The Mobile Outlet

dasvictim

Hi all,
Not posted since my 1st cashback claim with TMO (Bills 1-4), which after some dispute was eventually paid.

I am now awaiting my 2nd cashback payment (Bills 5-6). The chronology of events is as follows:

3rd July 07 - Cashback for bills 5 & 6 (24thApril & 24thMay) posted by special delivery.

23rd July 07 - Email received from TMO stating: "Dear Customer, Dear customer. We have received your 2nd cash back claim and it has been successful. Please allow 28 days for a response. If you have any further questions regarding the delivery of your handset, please email our customer service team. customerservice@themobileoutlet.co.uk Regards
Adam Sinclair
Customer Relations Director

Ok, so as I paid for gauranteed next day delivery its taken 19 days to process my claim and send me an email and now I have to wait ANOTHER 28 days to be paid?? This would take the total to 47 days?.... Not exactly speedy Gonzalez here but at least they're not disputing it this time!

19th August 07 - Well 28 days are now up. Its been 48 days since I posted my claim.

Anyone having similar problems, TMO are you there? Any News?

DasVictim

coolio_2

The forvever changing T&Cs. I mustv e taken a contract just after you and for mine it stated bills 4-7. They really are useless

thesaint

coolio wrote: »

The forvever changing T&Cs. I mustv e taken a contract just after you and for mine it stated bills 4-7. They really are useless

Are you sure?

coolio_2

Sorrt, I meant 5-7, 3 bills in total

dancer1234

dancer1234 wrote: »

Am really hoping someone can help me on here.

I am due to send in my first claim to The Mobile Outlet at month 4 of my contract which is August, however, I have two bills for June as I changed the direct debit date and I also ported my number with me therefore some of the bills have different numbers on.

I will therefore be sending in the following:

May invoice – new number
June invoice – change of numbers
June invoice – change of direct debit date and ported number
July invoice – ported number
August invoice – ported number
Original dispatch note

I have emailed TMO and phoned them but am getting no help from them at all...they are soooo annoying. Does anyone know the answer or had a similar problem?

Thanks

Sorry I am new on here so not sure if I'm doing this properly. I am grateful to the Saint for the advice but would be really grateful if anyone else knows what I should do or had a similar problem?

dancer1234

Shelby wrote: »

Grayme-m,

Could you give us an update on how far you're progressing with your search for the posting about that.

It would be really helpful to Salma and many others.

Thanks.

I have been reading through these threads/postings tonight and found them so helpful. I did the same as Salma and sent bills 11 and 12 together as I too found the T&C's very unclear.

Grayme-m or Shelby - would be really grateful if you could let us know if the original posting that Grayme-m mentions was ever found?



If this is of any help I have found the following posting on here about the same problem:

I've just received my 2nd cashback claim from The MobileOutlet after more than 3 months of hassle. They refused my claim in July due to the fact that I did not send my 11th and 12th bills separately. I complained and still they refused to pay. I got in touch with my local Trading Standards, who wrote to The MobileOutlet on my behalf. They did not even respond to their letter. I then decided to write again at the beginning of October before I took them to the small claims court. Again, no reply. I read about the forum they had set out from this forum and e-mailed them. I received a reply within 20 minutes, asking me to hold off from filing my claim until they had a chance to look into my case. I told them they had until Friday to pay up or else. I heard nothing and on Friday I e-mailed them one last time to tell them that I would be proceeding with court action without further delay. On Sunday I received a response telling me that the money would be paid into my account within 3 - 5 working days, and lo and behold, it was paid this morning. Perseverance seems to be the key with this company. I also informed them that they were in breach of the Office Of Fair Tradings "plain language requirement" which I have copied below. Don't know whether this had any bearing on the outcome of my case or not. All I know is I will certainly steer clear of this company from now on and would urge everyone else to do the same.



The plain language requirement

According to the UTCCRs, a standard term must be expressed in plain and intelligible language. A term is open to challenge if it could put you at a disadvantage because you are not clear about its meaning - even if its meaning could be worked out by a lawyer. If there is doubt as to what a term means, the meaning most favourable to the consumer will apply.

postofficered

Shelby wrote: »

Just look at what happens if you get connected on some other dates (and this applies to any month - not just September).


Connect on 10 September.
First Instalment Date thus 7 January.
Deadline for filing first claim thus 6 February. You will need an invoice proving you've been connected for 120 days.
Voda invoice dated 19 December would arrive on 26 December, would show you've been connected for 76 days. Not sufficient for claim.
Voda invoice dated 19 January would arrive on 26 January, would show you've been connected for 107 days. Not sufficient for claim.
6 February, your cashback claim deadline expires - you lose your entire year's cashback entitlement.
Voda invoice dated 19 February 19 would arrive on 26 February, showing you've been connected for 138 days.

I agree that it is impossible to get the claim in on time given certain combinations of connection dates and invoice date. There is however a mistake in the dates above. I've created a table in a spreadsheet instead showing a selection of connection dates with the invoice date of 19 January 2008. You can see the table below, the 10/09/07 column are the corrected dates for above:

[html]
Date Calculation
Connection Date 23/08/07 30/08/07 06/09/07 10/09/07 14/09/07 21/09/07
Installment Date Connection Date + 120 21/12/07 28/12/07 04/01/08 08/01/08 12/01/08 19/01/08
Invoice Date 19/01/08 19/01/08 19/01/08 19/01/08 19/01/08 19/01/08
Invoice Received Date Invoice Date + 7 26/01/08 26/01/08 26/01/08 26/01/08 26/01/08 26/01/08
Cashback Claim Deadline Date Installment Date + 30 20/01/08 27/01/08 03/02/08 07/02/08 11/02/08 18/02/08
Days to get claim in Invoice Received Date – Installment Date -6 1 8 12 16 23

Days connected on Invoice Date Invoice Date – Connection Date 149 142 135 131 127 120
[/html]As shown in the Days to get claim in row, it is impossible to get the claim in on time if the connection date is in August as the invoice will arrive after the deadline date (negative number of days to send the invoice!!).

Shelby

postofficered wrote: »

There is however a mistake in the dates above.

No.

You pick only one Connection Date (10 September) which coincides with one that I quoted myself and in analysing the ramifications of it it is you who err.

A Connection Date of 10 September would produce (as I posted) an "Instalment Date" of 7 December, not 8 December. This is because The Mobile Outlet (as it makes clear) includes both the first and the last days in its "120" days - so you get only 119 days when calculated on a normal basis. This is a long-established ambush that The Mobile Outlet deploys and attempts to enforce.

(Ironic, perhaps, that in this particular example it falls on Pearl Harbor Day...)

The "30 days" from "Instalment Date" - within which you have to get your claim to The Mobile Outlet - it also declares to be inclusive. So, you'd then get only 29 days, when calculated on a normal basis.

That creates a deadline of "close of business" on 5 February, so, (as I posted) your deadline would expire on 6 February - according to The Mobile Outlet's rules.

It's no good "creating a spreadsheet" to work it out because a spreadsheet will calculate on the basis that is conventionally used on Planet Earth, not the basis that is used on Planet Mobile Outlet.

Whilst it is important to recognise this difference - and better (when possible) to comply with it rather than get involved in a dispute with The Mobile Outlet over a matter of a couple of days - the real point that I was trying to make was that on neither my (correct) dates nor on your (incorrect) dates does it make a great deal of difference if on neither of them would you yet be possessed of an invoice from your network which would enable you to prove that you had been connected to it for 120 days.

If you wouldn't get an invoice showing that you had actually been connected for a sufficient number of days, it's fairly academic whether this means you would miss The Mobile Outlet's deadline (and lose your entire cashback) by, say, 21 days or by 19. What matters is the fact that (by either means of calculation) your deadline would expire about three weeks before you would be possessed of the necessary invoice from your network with which to file a cashback claim that complies validly with these new Terms & Conditions.

If you're going to dispute what I write, it would be helpful if you could get your own facts right before you casually remark that mine are wrong.

The only thing that a spreadsheet might help you with in dealing with The Mobile Outlet, is in teaching you the correct way to spell the word instalment in English.

Apart from anything else, it won't take account of Bank Holidays and non-trading days such as Saturdays and Sundays - on neither of which can you get a claim delivered provably (with signature) to The Mobile Outlet

The best and safest method of working this one out is to switch off your computer (particularly if it runs on Microsoft software) and sit down with an old-fashioned calendar, a piece of paper, a pencil and a full complement of fingers.

This may be (indeed, it is) a tiresome thing to have to do, but when several hundred pounds of your own money is riding on the outcome of it, some people who are paid less than £5,000 per hour (after tax) would find it an economic way to spend ten minutes of their time.

Hopefully, when they do, they'll also remember that 2008 will be a Leap Year; so perhaps even at The Mobile Outlet there will be 29 days in February. :rotfl:

Shelby

imdabs wrote: »

Hi All.. I ordered an N70 on t-mobile (35flex +webnwalk) on 10th august.. first it was not in stock then i got an email on 15th that it is in store and connected and they are send it to me on that day.. but nothing received yet.
can any existing T-mobile subscriber please tell me if tmobile sends bill in first week of month or on the date you connected???
As to me it seems that they are trying to play with 120 days game...

I read similar message few days back.. but no one clearly answered that..

What's significant is that The Mobile Outlet, which monitors this thread, has, as yet, made no response on here to the suggestion that its new Terms & Conditions would render it impossible in many circumstances to file a cashback claim that is valid.

The deal you mention ("free" T-Mobile with Web 'n' Walk) is/was a particularly sweet one. Shame you weren't able to nail it under the previous (pre-August) T&Cs which were clear, unequivocal and enforceable through the courts.

Still, at least T-Mobile is one network that does (or did, last time I checked) let you change your monthly billing date after the first month, so, however deviously The Mobile Outlet might arrange for you to be connected on a date that makes valid cashback claims impossible to file, you would then have some three months get it altered to your best advantage. (Indeed, you might have to do this more than once during the year if you are to obtain the maximum amount of time to file your claims.) People on networks that operate more rigid regimes which refuse to let you change your billing date are less fortunate.

Shelby

DazzaMc wrote: »

You were quite clearly being rude. I used the word amount instead of allowance, but everyone else knew what I meant.

Everybody?

Well, I for one didn't know what you meant. Indeed, it made me wonder if you were actually on a Pay As You Go scheme instead of a monthly account.

You make a lot of presumptions in your rebukes and make no apologies when they turn out to be wrong.

It is not an ideal way to obtain assistance from people.