Banned from Carphone Warehouse

bedpotato_2

Today I was banned from ever buying anything ever again from Carphone Warehouse online shop, after their anti-fraud system wrongly flagged my transaction as suspicious.

They said the decision is non-debatable. I am not to call back. I am not to argue or try to explain. Their decision is final. No purchases will be allowed from this address or card number ever again. :eek:

When I was being told this over the phone, I didn't know whether to feel amused, perplexed, or indignant. Apparently I'm banned from ever buying anything from them ever again (or from any of their sister sites as well).

I questioned whether it was legal for them to actually do this, and they said that there is some sort of law that means a company has the right to refuse your custom if they wish. Is this really true? But I haven't done anything wrong!

The customer services man (who was very nice and apologetic) said he was not allowed to put me through to the fraud team and I was banned from speaking to them, so he explained it to me on their behalf. He said he was not allowed to be told the reasons behind their decision but he speculated that what flagged me as suspicious was the fact that I'd recently moved house and hadn't yet notified my bank of my new address, so, when filling in my details when placing my order, I had to type two different addresses in - one for billing and one for delivery, because I knew my card was still registered to my old address. This seemed to be enough to make me get flagged.

I received a confirmation email but no dispatch email. I got a missed call from them the day after my purchase. I tried calling them back to see what it was about, but to no avail.

Today I started to get puzzled that my phone hadn't turned up and thought it must be out of stock, so tried phoning them again, and that was when I was informed by the friendly man that my transaction had been "cancelled" and would not be sent (although they'd taken the money for it, right enough)!

It doesn't really bother me about the phone, because I managed to find the same phone on ebay for roughly the same price, but I wish I hadn't had to buy it from there. I do not like buying technology on eBay, as it's usually stolen or fake and I don't want to be ripped off or finance criminals.

I'm feeling rather shocked and dejected, because I've been kicked out of Carphone Warehouse and had the door slammed on me for no deserved reason.

Has this ever happened to anybody else?

If CW do not accept orders from customers who supply a different billing and delivery address, then why have those two fields available to fill in?

savemoney

Just bought a phone of them on Sunday night and came today. No its not happened to me in any dealings with any company although I have had my card declined because of suspect purchases, ie couple of low value from Amazon but that was sorted out.

End of the day any company can turn down customers for whatever reason they dont even have to give a reason to customers just decline custom.

I can understand why they might think its suspicious though, maybe there is a lot of scamming going one with phones as they are high value items.

Best get your address changed and on electoral roll

Bowling_4_Gold

Unfortunately CW aren't under any obligation to sell to anyone, so they can choose whether to sell to you or not.

I'm not sure if it's the only reason they are there, but I often use the separate shipping and billing address options on websites because the name on my card is slightly different in format to how most companies store my name-

e.g. you register for an account as Joe Bloggs, but on your card it says Mr J Bloggs, therefore your shipping (account name) and billing (card name) details will be different.

mazza111

A similar thing happened to me when I went to buy a handset from Phones4u. Was told I had already purchased 3 phones from them this year..... Err no I hadn't, they still had a phone on the list from 2 years ago, I had to pay it cash, and add an extra tenner top up (for the privilege of paying cash).

I had another card in my purse, but I couldn't remember the pin for it. Blah!!! Was still a better buy getting the handset cash there and topping up, when I called up phones4u customer service, they sent me a cheque for the £10 and I got to keep the top up too.

maninthestreet

So the ordering process allows you to enter a different delivery address to the billing address, but if you do so you are deemed to be a fraudster????

Spamfree_2

I am not to call back. I am not to argue or try to explain. Their decision is final. No purchases will be allowed from this address or card number ever again. :eek:

You must have royally offended them for you to never speak to them on the phone or argue with them :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

You'd have been better off buying a £10 phone from Asda until you get your ESA claim sorted out that you just had the medical interview for surely?

mazza111

Spamfree wrote: »

You must have royally offended them for you to never speak to them on the phone or argue with them :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

You'd have been better off buying a £10 phone from Asda until you get your ESA claim sorted out that you just had the medical interview for surely?

It's irrelevant what benefits the OP is on whether they buy a new phone or not. A contract can be bought very cheaply these days, or even better rolling contracts where it's better to buy a handset. Who's to say the OP wasn't buying a cheap one?

spike7451

It was the same when I worked for O2 in direct selling & was processing orders online,the card address MUST be the same as the billing/delivery address or the order will be rejected on the credit check,which is the last stage in the process before conformation.
Now weather that's still the same I don't know as I left them in July 2010,but I should imagine it is.

Valli

bedpotato wrote: »

If CW do not accept orders from customers who supply a different billing and delivery address, then why have those two fields available to fill in?

They may well accept a different billing and delivery address under some circumstances; I have 4 different delivery names and 3 addresses now registered for Amazon.

But phones are high value, and easily sold on and they are within their rights to refuse a sale; moreover you haven't been TOLD the reason the sale was refused, the person who spoke to you has apparently made some educated guesses as to the reason.

Guardsman

I often use my work address for deliveries and it's never been a issue when buying things.

mazza111

Think that's where the mix up was with me and the phones I purchased from phones4u, the one I bought online was for my ds and was delivered to my work address. The other 2 were bought in store, one for me and one for my DD(about a month apart). They linked the first one with the card and it being a different address, even though it was bought about 18 months before Guess it highlighted that I may be committing fraud as I had got the first one delivered to my work address.