Carphone Warehouse-Ripped off for paying by cash!!!

themoogster_2

Went to buy a phone today for my nephew, decided to pop into my local Carphone Warehouse. After discussing with the sales assistant the best phone and how much it will cost for different PAYG, etc. I was very impressed by the knowledge. However everything fell apart at the cashier desk, I was told then that if I paid by cash it will be an additional £10 charge. No charge for card transactions. What the hell thats all about, I remember it use to be the opposite way round. I declined and went to Tesco, and got identical phone and paid cash.

Is the lastest thing to stop us using cards??:mad:

MisterBrico

Only cpw do it, at a guess it's to try and reduce the number of "box breakers" people who buy payg phones then sell them on contracts in their own stores for bigger profits.

When I had to do it though a couple of years back I only had to top up an extra £10 not pay extra on the actual hand set

Mrs_Ryan

I challenged someone about this in CPW in Birmingham when they first brought this daft policy in - it was before the days when a lot of basic accounts came with debit cards. (Working in finance as I did at the time I had a fairly decent knowledge) I said it was discriminating against those who were most likely to have a PAYG phone and these people may be least likely to have a debit card.
The stupid answer I was given was - 'Oh but everyone has a bank account and a debit card!' Er - no, says I. I declined to pay an extra £20 for a handset that was cheap to start with and walked round the corner to the T-Mobile shop where I bought the handset minus the extra £20..!

MissKeith

It's not an extra £10, you just have to purchase £20 credit rather than £10 worth. The genuine customer would use this credit eventually. Plus you shouldn't have to buy credit at all if you are an existing O2, Orange, T-mobile, Vodafone or Virgin PAYG customer. If not, you could always buy the phone sim free, which is a lot more expensive than topping up the extra tenner.

JJ_Egan

I never had to pay CPW as i had existing PAYG with Virgin sales lady just swapped sims .

Advertised as xxx + £10 PAYG no mention of credit payment v cash.

Likewise current phone was from )2 £320 + £10 sim PAYG and actually the same cost paid by credit card .

jje

themoogster_2

MissKeith

I am afraid to say this was an additional charge. The phone cost £59.99 plus £10.00 topup if bought with Virgin, Vodafone or O2 sim card. I would have had to pay £79.99 because I was going to pay by cash. The annoying thing is they do not tell you this until you are about to pay for the item, then they tell you of the extra charge.:mad:

MissKeith

themoogster wrote: »

MissKeith

I am afraid to say this was an additional charge. The phone cost £59.99 plus £10.00 topup if bought with Virgin, Vodafone or O2 sim card. I would have had to pay £79.99 because I was going to pay by cash. The annoying thing is they do not tell you this until you are about to pay for the item, then they tell you of the extra charge.:mad:

No it's not, you have to purchase an extra £10 worth of credit. I used to work for them so I'm sure of this. More likely, the phone was £59.99 and you would have to add £10 credit when paying by card, £20 by cash. It was always incredibly difficult to explain this to customers in a way that was easily understood and not making them feel like they were being penalized.

If you're an existing customer of any of those networks, you should take your sim card in and ask for a PAYG upgrade because you shouldn't have top top up at all. If not, then you have to understand that it's a subsidized phone and even by topping up £20 it's cheaper than buying sim free.

jenniewb

MissKeith wrote: »

No it's not, you have to purchase an extra £10 worth of credit. I used to work for them so I'm sure of this. More likely, the phone was £59.99 and you would have to add £10 credit when paying by card, £20 by cash. It was always incredibly difficult to explain this to customers in a way that was easily understood and not making them feel like they were being penalized.

If you're an existing customer of any of those networks, you should take your sim card in and ask for a PAYG upgrade because you shouldn't have top top up at all. If not, then you have to understand that it's a subsidized phone and even by topping up £20 it's cheaper than buying sim free.

AFAIK it is an additional charge, not for a voucher, not for credit, just an additional £10. I refused also and went elsewhere, this was a few years ago and stupidly fell into the hands of 3-mobile! (long story!!)

I thought it was to do with mobile being bought for cheap and used as terrorism, no idea how or exactly why mobiles would be required -nor do I want to know but its CPW's way of making it more expensive, they apparently lose alot of money from people who buy PAYG handsets and then never use them with the sim provided. There was another thread on it somewhere as it was on a TV documentary at one point - can't remember where I saw it though!

gjchester

It's no different to many places that charge more for non direct debit payments.

If you don't like their policy vote with your feet and don't buy from CPW. It's not a "Rip off" it's a how they choose to do business, and as been said go elsewhere.

Techhead_2

jenniewb wrote: »

AFAIK it is an additional charge, not for a voucher, not for credit, just an additional £10. I refused also and went elsewhere, this was a few years ago and stupidly fell into the hands of 3-mobile! (long story!!)

I thought it was to do with mobile being bought for cheap and used as terrorism, no idea how or exactly why mobiles would be required -nor do I want to know but its CPW's way of making it more expensive, they apparently lose alot of money from people who buy PAYG handsets and then never use them with the sim provided. There was another thread on it somewhere as it was on a TV documentary at one point - can't remember where I saw it though!

No, it's not an extra charge. You get £20 of credit. I don't know why you think it's an extra charge even their adverts say 'subject to a £10 top up or £20 if paying by cash'.

And of course, upgrading customers don't need to buy a top up and may even get a discount.

MissKeith

jenniewb wrote: »

AFAIK it is an additional charge, not for a voucher, not for credit, just an additional £10. I refused also and went elsewhere, this was a few years ago and stupidly fell into the hands of 3-mobile!

You're wrong I'm afraid, it's extra credit and not an extra charge and always had been since the rule was introduced. Sometimes the phone can be a bit more expensive on different networks and that causes even more confusion.

I used to HATE explaining it to customers but the way I saw it is a genuine customer would use the credit eventually. It's just a way of deterring box breakers, (people who buy phones in bulk by giving false names and addresses), when you pay by card under a different surname, the transaction comes up on the system so you can tell if anyone has made multiple purchases. You can't do that when paying by cash, hence the mandatory purchase of the extra credit. If they don't try to deter box breakers, the networks lose out on the major chunk of money that's been subsidized and the price of the phone will eventually rise.