The Mobile Outlet: any good? (merged)

mbamick

Ms-Money-Penny wrote:

Guess what - haven't received any payment.

I got fed up waiting, so went to The Small Claims Court Online Service (https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp). Got my cashback payment shortly afterwards.

The sad thing was that it cost TMO an extra £25, because they had to refund the court costs too! Give it a go Ms-Money-Penny.

The_Mobile_Outlet

Ms-Money-Penny wrote:

I was so pleased to receive an email on 23 November from the Mobile Outlet informing me that my cashback claim had been accepted and payment would be made within 28 days. Guess what - haven't received any payment.

Hi Ms-Money Penny,

If you can email your order ref number to us we will investigate the payment. Any payments which have been promised should have been made, and there is no reason for this not to happen. If there has been an oversight, it is not acceptable and should not be the case. If you include your contact number we will arrange a call from a member of our payment processing team to contact you and resolve your payment issue.

On a seperate note - we would like to advise customers that there are system updates taking place at present which may delay responses customers may receive from our forum query team. We will endeavor to deal with all outstanding queries by the end of Friday. Please accept our sincerest apology for any inconvenience that you may be caused by this delay.

Kind Regards
Forum Query Team

Sunshine_and_Roses

The_Mobile_Outlet wrote:

Hi Ms-Money Penny,

If you can email your order ref number to us we will investigate the payment. Any payments which have been promised should have been made, and there is no reason for this not to happen. If there has been an oversight, it is not acceptable and should not be the case. If you include your contact number we will arrange a call from a member of our payment processing team to contact you and resolve your payment issue.

On a seperate note - we would like to advise customers that there are system updates taking place at present which may delay responses customers may receive from our forum query team. We will endeavor to deal with all outstanding queries by the end of Friday. Please accept our sincerest apology for any inconvenience that you may be caused by this delay.

Kind Regards
Forum Query Team

Dear forum query team

I have e-mailed you .... twice .... regarding my cashback claim which was received by yourselves on 17 November. I still not have a response. My partner is currently submitting his claim and now very worried.

Your comments would be appreciated.

fitzgerald99

The Mobile Outlet = Unbelievably Bad

I ordered two phones from The Mobile Outlet on 31 October 2006. They were two Motorola V3i phones in silver, on Virgin VM30 12 month contracts. The deal on each included 12 months free line rental (by cashback redemption).

Both phones arrived but I still had quite a bit of credit left on my Orange account so I kept using that for a few weeks. Then, when the time came to switch to Virgin, I gave Virgin my PAC code and was surprised to learn that they could only switch over one of my numbers because The Mobile Outlet had only provided them with connection details for one of the phones. Virgin had no idea whatsoever about the other contract and were treating that second SIM card as an unregistered PAYG. This conversation with Virgin occurred a couple of weeks ago.

Virgin only sent me a bill for one of the phones, so clearly The Mobile Outlet had not informed them of the second contract. Virgin told me that it was The Mobile Outlet’s responsibility, not mine. They advised me to contact The Mobile Outlet and ask them to resubmit the connection details. Indeed, even The Mobile Outlet have acknowledged that they failed in their responsibilities on this issue. Their delivery materials clearly stated:


“Your mobile phone will be connected to the network within the next 24 hours. This happens automatically so you do not need to take any action.”

I contacted The Mobile Outlet to ask what was going on. Their representative apologised and informed me that as their relationship with Virgin was new, they were experiencing some issues regarding connections and that my phone would definitely be connected within 24 hours. Predictably, nothing happened, so I phoned again to speak to her. This conversation occurred last Thursday 21 December 2006. Unfortunately, I got a different person on the phone. This person then said he would contact Virgin to enquire. I had communicated with a helpful representative at Virgin so I offered to give his extension but was told that The Mobile Outlet communicates with a different department in Virgin. The Mobile Outlet then said that Virgin told them that a customer can only have one contract at a time, not two. I phoned Virgin to ask about this and after some enquiries, they concluded that because The Mobile Outlet is part of the Carphone Warehouse, there must be a 6-month gap between opening new contracts, as part of the Carphone Warehouse’s Terms & Conditions.

I was extremely annoyed, as The Mobile Outlet should have informed me of this at the point of sale, not over a month later. So I was left with one phone that I can use fine and one phone that I cannot use at all – a handset just sitting there. I am also, conveniently for The Mobile Outlet, way past my 14-day money back guarantee period. I phoned to demand an explanation and was told, with much apology, that it would definitely be sorted for me the next morning, along with some form of compensation. They said they were trying to get around the regular Terms & Conditions to connect the second phone. I said no, as I have read on this forum about people missing small details from their Terms & Conditions only to have cashback claims rejected. Unfortunately, they told me that when they tried to connect the second phone, my first phone was automatically disconnected, as per the condition of only having one contract. They said they would definitely get it reconnected the following morning and that I would not lose my number. Today, ONE WEEK LATER, I have still heard nothing from them. I was away over the weekend but have complete records of all calls made to my landline and mobile numbers and they have not phoned me once, nor have they emailed, faxed or posted – in short, no contact!

I was advised by Virgin to complain to Ofcom if things were not sorted quickly. I will phone The Mobile Outlet today and if things are not sorted to my complete satisfaction, I will do just that.

As a result of this delay, I have had to pay an extra month’s rental on my Orange number (the one that could not get ported over), as the billing date has passed. That amounts to around £30 and I fully expect to be compensated for that. I feel I should also be able to keep the handset after all this trouble, without the contract, as an offline handset.

Just for the record, I used the forumqueries@themobileoutlet.co.uk email address that was set up to answer questions from this forum speedily, within 48 hours. I sent that email on 04 December 2006. Today, 21 December 2006, my email has still not been answered, despite promises by The Mobile Outlet in our phone conversations.

I have wasted a lot of money on hold to the customer services department at The Mobile Outlet (you can wait over 10 minutes to speak to someone, all on a premium rate number) and a supervisor has never been available to speak to me, despite me asking for one more than once.

Finally, I have just received a letter from Virgin informing me that a direct debit has been set up, effective from my next bill. I have also received a welcome pack stating that a new contract has been started. I expressly told The Mobile Outlet in our last conversation that I no longer want that second contract connected. I am about to phone Virgin and The Mobile Outlet to sort everything out once and for all but I wanted to share my experiences with you all before doing so.

The professionalism displayed at The Mobile Outlet is disgraceful. I know they are a small company but that does not mean they have to be this terrible in their dealings with the public. After being treated in this manner, a customer can only be left with the sick feeling he has been duped by cowboys. Unfortunately, until Ofcom clears up the industry, such cowboys will continue to flourish.

Any suggestions on what I should do or what would be reasonable compensation?

Thanks.

The_Mobile_Outlet

Hi fitzgerald99,

We are aware of the situation and the problems that have occured with your second application and can appreciate your frustration. We have tried to contact Virgin via Carphone Warehouse a few times to resolve the issue, but with no luck. The issue of only being allowed 1 handset per customer was not made clear to us by The Carphone Warehouse. This information has only come to light once we have investigated the problem with connecting your second handset.

Your request form compensation is with the relvant department and a response will be forthcoming over the next few days. Please accept our sincerest apology for any inconvenice that you may have been caused by the non connection of your handset.

Regards
Forum Query Team

s71hj

I have pmed tmo with this:

"I am coming to the end of my O2 contract, and anticipating my month 11 and 12 cashback. I would like to then cancel my contract (or possibly convert to pay as you go if possible). The plan is then to take another cashback deal (possibly with yourselves - presumably this wouldn't be a problem). Would it prejudice my second cashback claim with you, if I give O2 notice so my contract ends straight after my month 12 line rental."

I will post my reply, but has anybody else any suggestions of the best tactics at this point in the cashback cycle?

mbamick

Dear TMO,

I'm delighted that the forum members are getting their problems resolved.
I keep checking my personal emails to see whether you've responded to my my faulty handset problem, but nothing so far.

Could I refer you back to post #456?

Kind regards

mbamick

keekee_2

hi mobile outlet

still frustrated i posted on 386 you replied on post 389 pm'd you 3 times no reply posted again 403 438 449 cant keep count of the emails i sent. all i am asking is to know where i stand regarding the shortfall

Sunshine_and_Roses

The_Mobile_Outlet wrote:

Hi Clare,

We have been having a few technical issues over the last couple of days which has resulted in some email responses being delayed. If you can email forumqueries@themobileoutlet.co.uk, we will update you on the progress of your payment.

As for order which have been delayed over the last few days, we have had a few technical issues which have now been addressed. Customers should no longer experience any delays in the processing of their orders.

Kind Regards
Forum Query Team

Still waiting.......

Should I go straight to the small claims court??

Clareski

fourheadedmoose

These guys are cowboys and I think instead of p*ssyfooting around, we should all just go ahead and make our complaints to Ofcom. They won't be able to ignore all of us. I've had a slightly different problem. Here's basically what happened:

I ordered a T-Mobile Motorola V3 phone from themobileoutlet and actually received the phone pretty quickly. Was there a problem? You bet your @ss! There was no SIM card. So I phoned T-Mobile who had already had my details and confirmed my connection to their network, however they did not know who Themobileoutlet were (nor did they know who Mobile Matters UK Ltd were, which is the alternative trading name for themobileoutlet). T-mobile told me to contact themobileoutlet and that I would have to deal with them myself.

So I did, I emailed all three emails given on the website, and I've since phoned them up 3 times. I received an email which said:

'Dear Customer,

Your order for a mobile phone has been approved by your chosen network. We have despatched your parcel Special Delivery via Royal Mail. Your new handset will be with you tommorow between the hours of 9.00am and 12.30pm.'

So clearly they didn't even bother to read my email properly because I stated that all I had missing was the SIM card, so I don't know what they're on about a new handset being delivered. Sufficient to say I did not receive my SIM card the next day. So I phoned them up, for the third time, and asked what was going on. I then found out that my SIM card had not been sent out yet... I demanded to know who was in charge of sending it out and was simply told 'I don't know'. My word...

Anyway, I demanded that the SIM card be sent out the next day and the man on the other end of the line said that he would get it sent out now and that I would receive it the next day. Well it's next day now and still no sign of a SIM card, and so I'm paying for a contract that I can't even use. So basically, now that they are closed for the weekend, they won't have to deal with me until after Boxing Day I guess, how convenient. Well it's not really convenient for me and so I'll be notifying Ofcom and if anybody knows of any other consumer right's ombudsman I can complain to, then please let me know.

Also here's something for professionalism by themobileoutlet, they sent out a dispatch note (which they will sometimes spell despatch for some reason, although it is still correct you'd think they'd manage to show some consistency... first signs there...) with a completely different IMEI number on my phone, even though it is plastered along the box of the phone about 5 times... Also here's something interesting:

http://www.themobileoutlet.co.uk/aboutus.asp

It's their customer service statement. They can't even spell sheer, spelling it shear... 'Our shear commitment' they say... as in shear, to shear off lamb's wool... Damn right they're shearing, shearing holes in our pockets that is. :rolleyes:


Edit: I just found out that they are now closed until the 2nd of January... Haha, very good, very good...