Dial-a-phone: a false economy?

Private_Dick

I expect most of you are such advanced money saving experts that this will be no news to you - but I wanted to warn people off this apparently cheap, but decidedly dodgy company.

Following links from this site to various price comparison tools, I came across a deal that got me a flashy new phone and an O2 contract at the apparently bargain price of £15 per month.

Unfortunately, nothing is as it seems with Dial-a-phone. My bank account is debited £30 a month, not £15, and I have to claim the other £15 back by sending the company a photocopy of my bill. Bizarre, I know. I asked them why they do it that way, and I was told it's because lots of people forget to send the photocopy. Another nasty twist is that you may not get £15 in cash - you may get £15 worth of call time or text messages. I suspect that, if you don't use your phone much, that may be what happens.

Then there are the customer service issues. The main one being that Dial-a-phone don't do customer service. They have a sales line, but no live customer service line. Just a FAQ page on a website, or a recording of a voice reading it down their phone line.

Unfortunately, O2 customer service can't help me with my phone because they don't support the phone that DaP sold me with an 18-month O2 contract.

I've consistently had faults with my phone, mostly minor, occasionally major, but I dare not return it to DaP for the simple reason that I don't trust them. Every time I have spoken to their sales team they have sounded like wide boys. If I posted my phone back to them, I suspect I would be without it for months and when it came back, it would be the same or would be a replacement with different faults.

Dodgy dodgy dodgy. I used to pay £5 more each month with Orange, but they had a shop on every high street that I could walk into for advice. They had free, 24hr customer service numbers staffed by real people. Their phones always, always worked.

One thing is absolutely certain: at the end of my contract, I will raising two fingers in the direction of DaP and getting both phone and contract froma major, high-street supplier.

chilli_dog

i have shared your pain!!!

a few years ago i bought a phone from dial a phone.

It went wrong and i waited over 5 weeks for it to come back, there customer service was useless then but sounds like they have none now?

you should list your phone make & model to see if anyone can help with it.

groovygarden

Mmm, I was actually going to sign up for a dial-a-phone deal today. It's about a tenner a month cheaper than anything else I've seen, but I keep reading horror stories & bad reviews online.

Is it worth the risk for £180? Need to decide today as current contract ends tomorrow and can't survive without phone!

I know the cashback is a pain, but I'm quite good at sending things off on time. Didn't realise that the cashback might be in call credit though? Think will call and check. Credit would be no use to me, as I'd be unlikely to go over my inclusive minutes.

What to do?


~*~*~*~*

Just got off phone with O2. Told them what deal I had seen on dial-a-phone and, after a bit of too-ing and fro-ing, they matched it and threw in broadband. V happy.

Private_Dick

Groovy - I'm genuinely thrilled that you have avoided a Dial-a-phone contract. Well done!

A while back I googled them and found a forum where someone who had worked for them posted about some of their dodgier practices. Anecdotal evidence, I know, but plausible-sounding to anyone who has had dealings with them.

I guess one of the rules of money-saving is that you get what you pay for, and sometimes cheap = nasty...

Quentin

The first real rule you broke was accepting the ts + cs when you first got the phone without reading them.

Then you would have known you had to "pay and claim", and might have stepped back from getting involved with them.