Coolnewmobile, merged threads

Micky

Liabilities of £4M TO £10M and a broken business model sounds desperate to me, any idea of turnover?

mira

Just been surprised with the news today regarding CNM/PBD.

I've been reading posts on this website and doing some research else where to see what people have done when other mobile companies have gone bust.

It was quite interesting what i've read. Its in moneysupermarket.com regarding Dialamobile/Mobile Connections that ppl were able to cancel contracts.


here's some links:

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/mobile-connections-10612.aspx?PageIndex=58

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/mobile-connections-10612.aspx?PageIndex=61


More importantly I found this regarding Dialamobile/Mobile connections:

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=112096&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=1522


Plus here is a report given by the BBC on this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6987821.stm


However, after reading the page from birmingham.gov.uk it seems that the section (internet contracts) may apply to ppl who made orders online from CNM/PBD which means we may not be able to cancel our contracts


Internet Contracts

We believe that Customers of Mobile Connections who made their contract via the internet will not be able to terminate their airtime agreement as the terms and conditions on the Mobile Connections website made clear the terms of the contract. Our advice to terminate agreements applies only to customers who purchased phones in retail shops and where there is no agreement as to a minimum contract period.

I hope the trading standards still do something about it when we all report.

kenfrost

Re my earlier post about contacting 3, I have had a response.

Here is the complete situation, as per my site (I will keep you up to date):

Why did the network operators, such as 3, add the veneer of respectability to this company?

Why did the network operators allow their names to be associated with this company?

How much money have the network operators made out of sales made on the basis of false promises by Cool New Mobile?

At what stage did the directors of CNM become aware that their business model had failed?

Were the directors still trading after they became aware of the fact that the company was insolvent?

The following email was sent to 3:
"<em>I bought into your service via Cool New Mobile, who have gone into administration leaving thousands of people (myself included) out of pocket wrt the cash back deals.

It has been clear for months that CNM were nothing more than a scam operation, see
http://kenfrostwtw.blogspot.com/2007/11/cool-new-mobile-bunch-of-scumbags-by.html

Why did you allow yourselves to be associated with a company set up to defraud the public?

Why did you add the veneer of respectability to this company by associating your name with theirs?

What will you do for the thousands of customers with 3 contracts sold by CNM?

regards

Ken Frost</em>"

<strong>Update
16 November 2007 19:57</strong>

Call received from 3 regarding the above email.

3 stated that their records show that my phone came from Mobile Affiliates, not CNM.

I noted that they were the same company, and had gone bust as well.

3 stated that their records show that Mobile Affiliates are still an active account.

A brief exchange, repeating each other's stand point, then took place; 3 seemed to have difficulty understanding/accepting what I was telling them.

I directed them to the announcement on the CNM website.

3 stated that at they did not have net access at that time, and would need to look into it.

They will contact me again.

kenfrost

Sent to Mazars LLP (the administrators of CNM etc) today:

"re the administration of Cool New Mobile, and related companies.

I am a customer of CNM, and am owed money by them. I would like to ask you the following questions:

-At what stage did the directors of CNM become aware that their business model had failed?

-Were the directors still trading after they became aware of the fact that the company was insolvent?

FYI, I run a network of websites under www.kenfrost.com and am covering this story on this site:

http://kenfrostwtw.blogspot.com/2007/11/cool-new-mobile-bunch-of-scumbags-by.html

Thank you for your help.

Kind regards

Ken Frost MA FCA FIPFM

www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"'

MidLifeCrisis_3

Thought I'd better put this on CNM thread too just in case anyone on here finds it helpful. Got this from OneCompare.com on 15 Nov. Got 2 contracts with CNM and was due to start claiming cashback in Dec so I'm £600 down. Whatever I can do to mitigate this is a bonus. If anything useful comes through I'll share it, if not I'm going to try Ken Frost's idea.

"It has come to our attention that Phoneboxdirect and Coolnewmobile - both
trading names of Mobile Media Systems and Mobile Affiliates Ltd have gone
into liquidation. This means that unfortunately customers of these two
retailers are unlikely to receive their cashback.

In the three and a half years of OneCompare.com's existence this is the
first such instance of a featured company going into liquidation.

All retailers featured by OneCompare.com have been checked prior to
inclusion in the results and both of these sites have been featured on
OneCompare.com since its inception. The companies in question have been in operation for over 4 years and showed no outward signs of trouble. Over the
last few months the companies have reduced the commission it pays to third
parties such as OneCompare.com, reduced the amount of cashback they offer customers, planned expansion into offline mobile phone retail and hired high level former employees from Phones4u/Dextra. All of these actions should have increased their profit margins.

This problem affects us just as it affects our customers as we are unlikely
to receive any outstanding commission owed for directing people to these
websites.

We are actively pursuing advice on the best course of action for customers
who have outstanding cashback claims with either Phoneboxdirect or
Coolnewmobile and will let our customers know what we discover.

Consumer Direct's advice for customers affected by this is that they can try
to retrieve their cashback from the liquidator of the company but that the
main creditors will have priority over any cashback claims, for example
buildings and utilities. The liquidator must be named to Companies House
within 21 days but has not been submitted as yet, however when we have this information we will publish it. As it is a limited company not a sole trader
the company directors cannot be contacted or held liable for outstanding
cashback claims.

We would advise customers affected by this to contact their network directly to see if they are able to reduce their tariff to a more acceptable level or
to cancel the contract due to the circumstances. Networks have reduced
tariffs or cancelled contracts in the past due to cashback problems, however this is at the networks discretion. Another situation which may arise is if
a network changes the terms of its contracts in a significant way, as this
can sometimes be used to terminate your contract. We will keep on top of any such changes to contracts that may allow affected customers to cancel their contracts.

Please note that your mobile phone contract and your cashback contract are from separate companies. Your mobile phone contract is with the network
directly and though they may offer help they are not obliged to. We strongly
advise customers not to cancel their mobile phone direct debit as this will
affect your credit rating.

I would like to reiterate that such a situation is extremely uncommon,
especially since many companies featured on OneCompare.com are trading names of Carphone Warehouse (e2save, onestopphoneshop, phonespot) or Phones4u (mobiles2yourdoor) which are incredibly financially sound.

Please accept our sincerest apologies, and be assured that we are doing
everything possible to discover the best course of action for customers
affected by this."

XXXX

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6987821.stm

Chris Neville, of Birmingham Trading Standards, said: "Customers can terminate the agreement that they have with the airtime company if they haven't got a contract with that airtime company.

Same principle applies to Phone Box Direct and Cool New Mobile!

mobilejunkie

What makes you think you haven't?

Quentin

Wonder how much Mr Neville is paid to come out with such gems?

It doesn't make sense.

If you don't have a contract (agreement) with an airtime company in the first place, then of course you have no contract to terminate.

But if you had no agreement, then how come your phone dialled others, and you got a bill every month, and paid it?

p5x

Guys, could we use one thread to cover the whole CNM/PBD liquidation problem as it'll be slightly easier to work out what to do next rather than having 3-4 different threads on the go. There's a thread already started below and I suggest we all use that to discuss the issue:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=598279

mick001

I'm sorry, but it kind of serves people right if they needlessly and greedily lapped up several contracts from these cowboys for the sake of what was clearly too-good-to-be-true cashback deals.

All for the egotistical sake of owning several mobiles or for selling them on hoping to make a profit.

And for those who purchased several (for family, etc) - or even just ONE - contract from such deceptive distributors are pretty moronic consumers to say the least, especially if you purchased a new contract from CNM et al within the past year.

A 30 second google search several months ago would have had the alarm bells ringing about this spider-company of fraudulent cowboys, from the sheer number of previous customers who had not received their promised cashback and who were also jumping through impossible and extremely unfair hoops just to claim it.

Surely the internet has given consumers an awareness and buying power that we have never seen before? Do people not do even basic research before committing themselves to credit-based, financially 'dangerous' products? It's !!!!!!.

People should also factor in such disaster scenarios as exactly this - so that if they do not receive their promised cashback, they can still afford the contract.

It is probably these hopelessly brainless buying habits that has led to the credit crunch meaning sensible consumers get burnt with the rest. CNM et al have just blown everything out of the water with the mobile distribution industry courtesy of management that would evidently have been barely capable of running a tuck shop.

Thanks to this (it is no fault of the consumer, but it IS the faut of the consumer to go anywhere near these hopelessly inept companies), you will probably see a massive reduction in redemption deals - if not a complete stop to them all. This could mean contract prices could rise (if the mobile operators agree to help affected CNM et al customers by reducing monthly premiums, then they will) and/or you will be tied into 18 month contracts to get the "better" deals, which all offer very bad value for money when you factor in those additional 6 months.

So to sum up:
1. Research retailers, ESPECIALLY if you are buying financial products (like mobile phone contracts)
2. Don't buy beyond your means - this horrifically moronic behaviour only leads to bankruptcy and quite deserved if you ask me; it is easily avoidable unless you are desperate for essentials (rent, etc) as a pose to luxuries (mobile phones, etc)
3. Expect redemption deals to be slowly phased out - already it is getting more and more diffiucult to find good deals from reputable dealers
4. Expect higher contract prices with longer terms as operators try to claw back lost revenue from their 3G outlay's and poor (unexpected) data sales.