Refund Due while Faulty phone being repaired..

prjohnsonnn10

Heres an interesting one... have a phone on O2 network via the awful Carphonewarehouse. Both CPW and O2 agree the phone is faulty and needs repairing...the aerial is playing up.

So..... having some fun now complaining to CPW as they REFUSE to give any refund while i dont have use of my phone and its being repaired...(i have an old mobile that i have put the SIm in as they instructed). I stated that i am deprived of the use of the phone they provided whilst its being repaired . They say guess what ". No.. the phone is totally FREE on your contract and therefore there is no refund due...."' Hilarious

Obviously trying to fob me off as i stated that instead of paying the GBP 24 per month i do now i cld have got the SIM only for GBp 12 per month. Anyway i exhausted the awful CPW !ppeal'process and now will talk to O2 direct.

i will go all the way with this to ombudsman etc and will obviusloy get a refund of some sort while the phone is !ut of use'but wondered if anyone had come across this before with mobile phone companies.?

Thanks

Browntoa

they are correct actually , the phone is "free" ( although cost is spread over contract ) and the cost of the contract is the sim package and seperate

you can sell a contract phone or upgrade as soon as you get it

grumbler

^ separate ^

prjohnsonnn10 wrote: »

Both CPW and O2 agree the phone is faulty and needs repairing...the aerial is playing up.

O2 have nothing to do with the phone.

So..... having some fun now complaining to CPW as they REFUSE to give any refund while i dont have use of my phone and its being repaired...(i have an old mobile that i have put the SIm in as they instructed). I stated that i am deprived of the use of the phone they provided whilst its being repaired . They say guess what ". No.. the phone is totally FREE on your contract and therefore there is no refund due...."'

The fact that it was "free" is irrelevant.
Their obligations under the SoGA are the same as for any other phone they sell: they have to repair it or replace in reasonable time and without causing you significant inconvenience. As our lawmakers failed to define 'reasonable' and 'significant', the only way to make this law working is to sue CPW. Do this if you believe that it's either 'significant' or/and not 'reasonable' and that a judge will agree with you:

• Small Claims Court

Anyway i exhausted the awful CPW !ppeal'process and now will talk to O2 direct.

Don't waste your time. O2 have nothing to do with the phone as it was supplied by CPW.

i will go all the way with this to ombudsman etc

In this case you have to deal with the new Retail ombudsman, not with communications one that covers O2.

d123

prjohnsonnn10 wrote: »

Heres an interesting one... have a phone on O2 network via the awful Carphonewarehouse. Both CPW and O2 agree the phone is faulty and needs repairing...the aerial is playing up.

So..... having some fun now complaining to CPW as they REFUSE to give any refund while i dont have use of my phone and its being repaired...(i have an old mobile that i have put the SIm in as they instructed). I stated that i am deprived of the use of the phone they provided whilst its being repaired . They say guess what ". No.. the phone is totally FREE on your contract and therefore there is no refund due...."' Hilarious

Obviously trying to fob me off as i stated that instead of paying the GBP 24 per month i do now i cld have got the SIM only for GBp 12 per month. Anyway i exhausted the awful CPW !ppeal'process and now will talk to O2 direct.

i will go all the way with this to ombudsman etc and will obviusloy get a refund of some sort while the phone is !ut of use'but wondered if anyone had come across this before with mobile phone companies.?

Thanks

If the sim still works you are still obligated to pay for the service it provides, you have no right to any form of discount just because your handset is faulty.

prjohnsonnn10

Thanks for responses so far...

Browntoa - you said

hey are correct actually , the phone is "free" ( although cost is spread over contract )

Thats incorrect - the phone isnt FREE in reality - they may çall' it free now to enable them to avoid any refund but they of course are implicitly billing for it as we all know within the monthly charge. therefore any reasonable person / ombudsman etc etc will view the phone as being çharged' within the monthly bill. Therefore by rights if i have been deprived of the use of the phone device due to a fault I am due a part refund whilst they have possesion of it.

O2 are involved simply as a further party and their complaints review team are looking into it...they were VERY interested when I relayed the comment from CPW saying that the phones are given away 'fre!'... !

prjohnsonnn10

Grumbler - yes i am ok with them repairing / replacing it - thats not what im concerned about here - im pretty sure they will do that - its the REFUND Im due whilst the phone is not in my possesion due to a fault - approx 50% of the monthly charge is effectively for the cost of the phone (irrespective if they artificially call it 'free') and thats the charge which on priniciple I believe they should be refunding.

Thanks for the details on Retail Ombudsman... I will look at that route once O2 have got back to me on the complaint review. I do have 5 other phones with O2 so I think they are at least preapred to look into this properly.

On a separte issue as CPW have been so useless, I have advised them that any time i take to pursue this thru Ombudsman/ Complaints review hereon in will be billable to them for my time. [Text removed by Forum Team]
I won a Small Claims Court recently against a private parking company who 'billed'me for their scam parking charge, i won at POPLA and took them to court after for my GBP 85 costs... CPW will be treated the same way

Silk

prjohnsonnn10 wrote: »

Thats incorrect - the phone isnt FREE in reality

The point being made is that on paper it's free whilst in reality the cost is factored in to you network billing ....unless of course you have bought it using O2 Refresh ?


Either way it's a purchase not a rental so any compensation you feel you are owed is not relevant to the monthly cost.
If it was being rented from O2 you could have argued you should not have to pay whilst you don't have the use of it.

custardy

prjohnsonnn10 wrote: »

Grumbler - yes i am ok with them repairing / replacing it - thats not what im concerned about here - im pretty sure they will do that - its the REFUND Im due whilst the phone is not in my possesion due to a fault - approx 50% of the monthly charge is effectively for the cost of the phone (irrespective if they artificially call it 'free') and thats the charge which on priniciple I believe they should be refunding.

Thanks for the details on Retail Ombudsman... I will look at that route once O2 have got back to me on the complaint review. I do have 5 other phones with O2 so I think they are at least preapred to look into this properly.

On a separte issue as CPW have been so useless, I have advised them that any time i take to pursue this thru Ombudsman/ Complaints review hereon in will be billable to them for my time. !!!!!!...!
I won a Small Claims Court recently against a private parking company who 'billed'me for their scam parking charge, i won at POPLA and took them to court after for my GBP 85 costs... CPW will be treated the same way

Thats your view. If the handset drives you service level so highly. Why dont you have insurance that does a replacement rather than await repair?
That's what I used to do.
Also what have 02 to do with it?
You bought from CPW. 02 are supplying the phone service.

prjohnsonnn10

Oh dear - some bad advice being dished down here above chaps ...

O2 agreed with me today that the phone CANNOT be deemed to be free and indeed if the phone is not available then a refund wld be due if O2 were supplying it. So thats the first part of it over - establishing nthe facts in law

to be honest thats never in dowubt under consumer law is it given that a sim ony is 12 a month and the same ntwork usage but with a phon is 45 a month - obviously the phone payment is embedded in the 45 and it wld never be classed as free

for the numpties above who were stating it was free take a look at this situation below
1- enter a nrew contract for a new fangled hi tech phone for 45 a mnth. note the sim only wld be 12 a month
2 - the phone stops working as its not comaptible with the network. the provider says sorry, the phone wont work on the network now and its a faulty match with our network
3 - they then say sorry but no refund is due and we will just send you a downgraded phone that does work and because we DEEM the phones to be free u cant get any money back !!

some of you are actually stating on the advice above that this is correct !! pls go andsee your local consumer advice people for advice !!

anyway O2 today have agreed with me that the phones plainly are NOT free and never have been and a refund wld be due .

that was always going to eb the case and now having established that it is indeed the case i can go about suing CPW for the refund and my costs involve din doing os.

goodness there are some arxes around in the consumer world arent there - why doe sit have to be so difficult

oh and in answer to the rateher unhelpful and irrelevsant comment above about 'why dont you just buy insurance...".... hello - i work for an insurance company and know the profit that we make from phone theft and loss insurance !!!! i have 6 phones in the house here and running 'self insured'is by far the sensible option trust me !

anyway chaps - thanks for some of the useful pointers above about retail ombudsman and the rest of the advice i think you shld go read up on consumer law!!

cheerio
ne with.

imagine the sceanrio

custardy

You didn't buy from 02,so why are you asking them?
You seem to be dishing out the insults freely. I do hope you spend a bit more time on writing your court papers. Wouldn't want to create a 'scean'

prjohnsonnn10

Custardy apologies but some others who come on here genuinely struggling for help would be mislead by some of the !dvice 'above dont you think ?

I didnt take it thanks goodness.

Insults? People above just seemed abit dim to be honest - O2 have CPW as there reseller effectively and have agrred to take the phone back for starters. O2 O2 suggest i send it back to them And 4 people above have said - why are you contacting O2 ? Including you !! Bizarre advice wouldnt you say?

Then someone also actually saad above that "If the sim still works you are still obligated to pay for the service it provides, you have no right to any form of discount just because your handset is faulty" whacky advice or what ?

anyway - hopefully others will see what I have achieved and i will ask CPW for the refund now . They will pay ..... they do once a MCOL LBA arrives on their doorstep - but what ticks me off is that large companies like this now treat custoemrs as idiots and most dont know their rights and cave in.

BTW - My claim to CPW includes GBP 18 per hour for time spent having to recover this refund... I will get it . as i say a LBA always makes these lot respond

adios ( and PLEASE try chaps to dish out better advice next time - someone else would probably have listened to you lot and given up!)