phones4u buyout

badfelafel

phones4u wont buyout my phone contract as agreed - they want to charge me £100 more!

Here's a copy of the letter I sent to them:

Dear phones4u

A year ago I took out a contract on a Nokia N80 telephone on 3 network through phones4u. It was an 18 month contract. I was told that I could come back after 12 months and would be treated as if I was a customer who had ended a 12 month contract. The salesperson wrote out that phones4u would buyout the remainder of my contract.

When I returned to the store after 12 months, I was told that phones4u would not honour this promise. It would cost £100 more for me as a returning customer than it would cost a new customer to take out a new contract on a Nokia N95. I was told at your Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow branch that this was because you exhausted your possible discounts due to the buyout.

I returned to the store where I took out the contract, in Argyle Street, Glasgow. The manager (James Wells) explained this again to me, offering the same deal. When I told him what the salesperson had told me, and that he had written it down for me, your manager invented a piece of legislation, presumably so that I would take out the contract offered. He said that anything offered to me by the salesperson at time of purchase did not count due to “The Amendments Act”, and that your legal team would confirm this.

This tactic can best be described as unprofessional. There is no such Act, and of course, when a contract is formed, the representations made are enforceable. I am surprised that a respectable organisation would resort to inventing legal reasons to persuade a consumer to enter into a new contract.

I hope that you will investigate my complaint, and look forward to hearing from you within the next few days.

Regards,

Scarlet_Fever

thats terrible - crawley store bought me out last month (admittedly having problems beyond that) so thats a load of **** - i had an N80 moved to an N95

gsmmad

well on the n95 max discount that can be done is 100 quid and thats on tariffs above 45 quid ...

your contract has 6 months left but 5 more payments to make as they take a payment in advance ...So you can lower your tariff to 25 and pay it off there is a 25 quid fee to lower your tariff ....so 25 * 5 to cancel your contracts as you have 5 more payments to make thats 125 and then 25 quid downgrade fee so 150 alltogether to buy your out ...

He cant give you anymore than 100 so therefor you would need to pay 50 and take the n95 on a tariff like the pather 45 ....to get the 100 quid ...

If you take a different phone like a k810i on a 40 quid tariff they would pay off the whole thing....


The way the buy out works is they tell you after around 12 months you can come back and we can HELP to buy you out but some sales man say WE WILL BUY YOU OUT ...but everything changes and because they do ...they have changed

before you could go on a 20 quid tariff without the charge ....so u have 5 more payments your cancelation fee would have been 100 quid which he could have done...also the way the company offers money has totally been changed and in any situation we cannot do more than 100 ....depending on phone you may not even get that ....

badfelafel ...i suggest you take a different phone or keep the contract for a bit longer because there is nothing you can do, all you will do is waste your time because there is nothing the people in store can help you out with ....The salesman that served you misinformed you thats not phones4u's fault, every sales consultant is fully trained and the management watch out for things like this but it does happen time to time.

Im sorry to hear about whats happened ...

thesaint

gsmmad wrote: »

badfelafel ...i suggest you take a different phone or keep the contract for a bit longer because there is nothing you can do, all you will do is waste your time because there is nothing the people in store can help you out with ....The salesman that served you misinformed you thats not phones4u's fault, every sales consultant is fully trained and the management watch out for things like this but it does happen time to time.

Im sorry to hear about whats happened ...

I think you will find that it is indeed phones4u's responsibility.

badfelafel

When I took out the contract, the phones4u guy wrote out for me that they would buy me out...

I dont expect it to go anywhere now, but will also be contacting consumer direct (trading standards) ... main thing is that its a lesson not to go to a second rate phone company in future!

thinking back to when i bought the phone, they made promises then that they couldn't stick to, and when i made a fuss the manager gave me £10 compensation (that i had to collect in cash from the store!)

the manager's attitude yesterday was very poor - when i asked him for the deal he initially said "so i assume you're not expecting us to buy you out" - he was very cheeky!

have to say that inventing a piece of legislation was the icing on the cake!

gsmmad

thesaint due to the way the workers are trained and what it says in there contracts i assure you its not phones4u's fault ...

thesaint

gsmmad wrote: »

thesaint due to the way the workers are trained and what it says in there contracts i assure you its not phones4u's fault ...

You can not assure me anything of the sort.

If phones4u are subject to English law, they are indeed responsible for the advice that there workers impart, regardless of what you have been told.

If you can show me where they've been allowed to 'opt out' of this most basic and fundamental piece of legislation, I would happily concede that I am wrong.

badfelafel

scots law too by the way... and it also includes oral representations

reehsetin

gsmmad wrote: »

thesaint due to the way the workers are trained and what it says in there contracts i assure you its not phones4u's fault ...

as far as im aware, we have the law of agency and vicarious liability
law of agency - sales rep is an agent of p4u as he was doing something p4u had given him responsibility o do, ie contracts: Panorama Developments v Fidelis Furnishing Fabrics Ltd (1971) where it was decided that a company secretary had implied authority to make contracts in the company’s name relating to the day-to day running of the company. here its more than implied, he has that authority, he has the ability to legally bind the company.
and vicarious liability makes the company liable for the negligence of an employee when they were acting on behalf of the company (ie not doing something completely out of their work responsibilities) and that negligence causes a loss

gsmmad

guys im just trying to help ....i feel like im getting pointed and shouted at lol

Basically what i am trying to say is the actions of the sales consultant is against all policys and agreements of the company, however that person has done it off there own back. The policys are set in place in order for insidents such as this to occour.

I have had a e2save sales consultant sell me 2 contracts, knowing i was not the card holder and knowing i was under age to buy a contract. I could not do anything about this. When i didnt receive any of my cashback due to a small fault which is total fault of three customer care personel, i was told that i could do nothing and i was .....

I have a rought idea about the laws sorrounding this, however in layman's terms, the sales consultant promised something he may or may not have been able to provide in a years time, because he was desperate to make a sale. The company will take no responsibility for this persons actions due to set terms under his/her contract.

reehsetin

in my store also a phone shop if a customer is promised something, written on the contract and no dispute that is what they are offered they have to honour it and the dealer is reprimanded separately
but they can not to my knowledge punish the consumer for the retailers mistake