Dave Thorp's Blog

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