misleading advertising of mobile deals

OneADay wrote: »

Well I can't believe the mobiles.co.uk rep is so inept.

Finaly you seem to get the picture !!!
Perhaps it won't be long before others start to see it the same way

OneADay wrote: »

But if they intend to put somone on a forum like this with the aim to help customers, then that person should resolve issues rather than getting into arguments and handing problems to other people in his company and then forgetting all about it.

So I have not changed my stance, merely stating the obvious.

So whats the stance the Oneaday ????
I've seen you give him chance after chance after chance !!!
At what point do you turn round and say enough is enough ...you've seen yourself the lies and the spin that Ben puts on here and on other forums ...you keep constantly giving the guy the benefit of the doubt how long is it going to take before you see what is staring you in the face ????

I see it slightly different and may be wrong, but here's my take. Please feel free to correct any factual errors.

I think mobiles.co.uk were a successful, straight company that were taken over by CPW a few years ago. Some retained culture remained, but obviously a number of CPW corporate policies were adopted/imposed - primarily tightening up on settling cashbacks, applying ruthlessly the t&c (well those that benefitted cpw) and extending the payment timescale. However, I believe that mobiles.co.uk did not bring in any of the "refuse to pay legitimate claims" policies that were reputed to be prevalent at other cpw companies.

Recently, perhaps because of increased financial pressure, downsizing, cost cutting - call it what you will, their customer services have gone to pot as have their cashback team.

Now - and this is where I differ from some of you guys - I believe that Ben came on here to try to fix some problems that wewre being aired and were obviously damaging mobiles.co.uk reputation. The key here is the word "fix". Obviously it does no good for threads to get longer and longer if they are damaging your company. So I don't think he is a liar, stonewaller or anything like that. I believe that, having put his personal word behind some of the remedies, he is as acutely embarrassed by the lack of action that has followed his initial posts.

You can see my views on this in post #8 of this thread. I think that, contrary to Ben being a senior guy with loads of influence, it is the opposite. Somewhere, someone with more clout or less resources, is not responding to this, Ben is losing track of the outstanding issues and getting personally and subjectively involved in pointless "He says - She says" arguments on here rather than saying "Look, cpw guys - we have less than 10 issues on forums at any one time. If we can solve them quickly and satisfactorily, we go from villains to good guys overnight".

So, if I was Ben, that is what I would do - via Dunstone if necessary. (Marketing guys like to see success and I think Ben is suffering from his company's poor performance, but obviously can't come on here and say that.) Then I would make sure that everyone knew that it had been solved. Oh, and Silk, I would make damned sure that phone calls and emails were returned too!

I wonder if there would be more success if Ben's main combatants just tried - for a limited time - to back off any personal attacks on his (rather than mobiles.co.uk's) motives and objectively took the approach "OK Ben, put your money where your mouth is and fix this one in a reasonable time, doing what you said you were going to do and demonstrating that your company does have a customer service ethos in spite of what a lot of folks believe".

Sorry for such a long post.

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Now - and this is where I differ from some of you guys - I believe that Ben came on here to try to fix some problems that wewre being aired and were obviously damaging mobiles.co.uk reputation. The key here is the word "fix". Obviously it does no good for threads to get longer and longer if they are damaging your company.

It's called damage limitation GD and he didn't come here to fix problems because both on here and elsewhere on the net his posts are very plain and clear.
He is only interested in marketing and selling as many phones as he can ...when problems arise he either puts some spin on them or ignores them !
A recent example was the preorder for the iphone back in June on HUKD with £60 cashback ..
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/419824/iphone-3gs-60-quidco-preorder-avail?
Everything runs ok for a few days untill people start getting cold feet with the emails etc and start thinking of cancelling so Ben steps in with assurances and to keep with it etc etc and even suggests to stop calling and emailing as it slows them down despatching them to everyone who's waiting :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/419824/iphone-3gs-60-quidco-preorder-avail/showpost.php?p=5526960&postcount=261

He carries on posting on the thread with the usual patting on the back and going on about demand outstripping etc and then a few problems start regarding Quidco etc and then theres a serious problem :eek:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/419824/iphone-3gs-60-quidco-preorder-avail/showpost.php?p=5585838&postcount=380

followed by more problems with quidco.

And wheres Ben when this starts ????? Nowhere to be seen
However by this time Ben's job of reassuring people and keeping the orders coming was done !!!

Originally Posted by Guys Dad
So I don't think he is a liar, stonewaller or anything like that. I believe that, having put his personal word behind some of the remedies, he is as acutely embarrassed by the lack of action that has followed his initial posts

Just exactly how many lies does it take for you to admit he's a liar ???
How many people does he have to stonewall before you admit it ???

I wonder if there would be more success if Ben's main combatants just tried - for a limited time - to back off any personal attacks on his (rather than mobiles.co.uk's) motives and objectively took the approach "OK Ben, put your money where your mouth is and fix this one in a reasonable time, doing what you said you were going to do and demonstrating that your company does have a customer service ethos in spite of what a lot of folks believe".

Originally Posted by Guys Dad
The Net is littered with similar examples to the above and they keep happening and you will notice that it happens without any posts by me or the others from here

Silk wrote: »

It's called damage limitation GD and he didn't come here to fix problems because both on here and elsewhere on the net his posts are very plain and clear.

Well, I reckon this is where we differ a bit - and I happily concede that you were personally inconvenienced and I have not been.

You can't have damage limitation that promises action without that action being followed through, otherwise you get even more anti-posts. I know you can take that point.

OK - so why come on a forum and make promises that blatantly are not kept? If the majority of these promises are ones that you yourself have to deliver - and that most certainly was not the case here as Ben is not an operational/CS manager - ok, there were some occasions when he did not phone/email back as promised, but in general, action from others was needed for a resolution -then others are not pulling their fingers out and, regrettably, Ben is not sitting on their manager's desk table thumping.

So, whereas I believe that mobiles.co.uk are in a bit of a shambolic state and, yes, Ben can be criticised for not seeing that others back up his promises and trying to win a war of words with you, MJ and Quentin from a weak position, I still think that he wants to see an improvement but is being let down.

AS far as Mobilejunkie's reply goes - much of it is sound. But MJ has so much history with CPW companies that I contend that he has lost his objectivity and this is summed up in his opening sentence "However, I learned a LONG time back that if you give a cpw company the benefit of the doubt they will waste your time endlessly."

That can be seen two ways experience -v- a closed mind.

My point was a simple one. You guys have no ongoing beef with mobiles.co.uk personally as far as your contracts go. Yes - you have history with them. But for members with new issues, if Ben comes on here and offers to sort things out, then rather than leap straight in, give him time to help - or hang himself.

The Vodafone reps come on to their threads, simply say "get in touch" and there is little follow up to tell members if they did or did not sort things out. It would be good if OPs could let members know if problems were resolved or not and I still can't tell if OPs problems with mobiles.co.uk's problems actually do get solved in some cases as the thread disappears under the two or three pronged attack from you guys.