Carphone Warehouse refusing to cancel contract - please help!

asilverlining

Hi all - I'm very new here, but I would really appreciate some help (it's a bit of a messed up situation)! Apologies, it's a very long read.

I purchased a mobile phone contract with O2 via Carphone Warehouse (CPW) on 22/11/2015, and received the package on 24/11/2015. However, on 5/12/2015 (within the 14 day return period), I contacted O2 to cancel the contract, and was advised to contact CPW instead, as I had purchased the contract through them. As such, I filled in a returns form on the CPW website to request the cancellation of the contract - I also sent an additional email to their customer services saying the same thing. This was also done on the 5th of December.

On 7/12/2015, I received an email from CPW stating: "I can confirm that we operate a 14 day return policy, however, you are now outside of this period. The Carphone Warehouse will therefore be unable to cancel this for you."

However, having referred to the gov.uk website, I found that it said: "You must offer a refund to customers if they’ve told you within 14 days of receiving their goods that they want to cancel. They have another 14 days to return the goods once they’ve told you. You must refund the customer within 14 days of receiving the goods back."

As such, I emailed them back to say my understanding was that since I had contacted them within the 14 day period, I was still eligible for the return.

I then received another email stating: "I'm sorry to advise that the contract cannot be cancelled as your item was not return back to us within the 14 days returns policy."

However, this goes against my understanding of the advice provided by gov.uk, as I believed that I had an additional 14 days after notifying CPW to return the phone.

I called CPW on 9/12/2015 to speak to Customer Services directly, and was rudely told that I couldn't get a refund as I hadn't gone in store and that I shouldn't have emailed to say I wanted to cancel the contract. I said I had been extremely busy the last few weeks, and that I had emailed as it was most convenient, but was heavily criticised by Customer Services for my actions.

I went back to O2 to ask if there was anything they could do under the circumstances, but was told to go back to CPW. However, O2 does know that I wanted to cancel my contract - their Customer Services were really helpful, and said that it was in my notes that I'd called on 5/12 to request a termination (and that I was definitely within the 14 day period). Nevertheless, their hands are tied, as it's all up to CPW. However, CPW are being extremely unhelpful, even though I repeatedly stated that I was within my rights as a consumer.

At £18.50 a month, the contract won't exactly kill me - but I already have a phone, and a change in circumstances means I no longer require a 2nd phone, so I'd rather not be stuck wasting over £400 for two years on a phone I will never use.

What are my options in this case?

Thank you!

grumbler

My understanding is that if you started using the services (did you?), the Consumer Contract Regulations don't apply and you are at mercy of CPW's internal returns/cancellation policy: online orders.

What does the policy say?

Ian011

Was this a new contract with a brand new number, or was it an upgrade to an existing contract?

Did you order this online or did you start the purchase within a store?

diamonds

14 days goes from accepted delivery date to the point you informed CPW, as per their own T&C, the 5th is indeed within the period when you notified of the return request, NOT when they tried to action it.

Not adhering to your own returns policy period to entice sales is mis-selling.

Try
http://www.resolver.co.uk/companies/carphone-warehouse-complaints


or email the CPW CEO and your local authority Trading Standards team a complaint of refusing return as per T&C and mis-selling.

Herongull

Did you purchase online/by phone or in a shop?

If the former you have the protection of the Consumer Contracts Regs (replacement of the Distance Selling Regs).

See: http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-contracts-regulations

Your 14 days starts from when you entered into the service contract or 14 days from when you received the goods.

It doesn't matter if you used the service as you can still cancel although you may have to pay for the few days of service used. Upgrade is irrelevant as that is just market-speak for a new contract taken out by an existing customer and not an exception to the CCRs.

The 14 days is simply to inform them that you want to cancel. You then have a further 14 days to return the goods