMS message that evening letting me know it had been dispatched and a further SMS on delivery day informing me the approximate time I would receive my order. At 18:01 I receive a phone call which claimed to be in response to the survey I have filled out. During this phone call the person I spoke to stated she would have to credit check me again. Having already undergone a credit check the previous week alarm bells started ringing and I terminated the call but sent a tweet to your twitter feed who had sadly closed for the night. I received no SMS message advising me of dispatch of the order and send further tweets clarifying my concerns and advising I'd received no dispatch or delivery SMS

Today, the day my order was supposed to be delivered, I awoke from a very disturbed nights sleep due the anxiety which I suffer from starting to kick in and found no SMS advising me when my phone would be coming. Shortly after my tweets were picked up and a callback arranged. During this callback it is confirmed that the first time I ordered, I was credit checked for an iPhone 4 and not a 4S. Why this should make any difference and prevent the sending of my order is beyond me as end of day I was credit checked for a pay monthly contract. A further credit check is carried out and it is now arranged that my phone will be delivered on Monday. Having already let me down once, I am reluctant to get my hopes up again only for them to be dashed again but I am assured by your support twitter that my order will be dispatched this time.

Needless to say I am not happy that you failed to get the phone to me on launch day and despite an issue with my order, I receive no contact from you with the exception of a phone call from a foreign lady who initially wanted to discuss a survey but moved on to wanting to credit check me which would ring alarm bells for anyone from a cold call as it could well have been "someone called George calling from my bank". I am also not happy that I have been subjected to two credit checks for the phone when I should have only had one and the presence of additional credit searches in a short period of time can have an adverse affect on my credit rating.

I hope you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me with regards the issues I have raised and give me some reason to remain with 3 as any good graces granted by my free iPad are long gone following this experience. I must also insist under section 10 of the data protection act that any data you are processing with the credit reference agencies with regards the incorrect search carried out on 07/10/11 is removed for the credit reference agencies and all records of the search eliminated on the grounds that processing of it is unwarranted and is causing me damage. Failure to comply with this section 10 notice will result in a complaint being filed with the information commissioner. I trust this will not be necessary.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope that I am not forced to consider cancelling my upgrade and returning to O2 and that our relationship can continue without any further issues.

Kind Regards

Me

Sent from my iPad

Not happy to say the least!

It’s that time of the year again where the networks demonstrate complete ineptitude in handling the launch of arguably the most important handset launch of the year, the recently announced iPhone 4S. Now this year I’ll forgive the 3 day delay in getting pricing information out to us which was a major improvement on last year but instead I’ll be talking about O2′s inexplicable policy of not allowing pre-orders and cancelling their fast track upgrade program for all but the very highest spenders.

On Friday 7th October every major network announced their pricing for the iPhone 4S and opened up pre ordering for new and existing customers to order the phone for either store pickup or delivery on launch day. Every network except O2 that is. Not only were they last to announce pricing but they have also made it only available to existing customers (which in itself isn’t a bad thing) but they are also treating those existing customers like second class citizens by making them queue up in the cold and rain at stupid O’Clock to be able to guarantee getting the handset on launch day and even then it isn’t guaranteed when every single other UK network will happily post one out to you. O2′s twitter feed have been bombarded with complaints about this with their response basically being that doing it this way ensure the maximum number of people can get it on launch day which frankly is complete and utter bollocks!

We then move on to the fast track upgrade issue. Over the course of this weekend a number of O2 customers who have obtained quotes to upgrade early have suddenly found themselves no longer eligible to upgrade. After doing some digging it seems that these customers are no longer eligible due to a change in the terms of upgrading early now requiring customers to be on a £40 or higher tariff. This is another example of O2 altering terms and conditions to suit themselves on a whim such as when they removed unlimited data from tariffs and tried to retroactively alter the terms of existing customers to prevent them from changing tariff. It’s also an example of O2′s short sightedness as to who counts as a high spender as my monthly spend with them is over £40 but is spread over 4 accounts.

Thankfully this is one O2 customer who won’t be queuing in the rain for my iPhone 4S. Three have already confirmed my pre-order with them will be arriving on Friday on launch day. As for O2, despite having bought every iPhone from them since iPhone 3G, they will not be getting a sale from me for 4S. Plus over the course of the next 8 months I’ll be terminating all but one of my accounts with them. Which is a pity as if they hadn’t started to lose their way over the last year or so they would still have many happy customers and not the horde of customers ready to jump ship they currently have.

Dragons den is set to return to our screens tomorrow night and what better way to celebrate then updating my drinking game where you drink copious amounts of alcohol everytime something predictable happens. So drink the required amount of alcohol everytime one of these events happens

Camera goes absolutely crazy on shots of Evan – 1 finger each time the camera moves (I accept no responsibility if you run out of alcohol in the first two minutes of the show…. which you will)

The bad music (you know the one, the one that goes der der der der der der der) plays during a pitch – 1 finger

Pitch involves any form of costume – 1 finger

Pitch involves someone singing – 1 finger

Close up shot of piles of money on a table – 1 finger

Pitcher stutters or otherwise displays nerves or becomes flustered at any point during the pitch or questioning – 1 finger

Pitcher has sold their home, re mortgaged, given up work or otherwise placed their entire future security at risk to pursue their idea – 1 finger

Pitcher has sold their home, re mortgaged, given up work or otherwise placed their entire future security at risk to pursue their absolutely ridiculous idea and is sent packing by the dragons – 1 finger

A dragon offers to buy someones product – 1 finger

Peter Jones says “hi I’m Peter” despite the fact that if people didn’t know who he was they wouldn’t be on the show – 1 finger

Theo refers to Mrs P or his kids inheritance – 1 finger

Shot of Duncan looking miserable or bored – 1 finger

Shot of any dragon looking confused or puzzled – 1 finger

Deborah says she likes something – 1 finger

Duncan is the first dragon out – 1 finger

Peter is the last dragon out – 1 finger

Two or more of the dragons combine to make an offer – 1 finger

Two or more of the dragons get into an argument over a pitchers figures – 1 finger

Two or more of the dragons get into an argument over a pitchers figures neither of whom are Duncan – 2 fingers

Hilary says “hello I’m Hilary” – 2 fingers

Bad music plays in a pitch even though nothing bad has happened – 2 fingers

An invention fails to work – 2 fingers

Theo breaks an invention – 2 fingers

Duncan gets out of his chair to try out an invention – 2 fingers

Two or more rival dragons or groups of dragons make an offer – 2 fingers

An inventor gets their figures wrong – 2 fingers

An inventor is forced to call their business partner/friend/mum from downstairs to save them – 2 fingers

A pitcher rejects all offers on the table – 2 fingers

Any dragon makes an offer for more than double the equity originally offered – 2 fingers

Any dragon undercuts another dragon – 2 fingers

Duncan throws his toys out of his pram demonstrating less maturity than most preschoolers – 2 Fingers

A previously rejected inventor turns up with a new invention which is also rejected – 2 fingers

A previously rejected inventor turns up with a new invention and walks out with an investment – 3 fingers

Hilary says “hello I’m Hilary” and the pitcher looks as though they don’t have a clue who she is – 3 Fingers

Duncan makes an offer – 3 fingers

Duncan says “I cannae see this making me any money, I’m OOOOOOt” word for word – 3 fingers

All 5 dragons make an offer (in teams or solo) – 4 fingers

Hilary says “Ee By Gum” – 4 fingers

Any dragon makes an offer involving giving up half of the business and/or the blood of the pitchers firstborn child – 4 fingers

James Caan, Doug Richard, Richard Farleigh, Rachel Elnaugh or Simon Woodroffe make an offer – down any remaining drinks and stop watching repeats on Dave

A pitcher leaves with the exact amount of money they asked for giving up the exact amount of equity they originally wanted to – down any drinks you can lay your eyes on

A dragon is talking to a boy called Merlin and sounds like John Hurt – You are watching Merlin, sober up quick whilst gazing adoringly at Morgana

One of the dragons actually breathes fire – drink some coffee and sober up quick

Enjoy and remember please drink responsibly