Help. CellularZone Have Disappeared.

akr1

Hi everyone.

Has anyone got any information on a company called CellularZone? A brief resume of my situation is this:

Bought the phone (Nokia 6280) last July on a 12 mth contract, £45 p/m, 1/2 price first 3 months, redemption of 50% at 6 months by sending first 6 bills. Then further redemption at month 12 via bills 7-11.
Trouble is, they no longer answer their phone, don't respond to fax, e-mail, or the registered letters I've sent. "3" say it's not their problem as they no longer deal with this company. I've been to Trading Standards (Consumer Direct), who've very kindly sent me some template letters to take them to court etc.
They still appear to be operating via the web, but when I attempt to Login, my number is not recognised. I then telephoned the number in the pop-up window and was connected to Vanilla-mobile, a subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse, who subsequently informed me that they knew nothing about CellularZone, despite the number appearing from the CZ website.

I'm deeply confused, not to mention angry, that I have no idea how to follow this up.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

g33za

welcome to MSE! it appears that http://www.cellularzone.co.uk/ looks exactly like www.e2save.com which is owned by cpw. Check your documentation that came with the phone, what were the instructions to claim your cashback? What was the cashback address and did you send via recorded? how long has it been since you posted the cashback claims?

akr1

The instructions were "return first 6 months front page of bill", to their registered address in Reading. I complied fully with their instructions, sent registered, in time (3rd Jan),all the good stuff. My reason for being suspicious prior to sending the bills was the lack of response to e-mail, but more importantly the lack of response on their phone that had previously been helpful and efficient. In my initial investigations I had tracked the parent company to CPW, so I sent copies of the bills with an explanatory letter to them as well.
Having spoken to Trading Standards it would appear that this multi-tiered type of business is rife within the Mobile community. The responsibilty is just denied at every turn, you're baulked by everyone in the hope you will just give up.
What I would like to know is, is there anyway to find out who owns this company now. ie official documents of takeovers/buyouts etc. and where the ultimate responsibilities lie. Surely if you buy a company you must assume all its liabilities, ergo If Carphone Warehouse ultimately own CellularZone, they are ultimately responsible for paying me my money.

ctraub0888

A quick search on Campanies House shows that a company called CellularZone is registered to an adress in Reading, this makes me think it is the same company. Have a look at http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/1da194c44a5f83d3879a937e13ae067c/compdetails

Hope this helps.

akr1

All the contract details, phone no's etc relate to the address in Reading, I even managed to get hold of an "Ex" company director. He gave me the private number of the chap who is supposedly running the outfit now. Guess what? No reply. I guess the message is, Pay your money, take your choice.

g33za

i guess your only recourse is to go through the small claims court, http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk probably worth sending a letter recorded giving them 7 days to respond before you begin preceedings.

rosscobley

They Are still trading. I did a quick check for you

Company Details

Company Name CELLULARZONE (UK) LIMITED
Registered Number 05052642
Registered Office 200 BROOK DRIVE, GREEN PARK, READING, BERKSHIRE RG2 6UB
Date Incorporated 23 February 2004

Company Identification Details

Company Name CELLULARZONE (UK) LIMITED
Registered Number 05052642
Legal Form Private Limited
Date Incorporated 23 February 2004
Issued Capital (Returns) GBP 2
Registered Office 200 BROOK DRIVE, GREEN PARK, READING, BERKSHIRE RG2 6UB
Trading Address As Registered Office
SIC Codes (1980) 7902
SIC Description (1980) TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES
SIC Codes (1992) 6420
SIC Description (1992) TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Principal Activities TELECOMMUNICATION.
Previous Registered Office 71 KENILWORTH AVENUE, READING, BERKSHIRE RG30 3DL (until 27 May 2004)

Accounts Type Not Known
Accounts Ref. Date 28 February
Date Latest Accounts 28 February 2006
Date Latest Returns 23 February 2006


Looks like they may have changed there address

akr1

I did another round of their phones today. No reply on any of them. Have sent the "7 days to respond" letter, registered of course. The previous letters were received and signed for as I did a track via RM. I'll see what response, if any, that I get to this one, then it's off to the small claims court I go. Thanks to everyone for the advice. I'll keep you updated on progress.

Quentin

rosscobley wrote:

They Are still trading. I did a quick check for you

This is no proof they are still trading.

Taking them to the small claims court may be just sending good money after bad.

When you win your case, how will you go about getting the money out of them?

You will be in the same position you are now - being owed money and unable to get any reply from them.

Better to try and get trading standards to take up your case and see if they can trace their whereabouts.

akr1

Hi Quentin.
I've been the trading standards (Consumer Direct) route already. Apparently this is a well known/reported scam to them. Offer all the deals, take the money/kickbacks from the phone companies, hope people forget to claim, put blocks in the way of claiming, avoid paying, then just disappear. Trading standards were no help really, they just did a quick internet search like the rest of us would do to confirm they were still registered, they are,then advised small claims as well, although they did provide me with some template letters. Further,the company still have a web-site offering new deals, the same, if not a mirrored site of e2Save. If they are still registered, still selling off a website, then my assumption is they must still be active and liable to pay me.:mad:

debz68

I bought a phone from cellularzone last june, was not told at time it was a cashback offer for starters. Cashback rules were bills to be sent at 6th month, 9th months and 11th months. I sent first at 6th month on time, after waiting 6 weeks tried to contact them could not get hold of them on any of their telephone no's. Checked website and my paperwork and found they were part of carphone warehouse so rang them. They ummed and arred at first then told me they would get someone to call me back, they did and gave me the mobile number of a aslam sadique who owns company. I got through to him, he acted dumb about me not being able to contact cellurzone by phone and gave me the number of Lee Williams, operations director of cellurlarzone, i got through to him, again he apparrently did not know why i could not get through on phones, but after taking my details promised i would recieve my first cashback. Two weeks later i recieved payment into my bank. Sorted i thought. At nine months sent my next bills on time, it is now 8 weeks later, i have recieved no money, cannot contact them on company phones, Mr Aslam phone is constantly unavailable, Mr lee.s constantly engaged. I have contacted carphone warehouse who now are denying any knowledge of this company, i know this to be a lie as they gave me contact no's before. They told me to contact a company called e2save, (was astonished when i went to their website and find it is a mirror image of cellurzone.co.uk..They also gave me runaround and told me they never heard of cellurlarzone. As me and my partner have phones from them they still owe us £240.00. Anyone out there got any imformation or advice?