Buying phones contracts from third party companies

Elim

Hi all

just wondering if theres any kind of catch when ordering from sites like afforfable mobiles etc. on my old contract i could get an free phone upgrade near 18months on my 24 month contract, would these sites offer this as well?

katie_lou2017

I would say don't do it! Having gone with phones 4 u, a well known 3rd party i have been ripped off several times! Even though I though the big company name would mean a company you can trust.

The first problem that i had was a faulty battery in my BB handset - the shop tried to say it wasn't their problem even though the problem occurred within 30days of me having the handset - needless to say i refused to leave the shop until I had a new battery in hand.

Shortly after, I realised the cash back and contract buy-out promise that they had sold me was a complete fraud... the paperwork that i had signed explicitly said that the £50 for my handset would be received up to 28 days later in the post after the handset condition was checked... when this did not happen i went back to the store, only to be told that such an offer did not exist, and never had existed! Having gone home and returned back to the shop a week later, with the paperwork in hand, it took me near on an hour of sitting arguing with the manager and head office over my rights in relation to the paperwork and contract that i was miss-sold into. I eventually was issued with a cheque by head office for £50 - accompanied by the store manager trying to guilt trip me about the fact that that cash will come out of the salesman's wage packet.


That was a year ago... as my situation has changed i could do with lowering my tariff to a cheaper one as i do not use all my minutes and had been assured in the phone shop that i could do so after 6 mths if the current tariff did not suit my needs. THIS WAS NOT THE CASE. Vodafone have just informed me that all contracts for my phone through phones 4 u are locked into that bundle tariff for the duration of the contract - in my case 24 months!! I have not ventured back into that shop again yet... in my rage i am contemplating going down this afternoon and "sitting in" until they admit that they have miss-sold me this contract on several counts.

I would never EVER go through a 3rd party again as at least if things go wrong you have the luxury of complaining direct to the company and getting it sorted without to'ing and fro'ing from the network to the 3rd party for days on end.:mad:

mobilejunkie

Actually the thing which matters is written confirmation of whatever you sign up to - be it in a shop (and Phones4u shops, like Vodafone and other companies who call up with "upgrade" offers) are notorious. However, if you have it in writing you have them by the short and curlies; then you don't have to waste time playing games - just send a LBA and then sue. However, if the dealer goes bust so does anything they owe you - and fail to cover yourself in the way I have described and you are wide open to being taken advantage of - whatever the source/method of the offer. Vodafone seem to do this routinely judging by the number of irate customers regularly ending up on here; they are a netwrok, not a third party dealer. The rules still apply.