Carphone Warehouse & T-mobile NIGHTMARE

optik

Last month I decided to ditch my pay as you go mobile for a contract and new phone after nearly 4-5 years of getting by on a simple pay as you go.

I don't make many calls but needed to make a few more per month because of spending more time away from my landline, I thought a contract would save me money, how wrong I was!

I only required a basic phone but the Carphone Warehouse sales person showed me a Nokia C-300 which is very much like a blackberry with some more smartphone features like apps and integrated Facebook.

Having been assured this would not cost me any extra money I went with this option as I am a frequent e-mailer although not yet on the move.

Despite asking very directly and repeatedly for the cheapest possible contract for my needs, he fails to tell me that I was going to be facing data charges for merely switching my fancy new phone on!

So when my first bill arrives instead of been around £30 as expected it comes in at £90. From discussions with T-mobile I discover that they in fact offer a free booster on my account which allows unlimited internet, yet he added local calls booster which I didn't even need as I already received 300mins of free calls, and this is more than I will be making at the moment by a long way.

I have called and written to Carphone Warehouse who simply state that because I didn't ask a specific question about these charges they didn't need to be mentioned at all!

This completely overlooks the fact he mucked up in his advice and in any case why should I expect there to be data charges with these phones, they are constantly on the internet and nobody I know with an iPhone pays for data.
And I did ask whether there were data limits, surely a good time to mention charges no?

I now face the prospect of court action, unless anyone has any better ideas?

Because of this mistake I am now over my T-mobile credit limit and have to pay them £20 to be able to make calls again!

OneADay

Assuming your contract has come with the standard one single free (as can be) flexible t-mobile booster, you can swap the local call booster to the internet booster as described here

http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/help-and-support/index?page=home&cat=BOOSTERS

To swap, text FLXB2 to 879

The change takes place normally on the next billing date, to check you can log into your online account to find out what booster you have etc.

As for iphones - normally on contract, they come with data plans - its not a freebie.

As for your dealing with cpw, the t-mobile boosters are flexible and you could have made yourself aware of what you were getting. Most modern phones can use data in the background, and only way around that is to switch of the data connectivity in the phone setting.

Putting in a complaint to t-mobile online might get them to let you off the hook partly by reducing the charges - if you explain that you were not aware of the phone using data. But in future you need to have that internet booster.

optik

Surely the salesman should have put me on to the right booster to start with or at the very least explained about that as an option.

I don't understand this notion of asking questions about something I have no knowledge of, how is that possible. There could be hundreds of charges, aren't the experts meant to be advising me, that's why I went there.

You don't have to ask a doctor about medication side affects, they tell you.

grumbler

Don't know about Nokia, but my HTC quick start guide (23 very small pages) says on the very first page: "Chose a rate plan wisely. Your phone can use a lot of Internet bandwidth very quickly...".

If you don't need mobile internet you can easily switch it off.

I understand your frustration, but now it's your word against their word and it's difficult to predict the court's decision.

I think £60 is a very small price to pay for a very valuable lesson: never ever rely on salesmen and trust to what they say. Get everything in writing and check this.

optik

I actually don't think it's a situation of who said what, he sold me a smartphone knowing.

a) I would use it for the internet, it's a blackberry style smartphone with keyboard!
b) I was concerned about my monthly bill (this can be seen from the contract type I chose being the lowest of all)
d) I was suited to an internet booster

Why then knowing all of this did he not do his job and apply the internet booster instead of a worthless local calls booster.

There really would have to be a very good reason why the internet booster was not applied for this type of phone, and I don't think saying I didn't specifically bring up data charges is that reason!

He is clearly at fault here even if you disregard the fact I brought up the issue of data limits, and mentioned 4-5 times my general goal of a low monthly bill.

His choice of booster needs to be justified not my lack of questioning about things I din't know needed to be questioned.

grumbler

I am not buying your (a) because keyboard is routinely used for texting.
(d) - you was suited for any booster depending on your demands. You din't need an Internet booster if you were not going to use mobile internet.
(c) - landline calls booster can save you money if you make many or long landline calls.

You can blame the salesman for failing to advise you switching the internet off. Is it sufficient for claiming some money?

Just playing devil's advocate.

MissKeith

Hang on, the Nokia C3-00 isn't like a smart phone in the sense it's continually connected to the internet by default. Have you set up Facebook or email on there? Can you honestly say you've never used the internet on the phone? Also, there is no such thing as a local call booster. There us either a unlimited T-mobile call booster or landline call booster. Did you not read the contract before you signed it?

optik

Seriously this phone is a Blackberry/Iphone hybrid it's an internet phone in so many ways.

Your email account and Facebook status is shown on the home page and it automatically checks these by default every 30 seconds.

Would a Blackberry charge for checking e-mails?

He knew full well I intended it for internet use and my last bill clearly shows (with 20 mins of phone calls) a local booster is no use to me.

When these services are so intrinsic to the phones operation I think I rightfully assumed I would face no extra charges.

You don't get charged by Sky for recording programs using Sky+ and if they snuck that in people would be rightfully upset.

optik

MissKeith wrote: »

Hang on, the Nokia C3-00 isn't like a smart phone in the sense it's continually connected to the internet by default. Have you set up Facebook or email on there? Can you honestly say you've never used the internet on the phone? Also, there is no such thing as a local call booster. There us either a unlimited T-mobile call booster or landline call booster. Did you not read the contract before you signed it?

Yes it continually checks e-mails and Facebook status, of course you have to enter you information as you do with any other smartphones.

And yes I meant the landline booster.

You lot are worse than Carphone Warehouse customers support!

Don't know why I bothered!!

MissKeith

So let me get this straight, you signed for a contract with no data, set up data services which AREN'T SET UP BY DEFAULT like iPhones/Blackberrys and now are complaining about charges. Did you specify to the salesman you wanted to use the internet or assume that he knew this by the nature of the style of phone? This phone is not a smart phone even though it los like one. I sold hundreds over Christmas and I know for a fact they do not charge for data automatically, you have to set those functions up.

Again, there is no such thing as a local call boost. Did you read the contract?

grumbler

We are not worse. We are just realistic, unlike you.
You can waste your time and money on court actions if you wish, but IMO you are unlikely to win.