Mis sold contract by Carphone warehouse

Joer1994

I’m writing this on behalf of my partner to not only detail the incredibly poor customer service that she has received by Currys Carphone warehouse, but to also seek assistance on what options might be available for her in order to gain a resolution to what is slowly becoming a rather expensive nightmare for her.

 

My partner took out a contract with currys carphone warehouse initially back in October 2021 with an Iphone deal that was suitable for her needs and the phones usage. She has been happy with the phone and has not had any issues with the device. Back in October 2023 as her phone contact was set to end she received a call from a member of the team at currys carphone warehouse explaining that her current contact was set to end and explaining the options that were available to her.

She explained to the representative on the phone that she was happy with the current phone that she had and was not seeking to gain a new mobile and infact would prefer to just continue the contact whilst keeping her current sim on a sim only deal. She was not looking for a  new phone of any type and she made this abundantly clear multiple times during the phone call. The representative on the phone then asked if she would like to reduce her bills by lowing the amount of data she was using making it more cost effective for her to which my partner agreed. The representative then stated he could lower her monthly bill meaning she would pay less but as a result have less data which she was happy with. He then stated on the call that as a “Gesture of good will” due to her being a long customer with Currys carphone warehouse she would receive a free Motorola phone that representative then stated “she could use as a back up” and this was classed as being part of the package for free. My partner never wanted or needed another phone but she proceeded to go ahead with the contract as it was sold to her as the only option.

Roll on a number of months down the line my partner has decided that she infact wants to upgrade her mobile phone due to an upcoming holiday and was looking to get a newer iphone. Myself and her attended the local Vodaphone store who we believed the contact was with in order to ask for a simple upgrade and get a new mobile phone. We were both shocked to find that this was unable to be completed and that she owed over £300 pounds still on her contract. The staff then stated that this was something that had been set up by currys carphone warehouse and that they could not provide any further information. Later that day my partner attended the local curry’s Carphone warehouse store in order to figure out what had happened. The staff at curry’s Carphone warehouse stated that the alleged “ gesture of good will” Motorola phone had infact been set in a full mobile phone contract which she had been paying the balance of over the last 12 months. She was shocked to find this out as she believed that she was only paying for a sim only deal. The representative stated that she needed to formally complain to carphone warehouse over the phone as the contract had been stated this way. My partner then contacted carphone warehouse via their customer service helpline who stated that they would listen to the call back (from October 2023) to determine if there had been any misleading actions by the call handler back when the contact started. A number of days later they got back in touch to state that the sales team had looked into the call and determine that there had been no misleading actions by the representative and that the contact was  legitimately sold. My partner then asked for the recording of the call through a subject access request which curry’s Carphone warehouse have supplied.

 

Now having listened back to this phone call myself it is very clear that the representative who offers this contact to my partner has clearly made her believe that this upgrade plan was a sim only deal and states clearly that the Motorola phone was “a gesture of good will” and that she could keep the phone as a “back up”. I was shocked even hearing the call as this was clearly sales tactics to convince my partner to go ahead with a contact that she didn’t in fact want and make her believe that she as only continuing with a new sim only deal.

Having both listened to the call we looked on the website for the complaints department in order to raise our concerns. However, it appears that they do not have a direct complaints department contact number and one only for matters regarding insurance. The website did however state that if we attend the store, they would be able help us. We attended our local curry’s Carphone warehouse store and initially spoke to a member of staff that was clearly quite shocked by the service we had received and looked to see if he could find any ways that we could contact the relevant complaints department in order to raise our concern. He tried very hard but could not find any contacts and referred us to his manager. His manager who was very unprofessional and came over and simply said the words that because you had taken the contact over the  phone it would be nothing to do with them and that they would not be able to help us today and Carphone warehouse was not part of curry’s anymore.

This is clearly not the case….. as when later that day we contacted the same contact number that we had contacted previously in order to obtain an email address to raise our concerns the call stated “welcome to curry’s Carphone warehouse”  we then spoke to the representative over the phone who was also extremely unprofessional on the phone and just uttered the words “the sales team has looked at this and there is no mis leading contact sale and that this has been resolved” and refused to give us any details of the complaints department or would not support us in escalating the matter. We have taken relevant details of the individual and the reference number of the order of the contact.

My partner is now in a difficult situation where she rolled into a contact that she never even wanted with a phone that she doesn’t even need, let alone use and with no ability to upgrade without a hefty £300 contact ending payment.

 

Curry’s Carphone warehouse have been extremely unprofessional in helping to resolve the situation for my partner and have just stated we have looked at this and deemed there is no misleading from their part.

 

We are now looking for advice to see what options we have in order to help resolve the situation and if there is any advice that could be offered by the money saving expert forums in order to help her so she does not have to make this payment and terminate the contact so that she can get another mobile phone from another provider.

Mark_d

You need to make a formal complaint, in writing, to the head office of Carphonewarehouse.  If they don't put you in the position you should have been in, with the mobile contracts, and compensate you for the extra costs you've incurred then you should proceed with issuing a county court claim against them.  About 20 years ago I also had an issue with Carphonewarehouse.  They refused to resolve the issue until the point where they received the court paperwork - an at that point their legal team proposed a settlement.  In hindsight I should have proceeded with the case in court, as the settlement proposed did not compensate me for my time and effort that had been wasted over many months.

la531983

Did they email any information through after said call?

Joer1994

So the only thing that was sent to my partner after the initial call for the contract was a email from vodaphone outlining the details for the sim deal, but nothing to do with said Motorola phone. it was only a couple of weeks ago when all of this was brought up that she got a document regarding this Motorola phone.

Joer1994

Mark_d said:

You need to make a formal complaint, in writing, to the head office of Carphonewarehouse.  If they don't put you in the position you should have been in, with the mobile contracts, and compensate you for the extra costs you've incurred then you should proceed with issuing a county court claim against them.  About 20 years ago I also had an issue with Carphonewarehouse.  They refused to resolve the issue until the point where they received the court paperwork - an at that point their legal team proposed a settlement.  In hindsight I should have proceeded with the case in court, as the settlement proposed did not compensate me for my time and effort that had been wasted over many months.

I feel this is the only option we have.

We are sadly going to make the payment to end the contract as my partner really needs a new phone prior to our holiday. We will be making it abundantly clear on the contact with carphone warehouse that she is out of pocket and they have forced her into a position to end a contact early. 

Thanks for the advice!

totally_jo

Hello, 

I am just wondering if you managed to get any further with your complaint to Carphone Warehouse. I have had a similar experience with their customer service and evidentially lost my mobile telephone number of 20 years after being mis-advised several times. I have attempted to write to Carphone Warehouse twice, to two different addresses, one of which is posted on their website for customer complaints and both addresses have bounced back. Any advice you may have would be really helpful, thanks! 

Joanna

saajan_12

Joer1994 said:

So the only thing that was sent to my partner after the initial call for the contract was a email from vodaphone outlining the details for the sim deal, but nothing to do with said Motorola phone. it was only a couple of weeks ago when all of this was brought up that she got a document regarding this Motorola phone.

What did it say about the minimum term of the contract? If partner agreed to pay £X a month fixed for 12 months, then she'd have the same issue if trying to terminate the contract early. There would be a pay off which is effectively £X x the remaining months. The fact that a phone comes along for the ride is largely irrelevant. 

sheramber

saajan_12 said:

Joer1994 said:

So the only thing that was sent to my partner after the initial call for the contract was a email from vodaphone outlining the details for the sim deal, but nothing to do with said Motorola phone. it was only a couple of weeks ago when all of this was brought up that she got a document regarding this Motorola phone.

What did it say about the minimum term of the contract? If partner agreed to pay £X a month fixed for 12 months, then she'd have the same issue if trying to terminate the contract early. There would be a pay off which is effectively £X x the remaining months. The fact that a phone comes along for the ride is largely irrelevant. 

Original OP posted September 24 and has not logged on since.