Mobiles.co.uk and Carphone Warehouse

Jmi

I ordered a new phone from them yesterday and it all seemed to go though OK. Email from them confirmed the order. Today I get an email saying that I have failed internal security checks. In reality there is absolutely nothing wrong with my credit rating, personal history, financial stability or anything, so someone has made a mistake. But they refuse to tell me what the problem is. Effectively I'm blacklisted by this company - and who knows who else? - without any recourse at all. Do I have a legal right to force them to give the information about why I have failed their checks? If they won't tell me, how do I know they are not discriminating against me on grounds of race, colour, gender, age or whatever? Any ideas?

custardy

Jmi wrote: »

I ordered a new phone from them yesterday and it all seemed to go though OK. Email from them confirmed the order. Today I get an email saying that I have failed internal security checks. In reality there is absolutely nothing wrong with my credit rating, personal history, financial stability or anything, so someone has made a mistake. But they refuse to tell me what the problem is. Effectively I'm blacklisted by this company - and who knows who else? - without any recourse at all. Do I have a legal right to force them to give the information about why I have failed their checks? If they won't tell me, how do I know they are not discriminating against me on grounds of race, colour, gender, age or whatever? Any ideas?

Did you put your race and colour on the order then?

wealdroam

Here's a short extract from their T&Cs:

2.3. Each order placed by you will be treated as an offer to purchase the Goods and/or Services to which your order relates. The contract will only be completed when we dispatch the Goods/commence the provision of the Services (as applicable) or when we take any due payment from you (which includes debiting your payment method), whichever is the earlier.
2.4. You acknowledge that any automated acknowledgement given when you place an order shall not amount to our acceptance of your offer to purchase.
2.5. We may, at our own discretion, limit, restrict or reject any order you place at any time prior to the contract having been completed. Where this happens, we will attempt to contact you using your Personal Information.

This means that you have agreed that they can cancel the order at any time before they dispatch the goods to you, provided they have not debited your card yet.

They can choose who they do business with (provided they don't discriminate along the lines you have mentioned).

powerful_Rogue

Get a copy of your credit report.

Jmi

custardy: not quite but almost! But the point is that you can't show you are not discriminating on illegal grounds unless you tell everyone on what grounds you are discriminating.

wealdroam: I know Mobiles.co.uk and Carphone Warehouse can cancel an order at whim. The point is, isn't it a matter of politeness, good customer relations and complying with the law, that they tell you why?

powerful_Rogue: my current Experian credit rating is 999 with no de-merits.

I can quite understand the principal that Carphone Warehouse and Mobiles.co.uk can sell to whoever they wish, but if they decide they don't want to sell to a particular person they should say why, rather than trying to hide behind a cloak of pseudo secrecy and Data Protection Acts. They just come across to me as a thoroughly unpleasant and unprofessional company.

wealdroam

Jmi wrote: »

wealdroam: I know Mobiles.co.uk and Carphone Warehouse can cancel an order at whim. The point is, isn't it a matter of politeness, good customer relations and complying with the law, that they tell you why?

Possibly, but what has that got to do with consumer rights?

Perhaps this thread should be on the Praise, Vent & Warnings board.

Ahhh... just seen those words complying with the law.
I cannot see where they have broken any.

17lbp

Jmi wrote: »

I ordered a new phone from them yesterday and it all seemed to go though OK. Email from them confirmed the order. Today I get an email saying that I have failed internal security checks. In reality there is absolutely nothing wrong with my credit rating, personal history, financial stability or anything, so someone has made a mistake. But they refuse to tell me what the problem is. Effectively I'm blacklisted by this company - and who knows who else? - without any recourse at all. Do I have a legal right to force them to give the information about why I have failed their checks? If they won't tell me, how do I know they are not discriminating against me on grounds of race, colour, gender, age or whatever? Any ideas?

A friend had a similar experience, they had gone into CPW to get contract phone with EE, they failed credit check, again they have never had problems with credit, bills all paid etc etc, they then went direct to EE and got the same phone no probs. All very strange!

pmduk

Sometimes the networks will restrict the number of contracts being connected via third parties. It happened to me in the past, the CPW worker told me I'd be accepted immediately at the network's store, but all their attempted sales that day had been declined. His prediction proved correct.

The_ICT_Engineer

It may also be a case that the address you supplied, Did not match completely that recorded on your credit file.

powerful_Rogue

Jmi wrote: »

powerful_Rogue: my current Experian credit rating is 999 with no de-merits.

What about Equifax and CallCredit?

PS - The score means nothing, thats something Experian create and has nothing to do with what creditors see.

Jmi

wealdroam: my question was whether they were breaking any law. If Mobiles.co.uk refused to sell to me because of a bad credit rating they would have to tell me what was in my credit history that put them off. Mobiles.co.uk and Carphone Warehouse seem to have got round that by creating an entirely spurious reason for not selling to me and then not telling me in any useful way what that reason was.
powerful_Rogue: the Experian score merely shows that as far as they are concerned my credit rating is excellent. I'll have a look at Equifax and CallCredit as well - thanks.