Interesting story.

Stay away from their insurance. I used it in the past, with the assumption that I could cancel my contract at any time, give back my phone and get a new one. It’s good in theory because you can have a new phone every 6 months if you so desire.

Two problems.
1. A friend of mine decided he would use the insurance and cancel his contract, but the person from the Reading Broadstreet branch had not processed the correct insurance. Oh well, no problem – you’re stuck with the contract. Big problem if you’ve already signed another contract with another operator, which my friend had done. He spent the next 6 months paying two contracts.

2. I also found that the staff must be targeted, and contract cancellations are a bad thing that might stop them getting bonuses.. I was told in the Shinfield Road branch that my contract couldn’t be cancelled because someone in the Reading Bradstreet store had “left my account locked” when I had an enquiry a week or so earlier. They obviously hoped I go there and cancel my contract so it didn’t affect the store’s figures. Not me. I phoned Reading branch and was actually able to get through (this would have been February 06, maybe before their new phones) and was told that it shouldn’t be an issue, my contract should be able to be cancelled from any branch. Sat in my car, I went back in and told the guy - assuming it was a mistake on his part. Nope, he insisted it wouldn’t work. OK. SO back in my car, I phoned head office. The lady on the phone was helpful and took the names of the staff and branch. I went back in, told them that head office seemed to think it was feasible, and all of a sudden, 45-minues later, my contract was magically cancelled.
So I would never use Carphone Warehouse/ Thankfully their business is becoming defunct, just like high street travel agents. Go to the operator’s web site and get a contract, or heaven forbid go back to ‘pay as you go’, I will be!

what do you plan to achieve through this video?
honestly d you think it will make a difference and stop the thosands of new cpw customers everyday from continueing to come into their stores?
Get a life!

Jonathan replies:
Hi Greg; thanks for your points - What do I hope to achieve? Well, I think I’ve achieved what I wanted to - just general awareness.
Over 3,000 video views, The Register picking up on the story, and, as it happens, something for Ealing Trading Standards to watch.
But that’s in progress right now, so I’ll get back to you on whether I actually achieved anything!

If, in the end, if makes Carphone Whorehouse buck up their act and people won’t have to go through the same crap as myself and a lot of others have done, then mission accomplished.

I am a former employee of carphone warehouse and can agree with some of the points raised by Marc. But what I will say is that you shouldn’t go back to pay as you go as you will be paying far more in the long run and before you say it I am no longer paid to say that as I no longer work for carphone or indeed within the industry. Secondly, as sales people in carphone stores yes we were targeted as ALL sales jobs are but if you were to return a contract under the insurance this is not detrimental to the employees figures or indeed the stores as it is not classed as a normal return. Also I would like to point out that its not wise to get yourself into a new contract before making totally sure the original one is going o be cancelled so I would say that would be mistake on your “friends” part. please don’t misunderstand me, I am in no way making light of my previous employers shortcomings as they were a daily obstacle for me and contributed to my reason for leaving. Like so many other companies that start off small and grow to very large multi-nationals I believe cpw has lost sight of whats important in a lot of aspects of their day to day business.
In answer to Greg, you are clearly a current carphone employee as I’ve only ever heard employees refer to carphone as cpw. I applaude your dedication to your employer but as you will come to find out, there is little reward at the end of the day.

I was employed by cpw for a total of 4 and a half years and I’ve worked in the industry for 5. When I started out things in the industry were simple and enjoyable. But after a number of years as things progressed and the company added more and more to the stock and service profiles things began to take a downturn I believe. To say the business is now defunct is really partly true but I believe cpw will simply evolve and change as it is big enough and powerful enough to do it in a quick enough way to see benefit. what does this mean for us consumers?…we’ll see.

A few points about this video

1 you are not entitled to a repacement handset, End of story, Your warranty entitles you to a free repair within the warranty period. So stop moanig about that, CPW offer a repair service on behalf of the manufacturer not the network.
CPW do offer a loan phones when available for a deposit, maybe you were not offered one because they had no stock at the time as 3 standby phones are very limited.

2. The store phone not being answered is not a scam, stores will always serve customers in front of them rather than answer the phones, i’m sure you would be very annoyed if you had made the effort to go to store only to have to wait because they wanted to answer the phones first.

3. Yes we had issues with the phones for a while. This was not hidden from the public and we have admitted to the issue being there, it has now been fixed and new systems put in place. There is now a automated call service that will do one of the following, call home, call mobile or email. CPW are always trying to improve our service and we can only apologize when things go wrong.

4. I worked in one of the busiest repair centers in the uk in nottingham and we always told customers they would not be called unless the handset went away for repair. Our engineer is one of the best in the uk and he never calls customers as there is no need.

5. You may have had the unfortunate joy of speaking to someone who was only covering or new to the store and didnt know the turnaround time of repairs.

We are not out to scam people but sometimes mistakes happen

GET OVER IT

Agreed Jon.

The public have unrealistic expectations and sometimes believe that they are the one and only soul that we should be dealing with and they moan to high heaven over the smallest things and at the end of the day you feel like putting it into perspective for these people (like the author of the video). ITS JUST A MOBILE PHONE!!! its a piece of plastic with a little board in it that makes calls, it is NOT the be all and end all of your life and you CAN survive without it for a while. Think how many people out there have a daily struggle just to live and you moan about a bit of plastic??!!

And the old favourite is “I use my phone for business” (like there wasn’t any businesses before mobile phones) and you check their tarriff and they’re on 30 minutes a month or something stupid. I find the public will LIE and LIE to get what they want and think shouting will get them further. Thank heavens I no longer have to work in an industry that has to deal with such morons on a daily basis.

Like any big company mistakes will happen and you will hear horror stories about almost any company in the UK and beyond.

Its a sad reflection on society that people only come out of the woodwork to berate and badmouth and put down companies and very little is said about the good work that is done by companies like Carphone warehouse on a daily basis. For instance I don’t suppose the author of this video thought for one second about how many deaf and hard of hearing people are helped to communicate after recieving help and support and guidance from stores such as carphone. Or for that matter, the volume of visually impaired and physically disabled people that are helped on a daily basis.

Carphone also runs a charity (and provides funds to countless others) called get connected which helps support young people in difficult situations.

Ever so quick to judge aren’t we Johnathan?

Having worked in retail for 5 years in a similar business, I can agree with your points Steve about customers thinking they are always right, and I laugh when people try and quote the sale of goods act (it really, doesn’t offer much!), or when they see something mispriced they think its their right to get it sold at the price they see.
I personally like to go into stores wherever possible, most are open til about 6 so its not always possible. Forget about the Blog owner’s problem, the issue of selling someone the wrong insurance (it was just down to a member of staff pressing the wrong button on the till) is much more serious, and if that ever occurred in the company I work for, we would have fixed it for the customer.

As with anything, be it football fans or CPW staff, a minority let the side down. I was told in a CPW store not to use t-mobile because the assistant thought they were rubbish. I jokingly responded “it’s not suppose to be impartial advice?” and she said “yes it is impartial its my opinion”. Needless to say, I went I direct to T-Mobile. They also do have good staff, I’ve had one guy call me to tell me when they had stock of a certain phone, I handed over my phone number with absolutely not expatiation of him ever calling, but he did.

OK, a reply to Steve and Jon

Excellent - nicely co-ordinated “random” posts (from the same ISP)

I guess this means that Ealing TS have now written to you (they asked me to give you another couple of weeks to reply).

You’re wrong on several points - it IS a scam if you CONTINUE to deceive and charge for a service which isn’t provided - and here’s the point - WEEKS after being told about the problem.

All it would have taken would have been the most basic customer service - call the customer.

Instead, I have to instigate an OFCOM investigation and contact Ealing Trading Standard plus Money Mail, You and Yours and Nokia UK.

And I wouldn’t even have done that if CPW had replied to ANY of the recorded letters.

And CPW continue to lie - CPW told The Register, after they contacted CPW for the story, that they would refund me if I got in touch. That was the second recorded letter.
Still no reply, I’ve also got a tape of me being cut off by the call centre three times in a row which is going up next.

A certain landline company messed up my bills 3 months in a row. I did exactly the same as with CPW - I wrote a recorded letter giving them a chance to redeem themselves.
Next month came a personal letter of apology, a refund for the overbilling PLUS £50 goodwill credit. That’s basic customer service. Do you see me bitching about them in the media?

CPW are notorious for treating their customers like crap, and if either of you ARE responsible for what happens in branch, you should know that Reading Oracle are on VERY thin ground with the Nokia service centre contract.

Basic rule - don’t treat the customer like crap and then stonewall him when he finds you out, because he’ll bite back.

CPW have my letter. A reply stops all of this. Until that time - game on.

Steve and Jon have the same IP hey?

Thats very interesting as we are two completely different people! I don’t live anywhere near Reading by the way.

Anyway, I shall continue to watch this mindless action and continue to chuckle to myself at how you consider it to be a david and goliath crusade and how your peers will sit round the pub table in awe as you tell your “horrifc” tale of how you tore carphone a new one over 8 pence. The human mind is indeed fasinating.

I’m sure you consider your actions to be right and you are of course free to persue them. I’m sure the outcome will be posted henceforth.

oh, dear, someone is whinging abt another company messing them over, dear me!

dont bother replying hun, i aint gonna be checking, i have better things to do with my time!

Jon replies: But you didn’t. You came, you read, you saw, you replied. But you didn’t learn punctuation…

i had some shit from talktalk and they tried to screw me.
you shld keep up the good work m8. maybe its takin too much of yer time but ppl shld know.

hi there jon. my name is dan and i work in the east mids for cpw. i have to say you are kickin upa sht storm for nothing!!!! you wont achieve anything. the 0870 number scam? get with it! didnt you phone bt and oftel on an 0870 number? the money is recouped for the phone systems and support that goes with it.

i never call customers its not a service i believe benefits how quick they come for thier phones.

- Not surprising seeing as you don’t do English to any comprehensible level either. Of course you should call the customer. How rude not to! - Jon

you need to get yourself away from your miriad of communication devices, build big big bridge and get over it before you become a laughing stock!!!

and losing a service centre contract would not be beneficial. really just think about it. all phones go wrong maybe nokia would like to hear how much you liked the nokia 6280. swings and roundabouts.

fool

Right then you muppet

I work in nottingham and have nothing to do with reading oracle store so get that thought out of your head straight away!!!

I have more than one email address that you can have if you like, yes i use an AOL email but my ISP is actually Virgin Media, how does that figure in your world now???

And by the way YOU instigated a OFCOM investigation, DO ME A FOOKIN FAVOUR!!!!!! I have dealt with OFCOM in the past and there is no way the would instigate an investigation over such a small matter, and trust me in the grand scheme of the world where people are starving and being murdered and robbed and god know what else you “problem” ain’t worth sh*t.

Guess what at work today i called a head office number and i got cut off, SH*T HAPPENS TO US ALL, this wasnt a customer number either it was a store only number so it not only customers that get cut off.

And finally just to really put your back up i HAD a nokia 6280 on 3 myself for 12 months, guess what not one problem except when i dropped it which was my own fault. CPW does thousands of repairs a week across the UK, you’ve had an issue, get over you’ll have more in the future from other things in life, god help you if a bus is late or something??

Oh by the way why didnt your original sales branch fix it? Oh yes no other major retailer has this facility, 3 could have sent your phone away themselves, it takes approx 3 days, they collect it from you and return it to you, why didnt you use them i wonder or didnt they tell you about this service of theres?

Maybe if you had pressed an option that existed from the ones you were offered, you would have been more successful.

I engineer IVR’s for a living, and there are hidden options, that are used for the purpose of testing, by the developers.

Having read James’ comment above, what made you press option 3, when it’s not in the menu? So, playing around with the menu choices, and for getting nowhere is a scam??
Interesting theory mate.

Jon replies:
Dunno - why don’t you ask James? After all, you’re sitting at the same PC…

same office, not same pc

Hi,
I hold my hands up I’m another cpw worker (Gasp, shock, horror), I’ve been one for almost 6 years. Yup, we make mistakes like everone else does but I personally have never tried to scam anyone nor have I ever heard anything about the extremely wealthy company I work for being so low on funds that we’ve taken to grabbing a few extra pennies from people in the silly way you describe. You are a sad abusive little man and I cannot believe that you honestly think that your moaning to offcom makes a difference. They have far more important things to do I’m affraid. Anyway I’m off to carry on checking my employee benefits, I’ll pop back in a bit to see what abusive reply you’ve left me.

whoops just read the top (that’ll teach my for starting in the middle.) Glad it’s all sorted jolly good!

I’m a TV researcher looking to speak to former CWP employees. Please get in touch cheryl@smokefall.com
This is for research purposes only and any discussions will be undertaken in the strictest confidence.

to be honest, everything aside carphone offer a very unsatisfactory service. i had a contract with O2 at the carphone warehouse, and guess wat i could not check my balance for the current day or previous day. it gave me 3 to 4 day old allowance balances and how is that supposed to help me. lucky for me i had a insurance and cancelled the contract after 6 months, and guess wat they try and tell me i can`t cancell it. i had to call their insurance department and let them deal with the guys instore and sort it out amongst themself. i had to use my other mobile i had from t-mobile. finally he agrees to cancell it but refuses to have me transfer my number by giving me a port number i could take to t-mobile. well i finally got this sorted as well.

THE POINT I AM MAKING IS IF I PAY FOR A SERVICE, I DON`T GIVE A DAMN HOW MUCH I PAY BE IT A PENNY OR TWO I EXPECT THE SERVICE I PAID FOR, I WILL NOT SETTLE FOR A LAME EXCUSE SUCH AS “IT`S LIFE.” ITS NOT LIFE ITS MONEY AND ITS MY MONEY YOU ARE MESSING WITH. I`M SORRY IF SOME OF YOU DON`T AGREE WITH ME BUT THESE SAME EMPLOYEES WILL BE UP IN ARMS IF THEIR SALARIES ARE NOT PAID IN TIME OR SOME SO-CALLED “IT`S LIFE,” MISTAKE IS MADE. SO LONG……….

Ha ha, I have to wonder why CPW employees seem to be writing comments here whilst at work. Surely you should be doing… some work? Such as, canceling those notoriously difficult contracts. Why, when I can apply for a contract on the internet in 5 minutes should I have to write a letter to a separate address with a cancellation code? CPW makes it very difficult to end contracts deliberately. You’re a fool if you think otherwise, its business. Well I congratulate you Jon for kicking up a fuss; god knows you’d have received a court order if you hadn’t paid any of your bills…

What ever happened to the maxim ‘the customer is always right’? We know what we want, why does CWP make it so god damn difficult?

they are fucking CUNTS that is all I have to say on the matter!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve just seen your video and want to congratulate you on your doggedness and persistence in not accepting a cheap, shoddy non-service. If 0.01% of people were as robust and resourceful we could eliminate these shabby scams that blight all our lives. Well done, you.

Have just had a horrible experince in a carphone waehouse store in Newry, Co Down….no manager or supervisor or area manager available to help apparently and when spoke to customer services, the young lady there could get me access to a manager or supervisor either. Perhaps this is whats wrong….no one seems to be able to take charge, its being left to some very young and quite rude and aggressive sales people to try and sort out customer problems when clearly they have not been trained to do so. I am gonna try and reach someone in authority and see what the story is….( one very annoyed and dejected former advocate of the carphone warehuse :-(

Could the fact that they’re all on here explain why Carphone Warehouse’s employees are too busy to figure out how every high street store is able to get PS3s in stock but they’re not?

Or is ‘out of stock’ just an excuse to keep dragging me along until it becomes too difficult to cancel my broadband when they don’t deliver? I wonder…

update dated 26.06.07 Which I read 07.05.08 (as result of ongoing probs with CPW).
‘An envelope … from CPW … which resolves this matter to my satisfaction’ ? Sounds like it was stuffed with tenners! How di I get one?
But I’m not after that or even after a refund, just a cancellation of a £60 bill I thought had been sorted out 8 months ago - when I last wrote & since when I’ve heard nothing.
This page confirms my observations. CPW are inefficient, there is no consistency in any two pieces of advice given & that they have a very loyal workforce prepared to defend their employer to the hilt for £14k pa (+ £3k bonus) If selling my soul I’d ask more than £6 50 or £8 ph!