CARPONE WAREHOUSE - is it worth taking them to small claims court?

acmills88

Hello, I am a newbie here and this is the first time anything like this has happened to me so I’m new to the world of small claims etc. But I will try and explain as best I can my ongoing problem with Carphone Warehouse in the hope someone might be able to advise me, or even someone who has had a similar issue.

Anyway, back in March, I took out a contract through CPW with EE as the provider, but soon after I was offered a better deal with Vodafone (I had already been with them for the year before and was upgrading). I immediately cancelled the CPW order (I was told this wouldn’t be a problem as it was within 14 days). I returned the handset straight away, didn’t even open the packaging. Although I didn’t hear anything from CPW confirming they had received the handset, I thought nothing of it until a couple of months later I noticed payments of £40.99 being taken out of my bank from EE. I contacted CPW online support team who told me it was EE I needed to speak to. I thought this was odd as I hadn’t dealt with them before but I phoned them anyway. They informed me that CPW had tried to disconnect the contract but had then cancelled the disconnection and EE couldn’t do anything. Went back to CPW who were still adamant it was EE I needed to speak to.
This went on back and forth for a good few months without any resolution causing me a lot of stress and frustration, as well as financial difficulty due to having to make a payment each month that I shouldn’t be making, equalling to around £250 in total.
Last month I finally felt like I had got somewhere when I spoke to EE and they gave me a final bill to then send to CPW (on the request of CPW who assured me this was the only thing I could do and they would pay EE the amount of the final bill). However, once I had requested the final bill from EE and provided it to CPW they then took ages confirming how much they would pay to cover it all and once they did, they offered me a cheque for the full amount which would take up to 28 days to receive. When I said this was far too long, EE needed to be paid the final bill and I was led to believe CPW would immediately pay it to the as well as pay me back the full amount I had been paying over the months. But this was falling on deaf ears and they told me I could phone up to ask for a bank transfer of the money which would take 3-5 days. I went with this option.
My last conversation with CPW was on the 11th October where I had given them my bank details and they had agreed to transfer the money within 5 working days. And guess what, i am still waiting for that money. I have received a warning letter from EE about not paying the final bill and if not paid it will be passed to debt collectors and courts. Obviously this will affect my credit rating. I can not pay EE with my own money as the final bill is in excess of £500, money I do not have.
I have opened up a case with resolver.co.uk but still CPW are responding half heartedly, not taking the whole situation into account and I am back to repeating myself over and over.
It might be worth noting that I suffer from anxiety when I have to speak to people over the phone, I know it sounds silly but I have to pluck up a lot of courage to make a phone call and I really struggle getting my point across over the phone. In this case I have had to make numerous phone calls and it has caused me quite a substantial amount of stress and frustration especially when nothing seems to get resolved and I am losing money and now subsequently my credit rating.
Before I would have been happy just to get back what I had paid out but now I am thinking surely I should be entitled to some sort of compensation over this.

Sorry it’s a long read but I really would ge grateful for some advice on what to do from you more experienced people

JJ_Egan

You can always claim back what you are actually owed . But compensation for what itemized moneys spent yes .
Stress then you want one of those injury lawyers we sue for you firms .

acmills88

So I can claim back the money owed through small claims?
And the injury no win no fee do you mean? I always thought those were for physical injuries, I didn’t realise stress would come under it too

mije1983

acmills88 wrote: »

And the injury no win no fee do you mean? I always thought those were for physical injuries, I didn’t realise stress would come under it too

That's because physical injuries are a lot easier to show and most of the ambulance chasing, no win no fee firms, only take on sure fire win cases. 'Stress' is much harder to prove, probably due to the fact that the word gets thrown around so much these days (not suggesting that you are, just that so many people claim to be 'stressed'). Also, what value do you put on it?


Do you have it in writing from CPW that they will pay off the bill for you? Try to keep all your correspondence in writing so you have the evidence you will need.

Have a read of the SCC guide here.

acmills88

Yes I can totally understand that stress is a lot harder to prove, but I’m pretty sure anyone having to put up with CPW the way I have had to would agree to feeling stressed! No idea what value I would put on it though, I just don’t think it’s fair that they can drag all this out and get away with it. They have not even once apologised or even accepted that this is down to their incompetence.

Yes I have it in writing that they will pay me back the money, I have kept all correspondence.

I have tried to get a response from them regarding the debt collection warning I have over my head, also why I still have not received the money even though it’s been well over two weeks, but they ignore it completely. Its driving me mad!

JJ_Egan

More to the point is what a judge would award for this stress .£50- £100
Much stress and frustration is just day to day living .

CardinalWolsey

In terms of process, you may well find you get a default judgement against CPW because it will cost them more to defend than pay out. As a sidenote, and as this is MSE, you might want to consider how much overall you are spending on a mobile if you are only £40.99 a month away from financial difficulties.

acmills88

Sorry can you explain what a default judgement against CPW is please? Like I said I am new to all this and I don’t understand all terminology.
Also I am not £40.99 away from financial difficulty but the point I was trying to make was that it was a monthly payment that I wasn’t expecting, I have a budget that i stick to each month to avoid getting into financial difficulty so with this coming out it didn’t exactly help.

Ectophile

A default judgement is what you get if you take someone to court, but they don't turn up to defend themselves. Provided you can show the judge that you have a valid claim, then you'll win.

acmills88

Ok thank you, that makes sense now.

fatbelly

You have an ongoing complaint - ideally you would wait until their final response.

In any event before you start a claim you need to send them a Letter before court claim and give them say 28 days to respond

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/going-to-court/taking-court-action/step-one-write-a-letter-before-action/