Carphone warehouse appalling service

datlex

Don't buy from the Carphone warehouse. Their service is appalling. They won't replace faulty goods. They expect you to wait at least 10 days without an internet ready phone. They were cheaper than other companies when I brought the phone. Clearly there is a very good reason they are cheap. There is a lot of truth in the whole, you get what you pay for wisdom.

Techhead_2

I've only ever had good service from them, so its disappointing that your experience has been different.

Although their current advertising campaign does make me wonder if they have taken leave of their senses by employing that idiot.

macman

You are not entitled to a replacement if a handset is faulty-the retailer can repair, replace or refund at their discretion. And 10 days is not an unreasonable time to despatch, inspect and repair a phone. Unless it's a business contract, you are not entitled to a loan phone in the meantime, though one is sometimes offered on a goodwill basis if you ask.

kai666

That is standard, my phone is with Vodafone at the moment. Exactly as you described. If you expect differently elsewhere you will be disappointed

datlex

Apparently if you get a phone off EE and it needs replacing, they loan you a decent phone subject to a deposit being paid.

datlex

update I contacted citizen's advise bureau. They advised me that if a good is found to be faulty within 6 months of purchase it is considered to have been faulty at purchase. The vendor can repair so long as it does not inconvenience the customer. Based on what I told them about the CarPhone warehouse policy of 28 days, they are going to get Trading Standards to investigate the company as they may be breaking the law by refusing to offer customers a refund/replacement.

Silk

datlex wrote: »

update I contacted citizen's advise bureau. They advised me that if a good is found to be faulty within 6 months of purchase it is considered to have been faulty at purchase. The vendor can repair so long as it does not inconvenience the customer. Based on what I told them about the CarPhone warehouse policy of 28 days, they are going to get Trading Standards to investigate the company as they may be breaking the law by refusing to offer customers a refund/replacement.

The wording is "significant inconvenience"
If it's faulty within 6 months they have to accept it but they still have the right to repair or replace at their discretion. If it's after 6 months and they were to dispute the fault, it is down to you to prove it, again it's repair or replace at their discretion.

macman

Citizen's Advice really ought to check the quality of advice given by their doubtless well-meaning but often ill-informed advisers.

Swipe

I'd never use them again, due to the bad attitude of the manager of the branch in my local town. Arguing with customers is not the way to encourage sales.

Straight_Mile

Hmmm, interesting thread. Apologies for the long post.......

I've never really dealt with CPW before however I've been after a new phone for a while as well as a new console. Money is okay at the minute but I can't afford to pay outright for a PS4 so was attracted by their free gift offer.

On Tuesday I decided to take the plunge and ordered a Sony Xperia M4 Aqua and a free PS4. I did everything online, paid the £29.99 up front fee by card there and then and was happy. Then I received an email from them a few hours later saying the payment had been declined.

I expected it to be my bank blocking the transaction due to suspicious activity as they had done once before with an online payment to EE, and so phoned CPW to make the payment over the phone. The payment however was declined so I called the bank - when I spoke to them they said that CPW had tried to take the payment 6 times or so. They said one had been authorised to go through (they provided me with the transaction code and the time) but was not yet claimed by CPW. Their advice was to watch the transaction and speak to CPW if nothing happened.

I spoke to an adviser again straight away to check if they could see anything, she said she couldn't but was aware that CPW had just had a new payment system installed and that there were errors at the minute and that they and their managers were aware of it. I decided to leave it for a couple of days and call back later in the week.

I called Thursday (my birthday!) and after speaking to a young girl who seemingly didn't know anything, told her I would not be proceeding with the order when they eventually processed my payment. I asked her to find the payment (giving her the details) and call me back to confirm they had got the £29.99 and would be returning it as soon as they could, as well as cancelling my order. She agreed and said I would hear from her either later that day or Friday.

So, Friday night rolls around and I've heard nothing. I called the customer services number to hear that they closed at 7PM so I immediately emailed them (I'd actually emailed them at the time I placed the order just to confirm how quickly things would happen as their Q+A section on the website wasn't great - I got a daft response on the Friday saying my payment was declined) asking for a manager to call me Saturday morning before 10am. At this point I CC'd in the FCA consumer queries email address.

I usually work weekends but had this one off due to my birthday - no call was forthcoming at any point on Saturday and today went to a classic car show with the missus. I get home this afternoon to find a response to my email (where I'd specifically asked to speak to a manager) from an adviser again confirming my payment was declined and asking me to ring a number to get it processed.

I like to think of myself as quite a calm and mature guy, but that was like a red rag to a bull. I work as a customer services manager myself and if/when my company shows this much indifference to a complaint or query, we are quite rightly embarrassed when it eventually comes to light to those higher up.

I decided to call customer services and was cut off (maybe by accident) by the first guy before the second one eventually went to speak to a manager. When he returned, he informed me that he only had one manager on duty and that he was 'too busy' to take the call. Instead he could arrange for a manager to call me back tomorrow.

I'm absolutely stunned that no-one wants to accept they've screwed up over this. So far I've made 6 calls, I've emailed them 4 times and I've even tweeted to them on Twitter twice (which I've had no response to, unsurprisingly).

What are they playing at?

HappyMJ

CPW sells unlocked and unbranded phones at a cheap price. Who else does that? I'll put up with them. They wouldn't let me pick up a phone I had purchased online as I did not have photo ID. I reordered it and had it delivered instead. They kept the original phone in store for 7 days before returning it to the warehouse. It's now been 9 days and I still don't have a refund. 1 more day to go before the end of the 10 day waiting period and I'll be calling and if they refuse to refund immediately it'll be a chargeback on my credit card.