Unaware of upgrade, can they do this without me knowing?

mare

Hi, bit of a random problem which both orange and carphone warehouse are confused about.... Wondered if anyone has any advice / similar experience!?

So back in April 2012 i got a samsung galaxy sII on a 24month contract on orange through carphone warehouse - an upgrade i did online and collected the phone in store. I paid my £26 a month up until october 2012 when i had multiple calls from orange saying i am available for upgrade, explaining i didn't need a new phone as I had a new one already but they assured me I could upgrade my tariff if I didn't want a phone so I negotiated to an £8 sim only deal. Thinking I'd got a good deal until now...

On Friday I had no network availability and after a long call with Orange tech support it turned out my SIM was not related to my account and when I logged into orange online my upgrade date had changed to december 2015... According to orange I'd been upgraded by carphone warehouse so should call them....

So i called CPW and indeed on 9th december 2013 they had upgraded me - no paperwork, email or anything! It turns out , when I collected my phone back in April 2012 the store had not 'closed the order' and now an IT system had kicked in an activated my 24 month contract.

As I'm within 14 days cooling off period i should 'return' my old galaxy phone to store and then be eligible for a new upgrade. The store were clearly not happy about this and explained that they would have to 'take the hit' for me discontinuing my contract, I should not have changed my tariff with orange and have 'got away with' getting a free phone.

I called CPW back after the in store experience and again was assured that the store should have just accepted the return and issued a new upgrade however I would now need to pay the upgrade tariff and not stay on the £8 a month I' previously negotiated with orange....

So to me it seems like I'm paying for their computer /store error as I now have 2 options:
1) upgrade and get a new phone on a new contract (returning my old phone as I'm within 14 days of them activating an upgrade I knew nothing about)
2) return my phone, end the contract but stay with my orange sim only deal and have go buy a new phone outright.

I'm confused that they could activate an upgrade without my knowing and also they are yet to confirm what /if my current tariff is going to change! Ideally I just want to stick with what I've got with the original contract end date which I thought was going to be april 2014.

Have I got rights to challenge this? Not sure what I can do!

Any advice much appreciated and sorry for the long post!
Thanks

grumbler

Your post it far too long and difficult to understand. Try making it shorter and keep only the essential facts in chronological order.

No, CPW cannot do anything without your consent. If they made some mistake they have to pay for it. If Orange allowed you to change the contract sold by CPW, it's not CPW's business. And you don't have to return them the phone they gave you more than a year ago.

That said, I may have misunderstood something when skimming though your post.

mare

Thanks for your response, sorry it was a long post, its all a bit complicated!

I agree though that i shouldn't have to pay for their error and the fact that CPW and Orange systems don't seem to talk to each other.

Herongull

They can't expect you to return the phone as it is your property.

Based on what you've said, the mobile phone companies have to honour what you agreed with them ie 24 month, £26 per month contract, which they agreed to drop down to £8 per month 6 months later.

Buzby

Further - there is no 'cooling off' period for upgrades, so you'll bew stuffed on that score.

grumbler

Buzby wrote: »

Further - there is no 'cooling off' period for upgrades, so you'll bew stuffed on that score.

Not true.
There is no statutory cooling off period, but this doesn't mean that there is no any.
http://selfhelp.carphonewarehouse.com/SelfHelp

You can return most products within 14 days

...
Return a Pay monthly phone upgrade?
We'll refund any money you paid for your phone, and remove the contract you would have entered into. However, if your network no longer offers the tariff you were on before you upgraded, visit us in store, or call us on 0800 049 6248*, to see what other great tariffs are available.

mare

Thanks for your replies.

Called CPW again (my 3rd call) and escalated the issue to the complaints department who agreed that I should not be penalised into a 24month 'upgrade' starting from the 9 december 2013 when I :
a) didn't request it
b) didn't want an upgrade and
c) haven't agreed to one.

All because of their computer error which initiated an upgrade which I believed had (and should of ) started back in april 2012

Apparently they now speak to orange who have 3-5days to respond to discontinue the 'upgrade' and hopefully all goes back to how it was before the 9the december!

CPW also agreed to pay the difference if my DD this month is more than I expect it to be.

Fingers crossed it should be sorted this week -what a stress!