I’m coming to the end of my mobile phone contract in a couple of weeks and given that my current supplier is in the process of merging with the UK’s largest telco, I thought I’d have a look around to see what else is available.

Finding myself at a loose end for half an hour in Romford town centre, I wandered into the “Three” shop and started to look at some of the handsets. I was rapidly approached by a young lady who went through the usual opening gambits.

Having established that they did not offer anything Blackberry (I really wish I’d hung on to mine) she started to talk to me about the Samsung range and particularly the current S6 which comes in 3 flavours. Once I’ve decided on a particular unit we start to talk about tariffs – I outlined my current deal as we move to go to one of the little consultation tables.

Just as we do this, a colleague of hers comes marching up and starts to talk to her about something or other, whilst I’m mid-sentence! Rather than stopping him and letting him know we are in conversation, which was quite obvious even to the hardest of thinkers, she starts a conversation and I find I’m talking to myself… After a short time I interrupt them both (it seems to be the way Three like to work and when in Rome, right?) and let them know exactly what I think of such disgraceful behaviour and walk out of the shop.

That might have been enough for most people but I found I was so incensed that I dropped a note to Three’s Twitter account. They came back to me after a couple of hours asking for more details (hard to get the above over in 140 characters…) so I asked for either a phone number or e-mail address. They eventually replied with a link to an online support form. Great idea for a company that offers a mobile communications (see “telephone”) service!

If this is an example of how they train their staff to treat customers, I’m not playing – I’ll probably stay with my current provider and see what the takeover brings. Just in case you are wondering, I’m not the sort of person to keep changing providers like the direction of the wind; I’ve been with my current lot for over a decade and have been very happy with the service to date. Three might have earned the same loyalty, if their staff had even the most basic training in common courtesy and their “support team” were not allergic to using a telephone. Ironic, yes?