| Complainant: |
Mr N Walker |
| Town/City
of Residence: |
Southport
|
Wednesday, Aug 14 2002 09:38 PM
To: customer-care@cpw.co.uk; consumer@guardian.co.uk
Subject: Carphone Warehouse Complaint
Without Prejudice
August 14, 2002
Nicholas James Walker
Merseyside,
Mobile: XXXXXXX
Dear Sir or Madam,
I wish to bring to your attention the frustrating and time consuming
experience I have endured since purchasing a Siemens SL45 phone
from the Farnham branch of The Carphone Warehouse. The initial
purchase was made on December 12th 2001 at a cost of 129 pounds
plus a network connection deposit of 100. In May 2002 the display
of the phone developed an irritating line fault, which meant that
characters displayed were unclear or unreadable, other than this
the phone was in perfect working order. I returned the phone to
your Farnham branch and was told that it would be sent to your
service center for repair and would be returned within two weeks.
Two weeks later I was informed that the phone had been returned
to the manufacturer and that it would be further two weeks before
it was returned. The phone was eventually returned with a letter
from CPW explaining that the fault had been caused by liquid damage
and that the phone was beyond economical repair.
Due to the fact that I was unable to prove otherwise how the
fault may have developed I accepted the CPW findings, although
on contacting Siemens I was told that they had never received
or examined the phone. The CPW repair center had however damaged
the casing on the phone during their four-week examination and
had neglected to restore it to the condition in which it was received.
Upon a further visit to the Farnham branch the phone was again
sent away for repair, two more weeks passed, this time the repair
had was only completed on half the casing, so again the phone
was returned to the CPW repair center and another two weeks passed.
When the phone was finally returned it had been smashed in transit
so the CPW offered a reconditioned phone of the same specification.
The new phone arrived in the Farnham store a couple of days later.
This latest phone has the following faults:
a) the buttons on the side of the phone used to control the mp3
player do not work
b) the main dial button works intermittently
c) the battery only last for a few hours
d) there is a double stress fracture on the side casing where
the phone has been opened in the past.
The CPW customer care team now tells me that my only course of
action is to return the phone to the CPW repair center. In the
8 months since I purchased the phone I have been without it for
over 8 weeks. I now face the prospect of repeating the saga ad
infinitum.
I have written directly to CPW outlining my dissatisfaction as
well as sending email and filling in your customer satisfaction
questionnaire, I have yet to receive any response, although I
have received several duplicate questionnaires, I assume one for
each of the three times that the phone has been returned for repair.
On contacting your service center I was repeatedly told that the
repair process is my only course of action. All requests for a
refund, new phone or even to talk to somebody in authority were
met with disregard, in effect I was told to go away and put up
with the problem.
To summarise I have been without a phone for over 8 weeks, you
damaged and then destroyed my original phone, you have provided
me with a faulty replacement and finally you have offered polite
but blunt customer service. I want to inform you that CPW are
the worst company I have ever had the misfortune to purchase any
product or service from. I will offer this opinion to anyone that
asks me about my experience with CPW.
Yours Faithfully
Nick Walker
click here to
read Carphone's response to above and subsequent exchanges.
Links to other Carephone Complaints: Link1;Link2
Carphone Warehouse did respond to Mr Walker's
email above. But he is obviously not satisfied hence the posting
here. Click Here
to read the emails exchanged and then form your own judgement.
Comments are welcome.
update on 26 August 2002 click
here for latest
=================================
I am having the same problem with
the same company. I gave them to small claims court.My
case is in December.Is there any body have small court case result
as a sample? Please tell me (ynernek@Yahoo.co.uk) Yucel...27
October 2002
----------------------------------------------------
Dear Carphone Warehouse, In conclusion
of my letter to you, dated February 28th03, in which no reply was
received. I am herby today writing to complain about
the service that Carphone Warehouse provides. I received a Pay as
you go, Motorola T191, purchased by my father at the Unit B, Whiteknights
Centre, Shinfield Road, Reading branch, on December 14th 02, along
with extra text messaging services and free calls.
However, I discovered a technical fault with the phone in February
and took the phone to be repaired, not knowing I would be without
a phone for 3 weeks, I was left with a Sim card and no phone to
use my 5 free texts a day and free calls. I found this service terrible
as after 3 weeks of no phone I was given a new Motorola T191, as
there was a manufactured fault with the phone. After just 2 months
of purchasing this phone this was unexpected, as a phone should
not brake after this short period of time. Nevertheless, my recent
phone has now been in repairs from July 18th 03 ( repair log: 209xxxx
), as the phone wouldn’t switch on, as the charger was too
loose for the phone to charge, and the battery was loose producing,
unreadable text on the screen.
My father has contacted Carphone Warehouse on numerous occasions,
quoting about my faulty mobile phone. He also was not happy with
the fact that I was being given replacements that were also faulty.
However nothing seems to be done about the fact that I have had
no phone for an overall of just under 2 months, I have a Sim card
with texts that have been paid for but cant be used, and in 6 months
I have had 2 new phones due to them having manufactured faults with
them.
As you can see I am a very unhappy customer, and I don’t understand
why the repairing process takes so long if all I receive is a brand
new phone, which the same will occur too. It must be understandable
that I need a Mobile phone for emergencies and personal contacts,
also a phone wasn’t even offered to me while my phone was
being replaced. I have not yet heard any information referring to
my phone in repairs recently, so 3 weeks on I am requesting a refund
for the phone and additional accessories, which were lost. I am
not hesitant in taking this investigation further if my matters
are not taken into consideration and some eligible actions are imposed.
Concluding this query, I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Miss Rachel Vickery .. 18 August 2003
Editor' s Note: Click
here for Carphone Warehouse response
-------------------------------------------------------
I've met with similar appalling service from
the Carphone Warehouse. I brought a new phone in
April with a faulty ringtone/vibrate function. It's been for repair,
which didn't fix it. It was then replaced with an 'as new' phone
with a very similar fault. I could publish a book with the correspondence
that's taken place. I've been in touch with Trading Standards, who
were very helpful, and have also contacted Watchdog. I'm disgusted
with their attitude.
Daniel Weir ... 28 August 2003
----------------------------------------
Dear Sir / Madam,to say that I am disgusted
at your repair service is an understatement.I first
put my phone in for repair on 26th August 2003, having purchased
it in January 2003. I made it quite clear that I NEEDED the phone
returned to me within your 14-day 'repair promise' time limit of
14 days as I was travelling to the USA. This did not happen, and
as you do not supply tri-band loan phones I had to travel to the
USA without a phone, paying line rental and having no phone to use.
On my return I collected the phone on 20th September, so on this
occasion you had my phone for almost 1 month.
The phone came back with it's original fault plus another one courtesy
of your repair service. When I gave you my phone for repair the
fault was that when ending a call the phone would go onto hold,
when trying to cancel the hold and clear the call the phone would
then switch itself off. This fault was still on my phone, but after
your so-called repair, now the speed keys didn't work. So I gave
it to you to repair it with one fault, you supposedly repaired it
and gave it back to me with 2 faults! I returned my phone to you
for repair again on 27th September, again you have breached your
14-day 'repair promise'. This time it has taken 18 days to repair
my phone, (I have not collected yet but I will today), yes I agree
that you gave me a 10 gift voucher the last time, but what good
is that to me? Can I pay my line rental with it?
I purchased the tri-band phone solely for travel to the USA, not
because it's fashionable. I'm receiving medical treatment in the
USA because our NHS service is appalling, most of the services in
the UK are appalling and that goes for your repair service too.
When I got my phone back the first time I paid 1.50 for a ringtone
of my choice and 1.50 for a logo, this was just putting my phone
back to how it looked and sounded when I gave it to you for repair.
I will go through this process again when I get my phone back. Coupled
with the petrol to and from the store yet again I am out of pocket.
I do not particularly want your 'goodwill' gesture of a 10 gift
voucher, in fact I gave the last one away, I want you to compensate
me.
I am legally entitled to compensation and look forward to your proposal
within the next 5 days (not working days), if you fail to respond
I shall have no alternative but to issue a county court summons
against you without further reference to you.If you check your records
I sued you approximately 3 years ago and I shall have no hesitation
whatsoever in issuing the threatened summons.
Infuriated Marie Sanchez, London... 16 October 2003
------------------------------------------
In September 2003 my girlfriend bought me
a Nokia bluetooth headset for my birthday. The headset
did not seem to work properly, the battery life was around 30 minutes,
the range was nowhere near that stated in the accompanying literature
and the device disconnected from the handset on a random basis.
On September 27th 2003 my girlfriend returned the headset to Carphone
Warehouse in Gunwharfe Quays, Portsmouth and requested a full refund
on the basis that the device was faulty.
She was informed that CPW do not give refunds on Bluetooth Headsets.
I went to the store myself and asked for a refund under my consumer
rights. I was told the same thing. I asked where this information
was publicly displayed for my girlfriend to see before she made
the purchase. I was given a leaflet and told that the information
was inside.
I contacted CPW head office and was told that the policy was not
to give refunds on headsets, whether faulty or not. I was then cut
off by the person I was talking to. I contacted Portsmouth City
Council Trading Standards Department who sent me an information
pack that I should follow, which I did.
I wrote to both the store in question and CPW head office stating
that I was legally entitled to reject the item and claim a refund.
I gave 14 days for them to reply. After three weeks, I wrote again
and sent the letters by recorded delivery. I received no reply to
these either.
We have been to the store again who have now claimed that at forst
we just said that we didn't like the headset and did not state that
it was faulty, and on another occasion that we did not return it
within 14 days of the original purchase. We do, however, have witnesses
who are prepared to make statements on our behalf and my mobile
phone bill shows the exact date and time that I called CPW head
office.
They did offer us a repair or credit note "as a gesture of
good will". We find this, along with the total lack of customer
service and dishonesty we have encountered to be an insult and are
now taking legal advice with regards to obtaining a refund of 64
through the small claims court. I would be keen to know if anyone
else has a similar experience or have taken CPW to court previously.
Michael Bourne ...30 December 2003
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