I would go further – I would say that car phone warehouse/o2 not only are dishonest and misleading but that they use pressure selling methods and target inexperienced young adults. Not only this but they put in as many obstacles as they can – most of which are irrelevant and plain ridiculous - to make sure you cannot change your mind and get out of the contract even in the time period where it is perfectly legal for you to do so and certainly not once it starts.
This is a long story I make no apologies - if you have a problem with waffle - don’t read it.
My son had a mobile phone contract which ended about 11 months ago. I am not exactly sure how long it was for or whether it was the original contact that came with the phone. Neither is especially relevant beyond the point that this story is about renewal and customer retention methods and to point out the fact that the phone itself belonged to my son and was not the sweetener to the contract discussed.
Near to the end of the Contract period (11+ months ago) my son was sent a sim card by cpwo2 to be used after the current contract ended – the reason for the sim became clear once the small print was read – to use the new sim card was to agree to a new contract. He read this small print and did not use it as he wished to negotiate a better contract. When phoning cpwo2 he was offered a contract which was in his view not that great but came with a sweetener of a £100 cheque, he expressed his indecision on the phone to the woman pushing the new contract and expressed the desire to have a look around before he took the contract to see if he could get a better one – no problem apparently – but she was very persuasive and said she would start the contract anyway and if he didn’t wish to continue with it he had a cooling period ( I think it was 28 days) in which to change his mind and if he did he could simply cancel it.
As wise old adults we may have at this point said no I will start the contract when I have decided but as an inexperienced young adult he did not. It was after all very reasonably put forward.
After a very short time he found that cpwo2 were offering a much better contract for the same money – without the sweetener but much better terms. My son went into the cpw shop in Falmouth where he originally took out his first contract to change to this contract and stop the one he was now sure he did not want that was sold to him by phone. He was still within the cooling off period so was not expecting any problems. They told him they couldn’t change him over and that he would have to phone the person who set up the new contract and get them to do it. He tried to contact the cpwo2 lady on several occasions increasing in frequency the nearer it got to the end of the cooling off period –but she was never available and her colleagues informed him that he could only deal with her and no one else. He left many messages saying he did not want the contract and for her to phone him back. She actually did but unfortunately when he was in a lecture so he could not speak to her. When he finally managed to talk to her the cooling off period had expired. She point blank refused to cancel the contract even to change it to the one that he wanted which was currently offered by them. He asked to speak to another advisor, and higher up the chain to try to cancel the contract and they also flatly refused – ignored the fact that he had tried repeatedly to contact the woman within the cooling off period and said that the contract was binding and that if he stopped paying it they would - in so many words - hold him to it, ruin his credit rating and I think they also threatened debt collection and court action. They apparently came to this decision after listening to the recording of the original conversation. He asked for this recording it was not forthcoming.
As wise old adults we may have taken it further at this stage... maybe.
He figured he was stuck with the contract – but he still had not received the sweetener.
When he was offered a job abroad 6 months into the contract he tried again to cancel it – again they refused despite the plea on the grounds that he could not use the contract abroad – they didn’t care and offered him to pay extra for precious little extra. He then found out that he could cancel his contract using his insurance (also with cpw) after half (or 9months) of the contract had expired, it would cost him £30 to do so. He decided this was better than nothing and duly went into cpw Falmouth to arrange it. He explained that he would be abroad when the 9 months was up so would like to arrange it now in advance to end on the 9 month anniversary. They would not allow it. They also informed him that he would have to come in, in person to end it and hand in his phone and sim card on the day. At this point he walked out of Falmouth cpw and came home. I suggested that I could hand the phone in for him – if he got the necessary paperwork and filled it in I could take that in as well on the day required. He phoned them at Falmouth – no dice. We suggested I got power of attorney to act on his behalf – no dice not acceptable he had to do it I person on the day. I got him to complain and was passed to some complaints department where we duly complained about not being able to end the contract on his behalf – they said they’d be in touch to hear our full complaint. I told his to go to St. Austell branch and put it to them. After a long and determined chat with them explaining the legality of a power of attorney they agreed for me to take the phone in and act on his behalf – without the power of attorney. Sorted... yeah right...
In the interim I did get two letters from the complaints department – one acknowledging the complaint saying they would be in touch and one saying that it had been investigated but as St. Austell had agreed to accept the phone from me they considered the matter solved.
On the day I took the phone the charger and hands free kit to cpw St. Austell fully expecting them to remember the case – it was after all only a couple of months before. The manageress was not there and had gone to one of the other branches. Apparently only she could deal with it... I started to complain about the whole contract point by point in a reasonable but not very quiet voice – there were other customers in the shop so the assistant went to phone the manageress. He came back denied all knowledge of the arrangement and said rather arrogantly that my son had to come in in person and do it himself.. I told them outright that wouldn’t wash and that I had it in writing that St. Austell had agreed to accept the phone from me today – I had the complaints department letter after all. He then went and phoned the manageress. He came back apparently she had had an epiphany and now remembered the case – they could take the phone. But they would also need the box!*! I explained that the phone actually was at least 3 years old and had nothing what so ever to do with the contract so why would we keep the box my husband flat refused to leave the shop without them cancelling the contract. Another phone call later and he could find us a box – like he was doing us a huge favour.
I had to pay the £30 but they also wanted me to sign a form which seemed to be an insurance contract promising to pay insurance premiums – when I queried it I was told that the form for ending the contract via insurance was the same as the insurance form originally taken out by my son – I refused to sign it unless he wrote that I solely ending the contract on the form – kinda like a ‘signed unchecked’ on a delivery note – he snatched the form back and said he’d rather me not sign it than deface it.
Still it was over – I came out shaking – the most difficult obstructive company I have ever had to deal with and like many I am anti confrontational and really had to push myself to stay there to get it done – they were arrogant and difficult right up to the last couple of minutes when they finally gave in. They then became very pleasant whilst they told me that he would be billed one last bill and then that would be the end of the contract.
One month after the final bill I noticed another envelope addressed to my son – it was another bill for the next month saying that money would be taken out a few days later. I phoned immediately – they were very pleasant and said unfortunately it was too late to stop the payment being taken (?) but I could stop it by cancelling the direct debit – unfortunately it is not my account so... they said that they would make sure the contract was stopped and the money refunded. Needless to say this month I noticed another envelope to them – another bill for this month. another phone call – this time me very angry, accounts blames insurance – insurance blames accounts blah blah – this time I have the direst line and name of the guy who is promising to sort it out -...
I recon there is quite a lot of the above that does not play by the rules – where in law does it say that you have to cancel a contract with the actual person that you talked to, to take out the contract in the first place – why will they not accept power of attorney – why do they need a box after 3 years, what was that about with the odd cancellation of contract form?
Post script – talked to a Norwegian student yesterday who said that in Norway the people have no fixed term contracts as they no longer allow the mobile phone companies to ‘poop’ (near enough) on them. Presumably they have been through all this - If they can put a stop to it why can’t we?
