The Mobile Outlet

claudio · 5 June 2007 at 7:39PM

I decided to get a phone for my son through TMO and getting worried. They confirmed order on 30th May. Didn't hear anything more so checked status on 1st June which was 'Contact Us'. Admin charge of £1.99 has been taken from my cc. Have e-mailed everyday, phoned for last 3 days (always in lengthy queue so hang up after 10 mins or so), faxed them and still nothing.Am going on hols abroad this Thursday so not sure what I can do. Any advice ?

Edinburghlass_2 · 5 June 2007 at 7:54PM

claudio, I've moved your post out of the now locked thread in the hope that you will get some help away from the continual arguing on the other thread.

Old thread is here...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=378836

and please can we keep this one free of sniping and arguing

maniac886 · 5 June 2007 at 8:09PM

claudio wrote: »

I decided to get a phone for my son through TMO and getting worried. They confirmed order on 30th May. Didn't hear anything more so checked status on 1st June which was 'Contact Us'. Admin charge of £1.99 has been taken from my cc. Have e-mailed everyday, phoned for last 3 days (always in lengthy queue so hang up after 10 mins or so), faxed them and still nothing.Am going on hols abroad this Thursday so not sure what I can do. Any advice ?

Hi,

Your best bet is to ring them again. Try 01274 587070/01274 714115 to get through instead of the using the 0870 number on their website. You could try e-mailing them at forumqueries@themobileoutlet.co.uk but it may be to late for you to do this. If you do get through to someone you could maybe ask them to put a message to deliver it to a neighbour or get it delivered to your son directly?

HTH
Maniac

GunJack · 5 June 2007 at 9:36PM

EdinburghLass - thanks for not shutting the debate down completely, and I hope the subject can remain constructive, honest and helpful.

Brenda/saint/grayme et. al - I am just about up to my 28 days (on Thursday, actually) with cashback #2 and have got nothing further from TMO. I will be e-mailing them via all three addresses at the end of this week to chase it up, but will not be threatening in any way. I sincerely hope that will not be needed in order for the claim to be paid, however, as I posted earlier, after the Just3G thing, I would be more inclined to follow the SCC route much earlier this time around.....

grayme-m · 6 June 2007 at 8:26AM

GunJack, yesterday I got my confirmation email that they would 'respond' within 28 days, that was 30 days after they received my twelth bill.

I'm going to see what happens if I don't chase at all...

thesaint · 6 June 2007 at 9:07AM

GunJack wrote: »

EdinburghLass - thanks for not shutting the debate down completely, and I hope the subject can remain constructive, honest and helpful.

Well said.:beer:

I have taken the oppurtunity to lift some info from the locked thread, I thank Cobra and Alec2006 for it's use.
See the post below for updated info.

The_Cashback_Collector · 6 June 2007 at 9:09AM

IMPORTANT UPDATE!

On 13 February 2008, the company issued the following statement in regard to cashflow problems it has encountered. You should read this.

"For years we at the Mobile Outlet have operated a very successful business, we have provided 30,000 number of customers with good service and paid over £4m in cashback.

We started the cashback model following on from visits which were made by network dealer managers, who openly promoted and encouraged us as a company to run with a 40% business model, even though our model was a lot higher. Unlike many companies we have always complied with the networks code of practice incl the 60 day redemption voucher return.

The industry suffered a huge setback when a couple of high profile retailers shut their businesses towards the end of last year. A few of the networks reacted by removing connection codes not allowing any further connections. This was done without looking and treating each business on its own merits. A gung ho reaction in our opinion!

Like every business we have Terms and conditions relating to sales, and it is some will say rigorously enforced, but in this we are no different to businesses like Nokia or Ford, if customers do not follow the terms or go outside these terms, then they themselves are at fault, however many will refuse to admit they have made a error and will still complain, it has to be said that the majority of our customers do comply and are happy with their phones and cashback, if they were not, we would have not been in business for so long.

The resultant encouragement by network to adopt this business model, has meant that over the last few weeks we have received complaints from customers regarding the status of their cash back applications. In order to clarify the situation and help customers and others understand our current predicament the following statement has been prepared and will be made available to all consumers.

“There has been an unacceptable delay in paying customers at present and the reason behind this is due to commissions that are owed to us being withheld from numerous suppliers. We have not issued a statement previously as we believed the situation would have been resolved by now.

Unfortunately we have not received the money outstanding and have no choice but to let our customers know of our current status. We appreciate that the inconvenience caused by delayed payments is unacceptable, but we would like to stress that we are attempting to resolve matters and the utmost will be done to ensure all customers receive any cash back due.

Chitter Chatter, one of the suppliers we are in legal proceedings with refused to pay commission due at the end of last year – citing their own financial problems. The money due from Chitter Chatter was used to apparently sustain their own financial shortfalls. This has had a negative impact on our business and subsequently our customers are having to suffer. It is important that customers appreciate that their delayed payments are partly a result of such companies looking after their own interest before our customers, a practice which we believe is completely selfish.

Dextra Solutions is another company with which we are in legal proceedings with for withheld commissions. We believe they have closed our account unjustly and are holding commissions which our customers are entitled to.

We ask our customers to remain patient over the next few weeks whilst we are dealing with the non payment of commissions. We will send out an email keeping customers informed and updated as and when we have anything to report.”

The IMPDA (Independent Mobile Phone Dealers Association) have been contacted even though we ourselves are not members, and have been made aware of the situation. We are hopeful to arrange a potential meeting with OFCOM to explore what help they may be able to offer in dealing with the issue. Trading standards are also aware of the overall status with each supplier.

Both Dextra and the networks were well aware and accepted connections knowing this model was, as it turned out unsustainable, and it is they along with Chitter Chatter, that is to blame for our current situation. We are still hopeful of a solution to this and will be in touch with our customers.

The Mobile Outlet Management Team."

Tyler_Du · 6 June 2007 at 1:36PM

A quick question about the breach of contract here, they have stated that they rejected the cashback claim in error and fully intend to pay the additional cashback claims on the contract.
If they breached the contract in error and have now paid the cashback they initially rejected are they still considered to have breached the contract.

What I'm getting at is, if the initial breach was caused by a genuine error and they had now 'fixed' that error have they 'un-breached' themselves by honouring and making the payment to myself for the first cashback ?

Secondly, they have not responded to my letter of action at all, will the court take a dim view of this.

Lastly, its now time for me to make the second (of five) cashback claims, should I make the claim as normal, will the court see this as me accepting that they are going to honour these cashback claims. The only correspondence I have had from them directly is the letter rejecting the first (and by the terms all other cashback claims).
Is it advisable for me to contract the company and try to resolve this before we go to court ?

thesaint · 6 June 2007 at 2:08PM

Tyler,
I don't fully understand your situation, so take my advice with this in mind.
They are no longer in breach of contract(In my opinion).
Take the action that you see fit in your circumstances if you are not happy with the timescales.
You can read my post above for the pertinent points or you can click on the link supplied by Edinbughlass and be re-directed to the same information on the closed thread.

If they have e-mailed you to re-instate your claim, then I wouldn't bother to pursue it at this stage, but it will help if you subsequently have to attend court when/if they do not pay you on time in the future.

Bollards · 6 June 2007 at 2:30PM

I thought that I would update you on my latest cashback claim, purely for illustrative purposes:

The claim was for cashback 3 of 5.

Paperwork was submitted within the 21 day timescale as stipulated on their terms and conditions, sent by Royal Mail Special Delivery. From this I was able to ascertain that MO received the paperwork on 19th April.

On 16th May, I received 2 emails as follows:

Dear Customer,
Thank you for remitting your cash back paperwork. Your cash back application has been submitted on to our system today and will be processed accordingly.

We will reply via email or post within 28 days of application.

and

Dear Customer,
We can confirm that the cash back application you recently submitted has been successful. Your details have been forwarded to our accounts department who will issue payment. Payment will be made by BACS within 28 days of the receipt date of your claim.

Rightly or wrongly, I believed, that from their own terms and conditions, I would be in receipt of my cashback within 28 days of their receiving my paperwork, i.e. on or around 19th May, which would be a calendar month from the Royal Mail receipt of delivery of the paperwork. As the payment did not arrive to this timescale, I decided to politely chase my payment by emailing the forum queries team, pointing out that they were in breach of their own terms and conditions for payment and asking when I could expect to receive my cashback. This email was responded to on 25th May as follows:

Thank you for your email,

I will pass your details to the cashback team to prioritize your response for you.

Please accept our sincerest apologies for the delays.

...and further to that I received this email on 4th June:

A payment of £72.00 has been paid via BACS today, this will take between 3-5 working days to clear into your account, sorry for the delay.

Having checked my bank account this morning, I can confirm that I have received the next installment of my cashback.

I am very pleased, although now I have to go through the whole thing again in about a weeks time when cashback 4 of 5 will need submitting.

All in all my cashback was paid around two weeks late, which I am not condoning, merely pointing out that a bit of gentle prodding doesn't do any harm.

I hope that this will help those, reading this new thread, considering taking out a cashback deal with MO to decide whether it is something worth risking.

rothers798 · 6 June 2007 at 5:16PM

Hi, sorry to ask the same question again but has anybody actually been down the SCC route or is it just me???

Has anyone ever put a claim in for cashback online, via money claim online, and had the phone company defend it?

themobileoutlet recieved my wifes 11th bill 19days (inclusive) after the bill date but they stated in a letter that it was outside of the 21 day limit. I can prove this via the royal mail. TMO have put a defence in therefore the case is being transferred to a local court.

Has anybody else had experience of this? Are they likely to settle before going to Court?

I just can't see how they can win.

Anyone??

The Mobile Outlet

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