Mobiles.co.uk - A cautionary tale

Silk

thommy wrote: »

silk - to start with the dismissive 'maybe so thommy ' sums up the problem, in a very neat nutshell.
the same patronising rhetoric ,(supported with, repetitive, quite clearly specifically chosen emoticons) as Mj's, then flows forth in one almighty gush...
you will negate whatever i say, if it is not in agreement with your crusade.
that is why it is getting harder and harder to contribute to these threads. as Edinburghlass has acknowledged, people are pm-ing to complain, more and more. not to mention the newbies that come and go -bullied off for daring to want to enter into a balanced debate or merely to inform of good news....

I don't negate everything you say Thommy and I most certainly don't bully off any new posters who give good news such as the case we are talking about ...As is quite clear i was the first one in fact to thank them for the post !!
I also asked them to clarify the position regarding the dates as they thought they had been given an extra 16 days !!!
I also asked Ben to clarify the position too.
Meanwhile we are still waiting an answer to the situaton

OneADay

http://www.avforums.com/forums/mobile-phones-pdas/1005487-o2-600-mobiles-co-uk.html

thommy

Silk wrote: »

I don't negate everything you say Thommy and I most certainly don't bully off any new posters who give good news such as the case we are talking about ...As is quite clear i was the first one in fact to thank them for the post !!
I also asked them to clarify the position regarding the dates as they thought they had been given an extra 16 days !!!
I also asked Ben to clarify the position too.
Meanwhile we are still waiting an answer to the situaton

yes, i acknowledge your thanks - sorry, forgot to do that. you are somewhat more balanced than others, in that respect.

Silk

Hi WychWeird,
I've got a feeling this may be of some help to you ...have a read of this ...
http://www.ciao.co.uk/mobiles_co_uk__Review_5869327

That is my advice! If you do and things go wrong, prepare for a lot of wasted time and a fight! I'm currently on hold to them and have been for the last 30 odd mins! And this is good!!!
I fell into the same trap as cwh0716, the discount isn't a discount at all. Took out an 02 contract with them at £25 a month with £5 discount. When checked with 02 they say the contract has always been £25 as bonus tarriff, so to me I should be paying £20 a month, however, when bought up with mobiles.co.uk they say it's usually £30 and reduced to £25, (which is NOT what O2 confirmed to me a number of times)!
Thinking about small claims court as they just refuse to sort it out! My emails go unanswered. Apparently there is a 4 working day turn around for the supervisor (Zoe Hirst) but as yet I've been waiting 2 weeks!!!
Every email you send goes back into the queue, even if its already an open case. So if they say it takes 4 working days to get a supervisor email responce then it'll take 4 working days for EVERY email you're sending!
Oh, and I'm still on hold to them, even after writting this! (20 more mins)!
UPDATE,
After an hour of hold music, I got told that the supervisor is on lunch! It's 16.15, they close at 17.30!!!!
UPDATE!
I had to make another phone call the other day as I still had heard nothing, and spoke to an advisor mobiles.co.uk should be proud of (she couldn't help as not a supervisor but she listened to what I was saying (and understood it) and found out what was happening for me, it turns out that the complaint was with their marketing department! I was told I'd get a responce from the supervisor soon.
Well, today I still hadn't heard, so I called again (think I know their hold music word for word now)! The advisor put me on hold to find out some information and came back with good news! Mobiles.co.uk are going to send me a cheque for the equivalent of £5 a month for 24 months (the length of the contract)! So £120!!! This is all they can do as it's now too late to cancel the contract!
I still feel, if they had sorted this out properly and quickly in the first place, instead of digging in their heals, when I had proof the tarriff they sold me was originally £25 in the first place, then the contract could have been cancelled. But in truth, I love the phone have confused people over my new number already and don't want any other confusion! And now I have this £5 a month discount (once I get the cheque) I feel I now have the great deal I was looking for! Just a shame it took so long and so much extra stress at a time I was already stressed and grieving!
In the end, A great outcome, A lesson learnt, A hurdle passed, and best of all, the feeling that I WON!!!!!

WychWeird

Thanks Silk, very interesting - it certainly makes the 3 months offered seem a little, well, naff to be honest. I'd left this thread today to see if Ben picked it up and responded to any of my questions, which sadly he didn't.

And Ben? Your info link on the O2 600 Promo may still be misleading:

Where an O2 tariff lists inclusive unlimited texts, please note that this is a promotional Bolt On which increases the standard number of inclusive texts on that tariff (e.g 500 on O2 600) to unlimited.

There are NO inclusive texts on the O2 25 ("O2 600 Promo") tariff, unless things have changed?

WychWeird

Slight update - nothing's happened. Mobiles.co.uk have gone completely silent - Ben didn't answer my reply to his email and has passed over this thread completely. However, since the new mobiles.co.uk has joined the board I thought I'd rake over the coals to remind them this is still an issue which hasn't gone away.

I've been looking at various bits of information to support my argument. One thing I'd looked at (and well worth a read to anyone having issues) is the Distance Selling Regulations - a guide can be found here:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft698.pdf

Within that guide, I found this:

3.3 The pre-contractual information can be given by any method appropriate to the form of distance communication you are using to agree the contract, providing it is clear and comprehensible. For example, this information can:

- be provided on a website if you sell goods or services over the internet (in which case the ECRs also apply – see also Chapter 4)

So to quote Ben (I have a screenshot in case of editing):

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative wrote: »

Again, I have asked that the site be updated once more to remove the confusion caused by talking about "O2 600" when "O2 600 £5 Discount" (aka O2 25) does not have the same attributes.

Well, by Ben's admission, it would appear mobiles.co.uk fell foul of that - add into the mix my previous comments on the Misrepresentation Act regarding a contract being based on incorrect information.

So, I maintain I didn't get the service (tariff) I believed I was offered:

When providing services, when does a service begin?
3.21 This depends on the circumstances. Generally a service is said to have started once you start supplying the service you have promised. Many services require administrative or other preparatory work (such as setting up an account) before a supplier is able to provide the service promised. Often this work is underway when a contract is being agreed. In our view such work before the service starts does not mean that the service has begun.

Hmm...so what does this mean in relation to the direct debits you're taking on two contracts that aren't the services ordered?...

Regarding cancellation:

Different rules apply to services where the consumer agrees that the service starts before the usual cancellation period expires. These rules are as follows....

....

- Where you have supplied the required durable information before the service starts and the consumer agrees to the service starting before the end of the usual cancellation period, their cancellation rights will end when performance of the service starts

Did I mention that I don't believe I have the service I ordered? So that means I have the right to cancel, right now?

Anyhow, I'm in the process of drafting a letter to mobiles.co.uk - I look forward to their response with some perverse morbid anticipation - considering their written response to my letter was, "This is how you claim your cashback."

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative

Wychweird,

As I have stated previously we supplied the deal we listed on the website at the time, with 600 minutes and unlimited texts. You were made fully aware at various points of the returns procedure should you feel after delivery that you did not get what you were expecting and I'm afraid to say there's nothing we can do at this point, other than offer you 3 months' data bolt-on FOC.

Regards,

WychWeird

I feel you are deliberately refusing to see the point:

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative wrote: »

As I have stated previously we supplied the deal we listed on the website at the time, with 600 minutes and unlimited texts.

You supplied a tariff which gave 600 minutes and unlimited texts (now called the O2 600 Promo) - your advertising lead me to believe this was in the form of 600 minutes, 500 texts plus an unlimited bolt-on (called the O2 600 which is still available on your site. Linked example. Note that at the time there were no restrictions noted against the bolt-on). You yourself have stated that the O2 600 and O2 25 tariffs are not the same.

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative wrote: »

You were made fully aware at various points of the returns procedure should you feel after delivery that you did not get what you were expecting

Your Ts&Cs and Customer Service Staff state that if the SIM has been used you cannot return the phone.

What happens if I've used my phone?
We will only be able to offer a refund if the goods being returned are unused and in their original packaging. Activating your SIM card or the handset will signify acceptance of your contract and you will therefore not be entitled to return your handset or cancel your contract. All equipment including manuals, free gifts and accessories must be returned undamaged and in the same condition they were first supplied.

The only recourse I have open to me is to point out that the tariff was not clearly nor comprehensively advertised thus the contracts I received were misrepresented.

This 'tennis' is basically pointless - you accept that your site could be misunderstood and accept that I 'misunderstood' what you were advertising. I apparently didn't attempt to cancel in the 14 days (despite my evidence to the contrary.)

As for the SIMs: When you insert your SIM into your phone and turn it on O2 activate the contract. O2 allow you a day or two to explore the phone and then their Customer Services call you on the phone (SIM) you've just enabled. I couldn't discuss the tariffs with O2 until they called me, on the phones you'd just supplied until they were activated. You are basically saying I have no choice but to accept the situation. I'm glad to see you're being so reasonable about this

k_t

Not the best of experiences here...been wating 3 days for a reply to email...impossible to get hold of on phone

papajohn

Hi everybody,

I am thinking of buying exactly the same deal from mobiles.co.uk (600 mins Any Network Anytime + Unlimited Texts, 24months, £25pm  ) and I want to do excactly the same thing: change the bolton from unlimited texts to unlimited internet. But I dont care at all about the texts that I will have left after this change. All I care about is that this change is possible with O2. It is true that they say nothing about it in the mobiles.co.uk website. Yet, is it possible? Will O2 accept this?

Thanks in advance