Help! Carphone Warehouse are trying to screw me!!

louisewhite

Evening guys, firstly I'd like to say a big THANK YOU for taking the time to read, and hopefully help me!
I'll keep this as brief but informative as possible!
Back in Nov/Dec 2009, I rang CPW firstly to inquire when my 18 month contract was up and secondly, pre-warn them I wanted to cancel my contract upon expiry - they did the usual 'we can offer you this, that and the other' I said I'll think about it closer to the time. My contract was up in January 2010. To be honest, I had forgotten, what with the Christmas period and other family do's around that time.
I rang CPW in January saying that I'm sure I want to cancel my contract, how do I go about this. Bare in mind I'd been a CPW customer for about 5 years I think. Chap on the phone tells me to change my sim from contract to pay as you go, to 'save me money' on cancelling my contract. He also gave me the address to send my cancellation notice to, a place in Southampton and he made sure I knew it HAD to be sent via recorded post. I tapped out the letter the same day, knowing that I was going to Southampton in 2 days time, (I'm a regional sales manager) and the place I was going was literally 5 mins from this CPW address in Southampton. On 28th January I went to the address CPW had given me, it was on an industrial estate. I found the CPW office, and an employee of CPW. I explained to him that this was a cancellation letter, and this office was the address I'd been given to send the letter, but as I was in the area, I thought I'd drop it off. He smiled and told me that he'd make sure it went to the right person,
I got back in my car, certain it was all sorted, jotted down my mileage and location (for expenses purposes in my job!) and drove back to Oxford.
Now I knew I'd get a bill for February, as that would been my cancellation period....then March's bill arrived.....now we have trouble :mad:
I wrote an email to CPW complaints 27th March 2010 as follows
Hi, I have received a bill dated 21st March 2010 for £33.50 for mobile number 07834608146. Back at the end of January 2010, I contacted Carphone Warehouse in regards to cancelling my contract. I was advised to switch my contract phone to pay as you go for £10, which I paid for over the phone; then write a letter to cancel my contract. I wrote to Carphone Warehouse on 28th January 2010 requesting to cancel my contract. I have done what was advised and yet I still have an active contract!! Plus, my 18 month contract has now expired, I expressed I DID NOT want to re-new my contract with Carphone Warehouse, so why has this been done without my authority or indeed, knowledge? I will pay the bill dated 24th Feb 2010 as I can accept that as my month's cancellation period, but it will be minus the £10 which I was charged for the pointless advise of swapping my phone to pay and go to "save me money" on cancelling my contract. In regards to my March bill, I will not be paying this. I'm sure you have all correspondence between myself and Carphone Warehouse recorded, and also, as you'll see from my mobile usage, it has been none for at least 2 months. Please can you either ring or email to acknowledge receipt of this complaint, and ensure my contract is cancelled with you. Thank you in advance for your urgent response to this matter Yours sincerely, Louise Creasey
CPW replied with
Dear Ms Creasey
Thank you for your email.
I am sorry to hear of the trouble you have been having with regards to disconnecting your O2 Carphone Warehouse contract.
I can confirm that your account is still active and this is why you are continued to be billed. The account has not be renewed, it is just carrying on, on a month by month basis. It is continuing this way as we have not received from you a disconnection letter. If you have sent this via recorded delivery, please reply to this email to confirm the code and we will be able to back date your disconnection.
Otherwise, if you have no proof, please confirm via reply and we will disconnect you in 30 days time as a gesture of good will.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
S*m C********m
Gesture of goodwill my backside! I responded
Dear S** C********m
Thank you for your reply. Firstly I did not post the cancellation request, I did one better. I am a Sales Manager and whilst visiting a store on Tollbar Way in Southampton on 28th January 2010, I went over to your office, unit 19 on the Herald Industrial Estate in Southampton, and personally gave it to an office employee of Carphone Warehouse. I explained it was a disconnection request letter, and I was told it would be dealt with by the appropriate person/people. So, I know you received the letter on 28th January 2010.
I expect immediate cancellation of my contract, and my last March bill to be extinguished as this is your mistake or misplacement of my letter, not mine.
You have already received and processed my cheque for £23.50 to cover my February bill, which I accept as my cancellation period.
Yours Sincerely, Louise Creasey
CPW replied (note the different person responding)
Dear Ms Creasey,
Thank you for your recent email.
The letter you advised you handed to a Carphone Warehouse employee on the 28th January 2010, can't be located and hasn't been scanned onto our letter database, therefore a gesture of goodwill I will only be able to process a disconnection 30 days from today, as my previous colleague has advised.
If you need more help, please reply to this email or call Customer Support on 0870 0870 168 between 8am and 8pm Monday - Friday, 9am - 8pm Saturday and 10am - 5pm Sunday. One of our Customer Support advisors will be happy to help you.
Kind Regards
S**n M****s
Another fob off email...I'm starting to get annoyed, so I responded
Dear S**n M****s / S*m C********m / The next person to deal with my complaint.
Sorry, but what's been written so far is not acceptable. This is The Carphone Warehouse's mistake or poor filing system of coincidently 'mis-placing' a hand delivered cancellation letter, not mine, therefore I must ask the question, why am I being made to pay for your company's error?
I made it perfectly clear back in November/ December 2009 during several phone conversations that I wanted my contract ended by the time it was up for renewal, and you have received a letter on 28th January 2010 stating just that.
Please stop insisting that you're offering me a gesture of goodwill by giving yet another 30 day cancellation period, a true gesture of goodwill would be to take note that I've been a loyal customer of Carphone Warehouse for quite a few years now and the only reason I cancelled my contract is so I could move over to Carphone Warehouse's sister company 'mobiles.co.uk' and this is how I get treated?
No, my contract was cancelled end of February and my gesture of goodwill was to pay my February invoice. Goodwill certainly doesn't mean paying out for your paperwork !!!! up
Yours Sincerely
Louise Creasey
CWP responded...another different person, and completely missing the point!
Dear Ms Creasey,
Thank you for your email.
If you do not have proof of postage then we are unable to back date any
charges.
If you have taken a letter into store, and they have advised you the
letter will be sent to us, then you will need to take this up with the
store manager.
If you need more help, please reply to this email or call Customer
Support on 0870 0870 168 between 8am and 8pm Monday - Friday, 9am - 8pm
Saturday and 10am - 5pm Sunday. One of our Customer Support advisors
will be happy to help you.
Kind Regads
J****a W******e
Now I am really mad :mad:, my latest response will probably give that away
Dear J****a W******e
Given your reply, you obviously haven't read the last 3 complaint emails I have sent!Here is a copy of the email I replied on 7th April 2010 which will prove my point - store, what store?!

Dear S*m C********m
Thank you for your reply. Firstly I did not post the cancellation request, I did one better. I am a Sales Manager and whilst visiting a store on Tollbar Way in Southampton on 28th January 2010, I went over to your office, unit 19 on the Herald Industrial Estate in Southampton, and personally gave it to an office employee of Carphone Warehouse. I explained it was a disconnection request letter, and I was told it would be dealt with by the appropriate person/people. So, I know you received the letter on 28th January 2010.
I expect immediate cancellation of my contract, and my last March bill to be extinguished as this is your mistake or misplacement of my letter, not mine.
You have already received and processed my cheque for £23.50 to cover my February bill, which I accept as my cancellation period.
Yours Sincerely, Louise Creasey

The address in Southampton which I personally went to and handed my letter to a member of CPW staff, was the address I was told to post the letter to cancel my contract. Is hand delivering not more reliable than Royal Mail? I was in the area, 5 minutes away to be exact so logic denotes 'I'll pop over and drop this in, saves the price of a recorded letter, then I know you HAVE got it' Especially given CPW do not acknowledge cancellation letters unless sent via recorded post. Letters that are sent unrecorded seem to 'disappear' - seems CPW don't want to acknowledge hand delivered one either.....I find that very suspicious.
I can prove I was in Southampton, I can also prove I visited your CPW office in Southampton as I have to keep a mileage and location record for work. So, should I wish to approach Consumer Direct in regards to my issue, who's word are they going to take? A Regional Sales Manager who can prove I visited your offices, or CPW, who already have a very bad reputation upon many blog / chat forums for their unwillingness in regards to cancelling contracts, including pages and pages of repeated complaints?
This is starting to get beyond a joke as far as Customer Service go, could just one person pick up the reins and deal with my complaint rather than this now being the 3rd different person who has written to me, repeating the same old thing and NOT reading back through previous emails.
If no one is willing to take responsibility, then please feel free to pass on my emails to your supervisor.
Please could you also provide me with the contact address of your Customer Services Manager.
Yours sincerely
Louise Creasey

I know I can push this, I have evidence I was there at their office in Southampton (remember the bit I said I wrote down mileage and location), and they will have records of any phone calls between them and I....I'm just so angry!! I pride myself on good customer service in my job, and when you get a bunch of gits like CWP, I go mad - then I lose the ability to write a civilised email

I last email written above was sent today, I reckon I'll get a reply in a day or two, but in the meantime, absolutely any advise would be appreciated - even how to word my next email, or letter, or who to make an official kick-a**e complaint to (consumer direct?)

You're a great bunch on here guys, and thanks again for reading x :A

BillTrac

You may want to edit your post taking names and mobile numbers out

just seen the c**p title I put...oh the shame.

I meant CPW ripping you off, of course

mobilejunkie

This is typical cpw. Unfortunately they have the upper hand. I never send recorded delivery BUT I always send 60 (not 30) days before the contract is up - and always get written confirmation that they will cancel as advised. The 60 rather than 30 allows plenty of time for the back-up plan of recorded delivery. The mistake most people make with cpw disconnections is that they actually listen to the pack of lies about needing disconnection codes, not being able to cancel until 30 days before (rather than the 60 you are perfectly entitled to adopt) and not being able to be given the cancellation address until 30 days before etc. ect. The mistake in this case is compounded by assuming that handing a letter to any cpw employee (no name, job title or more fundamentally a signature and date) would provide the necessary proof. When dealing with an organisation whose very core is dishonesty there is no room for allowing any benefit of the doubt. All this has happened many times before, but given where it is now sending endless emails is unlikely to get you very far and legal action would be based on shaky ground. Unless you can get through to someone with a bit more sense and genuine customer orientation in an organisation which is generally lacking in that you may have to bite the bullet - every day you fail to give 30 days notice from that point means they will take more money off you. Stopping payments would put you in an even worse situation with more fundamental adverse consequences. I'm afraid the name of the game is ensuring you avoid getting into this situation in the first place. As for Mobiles.co.uk - talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire...!

eranou

In my opinion I think you should leave out the bits about you being a sales manager so customer direct will take your word for this reason.
your job title has no relevance to the complaint.

Unfortunately where you have written your location does not actually prove you were in the CPW building perhaps you could post more details like was this person behind a desk in reception or did someone come to meet you there?

just out of interest what is the postcode for the place you visited?

Keith

He also gave me the address to send my cancellation notice to, a place in Southampton and he made sure I knew it HAD to be sent via recorded post.

So, you delivered it by hand and now it's CPW fault?

Fire_Fox

The whole purpose of special/ recorded delivery is to be able to prove an item has arrived; hand delivering may seem more reliable to you but it leaves you in the exact same position as if you had sent the cancellation by ordinary post. You didn't "do one better" at all and you can't claim to be a loyal customer when you have just jumped ship!

I am not sure why you are persevering with the casual e-mail route, when a formal recorded delivery letter to the Complaints Department (not Customer Service) will have far more impact and give you the chance to edit before you send. TBH your repeated references to being a regional sales manager come over as arrogant when you want to come across as hard working and genuine. Only once you have exhausted the internal complaints procedure you are in a position to approach the ombudsman.

d123

louisewhite wrote: »

I know I can push this, I have evidence I was there at their office in Southampton (remember the bit I said I wrote down mileage and location), and they will have records of any phone calls between them and I

Unfortunately as has been said already, no, you cant push it anywhere, legally you don't have a leg to stand on.

If you tried to go to Court and told the Magistrate that you decided to save around £1.50p and hand deliver the letter (instead of the legally recognised Recorded Delivery) they will not take too long to decide against you.

Any chance you could explain what having your mileage and location written down actually prove?

Unfortunately its an expensive lesson, but next time someone tells you that to comply with their procedures (and to legally cover yourself) you need to send the letter Recorded, rather just do it.

gjchester

Semi related but CPW don't handle their day to day post, Anything sent to the address on the back of bills (as you should have done) goes to a 3rd party compnay who scan it for them and it (i assume) then goes into the letters database. That way anyone in the business has access to it not just the people where the paperwork is.

Many companies use this system for bills, and it looks like by delivering it direct you didn't get entered in the to system.

Yes it's wrong it has to be done that way , and CPW should have something in place to put manually delivered letters into it without them getting lost but can you imaging how bad it would be if they worked off paper copies of everything.