wrong tariff

lola_2-2

I have been sold a new deal over the phone (a bit confusing as this was offered as an upgrade) and when my phone arived I was on a different tariff to what I agreed to over the phone. I returned it (within 7 days) and asked to cancel the deal but was told that I couldn't as this was an 'upgrade' never received the phone back nd was being sent bills while my phone was blocked for 8 months. (this was because i cancelled dd for £30 per months, and was supposed to be under £10) I spent many hours on a phone to customer services and send 2 or 3 letters and my tariff was changed few times but never to the one sold to me in the first place. Couple of times they even agreed that I was right about what I thought I should have but then my tariff changed to something completelly different
I have sent a letter to complain and £20 cheque (as advised by their customer services) to receive transcripts of 2 calls but no reply to this.l Can anyone help please? I have spent many hours, have different phone now that I use as I don't know what tariff I am on and how much I am going to be charged.. Where can I complain if I can't resolve this with Carphone Warehouse?Thank you

g33za

From what you say, you will need to document all conversations, dates and times you have spoken to them. Any written correspondance you will need to have recorded delivery slips for as well as copies of what you have sent.

You need to ensure the phone was received by them, did you send it back recorded? I'm pretty sure you can't return upgrades, unless they agree to take it back or faulty etc.

I would check to make sure the cheque has been deposited and perhaps give them a notice of action giving them 14 days to respond before you initiate court proceedings to recover all of your costs, this includes the line rental, your time, cost of calls and postage of everything etc plus interest. You would need to send this recorded to their registered company address.

Remember cancelling the Direct debit will appear on your credit file and is probably not in your favour for this dispute. That said if they cannot provide transcripts of the conversation that may be a point you can argue and may help in court. You can file this online using moneyclaim.gov.uk but be sure to give them written notice beforehand.

charltonfan1

From my experience you do have a 7 or 14 day cooling off period with upgrades, at least with o2 direct you do.

z4kir

from the cpw t&c's:

15.11 You may address any complaints in writing to: The Carphone Warehouse Customer Care, 1 Portal Way, London W3 6RS or if you have opted for on-line billing by email by clicking here. Please include your Mobile Phone number in any correspondence. If CPW do not resolve your complaint, you may contact the Telecommunications Ombudsman. You can find their details at www.otelo.org.uk. Your complaint will then be covered by O2's membership of Otelo. However, Otelo will only deal with your complaint if it remains unresolved 12 weeks after a deadlock situation has been reached.

I think your best bet would be to write once more to them with a very serious letter threating legal action or contacting otelo as you not satisfied with the current outcome.

You could claim for misrepresentation, in that they knowingly mis-sold you the contract, they "misrepresented the upgrade contract deal to yourself", you "relied on the information provided" and that in doing so you were "induced into the contract". Those three stages are needed to prove misrep.

You then need to state that they either acted innocently or fraudulently, if they were innocent you can ask for the contract to be rescinded (ie back to the state before you signed up, so line rental refunded and amount due cleared). If you believe they acted fraudulently then the contract can be rescinded and you can claim for damages.

Seeing as you returned the handset, you are obviously not using the service and this ought to work somewhat in your favour.

Paul_Davis_2

I had a very similar problem (I returned a phone to One Stop Phone Shop via a Carphone Warehouse store, as advised to by OSPS). CPW and OSPS refused to help in any way - they wouldn't cancel the contract and it took me a year to sort everything out and get my money back. In the end I asked my local trading standards office for help and they sorted everything out in about two weeks.

I suggest that you gather all your paperwork and details of the telephone calls you have made and ask trading standards for help. They don't charge and are so pleasant and helpful.

(I was amazed - our local citizens advice bods told me that trading standards have a department purely for mobile phone companies! I don't know if it's true but it should be...)

lola_2-2

Thank you very much for all your replies. Unfortunately I haven't kept the record of every single conversation I had with them as I was at home with a newborn baby at the time so it was very busy time for me. I had to cancel the dd as I was after the cheapest possible deal (being on maternity leave and low income) but they started charging me £30 per month..
I have send few letters including the telephone that came as part of the deal by recorded delivery and should have a proof that they received it...
I am back at work and the money is not a big issue now, in fact I haven't lost a lot of money at all apart from the phone that i returned but I couldn't use my mobile and for almost a year now plus I have really old one that I have to charge very often, so it is inconvenient too. But this is more about the fact that I was sold something over the phone, without any paperwork and am now finding it difficult to prove what it was. I think it is very unfair and I am sure that there are other people going through the same. I am really angry about the way I was treated, had a lot of stress over this and spent hours on a phone, I had no mobile for months while with a small baby and I don't have the convenience of having the same phone number any more, the one that I had for about 10 years now. I still have to carry 2 phones with me (I had to start using 'pay as you go' at the same time as being on monthly pay plan).

Unfortunately, Carphone Warehouse is not a member of Otelo (I already looked into this) and I don't think I have many options open as I have already sent a complaint letter to the address sugested in one of the replies, together with a cheque by recorded delivery but never received a reply (this was my second complaint letter)
Do you think that it would be worth estimating the cost and filing a small claim charge against the Carphone Warehouse?
Thank you for your help!

balmk

Hi,

not sure if this helps, but under the distance selling regulations, you have 7 days from receipt of an item to determine if it is suitable before deciding to keep it/notifying the seller that you wish to return it.

You should have received with the phone some instructions on how to return it.

Many phone/online sellers have an extended period during which you can return the item, subject to various terms and conditions.

On a general note, many companies use the word "upgrade" when selling you a new phone. On a number of occasions they have also been known to state that they are calling from your network when, in fact, they are not.

Best advice is if you get one of these calls, politely decline, then contact your network directly to confirm that you are entitled to an upgrade. You may also want to advise them that a third party supplier has obtained your details and ask for information on how to prevent further calls.

I hope it all works out OK for you - you may find that the network who is providing the service can help via its dealer complaints procedure.

lola_2-2

Hi,
Thanks everyone.
I have been in touch with one ot the helplines just after I got the phone and was advised by them to return it to the Carphone Warehouse since they put me on the tariff diferent to what I agreed over the phone. I was told that I have the right to return within 7 days and that it is in fact a new dea if my tariff changes regardless that they call it an 'upgrade'. Carphone warehouse ignored the fact that I returned the phone and wrote a letter saying that i wish to cancell but wehn I called, they said that I had no right to return and continued charging me monthly on the wrong tariff.Does anyone know if this advise was correct, did I actually have the right to return the phone and cancell this deal within 7 days? I assume they use the word 'upgrade' even if it is a new deal because there is no possibility to change your mind! Does anyone know exactly what the rule is, can they just decide to call it an 'upgrade' for this reason and get away with it? Thanks!