'illegal' to buy 3 or more phones

RupertRoker

@Snowtiger

Thanks. That's an interesting point and were it not for the way that CPW's staff presented their argument in store I would think that would be their get out. However some of the staff in store were insistent that it was against the law and not just against company policy to buy more than two phones. (Perhaps I could have expressed this more clearly in my original post but I felt for the sake of brevity simply saying they said it was 'illegal' with the implication that this means against the law would suffice).

sparky93

reading about all these 'limits', make you wonder what business they are in, are they not in sales, and isnt the objective here, to sell?

chanz4

.5. We may, at our own discretion, limit, restrict or reject any order you place at any time prior to the contract having been completed. Where this happens, we will attempt to contact you. We also reserve the right to limit or prohibit sales to dealers or to entities that we believe, in our sole discretion, are making use of the Goods or Services for profit.

SnowTiger

sparky93 wrote: »

reading about all these 'limits', make you wonder what business they are in, are they not in sales, and isnt the objective here, to sell?

Well, yes. However, (almost) all PAYG mobiles are subsidised by the networks. I doubt, for example, that there's any profit in selling this phone for £2.95.

As far as I know, CPW only receive the subsidy from the network if the phone is activated, which is one of the reasons they insist PAYG mobiles are sold with a top-up.

And, from what I've read elsewhere, phone sellers who flog a lot of mobiles that aren't active (being used and topped up) are penalised.

Buzby

It is all because of the phone subsity. If you buy SIM Free, you can buy as many as you like without restriction as the price is the full retail value. Many PAYG phones are subsidised, and they are also locked ot the network, as the future business is factored in to the subsidy.

CW will sell you SIM free without any quantity problems. You just have to buy the right product, and ask for it by name.

RupertRoker

sparky93 wrote: »

reading about all these 'limits', make you wonder what business they are in, are they not in sales, and isnt the objective here, to sell?

My thoughts exactly. The phones I wanted to buy would all have been quite heavily used. I felt it was very odd that my money wasn't good enough for CFW

RupertRoker

SnowTiger wrote: »

Well, yes. However, (almost) all PAYG mobiles are subsidised by the networks. I doubt, for example, that there's any profit in selling this phone [link removed] for £2.95.

I think you're right, but I don't think the subsidy on those phones is particularly large (they are very, very cheap phones to make these days and I believe made in very large quantities).

It's just unfortunate that rather than admitting why they don't want to sell several phones that CPW are hiding behind the excuse of it being 'illegal'.

(and sorry for removing the url from the quote, it's decided that as a new forum user I can't even quote links)

Quentin

They don't have to trade with you, nor give you any reason at all! But you tell us you have a law degree so should already know that!

kaya

More likely because the police know that criminals and drug dealers use payg phones for business , contract phones are easy to listen too, tap and track, cheap payg phones are expendable and can be thrown away every few days making tapping criminal activity almost impossible(known in the trade as "basher phones"), it's not illegal, neither is selling paracetamol but there is an agreement not to sell more than two packs at a time to anyone in case they swallow the lot and kill themselves, I would guess the same applies to phones

mazza111

Yes, they told me it was store policy because they were selling them cheaper than other places, it stops other dealers coming in and buying their stock. They told me the limit was 2 per year. But still showed up the phone I had bought 2 years earlier. Weird eh?