Mobile Affiliates (CoolNewMobile+PhoneBoxDirect+Phones2YourDoor) in Administration

all_in_all

Hey HEY!!!!!! Arguing is not going to solve the situation. You've got to realise there are two kettle of fish here; the business minded who are treating this situation like stocks and shares, and the average consumer like myself, spiked by advertising ecstasy without being aware of the risks involved. But to be clear the consumer in this instance is not to blame and government legislation should have been put in place and the previous situation more highly publisised. I my opinion I think Ofcom should fine the networks for not acting with due care and attention to their customers as per their code of conduct which the majors all signed in july (link on a previous page), by regulating their dealers by keeping a record of what dealer packages customer were being offered versus the commission being paid out...a simple income versus expenditure spreadsheet as it were, they would they be able to carry out a feasibility check as to whether the reseller MA would be able to pay out. Alternatively they could have done a simple company credit check and refused commisson and to activate contracts on this basis.

The profile of this incident needs to be raised.

mobilejunkie

That is an extremely bad path to go down.

TheGame7

..........

mrochester

Hi guys I am in the same boat as a lot of you. I have a 9 month old Vodafone contract I have not recieved any cashback on, and a 20 day old Three contract I now can't get out of!

I called Vodafone on Sunday and was able to reduce my monthly to £20, but at the time they didn't know about the company having gone into administration. I will call Vodafone again tomorrow to see if I can reduce this further to £5.

I am in the fortunate position of my partner having an O2 Simplicity contract so he is ending that and taking up the Three contract. I also spoke to Three and they took all the details of the cashback deal etc etc, and said they would be forwarded onto their cashback department. They said they would get back to me within 4 weeks, and may be able to offer me a cashback deal directly.

good_cop_bad_cop

I sat down today to issue proceedings for a CCJ against Mobile Affiliates only to find out they have gone bust.

I guess I pity most the stupid telesales person who did not know what a Solvent Company meant, as much as the rest of us, they may well have a !!!!!! xmas on the dole.

It’s a classic really, I went to companies house / credit gate to find out who the actual directors are as that's where directors particulars are held

It makes interesting reading it you want to know who has your money

4-5 companies all moving premises, changing Directors just before the fall, I called trading standards – they said contact offcom – well that’s a bit of a joke really. It’s like the blind leading the blind being lead by the stupid.

I believe they call them Umbrella organisations, where the money about 4 - £10 mil just disappears.

Welcome to life in the UK folks!

mobilejunkie

I'm not at all sure it's quite like that - even though it may seem so. It's very simple; they were using the money in on new contracts to pay out the liabilities on the older ones. That's where the money went; they were losing a fortune on every successful claim and for the last couple of years people got their money promptly by all accounts. However, with such fine margins one mis-calculation on the numbers taking up any given combination of deals and/or the success rate for successful claims -PLUS any tightening of commisssion or late payments from the networks (something I've been VERY suspicious of since the Spring when - coincidentally - just about ALL dealers suddenly became later and later payers and started doing very similar things to string things out) - and the thing collapses. That should be understood and accepted by anyone doing a cashback deal with such a small company. Anyone reading the blurb about them being "trading partners with" etc. and not really digesting how they described themselves have only got themselves to blame. ALL companies have mysterious sounding manouvres in their listings. Only about 4 months ago people panicked on here because it appeared E2Save and Onestopphoneshop and a few other cpw comanies were shutting down. That's not actually what happened in one way - but has in another. Would a person stepping into a space shuttle at launch understand it all or simply be terrified?

I don't see much point in this kind of "research" UNLESS you do it BEFORE you take out a contract with the company. Anyone expecting something highly valuable and desirable for NOTHING would be very wise to take it up with great care. Sorry, I just don't get this at all!

skip2mylou

as a fellow victim in this Mobile Affiliates fiasco, I do firmly believe that the blame falls squarely onto the shoulders of Mobile Affiliates, not politicians, not Watchdog, not the Networks and definitely not Martin Lewis.

at the end of the day, the entire cashback agreement was signed between ourselves and CNM/PBD...they wouldn't/couldn't hold up their end of the deal and have thus left us hanging.

it's a little like gambling isn't it? you lose some, but continue to pump more capital in hoping for a windfall to erase the previous losses? CNM/PBD kept taking on new customers in the hope that they'd muck up the cashback process and thus help their cause. Should they have done that? No; but it's business and human nature.

perhaps this and Dialamobile's episode will highlight the importance for us as consumers to do the relevant groundwork, and understand the risks before nosediving into every hot, money-saving deal in sight. although i must say, sometimes it's really very difficult to foresee certain things, especially not events 12 months down the line - i certainly didn't think CNM was gonna go bust so soon; neither did CNM count on such a large proportion of their customers being meticulous cashback claimers....or did they:p

pardon the rant, but i hope everyone on Vodafone gets the £5 goodwill deal, and that those not with Voda can use that as leverage against their own networks

yabbas

4-5 companies all moving premises, changing Directors just before the fall, I called trading standards – they said contact offcom – well that’s a bit of a joke really. It’s like the blind leading the blind being lead by the stupid.

I believe they call them Umbrella organisations, where the money about 4 - £10 mil just disappears.

I think that's about the best summary made so far.




mobilejunkie: Out of curiosity - near enough all your messages sing praise to every cashback deal under the sun; and you seemed to imply that regulation would be a bad thing (for you.)

It sounds like you have hundreds of these deals going at any one time, and you're raking in a lot of money doing so despite the risks of "caveat emptor" because "you did your research."

My question is: why do you have so many of these deals going at any one time? The username implies that this is somewhat of a successful business model for you.

pin

grr, very annoying.

had a £45 a month 3 contract with CNM. Only got one cashback and have sent through 2 more claims. Looks as though I won't be seeing any of that money.

At least my contract is coming to an end in a couple of months.

To make matters more complicated I'm not presently in the UK!!

Big_Dreams_2

I hope all those on 'Vodafone are able to get the £5 a month deal like I did. My husband is still waiting for his call from them so im hoping he will get it too. Same contract and time to run so I dont see why not. I did also go through Quidco and got £35 per contract back so at least that was another months payment. Strangely enough they paid up to Quidco without any problems whatsoever.

I think the key to getting anything half decent out of your airtime supplier is to be patient and polite when you speak to them. There is nothing worse than someone ranting and raving because it just puts the Customer Service advisors back up.

Good luck to everyone still trying to sort this mess out.

Apparently there was going to be some sort of debate in Parliament yesterday, does anyone know anything about that? What was its purpose? I can't find any reference to it in the news anywhere.