Mobiles.co.uk - BEWARE t&c

mobilejunkie

This company has been treating its customers attrociously as the numerous threads appearing on here have shown.

One of the things I always advise people to do with cashback deals is PRINT THE T&C OFF AT THE POINT OF SALE and ignore all subsequent "versions".

This dealer has now significantly changed the original t&c on its website from the ones many people signed up to. When clicking through to the t&c for contracts placed on or before 16th September 2009 you are provided with different t&c to those you would have actually agreed to at the point of purchase. There are some changes; a much longer time allowed to pay each claim than you were originally promised (not that they keep to the longer timeframe now quoted in any case) AND a very important detail for some who took out a contract at the end of a month. It USED to say the claims were counted from the CONNECTION date - not ambiguity there unless you're Mobiles.co.uk as some have discovered. THAT means that if you ordered the phone but it wasn't connected until the next month and you followed the original t&c properly you would end up sending your claim a month late (by the new ones). It NOW says that the connection date is "(the date displayed on your invoice" which CAN be quite different. I know exactly why this has happened (they normally connect when despatching the phone, unlike Phones4u) and assume that IS the connection date. In practice, sometimes it isn't the connection date and two people on these threads have appeared to (quite rightly) complain that their legitimate claims were denied. This led the company to mislead people about the facts in at least one of those cases (again, I AM fully aware of them) and hurridly re-write the t&c. I don't object to that - they are still clear on THIS point yet significantly different to what they were before. Anyone who follows my advice and prints off their t&c at the point of sale will see the difference. It can work in your favour - it means some can claim a month earlier and avoid another problem which will occur on T-Mobile contracts on the final claim.

Much of what this dealer does (like most cpw companies) is through sheer stupidity and incompetence. However, there is a distinct vein of dishonesty so do not enter into any cashback deal with them (or anyone else for that matter) unless you a) REALLY know what you're doing and b) make sure you do it. The changes now won't be the last - always keep copies of everything from day one.

Tyler_Du

I was considering using this bunch recently, I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole now

mobilejunkie

I know that you are experienced; for those who are they are safe in the sense that you can always sue provided you follow the groundrules (as part of cpw they aren't likely to disappear any time soon) - and they currently offer some of the better cashback deals. Many people have had problems with them and come on here - not so much with cashbacks (though there have been a few of those as well). I do still use them - but am very wary of them, especially after some of the false statements made on various threads by the company. Unfortunately we aren't exactly spoilt for choice at present.

My main concern is that people less experienced are drawn into using this company without knowing the downside. Phones4u/Mobiles2yourdoor have been superb in my experience (the internet versions rather than the shops) - but right now thier deals aren't as good. Some other dealers have decent deals - but in my view are riskier in the sense they are more likely to disappear than cpw and phones4u.

DarkConvict

People are drawn to the best offers, hence why they use mobiles.co.uk or other such places, but often it can be more expensive than other deals when they fail to pay out on the cashback!
As you say there are a few forum members who have rightly voiced their opinions on here, and as such Ben from mobiles.co.uk doesn't seem to have returned as he 'works in a different department'.

mobilejunkie

Cashback deals (or the "best" ones) are (by nature) designed to ensure that a large proportion of people fail to get some or all of their cashback. That is fair - since it enables the likes of me to get free contracts year after year! They can also be less strict to act as loss-leaders - people wanting better phones etc won't get entirely free contracts. For the last couple of years I have found Mobiles2yourdoor/Phones4u to be absolutely fantastic with cashback deals and have taken a lot of my people there. With all cpw companies you need to be much more wary - and the people who generally lose out are those who are not (often because they are highly inexperienced or believe that they are dealing with a reputable company).

Some people over the years on this site have come and scorned people for expecting something for nothing from cashback deals - but whilst I have always warned people to avoid them unless they are prepared to put the legwork in and understand exactly what they are getting into and who they are dealing with I am proof (along with many others) that you can make these things work to your advantage. It is not (as others have simplistically advised) merely a question of being "organised". Many have found that isn't sufficient when coming up against dishonest dealers or in simply choosing much higher risk dealers in the first place. I define high risk as primarily not being around to be sued (as opposed to squirming out of legitimate cashback payments). Dealing with cpw and Phones4u meets that criteria. cpw doesn't meet the secondary risk criteria any more - that they won't attempt to "cheat" people out of their cashbacks and force them to sue or go away. Most of the time you won't have to sue - but because of their attitude to their customers and their own t&c you can't predict when it will become necessary - so covering yourself at every stage is crucial. It's a game - you are playing by their rules, so you had better know what they are and (as importantly) be able to force them to stick to them when they decide not to!.

Silk

Good posts MJ :beer:

Silk

DarkConvict wrote: »

People are drawn to the best offers, hence why they use mobiles.co.uk or other such places, but often it can be more expensive than other deals when they fail to pay out on the cashback!

Quite agree DC,
It amazes me that sometimes people use mobiles.co.uk even though they have seen the problems people have and yet they are prepared to risk it for a couple of extra quid :eek:

-overkill-

MOBILES.CO.UK appear to be the most unprofessional Internet company I have ever dealt with !

It’s as if they try to gain some sales and satisfaction by “tricking and misleading” customers and in my case they did !

Anyone planning to use MOBILES.CO.UK you >> MUST << be completely happy that you have every detail of the deal clear to you (1000000% sure nothing hidden). . . and more importantly be sure within yourself that if anything does go wrong for WHATEVER reason, you NEVER EVER have to use the customer service. The best I can say about them is that it’s shameful ! and frankly an embarrassment to the industry they are in.

As a side note, my wife works in customer services for an internet company and she cannot believe that MOBILES.CO.UK seem to have a policy where rather than fix a customer problem they just ignore it in the hope it goes away !!! most emails I send MOBILES.CO.uk are just ignored ! It shouldn’t happen , and in our opinion customer service is the “public face” of an internet company, surely it says a lot about the way the rest of the business is run .

If you do have to contact the CS then be prepared for a very curt and defensive email . . . . and then nothing .

Honestly, instead of a “contact our customer services” TAB they would save everyone some time by renaming it “contact your lawyer/trading standards/ofcom” TAB.

This is only my opinion and from my experience. You may well get on just fine, just like the OP say’s make sure you know exactly what you are buying and either print or take screen dumps of everything you “think you might need”

My other opinion is, go elsewhere . . . I bought a phone from “buymobilephones” last year using the cash back/redemption scheme and had no problems, everything was clear and simple (if you followed the simple rules). Anyway I got EVERY penny they promised me, exactly when they said and straight into my bank account.

Anyway we are all grown ups and make our own decisions . . . sadly I seem to have made a bad one L . . . . wish I had come here and read some reviews first.

bobstheboy

I read these comments about Mobiles and there is no doubt some people are either unlucky or fail to read the T&C's and follow them to the letter. However, I have to redress the balance a little and relate my experience to date.

I bought a monthly phone deal in August. The phone arrived the day after placing the order and the up front cashback arrived within a month. I recommended them to a friend they received their phone the next day and their up front cashback within a month. I received £50 for recommending them to Mobiles.

Not every customer has problems and my friend and I are very happy with the deal we paid for.

mobilejunkie

There will always be customers who don't fall foul of any dealer's bad practices. However, to suggest that some people are "unlucky" when they have accepted misleading adverts (one example from these threads), been repeatedly ignored when emailing with problems (very common on here), received lots of unfilled promises from their representative(s) on here (again very common) and keep cutomers waiting for hours on the end of phone without even answering is rather humorous.

As for the others who have "fail"ed to "read the T&C and follow them to the letter" - I could point out that 1) their representative actually blatantly picked and chose which of those said t&c he would ignore, 2) they certainly never met them (and still don't) as far as cashback t&c are concerned 3) they have stated that the t&c "always" contained words which they did not 4) they have now altered the wording of previous t&c in retrospect and are displaying them on their website as those which apply to customers taking out contracts before this September - even though they are substantively different to the ones people actually signed up to. Naturally there will always be customers who (by their own fault) didn't read the t&c - there is one on another thread now. However, I'd have thought the very least any customer should expect is for the dealer who writes them to actually follow and respect them - unless they are dealing with a cpw company, of course!

Yes, those people you refer to must have been "unlucky" or not read the t&c and followed them to the letter! That includes at least two people on these threads who did and whose claims were rejected until they went public (leading to the changed t&c). I feel truly sorry for a company that actually has its "unlucky" and illiterate customers come on here to complain when "normal channels" don't work.

Silk

bobstheboy wrote: »

Not every customer has problems and my friend and I are very happy with the deal we paid for.

Hi Bob,
I can see that if you buy a phone with no problems then you are bound to be happy and totaly unaware of all the problems with people who have. However as I have pointed out earlier those experiances do not count
The experiances that do count are those who have had cause to use their CS Dept to solve problems such as faulty goods, incorrect charges or wrong items despatched etc etc.
The fact that they are incapable to solve even the most basic error is enough to put most people off, other than the desperate of course