Three Mobile customers offered up to £20 credit as compensation for outage – but only if they ask for it
THREE Mobile customers won’t be automatically compensated after signal problems left tens of thousands of people unable to use their phones.
Instead, customers will need to contact Three Mobile directly to make a claim, either by calling or using their online live chat service.
Phone users began complaining about signal problems just before midnight on October 16, with customers left with no signal and unable to access the internet on their mobiles.
By late the next day, Three confirmed the issues had been fixed and apologised for the hassle.
Now is reporting how customers are getting as much as £20 back in credit following the phone outage.
While customers aren't guaranteed to automatically qualify for compensation, it's worth complaining if you feel the outage caused you significant problems.
How do I contact Three Mobile?
CUSTOMERS who were left unable to use their phone last week will no doubt be wondering if they can claim compensation.
Three is advising customers to contact them directly to discuss a compensation claim.
The network provider said they are dealing with each case on an individual basis but couldn't give a figure when we asked how much compensation customers can expect.
Three also couldn't tell us how many people were entitled to claim.
To contact Three, call 333 for free from your mobile phone.
There's also the option to speak to an adviser via their online chat using .
You'll need to provide personal details such as your name, address and phone number if making a claim through the online service.
If you fail to reach an agreement with Three, or your complaint is unresolved after eight weeks, you can contact the who will look into your claim for you.
You'll need to provide evidence about how to outage impacted you, such as additional charges you faced or proof that it disrupted your work.
You may need to ask Three for a "deadlock" letter to proceed with this.
It's best to do this in writing with proof of postage and reciept so you can track if the letter arrived.
An example of how to write this letter can be found on the website.
This could include if it impacted your work, or if you were left without reasonable use of your phone for a significant time.
But providers must be given "reasonable opportunity" to deal with network issues, according to regulator Ofcom.
One customer told MoneySavingExpert how they managed to get negotiate £20 credit toward their next bill after complaining.
The Sun has also seen other success stories on social media of others getting £5, £10 or £15 back from Three.
One person said: "Have to say really impressed by @ThreeUK.
"Ok I wasn't last week when the network went down but I just used live chat and got £15 credit in a couple of minutes."
Someone else tweeted: "If you’re on @ThreeUK call them up and ask for a discount for the network f*** up they had going on.
"You’re entitled to £10 off for those 3 days. You’re welcome."
One customer added: "Give them a call or live chat. At first they offered me £5 I told them they we're having a laugh and within 10 mins they offered me £10."
Another customer added: “They offered me £5 credit off my bill and I told them that it was a p*** take.
"After another 10 mins they decided to offer me £10 credit.”
Steve Nowottny, news and features editor at MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “Last week’s outage caused significant disruption for a large number of Three users, so many will have been disappointed to learn that Three wasn’t offering automatic compensation.
“Yet the good news if you’re a Three customer is that if you take the time to make a complaint, there’s a decent chance you’ll get somewhere.
“We’re already seeing lots of success stories from unhappy customers who’ve complained – many have got a £5-£10 bill credit, while one customer has even managed to wangle £20 off their next bill.”
Can I claim compensation if my network goes down?
YOU may be able to claim compensation if you’re not getting the level of service that you have been promised, according to regulator .
You will need to give your provider a "reasonable opportunity" to fix the issue before escalating your concerns though.
Where repairs take much longer, for example it takes longer than usual to access a mast site, you may be entitled to a refund or compensation.
If your provider fails to repair fault by a promised time, or you’re unhappy with how long it is taking to fix it, you should follow their formal complaints procedure.
You will be able to find these on the provider's website or through their customer services team.
If your problem is still unresolved after eight weeks, you can escalate it to an independent Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme.
To do that, you’ll need to ask your provider for a “deadlock” letter that you will have to show one of the two ADR schemes approved by the watchdog - and .
Your provider will be a member of at least one of them. You can find out which one by using the .
Three Mobile has 10million customers and tweeted that the problem occurred during "some maintenance work".
A Three spokesperson said: “If you’d like to talk to us about compensation, please call us and we will consider each case on an individual basis.
“Please be patient because we are experiencing high call volumes."
MORE ON MONEY
If you're wondering what happened when Three went down, here's the latest updates from the day.
At the time, Three was advising customers to try turning their phone off and on again.
Three's outage comes less than a year after nearly 25 million 02 customers were hit by a 4G network meltdown, causing mayhem for phone users across Britain.