Carphone Warehouse 02 Mobile Broadband - Mis Sold?

kirstiem

Hi there,

I'm just looking for some advice on a mobile broadband i took out with carphone warehouse in april time. It was an offer i seen in the shop for mobile broadband with 02 for free for the first 3 months then £15 after that for 18 months. When i signed up they told me i would not recieve a bill for the first 3 months but when i got home about a week later i recieved a bill from 02 asking for £15! so i wrote a letter the next day asking to cancel it as it was not set up right and i did not want to be liable for the first 3 months. I did not recieve any reply but they cut my broadband off the next few days. I then phoned 02 up and they said it was nothing to do with them as my contract was with carphone ware house. I then went into the carphone ware house store and they told me that the advertising was wrong and that it was not actually 3 months for free and they have now removed that offer but because i signed up thinking it was free they would send me out a cheque for the first 3 months (£45). The also said that once the £45 was paid they would sort out 3 months paid for me as i had not actually had 3 months for free.

Anyway the cheque took 4 weeks to come out and i put it into my bank last monday. The bank told me it takes 4-5 days to clear and when it cleared i was planning on phoning 02 and clearning the £45 owed.

However, the next day, (Tues) i recieved a letter from Buchanan Clark + Wells, a debt collection agency and the said they had been passed my account from 02 for non payment and were demanding £276.58. I then phoned them up to try and explain but they person i spoke to was so horrible, would not listen and just said the contract is in my name so i am paying it wether i like it or not! i got very upset then and just hung up..

Now i dont know what to do.. where do i stand with this? Im so confused.. i then phoned the carephone warehouse and they said to phone 02 and tell them im gonna pay the £45 i owe then the £15 each month after that.. they said that my account was no longer with them and that i would not be able to pay them.. only the debt collection agency.. so i cannot get the mobile broadband back on.

What do i do?

Thanks to any1 with advice!!:money:

olly300

The only thing I suggest you do is telephone OFCOM's advice centre - 0300 123 3333 or 020 7981 3040 during office hours in the week. (Try after 2pm if you don't want to spend time listening to an engaged tone.)

Personally I see no way of you getting out of paying the debt collectors fees due to your own actions.

The main problems you have is:
1. If you couldn't afford the broadband in total without any discounts then you shouldn't have signed up for it at all regardless of whether there was a mistake with the 1st 3 months of payment
2. Cancelling your direct debit before writing to O2 - you should only cancel afterwards giving them notice that you are going to cancel if the issue is resolved within a certain time frame. Bill letters have a date on them when the money is going to be taken out of your account. So you can cancel at least 2 working days before them.
3. Not reinstating your direct debit once you had talked the Carphone Warehouse instead of waiting for the cheque.

kirstiem

Em i think you will find that i signed a contract telling me that the first 3 months were for free.. therefore why am i in the wrong for not paying the first 3 months?

Also, there is a 14 day cooling off period to cancel, i wrote to 02 in this time and then they said it has nothing to do with them.. i never cancelled any ddeb?

unholyangel

Was it part of a mobile phone package or seperate?

You'll probably find that what you agreed was a contract with O2 for mobile broadband and either carphone warehouse were offering the discount themselves OR O2 were offering a discount but CW got the details wrong.

Carphone warehouse used to be bad for that. Offering x months free and then not paying up or paying up late.

kirstiem

Thanks for that unholyangel. No it wasnt part of phone package. I just went into the shop and got it seperate. I dont know where i stand with this as i have taken out a contract but not been able to use the broadband as it has been cut off and now stuck with £300 worth of debt owing to a debt collection agency.

I dont know what to do? How can i be in the wrong? Surely cw should pay this debt but i dont know maybe there is a way that this will just be left with me

Chimpofdoom

Ok, I'm going to make an assumption that you registered a card with Carphone warehouse when you took out this contract.

When the payment was requested you cancelled the direct debit at the bank?

Or

Did you write to o2 wishing to cancel the account?

If you cancelled the direct debit o2 are obviously owed the cash, because you cancelled it. If you had concerns, you should of let the payment go through and then dealt with it.

If you wrote to o2, well that's a problem. Although you are using o2's network and the cash eventually goes to o2. The people who actually handle your account are Carphone warhouse on o2's behalf, that's who you should of spoke to.

If you were to ask me what I think happened

The carphone warehouse's offer, is still online and hasn't been removed, and o2 don't offer this. So it looks like CPW did the right thing by paying you the £45, you've jumped the gun by cancelling the direct debit and hence you've put yourself in this mess, so the onus is on you now to pay the debt.

FannyHill

The thing is paying the money and then trying to get the money back can be difficult.

If you are not being allowed to use a service the first thing you think of doing is cancelling the DD.

Whether that is right or wrong that is what I tend to do and I find if they haven't got the money from you some but not all are more willing to try and sort things out.

Once they have the money they aren't interested in giving back.

Companies nowadays are far too quick at passing accounts to debt collection agencies instead of waiting to get the thing sorted out between the customer 02 Carphone Warehouse etc.

I think some are being a little too hard on the OP.

Other people mess up and the customer is penalised......how can that be right ?


I have a friend who cancelled a mobile contract with Vodafone after a year when there was a dispute over the bill.
He had had a couple of contracts before that, that ran for their two year period so really they had five years business from him and his wife also had the same contracts as well.
He cancelled the DD and wrote to them asking how much to end the contract and he would pay the balance due and they passed the account to a debt collection agency.

adam.mt

I suggest you try and establish if the broadband was indeed cut off and on what date. The fact that they've continued to charge you suggests it wasn't actually (or not done properly) - perhaps there was just a service issue when you tried, which has since been fixed and thus your broadband has remained live?

Do you have a breakdown of the charges the debit collection company are trying to make?

You claim to have cancelled (or tried to cancel) within a few days of purchase, thus I'm unsure why Carphone Warehouse even sent you a cheque for £45. Surely, it should be within the cooling off period and thus no charge? Do Carphone Warehouse offer a cooling off period? I think O2 do if you purchase direct from them.

It just seems like something(s) are missing from the story in order for the charge to total up as it has and seemingly you being completely unaware of it. If that indeed is the case then someone (CPW or O2) has at the very least failed to send the bills and reminders out. These may be in electronic form, have you checked the email address they have on record for you?