Phones4u Phone Insurance

seanavfc92

To cut a long story short, my girlfriend has Phones4u phone insurance for a black iPhone5 and pays £5pm for it.

She dropped it in a sink full of water last Friday (25/10), so went in to a Phone4u store in Wakefield to see what could be sorted. She was told that the insurance plan she has enables her to swap her phone in-store for an identical replacement. As they didn't have any black handsets in stock, they offered her a white one, which she was fine with. Shortly after, she was then told that they wouldn't allow her to take the white handset as it had to be a black one. They said she could drive to Hull to pick a black one up, but as she didn't drive, she couldn't get there (110+ miles round trip). They offered her the chance to have a handset delivered to her home address, which she accepted, although it had to be delivered to her mum's address as both my girlfriend and I were working so no-one would be home to sign for it. She paid the £50 excess and was told it would be delivered on Monday (28/10) between 9am and 6pm.

On the Sunday, we were browsing in a Curry's that has a Phones4u department in it. The manager asked if we needed help with anything, so we explained the situation. She then told us that she had a white handset in stock and would be able to sort it for us there and then. Customer Services was rang and the courier was cancelled and the £50 excess would be refunded. Customer Services explained that the situation could be resolved in store (the 2nd time she was told that). Unfortunately, the handsets she had in stock were locked to O2 and she needed it to be a Vodafone handset. She apologised and said she would find if any other store had it in. She managed to find a white handset available in the Curry’s in Birstall, so rang the manager and asked it to be reserved.

Once we got there, he unboxed the phone and took her SIM card to set the phone up. He then said he’d need to ring Customer Services to verify the process. He was then told that as it wasn’t a black handset, she wouldn’t be able to walk away with it (now the 2nd time she had been told this, to contradict the two other occasions where she was told she could?). He took her SIM card back out and told us he couldn’t do it for us. So we rang Customer Services to get the courier to come back out.

She was told that the courier would definitely arrive between 9am-6pm to deliver the handset. Only he never turned up. He claimed that a delivery was attempted but no-one was in to sign, only to contradict himself by saying the delivery was rejected. We checked the tracking code we were given, only to be told the handset was currently sat 2+ hours away in Birmingham!

We went back to the first Curry’s store to speak to the manager to explain the situation. She rang Customer Services up and explained the situation and asked for the courier to be prioritised. We then bought my girlfriend a cheap handset and a SIM card adapter in order for her to be able to contact people (an extra £25 we had to fork out on top of the £50 excess). She was told AGAIN that the courier would definitely be arriving on the Tuesday, only guess what.... IT DIDN’T. The guy in Customer Services who took the delivery address rushed the input and entered an address in Birmingham!

So for the umpteenth time, my girlfriend rang Customer Services to complain, and was given her £50 excess back as a gesture of goodwill. This sweetened the frustration a little bit, but still, five days later, still had no iPhone.

A letter of complaint has been sent off to Phones4u to explain the whole debacle.

So to summarise, Phones4u phone insurance is very misleading, as she was told she was insured on the make and model, not the colour, but on two separate occasions, Customer Services have said it had to be a black iPhone 5 that she was given.

FRUSTRATING!

robbies_gal

maybe thats jsut to cover themselves-ive got a red phone and would like that the replacement was the same not a different colour


did they send one in the end

seanavfc92

robbies_gal wrote: »

maybe thats jsut to cover themselves-ive got a red phone and would like that the replacement was the same not a different colour


did they send one in the end

The colour of the phone has never bothered her, just the phone itself.

It's supposedly coming today... third time lucky?

WTFH

Surely it only became a "debacle" after you decided to change from what had been organised (i.e. a delivery on Monday) because you thought you could get it a day early?
If you had waited 24 hours, there would have been no issue.

seanavfc92

WTFH wrote: »

Surely it only became a "debacle" after you decided to change from what had been organised (i.e. a delivery on Monday) because you thought you could get it a day early?
If you had waited 24 hours, there would have been no issue.

The whole "debacle" is the fact that one minute we were told the insurance would cover the make and model only, the next minute we're being told the insurance covers the phone in the specific colour.

On top of that, the address was entered incorrectly which meant the phone wouldn't have turned up even if we hadn't tried to get it sorted 24 hours earlier!

robbies_gal

i understand it doesnt bother your wife but maybe like i said its to cover themselves if u compalin later on

seanavfc92

robbies_gal wrote: »

i understand it doesnt bother your wife but maybe like i said its to cover themselves if u compalin later on

Yeah, I agree. It should be made clear from the start either way, that way there is no confusion.

seanavfc92

So, still no phone!