Circles Life Australia Arvostelua 

I switched to Circles.life for 4 months now on the 5GB/month deal, and the experience has been nothing but amazing. I’m finding it hard to write in words how happy I am with the deal. Compared to other mobile phone carriers, Circles.life has amazing deals and great value.

At first when I signed up, I couldn’t port over my phone number. We went online with one of their “Customer Happiness Experts” and we didn’t interact with a bot - we were talking to a person. They helped us resolve the issue which unfortunately meant ordering a new sim.

After the new sim arrived, it was a seamless setup. It didn’t take long at all to setup and we didn’t encounter any issues. The experience has been truly wonderful and I’d definitely recommend it.

They have some killer deals and I received the sim card the next day after I ordered it! It was so fast.
Then my phone number was ported over within 1 hour

Service has been great on the central coast, no complaints here.
Why would I spend $40 with another telco when I can spend $25 with these guys and have the exact same service?

Issue with Circle concerning closure of a phone has been ongoing since August - they state that they need to identify me via 'prime' id records this is despite they have my DOB, Home Address, Full Name, Account Details, Copy of Billing Statements to include a service that I cancelled in February with supporting document, email addresses etc

Circle continue to state that it is a Govt requirement - utter BS -

I've informed Circle that we are at an impasse as I will not provide 'prime' id records to them because the company has zero integrity based on my experience and the experience of others - Circles states trust me, trust me - DEFINITELY NOT A TELECO TO TRUST - operation is poor by the way that they are conducting my account and the account of others. It is evident there is no effective management team, if so, they would be addressing the issues that are being continually raised by myself and others.

Image if I were to provide my prime documents to Circle what may happen based on their performance and management style to date - no, no, no I cannot afford the possibility of scam accounts being established.

Latest email received - same old rehash

Ron B. (Circles.Life)
28 Dec 2022, 8:49 pm AEDT
Hello George,

I am really sorry about what happened. I do believe that you are the owner. However, due to recent happening where some random people stealing other people's personal details and pretending to be them, we can't just afford having your personal details being compromised. This process that we are asking you to do is in compliance with the government's policy of protecting our customer's rights. Rest assured that your account is protected with us even after providing us your identification.

Regards,

Ron B. Circles.Life Australia"

In reality a way of keeping the monthly charges going rather than trying to address the issue and making a
common sense commercial decision - I've informed the company that at 73 years of age I'm now finding the dialogue interesting - let's just see how long the Circle keep this charade going - do they not realise for me it is now a game and montly charge worth the entertainment fee - they simply do not realise that their organisation has more to loss becasue of Staff cost and damage to brand reputation

For me it highlights that Circle is a 2 bit operation

For any Circle Staff vetting my latest reference number is 1922761 - I feel sorry and concerned for Circle Staff having to follow the Corporate Line

AVOID THIS CARRIER! They're cheap for a reason. My phone data disconnected for no reason, and it took A WHOLE WEEK for them to fix the problem. No offer to provide any kind of reasonable compensation, totally unresponsive support team. God help you if you run into any issues...

[REPLY]
Hi Jordan, I agree - disconnecting customers for no reason would be a pretty terrible business model. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to me and it took the team a full week to fix the issue.

My data was cut off on 21/10 while I was on my way to work due to an "unpaid credit cap charge" even though I paid it a week prior. This locked me out from using my digital train ticket to board the train so I ended up buying a physical train ticket which has a surcharge of $7 associated with it. Later that night, I was stranded in the city with the trains not running and I was not able to order an uber due to having no data.

I raised a Zendesk ticket #1871503 immediately along with bank statements showing that the charge was paid, and screenshots of the app saying the charge was paid.

Customer rep sends me a cookie cutter response saying there is an outstanding balance I need to pay, and to click on the "pay now" button. I click on the button, and it takes me to a page that says the charge has already been paid. I tell the rep this, and he becomes unresponsive.

I complain on the app store, and a customer rep called RJ reaches out to me. He acknowledges the issue and says he'll contact the back end team to fix it. He says he'll be in touch. 4 days later, I do not hear back so I follow it up. RJ again says he'll follow up and will get back to me. I head nothing for another day. I follow up again, he gives me the same response and I do not hear back from him for another day. I follow up AGAIN the next day and finally he tells me the problem is fixed. This whole time I was left without data which I already paid for.

I ask for compensation for the $7 surcharge I was forced to pay as a direct result of the error, plus the week I was left without data. He offers me $5 which doesn't even cover the surcharge. I tell him that it doesn't even cover me for my expenses, and he says he'll check with the back end team and will "get back to me". Well guess what, I've followed up with him on the 31/10, 3/11, 15/11, 28/11, 5/12, 22/12 and 23/12.

Each time I'm told that he is following up with the back end team and will get back to me. In my most recent follow up, he didn't even know who I was and asked for all my details again. Obviously he's not following it up at all.

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️
Save your time and money, this company continues to take your money after service has been cancelled and customer service representative confirmed no more to pay.

[Reply] I've sent an email but you are to busy trying to save face you are faster at replying here then customer service.

[Update] Customer service continues to deceive me regarding refund times starting 2 hours, then admitting it will be 10 business days, they are only interested in the thumbs up so they can willfully mislead customers in thinking they have great support (all based off the stats on website from 2020). Trying to get the money they stole from me is a nightmare when they constantly mislead and will update the entire process here.

[Update] I'm being extorted for my money from circles.life, unless I give a thumbs up they are keeping my money.

Chat gets disconnected every time, response through email with inappropriate solutions, no any call support and it took almost 2 weeks to activate my number when they cancelled it. It had to come on chat every 10 mins to ask and beg them to request to activate my line as they terminated without any notice. Also, now they are charging me pay as you go charged with 100$ bills outstanding when i ordered 10$ prepaid plan. Also they don’t send you any notifications for data usage and try to rob you. They never sent me any over usage message or notification and sent me message saying you have incurred more than 100$ of usage this month. This totally robbing people and not helping. I will never ask any one to join life circle as they never fox the issues unless you cry. Very bad experience. I will have to complain if they charge me 106$ as excessive data when i have not.

For full disclosure, I’ve been a mobile customer with Circles.Life since JAN21, and all had been well until recently this month, and this is my first ever online review, because I had to...

Unfortunately I don’t even know where to begin, so here we go.
(apologies for the length, but this is what I've been dealing with this month).

• International roaming problems
Upon arrival overseas, my roaming did not automatically work until I contacted the team via email as it was outside their 'live chat' operating hours. The roaming began approximately 24 hours after my contact.

• Billing problems (both international roaming AND monthly billing)
As soon as I landed back in AU, I began getting SMS messages seconds apart with THREE different roaming charges ($298, $198, & $98). Given I barely if hardly even used my phone in my 3-day overseas trip, the amounts didn't look right, so I checked the app, which had a FOURTH charge completely different once again of $326.60. So I downloaded my usage log for the days I was overseas and saw that the roaming bill should only have been $34.42 based on ACTUAL usage. I contacted Circles.Life same day, was advised to wait 48 hours for the usage log to capture the last 24 hours. 2 weeks have gone by and NO ONE has since, despite almost daily contact investigated my disputed bill and corrected it.

• Monthly billing
Then, I received a text message "Your payment for your October Circles.Life bill failed yet again..."
followed by this text "Please ignore the SMS/email we sent in regards to your October invoice. It was sent in error. We will email more info later today. Please accept our apologies." Then followed by "Failed payments: Service suspension in 5 working days. Pay now to avoid"

I have been contacting Circles.Life almost everyday since 14 November asking them about the error messages, as well as disputed international roaming charges, to be advised everytime "we need more time to investigate".

• Phone/SIM deactivation - wrongfully
Guess what, Circles.Life disconnected/deactivated my SIM on Saturday 26 November, and it remains deactivated with no investigation having been carried out, despite 2-weeks of follow-up and complaining about my billing errors and suspension notices.

• Mobile Data cut-off
Finally, my mobile data has not worked since being back from overseas on 14 November, and was never resolved before my phone deactivated.

Circles.Life don’t have a call centre, or store to deal with people via call or person. They only offer chat via the app within limited hours, which seems to glitch, and if you do get through their chat, the staff try and move the chat super quickly into email, only to not reply back when the conversation becomes email-bound.

I have NEVER EVER experienced such poor service from ANY company as I currently am from Circles.Life. And not just with one individual, but every single person I’ve interacted with since 10th November, including their supervisor as my last point of contact so far. NO ONE is actually working towards resolving my ongoing issues. I have even logged a complaint with the Telecommunications Ombudsman, and still not had contact with anyone from the Circles.Team since Sunday. My phone has now been deactivated for 4 days, soon to be 5. My October bill is paid, which is the only investigation they have made to see that they did make an error. The remainder is still unresolved.

To avoid going insane , I strongly avoid joining Circles.Life, as they are literally consuming my mental, emotional, and physical time and energy. It's NOT worth it.

Thanks,
Meenu

So I was a loyal customer to them for many many years and they Used to be good but have turned into money hungry greedy people who don't care at all about their customers or their circumstances, I was late onn2 payments which only equaled $58 in total only as I had a few family and friends deaths and other things going on im also a father of 2 so I forget things sometimes, only had my brothers funeral then that arvo they cut my service off over the $58 with stuff all warning nd then refused to put it back on for 3/4 days to the point I paid the debt the first moment I could that arvo and then they preceded to tell me that I needed to provide a death certificate and wouldn't put it back on and would not compromise no matter how much I tried, by the end of it I went threw about 30 different people over nerly 4 days nd on the 4th day get told to sign this document and will be ok so I do that and email back to just be told they want more and more personal documents like payslips and stuff over $58 which had been paid at this point, I put a few people threw them but they are all switching now to, they have no remorse and couldn't care less unless they get paid even if it is chump change so highly recommended to stay away from these tossers, thanks for reading

HI All,

I would never recommend the usage of Circles Life. They have the worst customer service ever.

I accidentally terminated the circles connection before my Port request got submitted. I contacted circles support for help. they confirmed that they can't reactivate the account once terminated after repeated calls and emails. So i moved to another service and took up a new number. after a month i saw that circles have charged me 47$ and when asked about this they are saying that they activated my account and put the most expensive plan. When contacted again for they said they can't do anything about that.

These guys are the most un professional service provider ever. Please don't use them ever !!!!!

I have been a circles life customer since moving to Australia from Europe one year ago. Following a recent trip abroad I lost my sim card and so I picked up a new one at a circles supplier. I was assured that changing my sim would be a simple process carried out in the app.
I found this not to be the case the following morning when I tried this and so I got onto live chat with an agent (there is no phone call option but love chat is answered quickly). I went through the process with a customer service agent and was told to expect an active sim later that day.
My sim did not come active so I got back on the chat with another agent. I was told that I needed to provide at least 2 forms of ID from a list I was given. I had received an email about this but had missed it due to not having access to mobile data. I provided the ID and was again told to expect an active sim within hours.
My sim did not come active, I got back on the chat. I was given a new list of ID that now asked for an Australian passport instead of a foreign one plus visa as I had provided. I thought that this was discriminatory but did my best to provide other ID from the new list given. I was once again told to expect an active sim within 4 hours.
The following morning I awoke and despite resetting my phone multiple times my sim was not active. I spoke with yet another agent through the chat. I was told that my request from the night before has not been processed and would be processed now (no explanation for this was given except for the false information that the ID had only just been received). Again I was told my sim would be active in four hours, again this was not the case.
This afternoon I contacted what is either my 6th or 7th different agent through the live chat function. I again explained my situation and was told that I would hear back in one hour via email about my problem. Two hours have passed, I have emailed the company twice but have heard nothing back. The live chat has closed for the evening.
The agents stopped emailing me transcripts of our conversations after I said I would make a consumer complaint (despite requests to three different people to send on the transcripts).
Throughout this whole process I have asked multiple times to be referred to a manager, I have been told that this was done but have yet to hear from anyone senior. I have had to initiate almost all contact with the network.
I am left with no phone service, unable to log into my email and online banking as I do not have a phone to verify my identity. I use my phone at work to communicate with colleagues and so it is vital for me to have it working.

I am beyond stressed and frustrated with the poor service I am receiving. I believe in large part it must be due to lack of training of staff as no one seems to be able to address the issues that I am having. When I have asked directly for explanations they have not been given.

I would urge anyone considering signing up with Circles.Life not to do so, it may be cheaper upfront but will cost you time and frustration down the line. Sometimes more expensive is just better for peace of mind.

Update:
Charging in advance and not refunding pro-rata for the remaining two and three and a half weeks of the month for two services is a complete rip-off since I am receiving zero service/product in return even if it is stated in your cis.
I am glad I jumped ship, your woke little enterprise was making me dry reach at times.
"Customer Happiness Expert"? Amazing position title
Regards

Previously:
I ported two numbers away from this mob on 9/10/2022 and then received two bills indicating I am being charged for the whole month, for both!
My bank account already having being charged and without a direct contact number, I am supposed to sit back twidling my thumbs while I wait for a response to an email and/or return call since those are the only ways to get in touch.
An unpleasant and dissappointing experience.

Horrible service and reception, never any help or thorough diagnosis towards the issue. Highly avoid

I am writing this review because I just thought people who had a bad experience wrote a review but those with a good experience do not write. Myself and my wife transferred our numbers to Circles.Life and have had more than a wonderful experience. The fastest ever delivery (same day delivery, not even next day!) and fastest transfer ever (no more than one hour). That was the reason I chose Circles.Life because my previous 1-year contract ended just after a long weekend and I did not want to be stuck for another year. The transfer process for both of us was simple and hassle-free. Their customer service and easily accessible on the chat option.

One thing they need to work on is to have an online account for users on their website, not just the mobile app. Currently, the only thing you can do on a laptop is to activate and cancel your number. But I prefer following my balance and managing my account on a laptop

It's even hard to explain my disappointment with Circles.life.'s customer service. Despite of I've been using their service for about 3 years and it was okay just in the beginning and then when you have the only chart "support" it has become an extremely unhappy experience trying to sort out any issue or current request. You waste heaps of time chatting with them trying to sort out your questions and in the end, you have ZERO RESULT. And can't even prove anything because they don't send you even a chat.
How it's even possible? Like you just threw out your time in the bin. It's extremely irritating and seems like a squirrel in a wheel.

___________________
As I can't use the reply here in the form, how Can I contact you Jordan to resolve my issue, pls?

My experience in dealing with Circles was woeful from beginning to end. I planned to find another provider after the Optus info leak/hack deal-ee-oh.

I came across Circles and thought that the deals they had sounded ok and went with them.

Wthin 24hrs of my order being placed I was emailed a "promo" of the exact data/calls package I had just ordered being offered at a significantly cheaper rate for 12 months.

I started a conversation with one of their.... "Customer Happiness Experts" (their own titles) to organise for the better rate to be transferred across to the not even 24 hour old order I had placed.

Impossible.

In order for that to happen, I would have to have cancelled the order (including the new number I had chosen) and re-sign up with them.

I thought there must have been a misundertsanding but no... that's how they do business apparently.

For a company that boasts flexibility and offering the best deals... I saw the direct opposite of both in that brief time.

Shady mob for sure.

Ordered for my Mum because she pays way too much with Telstra and isn't a big data user, only needing the basics and they've been great. We ordered the sim, received it the next day, transferred her number, and set it all up and it was so simple. Thanks to your customer happiness team for helping mum, she really appreciated it!

Circles life lives up to its name.
Signed up for 2 new services 1 for my phone 2 for my wireless modem. Phone service good as was the plan I wanted. Modem plan was not really what I needed I wanted to upgrade it whilst it was on special. But got the can't do it reply. Can now upgrade if I put the sim card into my phone but the upgrade has changed from when I first took my plan.
I wanted to upgrade 2days after getting my new sim. Your app makes it hard for a disabled person as cannot use the chat room because I get timed out as I cannot reply quick enough. Also had a Circles life staff member ring to help me but no outcome even though it was supposed to have been upgraded. Your online chat is difficult for people like myself.

1 star for the extra 10gb while i was on lock down. 2.5yrs with circles and time to move on. asked for 12mths plan same as partner & signed up but plan expired in 6months and claims partner had different plan & that i agreed to terms & condition??? customer service poor listening and not there to help you or find a solution, rather insist that customer is wrong and frustrate customer by going in circles. maybe its also an effective strategy to get customers off their back. its a joke that they call themselves customer happiness expert. goodbye circles.

Signed up with a plan but promo ran out and my bill went up. Customer service was a joke just went in circles like name. They care about signing you up but not after that.

Network service seemed fine, everything else was a mess. I could write an essay on my frustrations, but in a nut shell: I've been with the company for 1 month, after which i terminated. In that time i have had to contact customer support 5 times, mainly because everything you do with regards to managing your account goes through the app, and the app is just downright defunct, horrible and support features hard to find and navigate.

I've had to spend hours writing and waiting for support from "Customer happiness experts"..... about the billing functions that don't work, neither through the app or email links provided.
Not having a call center is a great idea, if the rest of the program is well structured and functional - which this is NOT. I suggest to customers looking for telecom services to go elsewhere, even if it means paying a tiny bit more.
I also suggest to Circles to have a serious look at their infrastructure, both technical and access channels.