mobiles.co.uk's terrible service - where do I stand?

Silk

delosfive wrote: »

Alas no. Not from Ben. I've given up expecting anything from mobiles.co.uk now - it only leads to further disappointment.

I've written to Vodafone (since by telephone they said they couldn't confirm due to a system problem) and I'm hoping to hear back tonight.

What an absolute waste of time and effort. mobiles.co.uk suddenly struck dumb with complete apathy about the whole thing. Disgrace.

Hi Delos,
Thats a pity I noticed he read the post this morning and hoped he might have sent you an email.
You are correct however it is a "disgrace"
Have you ordered a new phone yet ?

delosfive

Well, I find that the handset I originally ordered has now been recalled by Sony.

I dread to think how this could have been mishandled by any mobile phone company with appalling Customer Service levels.

mobile_man_2

Hey guys,

I work for Mobiles and thought I would post some defence for the company. Delos what I would say with regards to your whole issue is:

You emailed and on our phoneline we do say we prefer emails, but from experience I know that (depending on the department you have emailed) we have roughly 1000 emails to answer between around 4 people in each department. That 4 is split further down as at least 1/2 of that 4 answer the phones at the same time. I can appretiate that you wanted to cancel and obviously we should have tried to do everything we could to cancel this before your handset was despatched. This is obviouslly a massive inconvenience for the Customer where we can sometimes not answer emails in the promised time, although this is not due to a lack of Customer Service but for a lack of manpower. If we received your email (again I would like to point out i'm not saying this is at all your fault) then we would have been able to cancel the order before despatch and save you all the agro. Once orders are despatched via DHL/Royal Mail it is quite hard for this to just be pulled back from the courier. Orders need to be returned in the correct fashion.
Silk I don't think it is fair to say "Saying you need a returns number is rubbish". The reason a return needs a "returns number" is that our office is based near London, and our CPW Warehouse is near Leeds. We cannot just phone and say "Have you received a Sony Ericsson back?". This needs to be logged so we can ensure the Customers phone has been cancelled as if this is not cancelled in the alloted time (But we've logged the return) then as a company we would obviouslly need to re-imburse the Customer. We need to log information on our internal systems yes, but this is so we can communicate with our Warehouse and have this information logged...which I don't see as being unreasonable.
One thing I would like to point out to anyone in the situation of a return, NEVER refuse delivery. If you refuse delivery courier companies can take up to 30 days to return handsets back to us. Customers receive a 12 day cooling period, and if we do not receive the phone back and cancel the contract before this time contracts will be up and running with the networks and we can be unable to cancel this.
If you wish to cancel an order, or return, my advise would be to phone on 01923 804444 and go through to the correct department. Please do not depend on our speediness of email response, and if you do not hear from us within 4 hours please do not think your query will be ignored.

I deal with Customer queries daily and personally pride myself on my own Customer Service, so if anybody feels they need some extra help please PM me and I will try and help you the best I can. I will try and help anyone the best I can as apart from some poor reviews the company as a whole is very good and I am proud to work for them.
I'm not an official rep of the company, just a loser with a bit too much time on my hands, please do not take anything I say as a mobiles.co.uk view. Anything I say is of personal opinion.

OneADay

Hi mobile_man, me thinks you should consider taking over the mobiles.co.uk rep's job - eherm!

On the subject of cancelling a phone before dispatch, would it not be easier to implemnt a solution like Amazon have on their site, to allow a customer to cancel their order . I know it would cost a bit of money....but it would stop a lot of hassle ....might do away with some people's jobs too ... bad idea...:eek:

mobile_man_2

Hey,

The rep has a hard job, like he's pointed out he's pretty much damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. I'll stick to being a nobody with a bit of into me thinks :-)

What do Amazon use on their site (I don't use it personally)? I think the system works okay as it stands, but like I said I would definately try and call if you want something cancelled just for your own peace of mind it has been cancelled before despatch.

Just for info if anyone needs it...but the following numbers should be relevant to your query:

01923 804444
Option 2 - Order Processing
Option 5 - Returns
Option 6 - Quality Team
Option 7 - Customer Services.

This may be obvious but if anyone needs to call please ensure you contact the correct department as for example our Quality Team cannot issue a Returns number.

Good luck! :-)

OneADay

With companies like amazon and some others I have used, you are a registered user of their site. You place an order and you can see your order progress. If its not dispatched, then you can cancel it. Its quite simple really.

And even if its been dispatched, and you decide to send it back, they have an automated system to process a return online, by giving a user a reference directly on the web site.

Other solution for your company, simply have a dedicated email system monitor which checks for cancellation requests or give the customer an option on the phone to get a call back.

My commission please for this advice

Plus - Even dialaphone have a web system to view your orders/accounts/cashback information as they put it in. Their lines are automated through a machine (bit annoying) but you can see the intention to reduce the load on customer service people.

mobile_man_2

I think Mobiles have a web system where Customers can track orders...although I don't think it works very well. It's a good idea about being able to process a Returns number online...i'm sure CPW could figure a system out like that. I'm not really sure if it's something that mobiles would need to look into, or more a CPW thing. Ben would be the best person to advise on that I guess :-)

Silk

mobile_man wrote: »

Hey guys,

Silk I don't think it is fair to say "Saying you need a returns number is rubbish". The reason a return needs a "returns number" is that our office is based near London, and our CPW Warehouse is near Leeds.

Well well well !!!!
Hello mobiles man
First of all let me say that if somone needs to return a phone to you for whatever reason the last thing they need is a returns number from you.
It's a well known fact the mobiles.co.uk will do their upmost to delay proceedings so that the customer will go over the 14 day limit to return an item.
In matters not one bit what number you decide to give a return on your internal system ...the fact is they need to return it within the 14 day period end of story !!!
You can not stop anyone sending something back because you refuse to provide them with a returns number !
I myself spent 5 days 2 days off work and over £65 worth of phone calls plus 2 days posting on here trying to get a returns number and please don't tell me i need a returns number to send something back :mad:

Originally Posted by mobile_man
This is obviouslly a massive inconvenience for the Customer where we can sometimes not answer emails in the promised time, although this is not due to a lack of Customer Service but for a lack of manpower

.
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Thats funny because Ben say's your not understaffed and to use the excuse of lack of manpower is absurd ...comes as no surprise how ever considering the number of problems you have and the number of people wanting to return phones to you :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by mobile_man
If we received your email (again I would like to point out i'm not saying this is at all your fault) then we would have been able to cancel the order before despatch and save you all the agro

Your having a laugh arn't you ...I've 4 outstanding emails still outstanding and a long list of people who've not done what they were supposed to have done from your company and so have many many others both on here and all over the net so don't even begin to pretend that you answer emails because it won't wash I'm afraid

Originally Posted by mobile_man
then as a company we would obviouslly need to re-imburse the Customer. We need to log information on our internal systems yes, but this is so we can communicate with our Warehouse and have this information logged...which I don't see as being unreasonable.

I've got well over £250 worth of expences outstanding so care to elaborate on when you are going to re-imburse me ?????
What and how you communicate to your warehouse is of no interest to me or us and what systems you have in place have no relation to a customers legal right whatsoever ....the systems you have are purely for your own use and have no bearing on anything!!!

Originally Posted by mobile_man
If you wish to cancel an order, or return, my advise would be to phone on 01923 804444 and go through to the correct department. Please do not depend on our speediness of email response, and if you do not hear from us within 4 hours please do not think your query will be ignored.

Your having another laugh arn't you :rotfl:
Thers a long list of people waitng for days on end with no reply from your outfit and the phone situation is beyond a joke you spensd hours upon hours on hold as has been proved on here time and time again !!!!

Originally Posted by mobile_man
I deal with Customer queries daily and personally pride myself on my own Customer Service

Care to put a name to this customer service you brag about because as far as most people are concerned it's non existant :cool:

Originally Posted by mobile_man
apart from some poor reviews the company as a whole is very good and I am proud to work for them

Well all I can say mobile man is you must have pretty low standards and have no experiance of working for a decent honest company

Originally Posted by mobile_man
I'm not an official rep of the company,just a loser with a bit too much time on my hands,please do not take anything I say as a mobiles.co.uk view. Anything I say is of personal opinion.

Don't think of yourself in that way !!! the man who thinks he's beaten usualy is ....try thinking about going working for a decent company with a decent CS set up if that your field. Just because you work for mobiles.co.uk doesn't mean your a loser

Originally Posted by mobile_man
The rep has a hard job, like he's pointed out he's pretty much damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. I'll stick to being a nobody with a bit of into me thinks :-)

The reason that he has a hard time is because of the lies and empty promises and some of the stunts he pulls !!!
If he was honest up front and got the job done he wouldn't get anything like the stick he does

shareef

2 phones ordered from mobiles.co.uk

1 turns up faulty, and I emailed for a returns number, got one the next day! Posted it back, and got my replacement in 3 days, and a refund of the postage I paid to send it back. All my emails were answered within a day.

So no problems from me

WychWeird

OneADay wrote: »

Hi mobile_man, me thinks you should consider taking over the mobiles.co.uk rep's job - eherm!

On the subject of cancelling a phone before dispatch, would it not be easier to implemnt a solution like Amazon have on their site, to allow a customer to cancel their order . I know it would cost a bit of money....but it would stop a lot of hassle ....might do away with some people's jobs too ... bad idea...:eek:

I ordered a camera from Amazon to replace mine when it failed , I needed the camera to be with me by the weekend as I was going away - the delivery went adrift and wasn't with me the next day. I called Amazon, they apologised and cancelled the order in transit (they informed the courier). Amazon also gave me a £5 voucher off my next order for the trouble. No arguments, no insisting I accept delivery and they offered the compensation, I didn't need to demand it. That does appear to make mobiles.co.uk's customer service a poor relation.