BuyMobilePhones.net (merged)

mobilejunkie

Jammynot wrote: »

Mobilejunkie - Could you say what the safer sources are? i'm looking for a cheap HTC Cha Cha deal for my daughter, and after manyhours scanning reviews and this forum (including your very detailed advice about redemptions a few years ago) I am, tbh, completely confused and don't have a "gut" feel for which way to go. I thought I'd found a reasonable deal with BMP, and the reviews weren't too bad, until I read this thread, and in particular your comments above. Given your acknowledged authority on this subject, this stopped me in my tracks! Do you offer a service to find good, cheap deals??

Currently I am dubious about the word "safe". The two big players - CPW (E2Save, Mobiles.co, Onestopphoneshop mainly) and Phones4u (including Dialaphone) are safER because of their size i.e. they are more likely to be around to sue if needbe. Unfortuantely, Phones4u don't tend to have the best (cashback) deals and CPW is experiencing a complete DISorganisation. In the latter case, one of the people I watch over got confirmation of acceptance within seconds of submitting their latest claim, whilst two others have needed to chase for quite a while before receiving their latest payments and another may need to sue. In all cases the money is forthcoming, one way or another - but you need to watch every move very closely (I do anyway).

As for a "service" - more like an obsession; I enjoy playing the game and making sure we all get paid and am regularly in touch with the people I look after to ensure they take any necessary action as soon as things appear to be going off the rails. Some are better at it than others, but I am always there just to make sure!

Sparkspc

Thought I'd share this. buymobilephones.net are a risk as far as I'm concerned. They are claiming they haven't received my redemption voucher and mobile phone bills. Their customer service is appalling, and they offer no help whatsoever. They won't accept a pdf / email as proof of billing, which is ridiculous really as seen as the mobile company concerned bill electronically. You have to make sure you catch the 'window' to send in your bills and they take up to 60 days (yes really!) to pay up, after accepting a valid voucher. Their entire business model relies on customers forgetting to send the vouchers in, or getting a small detail wrong with the redemption, or in my case 'losing' the voucher and not giving a damn either - their basic message is 'tough' - send it in again, if you have a copy of the voucher! So at my expense, time and effort - I have to do it all over again! In this electronic age, we should expect a better level of product / service. In this financial climate, the very least a company should offer is good customer service and actually value their customer base. This industry needs regulating. This company does definately does NOT value its customers. I would have thought the 'value' of providing good customer service to a company would be more to them than the potential loss / damage caused by negative comments, revews and feedback left by disgruntled customers. However, once you've signed, they don't appear to be helpful at all. I will definately not be doing redemptions on phone contracts ever again. I will do my business directly with the providers, I think. To sum it up - not impressed. Leave BMP well alone. Or another way - this is 2011, nearly 2012 - postal redemptions, really? Think about it. Appalled. Bad company.

Jammynot

Sparkspc wrote: »

Thought I'd share this. buymobilephones.net are a risk as far as I'm concerned. They are claiming they haven't received my redemption voucher and mobile phone bills. Their customer service is appalling, and they offer no help whatsoever. They won't accept a pdf / email as proof of billing, which is ridiculous really as seen as the mobile company concerned bill electronically. You have to make sure you catch the 'window' to send in your bills and they take up to 60 days (yes really!) to pay up, after accepting a valid voucher. Their entire business model relies on customers forgetting to send the vouchers in, or getting a small detail wrong with the redemption, or in my case 'losing' the voucher and not giving a damn either - their basic message is 'tough' - send it in again, if you have a copy of the voucher! So at my expense, time and effort - I have to do it all over again! In this electronic age, we should expect a better level of product / service. In this financial climate, the very least a company should offer is good customer service and actually value their customer base. This industry needs regulating. This company does definately does NOT value its customers. I would have thought the 'value' of providing good customer service to a company would be more to them than the potential loss / damage caused by negative comments, revews and feedback left by disgruntled customers. However, once you've signed, they don't appear to be helpful at all. I will definately not be doing redemptions on phone contracts ever again. I will do my business directly with the providers, I think. To sum it up - not impressed. Leave BMP well alone. Or another way - this is 2011, nearly 2012 - postal redemptions, really? Think about it. Appalled. Bad company.

After hours of wasting my time on this, I've just twigged - it IS a game. I think you just have to accept that it's hard work, and risky, to get involved in these redemptions, and you have to make sure that the underlying deal is not too bad if the redemptions don't materialise! :T

dazza.mk

............................

mobilejunkie

I LOVE the game. And I always win. No reason to lose unless you don't follow (my) groundrules (unless the dealer goes bust)!

blueghost

Sparkspc wrote: »

Thought I'd share this. buymobilephones.net are a risk as far as I'm concerned. They are claiming they haven't received my redemption voucher and mobile phone bills.

Did you send it recorded delivery? If not how do you know they are lying or not. If you sent it recorded they will investigate who signed for it.

Sparkspc wrote: »

Their customer service is appalling, and they offer no help whatsoever. They won't accept a pdf / email as proof of billing, which is ridiculous really as seen as the mobile company concerned bill electronically.

Those are the terms of taking back cashback with them, if you want to send PDFs then try someone like mobiles.co.uk.

Sparkspc wrote: »

You have to make sure you catch the 'window' to send in your bills and they take up to 60 days (yes really!) to pay up, after accepting a valid voucher.

This is pretty standard for cashback deals with any company

Sparkspc wrote: »

Their entire business model relies on customers forgetting to send the vouchers in, or getting a small detail wrong with the redemption, or in my case 'losing' the voucher and not giving a damn either - their basic message is 'tough' - send it in again, if you have a copy of the voucher!

This is what all cashback companies hope.

Sparkspc wrote: »

So at my expense, time and effort - I have to do it all over again! In this electronic age, we should expect a better level of product / service.

I sent one claim non recorded and paid the consequence, I had to send it again with recorded delivery. They can't be at fault if Royal Mail don't deliver what you sent, if you have proof of postage you can claim against Royal Mail.

I can only comment that I have had excellent customer service with them. I had awful customer service with e2save and OSPS, before and after the CPW takeovers hence I stopped using them, if you're not happy just shop elsewhere next time.

Lynsey

Final claim paid yesterday - last and final claim and this one was approx 1 week early.
They do actually seem to be reliable again, but no more contracts with them in the future.

FWIW, I always send recorded with BMP's, especially when using vouchers.

Good luck.

Lynsey

dazza.mk

Lynsey wrote: »

Final claim paid yesterday - last and final claim and this one was approx 1 week early.
They do actually seem to be reliable again, but no more contracts with them in the future.

FWIW, I always send recorded with BMP's, especially when using vouchers.

Good luck.

Lynsey

Personally I always send 2nd Class at the beginning of the redemption period (keeping a backup of the vouchers), then if there is no acknowledgement of claim receipt there is an opportunity to resend recorded or otherwise, so far over 2 contracts however I've never needed to do so - obviously no guarantee for the future but has saved a lot of unnecessary recorded fees over the 2 contracts.

jd87

Seems to be a lot of negativity about bmp here. Is this just in relation to redemption cashback? I am thinking of taking an automatic cashback deal with them, is this a good idea? Can it be used in combination with quidco cashback?

Sparkspc

Amazingly, they have agreed to accept my first claim. So, if you are willing to 'play the game' you can get somewhere. The internet is a fantastic tool for leaving honest reviews about companies in a variety of places. I definately stand by my previous comments regarding postal / paper redemptions being a little backward for this day & age! Now I've had some further time to consider it all, I do believe that their business model is fundamentally dishonest and should be investigated and better regulated. I'll try and explain why - and it involves a combination of economics and poor ethics! Please bear with me...If their offers of cashback were genuine, and they were prepared to pay back 100% of customers (which they should be, as this is the product they are selling) then there would be no reason not to pay out automatically over the period of the contract for ALL customers (think about this carefully for a moment from an ethical point of view). They know you have a genuine contract with the mobile network provider, as you bought it through them, and they have your bank details. Therefore, the only conclusion as to why they operate this way is to PURPOSELY catch out their OWN customers to increase profits, or put another way - the 'success' of this side of their business relies upon them not paying out to a proportion of their OWN customers! Now consider how many people and processes they employ to operate this side of their business as well, it must be a significant 'earner' for them, whether that be drawn from people forgetting to send in redemptions, making errors, or even 'ripping people off' themselves. Therefore, it absolutely cannot be an honest trade and this type of business should not be allowed in my opinion. It is certainly not something I will be partaking in for future phone contracts.