REVIEW -
Review written by Gordon
This is a review of the personal experiences we have had with the Customer Service from Carphone Warehouse.
My wife switched to Carphone Warehouse (CPW) in December 2005 after many years with Vodaphone as CPW did a better deal on the phone she wanted (the Samsung D600). She went into the local CPW shop and signed a 12 month contract. Everything was great, until December 2006.
She received an unsolicited phone call from CPW Head Office offering her an upgrade. She wanted a Nokia N73 and they offered an 18 month contract at £30 per month. My wife said no as she did not want an 18 month contract and she wanted to deal with a local shop, not Head Office. The sales person used phrases like “I don’t understand why…” (which in my eyes is a method of bullying the prospect into agreeing to something they really don’t want) and “You won’t get a better deal anywhere else” to eventually wear down all objections and my wife finally said yes simply because she couldn’t think of any other reasons not to.
That afternoon, after a discussion with me and with the local CPW shop, she realised this was a mistake and was not what she wanted, so she rang Head Office back the same day. She was, however, told in no uncertain terms that simply saying the word “yes” on the telephone was enough for her to be legally bound to the contract and no way were CPW going to cancel.
We consulted our local Citizens Advice Bureau, who were confident that we were protected by the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations and advised us to put the cancellation in writing. This we did 4 days after the phone call, and we have proof that CPW received it on the fifth day.
After a further 5 days, we had not heard anything, so we again went to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau. They rang CPW themselves, only to be told CPW could not find the letter we had sent and asked for all documents to be faxed to them, including their own contract!! This we did immediately.
Two more days went past, still no contact from CPW, so it was time for another phone call. Now they claimed they never received the fax – even though we had a printout from the fax machine confirming that it was sent successfully. After we complained bitterly and demanded to speak to a manager, a Loyalty Team Manager rang us. She was adamant that the contract was binding and that CPW would not under any circumstances allow us to cancel the upgrade and deal with our local shop. When asked to put her reasons in writing, she refused as “we are a call centre and don’t put things in writing”. She also refused to transcribe the recording of the telephone conversation.
We spoke again to the Citizens Advice Bureau and the Trading Standards Office, both of whom advised we should persist in requesting a cancellation under the terms of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations.
We wrote yet again, this time sending a copy of all correspondence to Charles Dunstone, the Chief Executive Officer of CPW. We were then informed that the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations covers ONLY the handset and not the airtime contract, allegedly because we have already tried the airtime and so were not covered by these Regulations. I have, however, read the Regulations in detail and can find nowhere that states they do not apply where the goods or services have already been tried.
We went to a local solicitor who looked at the CPW contract. He felt it did not make this clear in the contract and that it was unreasonable to expect a customer to cancel one without the other as they were both part of the package – the phone is useless without an airtime contract and airtime is useless without a phone.
But did this sway CPW? Not a bit. They dug their heels in. Even when we made it clear that we wanted to stay with the CPW, but through the shop on a 12 month contract, they refused. We then asked what the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) process was. The operator we were speaking to had no clue what an ADR was. We had to telephone Ofcom to get this information.
The issue then got referred to the Carphone Warehouse High Level Complaints Team. They investigated and confirmed that the Carphone Warehouse policy was that the telephone agreement was binding. They were, however, prepared to make allowances for the circumstances and allow us to renegotiate the upgrade in our local shop.
So we headed off the the Carphone Warehouse shop in Camberley, where we spoke to Branch Manager Nick Morris. The attitude and assistance we got from Nick was a world apart from the attitude of the telephone staff. He was friendly, very helpful and assisted us in every way possible to asses our requirements. We came out of the shop very happy with the deal we wanted in the first place.
The following day, we went to the Farnborough store to enquire about a mobile for our eldest daughter. Again we found a warm, friendly reception and staff who did not rush or pressurise us in any way. Again, we came out of the shop with the deal we wanted.
So the final verdict? About 1 out of 10 for Head Office Customer Service, 8 out of 10 for their High Level Complaints section (because I’m still not convinced that they’re right about airtime upgrades being excluded from the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations), but a top 10 out of 10 for the shop.
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