New Dirty Tricks from CW/O2?

evator

I cannot believe I am actually writing this but here's what happened and I would appreciate any advice you can give me:

I have recently decided to upgrade my CW/O2 contract and called the appropriate department to discuss possible options. The person I spoke to could not offer me the deal I was interested in so I asked him to put me through to the cancellation department so I could ask for my MAC code. When I was connected to the department I had further discussion about possible options. This is what was agreed in order for me to stay a loyal customer: 12 month contract, 400 free minutes a month, 100 text messages, £190 cashback and new Sony Ericsson 400i mobile phone all for £30 a month. I repeatedly emphasized that I was not willing to pay more than £30 a month as there were better offers with other networks. I repeated the deal a couple of times and made the representative repeat the tariff a couple of times as he informed me that there was no cooling period.

I was very surprised to receive a text message a few days later that said I was going to pay £35 a month. I called the Loyalty Department to point out there was a mistake and they reassured me that the phone call would be listened to and the manager Mr JT would call me back. When I had no communication from the company I wrote to them to ask about the outcome.

Two days later I received a phone call from Mr IH only to ask me whether I was happy with my upgrade. I was surprised about the question and told him that I was not and explained to him what happened. He then informed me that the conversation has been heard and that I apparently agreed to pay £35 a month. That is of course a complete non-sense so I wrote another letter to the customer service director to complain about the treatment I received.

I should mention that the original conversation was heard by my sister who had previously had exactly the same experience. She was assured that she would pay £30 a month and later it was amended to £35.

Today, 1 February 2007 I received a phone call from Mr JB as a reaction to my letter who again informed me that I had agreed to pay £35 a month. I totally refused to admit that and was amazed that despite I have a witness to the conversation they still have a nerve to imply that I am a liar. He suggested that I order a transcript of the conversation which I radically refused. I was not willing to pay £10 for the transcript that was probably tampered with and amended to the company’s advantage. He then said that there was nothing he could do and the matter was solved for him.

I am absolutely disgusted and outraged about the Carphone Warehouse dirty tactics. I believe that the tariff was changed deliberately. It seems this tactics is widely used to lock clients into contracts they cannot pull out of. I also believe that it is unfair not to have a cooling period of 7 days because if they come up with a lie like they did in my case what am I supposed to do after 7 days? This means that companies get away with unfair tactics and lock customers in contracts they did not agreed to.

CAN ANYONE ADVICE ON FURTHER ACTION, PLEASE?

Old_Gold

Report to trading standards (always to the nearest to the company as individual offices dont know how big the problem is) and see what they say.

FTD

Tell me about it - almost exactly the same trick as they pulled on me, increased my tarriff by £5 a month!

I'm only 6 months into my contract and rang to see about getting more texts. i'm on 1000 eve&weekend mins for £20 a month. after a long conversation, I was advised to go onto 125 xnet anytime mins FOR THE SAME PRICE AS I'M ON NOW! and think about whether I want text bolt ons or not.

the adviser assumed i was paying the current rate of £25 a month for eve&weekend not the £20 i was paying - it was only when I got home that night and checked my bill I realised she put me up £5, I called back the next day to highlight i had been wrongly advised - I'm still trying to get them to sort it over a week later.

I've told them i'll be very annoyed if my next bill shows £25 and not £20 for line rental and i'll file a court claim for the fiver!!!

FTD

4$£&*(£$&*(!

I emailed the chief exec of CPW recently and got my problem solved, along with a goodwill gesture. I won't put on the full email address here as sites where this has happened have been googled and CPW has threatened these sites so I'm told, but to email them it's the person's surname without the last two letters, then the initial, then @cpwplc.com. So for instance Joe Bloggs would become BlogJ@cpwplc.com.

Now you just need to work out how to equate that to Charles Dunstone, send him an email and off you go. I wouldn't post his email address in full here, just decypher my cryptic clues, otherwise the company regularly searches for full email addresses and requests they're moved, I don't want this to happen on this site.

Good luck with this too.

K9COOP

..........................

john-306

Same thing going on with me, loyalty rang up and sorted a deal for a SE 850i 250 mins 100 txt £30pm with 2x automatic £75 cashback, i said it was too dear and will look elsewhere, he said let me talk to my manager and I'll see if I can get you another £90, he goes off and returns few mins later saying its ok you can have the £90 as well making it an offer equivilant to £10pm,went through the deal 3 times comfirming everything, ok i say but you must email me details, ok he says you will get them in a few mins.
Next day no email so rings up and low and behold no mention on my details of the £90 ever having being offered, I'll email the person involved to email you the details they say, as we cant contact that department only by email.
Another day goes by so ring again to be told they will pass it onto manager and I will get a call in 48 hours, no call obviously so ring again, nothing on your record sir to say this has been passed on to any magager but i will do so now and also email the person involved to contact you immediately, you will be contacted within 48 hours.
I have the persons name who initially offered me the contract and his manager who is looking into the recording, but cannot contact them be phone as they can only be contacted by email...Yeah right!!!

So now I have a contract that I was told would cost me £10pm and at the monent is costing £17.50, no way to contact the person involved and looks like they dont want to contact me.
Customer services tell me one thing and obviously do something else.

Looks like me going down the legal route if nothing is done soon.
I hate being ripped off.

As for a transcript, well I'd much prefer a taped copy of the recording, not easy for them to alter things that way.

quidsinquentin

Regrettably there is absolutely nothing you can do - unless you have a herd of lawyers at your disposal. I have recently looked into the situation with this type of thing, and the law - what little there is - is so riddled with loopholes that neither Trading Standards nor OFCOM will do anything about it. Nor will the gov't.

I'm afraid you will have to stand the £5 until real laws governing telecoms market are introduced.

I assure you the gov't is aware of this - trading standards tell me there are approx 250,000 complaints about this sort of issue - but will do nothing as it's so complex.

You might try writing to your MP.

john-306

Of course there is something you can do......
Whether is does any good is another thing!
If they do as they say and record evert conversation then the truth will come out.....unless!

Clive_Woody

I am no expert on contract law, but I thought you were entitled to a cooling off period when signing most contracts. It may be worth a quick call to the Citizens Advice bureau to see if they can advise.

As this is a finance agreement is there no body that oversees this sort of transaction that you could make a complaint too (Financial Ombudsman type of thing - have a look on the CW website and see if they have a formal complaints proceedure and an independent body that deals with complaints that can't be resolved in house).

As somebody suggest requesting a copy of the tape might be a better way forward rather than seeing a transcript. Either that or ask them to play it back while you and they listen to it.

esuhl

Under the Data Protection Act, I *think* you have a right not just to a transcript of the recording, but an audio copy (for a nominal fee to cover administration charges).

Hopefully this will prove what was said.

g33za

this is where I would suggest in future you state "I'm recorded this conversation for legal purposes, can you confirm your name, position, the company you work for and the date and time".... at which point they will probably hang up..