The Mobile Outlet: any good? (merged)

shadowed

Hi, I sent my cashback claims off a week ago today. I haven't heard anything back yet, should I be expecting a reply from them? Or should I email them and get in touch to see whether they've received everything?

Merryal

Dear Mobile Outlet,

I have submitted my 12th bill - you should have received it on 5/1/07. You have confirmed receipt (on the 23rd January), but I still have yet to receive my payment.

Please can you tell me when I will receive this final payment.

Many thanks.

riza

daniellelandod wrote:

What ever you do, DO NOT go with the mobile outlet! I have been getting cashback deals for years. I always remember to send the voucher/bill off in time and have never had any problems. But I went with mobile outlet this year and oh my god, it's been the worst stress of my year! I entered into a 12 months free contract. Half way through they changed their terms and conditions but reassured me that my original terms and conditions apply. When I sent my bills (as I was supposed to do) I was refused cash back because apparently I was supposed to include a dispatch note. This was not on my terms and conditions but on the new ones (which don't apply to me). I have since written to them over 10 times. They either reply saying 'sorry we can't help' or 'I've passed your comments on to our senior cashback team' who never reply. I have written to them saying 'please reply to this letter as it's the 10th letter I've sent' and guess what....absolutely nothing. I can't express how infuriating this is. I have received no money from them, and it's a complete con. They refuse to deal with cash back enquires on the phone, and so you are left with writing enless letters that are ignored. No money, and no good reason why. They will try anyting to get out of it. I strongly urge you not to go anywhere near them! I am considering taking this matter to the small claims court but it's just so much stress and hassle.

yeh i had similar problems with this site. i have to say it has been a nightmare dealing with them. i have never had so much trouble with another company in my life. the only way i will be satisfied is if i get all my money back as well as something else like a freebie to compensate for all the trouble they have given me!

Cobra_3

A question I would very much like to ask everybody who has used the Small Claims Court procedure is this.

Suppose your cashback is due in five instalments and you adhere rigidly to all the Terms & Conditions and obtain all the necessary proofs of delivery but simply do not receive your cashbacks - what is the best strategy to adopt in extracting your money from them via the Small Claims Court procedure?

Should you file a new claim after each ignored cashback application or should you wait until the end of the year and file a claim for the entire sum through the court?

And if you do file a separate claim after each ignored application, should you then wait until the end of the year before sending in bailiffs to seize retailer’s assets for the total sum owing to you or should you do so separately, over each instalment?

Or, then again, should you instead file claim after the first application is ignored and then simply keep amending your total claim as each subsequent cashback application is ignored?

Let us suppose, for example and to take the extreme situation, you buy a ’phone on the lowest tariff - 12 months at just £30 a month. You are thus owed, in total, £360.

The retailer’s obligation is to pay this back to you in five equal instalments, of £72 each, after you have submitted claims in months 4, 7, 9, 11 & 12.

So. You submit your first claim. It isn’t disputed, it is just ignored. Do you then file a claim for £72 (which costs you £30 to file, but which you can add to your claim) or do you wait?

Suppose you claim it. The Court awards you your £72 + the £30 costs, a total of £105. The retailer ignores this, too (or fails to pay the costs). Do you then return to the court and obtain a recovery order to send in bailiffs to seize goods to the value of £105 (plus, of course, their own costs) or do you wait?

In other words, should you invoke the entire court procedure five times - once for each instalment, and if necessary sending in the bailiffs every time - or should you wait until the end of the year and file a total claim for the whole amount you are owed, plus costs?

I would be most grateful - and it would be extremely helpful to everybody following this thread - if those who have been through this whole procedure could post their advice.

Obviously, it will be vastly more expensive to the retailer if you send in bailiffs five times - particularly if the basic sum involved on each occasion is a mere £72 - but doing so is more demanding of your own time, too.

Cobra_3

cookie0953 wrote:

...if I do not receive a satisfactory response within seven days this will definitely go to court and I will definitely win.
RS

Forgive me, but if, as you state, you don't have a copy of the Terms & Conditions of your contract, how are you intending to prove to the Small Claims Court that these guys actually owe you anything at all?


(Subsequent note: the posting I quoted here now seems to have been removed.)

kevinboi

Well, I received a letter which refused my 2nd cashback claim couple of days ago. Basically they said that I didn't follow the T&C thus the cashback claim is void.

The T&C really confused me as it says that '... forward us your 11 and 12 bill, again this must be within 21 days from the date shown on each of these bills...'. As I have purchased from other online retailers and they often require one or several bills to be sent together at one cashback stage. I thought there is no exception with mobileoutlet. However, if you read it very carefully, you will understand that in order to get the cashback, you have to send 11th and 12th bill seperately and within 21 days. Even though I understood this misleading T&C, my 11th bill didn't come through until the next month, thus 21 days had already passed. I posted the 11th bill with explaination as soon as I received them and asked them not to void my claim just because something out of my control.

Then after several weeks I sent my 12th bill within 21 days. I received an email which asked me to wait 28 days for the result. Finally I got a rejection letter.

As I personally have dealt with them for more than 12 months, I have following suggestions to tell fellow members.

1. Don't buy any products and services on themobileoutlet unless you have READ and UNDERSTAND their misleading T&C at least TEN TIMES. BTW, sometimes you need to follow their new T&C, otherwise your cashback claim will be void.

2. There are no totally free mobile phones as there is £1.99 charge for every free mobile phones.

3. Don't think they will pay your quidco cashback as mine status is unpaid for more than one year and it is still in the enquiry section.

4. Their customer service is useless as you cannot discuss cashback matters on the phone. You have to write to them, even worse, they will never reply to your letter or email.

5. I would suggest you go to other reputable online retailers as their T&Cs and cashback services are much more transparent and efficient. They will at least not mislead you by asking you sending bills seperately for one cashback stage and they will respond to your email within 24 hours.

Finally I would say themobileoutlet is a non-ethical capitalistic company who will do everything to maximise their profits without caring about their customers. I personally doubt how long it will operate if they keep their way of treating customers.

Paulee

Sorry to hear of your plight kevinboi.

I took out two of the same contracts through TMO and I was also confused by their T & C's regarding cashback. I asked lots of questions prior to signing up and I did get useful explanations back from Sally in C S's and from Imran, their Sales & Marketing Director. In particular he explained their system for claiming using the 11th & 12th bills. It is confusing and I have had many anxious moments, but so far I have received the first payments on both phones and I have just put my second claim in. I also had no problem with using Quidco and receiving their payment.

I have tried to include everything in my claims that may be relevant and I have covered this in a letter with the claim which has been sent via Special Delivery. I hope that I don't have the same problems as you and I am a little anxious, but to date my experiences have been positive.

BTW I recommended TMO to several friends around the time that I first used them. Two of them took out contracts, both of them forgot to send their first claims in on time and lost the lot. I anticipate that this is a very common occurrence.

Merryal

Cobra wrote:

A question I would very much like to ask everybody who has used the Small Claims Court procedure is this.

Should you file a new claim after each ignored cashback application or should you wait until the end of the year and file a claim for the entire sum through the court?>>>

I actually asked Consumer Direct this question, and they pointed out that as MO had refused to pay for one instalment, they were then holding the whole contract to be breached, and I was free to claim for the whole amount.

Just one word of warning, I did go down this route for my husband's contract (I am currently waiting for my final cashback for my own phone), and MO ignored the legal proceedings. It was only after I discussed the case on this forum that I finally got the money back. We never had to go as far as registering the judgement or instructing bailiffs etc. We also got the 12 months cashback plus the court fees all in one hit, which was a bonus given all the hassle we had had.

Good luck with getting your money back, I would now like my second cash refund back!

faz1975

I'm looking for T&C for around May 2006.
I originally took out a contract in Dec 05, but noticed that the T&C I received differed from the ones on the website, I emailed MO and was told to follow the website. My paper copy said 1-9 then 11&12 together. I am positive the web page said 1-6 then 7-12. Both would tie in with the 2 part voucher I received. I got my cashback for 1-6 but MO claim I should have sent 11 & 12 spearately to get my 2nd one. I need to know if this is true and don't trust them to be honest with me.
I have at present: 1 paper copy as of Dec 05, 1 pdf sent to me last week with no date range for when it was valid and I know that the current T&C on the web came into affect Jul 07 (so they told me).

Having not followed my original paper copy (naive I know) do I have any leg to stand on? I'm positive I'm right about psoting bills 7-12, I set the details in my Outlook when I read them but have no hard evidence.

Thanks
Faz

kevinboi

Paulee wrote:

Sorry to hear of your plight kevinboi.

I took out two of the same contracts through TMO and I was also confused by their T & C's regarding cashback. I asked lots of questions prior to signing up and I did get useful explanations back from Sally in C S's and from Imran, their Sales & Marketing Director. In particular he explained their system for claiming using the 11th & 12th bills. It is confusing and I have had many anxious moments, but so far I have received the first payments on both phones and I have just put my second claim in. I also had no problem with using Quidco and receiving their payment.

I have tried to include everything in my claims that may be relevant and I have covered this in a letter with the claim which has been sent via Special Delivery. I hope that I don't have the same problems as you and I am a little anxious, but to date my experiences have been positive.

BTW I recommended TMO to several friends around the time that I first used them. Two of them took out contracts, both of them forgot to send their first claims in on time and lost the lot. I anticipate that this is a very common occurrence.

You are lucky, Paulee. I have put everything in my claims as well and even a SAE for bill returning purposes. But so far I just received a rejection letter. Where are my bills?

I never recommend TMO to anyone from the day that my friend told me he lost his first cashback because he didn't send his despatch note. However, he signed contract at Jan 2006 and the T&C at that time didn't mention despatch note. He has taken TMO to small claim court and received the payment after 4 months effort. But he spent a lot of time and effort which is not necessary at all if TMO admit their mistake and take measures after my friends' complaint.

I do understand that some people forget to send their cashback on time and some companies make profits rely on that. However, misleading uncommon used T&C is just one of the tricks TMO used to put innocent people down. They are very clever in some way but they are short-sighted. Big and respectful companies never use small tricks to make profits from customers.

I hope everyone here understand this and I doubt this kind of companies can survive in the long-term.