Carphone Warehouse order botched up... advice please?

jpbowley

Hi folks, really need some advice...

Ordered a £149 tablet from CPW on 21st Sept 2013 for next day delivery into local store (Sat 22nd). Was picking up to give as a gift before they went away to uni that day, hence the next day delivery.

Went in and was told it was in my wife's name (their admin error, but they wouldn't admit it) and that it would be in on Tues 25th September. They rang customer services to have the order put into my name and said it had been successful. I tried to cancel my order, but they wouldn't let me (?!) I tried to buy one in store and wait for the order to be delivered, but they wouldn't let me.

So I left the store and went to PC world and paid £30 more for the same tablet.

CPW rang on Tuesday 25th September asking for Mrs Bowley. Wouldn't let me collect the item, told me the item was ready to pick up but my wife had to collect. I told them I didn't want it and under distance selling regs I had 7 days to cancel. They said my wife would have to ring up customer services. As it has nothing to do with her, my wife understandably wasn't keen. Neither was I. I didn't want to spend my money waiting in line, so I said no thanks, what would happen if I left it with you?

Automatically cancels after two weeks and you get a refund to your card within the next three. Sounds great. CSA made a smart mouth comment asking if I was willing to be without £149 for several weeks. I said, yes, and hung up.

Received an email to my email address, but addressed to 'Mrs Bowley' on 4th October stating that the order had been cancelled and that a refund would be given automatically to the card that I paid with, a card in my name, not my wife's, you understand.

Five weeks later, no refund. I just rang this afternoon to sort it out and they said they can't talk to me as the order is in Mrs Bowley's name.

I wrote a letter to the CEO, and their office called me, ostensibly to apologise, but they told me the same thing - because the order is in Mrs Bowley's name, they can't talk to me, citing data protection laws.

As my wife has nothing to do with this order, neither of us want her to be involved. I suppose we could pretend that she made the order, and have her speak to the advisor, but what would that acheive? It's their mistake, and regardless of who's name is on the order, surely they have a legal obligation to refund the card holder who paid? Anyone could order an item in their name, or in someone elses. How does that have legal standing over the fact that my card was debited and now they're refusing to refund it?

Surely that's tantamount to theft? Any advice on what I can do? I have opened a dispute with my card provider, but I am not sure what that involves or how long it will take. I'd love to hear your ideas.

Thanks!

unholyangel

Don't take this the wrong way but...are you/your wife refusing to have her deal with it out of principle? You're obviously not at the small claims stage but if you do get to that stage, you may want to rethink your strategy. Judges have been known to award costs against a party if their behaviour has been unreasonable.

As for calls....what have you put in writing to them? That your wife didn't make the order? To be honest, given that your wife hasn't contacted them and you've refused to "get her involved"....they probably think she has ordered it and you're trying to cancel it because you don't want her to have it blah blah (something along those lines).

Personally I'd be sending 2 letters together. One from the wife stating she never made the order, you made the order and an error has resulted in it being sent under her name. And another from yourself stating about cancellation/refund etc.

Fosterdog

Who's name exactly was it ordered under? Was it your name/initial but just the title that was wrong or is it in your wife's full name/initial?

If the former then it is most likely that when you ordered online you chose the wrong title, you can't blame them for a form you filled in, there would have been at least one if not more stages of confirmation with the incorrect name giving you chance to rectify it. They should still rectify that quite easily for you though, it must be something that happens often and there'd be loads of complaints if they always act this way.

If the latter then how did they get your wife's name or initial unless it was given to them? In this scenario they are right to only speak to your wife.

elainestev

Tell them that they cannot speak to your wife as unfortunately you do not have one and has obviously been a mess up with the title confusing you as a Mrs instead of Mr

Poppie68

Can't understand why your wife does'nt just speak to them and clear things up, alot easier and less stress in the long run.
If you ordered on line are you sure you did'nt click the Mrs and not the Mr?

jpbowley

Fosterdog wrote: »

Who's name exactly was it ordered under? Was it your name/initial but just the title that was wrong or is it in your wife's full name/initial?

If the latter then how did they get your wife's name or initial unless it was given to them? In this scenario they are right to only speak to your wife.

It was under Mr (yes, Mister) Hannah Bowley. Then they told me they'd changed it to Mr Jonathan Bowley when I went into store and asked to sort it out. All the emails went to my email address, which has my name in it, and the card used was my credit card.

Now, we both have old accounts with carphone warehouse through which we ordered our sim cards in 2011. I can only assume they have gotten the names mixed up in their back end, especially when they even had us down at an old address, the same one we lived in when we ordered our sim cards im 2011...

Make of that what you will, but I'm not in the habit of putting 2 year old addresses on order forms. The whole thing is a farce. My wife isn't interested in wasting her time and our money ringing Customer Service telephone line with ridiculously long waiting times. Can't say I blame her. She's heavily pregnant and fairly unwell with it. On top of that, it's nothing to do with her. They screwed it up. Their mistake, they should rectify it. How can they justify keeping my money when they've already emailed me saying that it would be refunded automatically?

As for writing, I've written 3 long emails and have spoken to someone from the Exec office. No joy, looks like I'll have to wait for my credit card provider to give me the money back. What are the chances of them finding for me in a dispute?

pinkshoes

Your wife can just phone and give permission for you to deal with them.

Or why not just send letter before action in your wife's name demanding a refund within 14 days?

MamaMoo_2

Seriously. Grow up. You can find multiple free phone numbers for them on saynoto0870. Get it sorted and stop acting like a petulant child. Yes, they messed up, but is it really going to kill your wife to give them a ring on an 0800 number and spend 5 minutes talking to someone? I've been in contact with them lately and there aren't long waiting times etc. I got straight through. Or why not give the executive office your wife's number and a convenient time to call her?
You're needlessly complicating things and it looks pretty suspect, if I'm being honest.

mountainofdebt

Talk about 1st world problems.

Can you honestly say that you / your wife would have spent more time if your wife had spoken to customer services in the first place rather than all the faffing about with emails to here there and everywhere?

Oh and you asked what it would achieve if your wife had phoned pretending she had made the order.....can I suggest you would have got the situation resolved and more than likely your refund

marliepanda

Are women suddenly incapable of doing anything when pregnant? Can't even make a phone call?

I've seen pregnancy used as some fab excuses, but this is one of the best.

Also sounds like you made an error filling in the form.

Fosterdog

I still don't see how they can make the mistake of linking it to your wife's name and your old address without something done wrong from your end.

You say you used them in 2011 in your wife's name and at a different address so they would have no reason to link Mr J Bowley of 1 Customer street, London to a Mrs H Bowley of 20 Consumer terrace, London from two years ago. Something linked the two purchases.

Did you log in to an account with an email address linked to the previous order?