Carphone Warehouse charges after contract expiry

adrievdl

The Carphone Warehouse is currently chasing me through their DCA, Buchanan Clark & Wells (BCW), for £94.

My contract expired on 12 June 2010, but I was unable to use my Nokia handset since January this year. Carphone Warehouse shop wrongly advised me that I could not upgrade to an iPhone until my existing contract had expired, so I got one directly from Vodafone. I decided that it was cheaper to pay my monthly fee to Carphone Warehouse for 6 months, rather than to pay a cancellation fee. The old handset went into a drawer and was not used for the rest of the contract period.

I checked in both the shop and by telephone with Carphone Warehouse every single month between January and June that they did NOT require me to take any action to prevent automatic renewal of my contract. Every single time Carphone Warehouse told me that unless I wanted to keep my old mobile phone number, I did NOT need to take any action. My contract would simply expire in June.

After it expired, they continued to hit me with monthly fees because - although my contract with THEM expired in June - their small-print states that you do need to give one month written notice to the provider, in my case O2 (Carphone Warehouse O2). I have now given Carphone Warehouse O2 written notice, but dispute their claim for 2 months' fees after contract expiry on the basis that their advice to me was wrong. Their response is that small-print is legally binding but a chat with a random customer service rep is not.

As soon as I received a formal demand from BCW I phoned them and explained in detail to a very helpful lady why I disputed the claim. Today I received a text message from them urging me to phone them, which I did. They told me that because I had not substantiated my claim with full details of dates, times, names of employees for my previous contacts with Carphone Warehouse, they could not accept my complaint and would take further action.

It is obvious that I fully intended to cut all ties with Carphone Warehouse and did not want to keep my old phone number. I made every effort to seek advice on what Carphone Warehouse required me to do, but was not told of the need to give written notice to O2 separately. Had I been told, I would obviously have done so.

I could now just pay off Carphone Warehouse directly (I would never pay a DCA), but I feel that this is a nice little scam that earns Carphone Warehouse money from former customers even after they have formally broken all ties with their company. Apart from it being unethical and morally wrong, can Carphone Warehouse really claim that their advice was correct (because my contract with THEM did simply expire) but that I should have known that my contract with O2 was an entirely separate matter?

Snakeeyes21

your contract doesnt just expire, your contract is for a minimum term, after that you fall in to a month by month rolling contract, that requires 30 days notice to quit. This is clearly stated in your contract, which of course you didnt bother to read, because you were in a rush to get your hands on your new phone.

Stamp and scream all you like, pay up and cancel your contract the correct way in future...........

macman

Do you know of any other utility contract where they just cut you off after 12m contract? Gas, electricity, landline, broadband?
Mobile phone contracts are no different, they roll on until you give 30 days notice.

mobilejunkie

Since you have debt collectors after you your credit status is wrecked for six years after you finally realise you have to pay. I have a degree of sympathy - a fixed term contract should BE for a fixed term; however, that's the way it is and there's absolutely nothing you can now do except PAY - and pay the debt collector not cpw. The longer you wait, the more the debt will grow and the worse the outcome will be. If you're lucky you may avoid wrecking your credit status - but it may already be too late.

robbies_gal

i dont know why cpw told you your contract will end

actually i do the contract will end but then u go ona m monthly rolling one all companies and networks do it you just misunderstood wot they meant