OK, this is going to be a long one. Best get a coffee and make yourself comfortable.

Around 5 months ago my fiancée took out a new contract, with phone, at Carphone Warehouse in Doncaster. At the time she also took out their insurance. This seemed a good deal. £35 per quarter, covering the usual. She was told that if the phone wasn’t repairable, she would be given a new one. Fast forward to 5 weeks ago, when she dropped the phone whilst out. This resulted in many little pieces, but it was OK, she had insurance ! The phone was taken to the same store, and sent away for repair. What happened then is probably best left to the letter that she was told by CPW to send to their CEO! Yes that’s right, CEO !

“I have been given this email address by a member of staff at your Doncaster store as I have a complaint that apparently cannot be resolved at a lower level.

On the 18th of January I took my Sony Ericsson S500i into the above store for a repair under the mobile phone insurance I have with you, as the previous night I dropped it and it was stood on. Despite the fact that the screen was smashed, the cover and keypads were missing, the slider was sticking and the phone kept turning itself off and on I was told that it was repairable, and it would be sent to your service centre, and I could expect it back in 2 weeks.

2 weeks later the phone still hadn’t come back, so I went in to the store to check on its progress. I was told it was still awaiting parts and would only be a few more days. Another week later I still hadn’t heard anything so returned to be told that if the phone wasn’t back in another week (4 weeks in total) I would get ‘a new one’ (the staff member’s exact words) and at this point I was offered a £10 voucher to compensate for the wait, which I accepted.

After the 4 weeks had passed I still hadn’t heard anything, so went to the store once again. There I was told that the phone had in fact been repaired the previous day, and would be sent back within a few days. When I asked about the £10 voucher I was to receive I was told that there was no mention of it on my notes and it hadn’t been raised. The staff member told me that repairs would have to authorise the voucher and they hadn’t done so. When I asked him to call them and query it he sighed and did so, but did not look happy about doing it. The voucher was then raised and I was told I would be called when my phone arrived in store.

I was called yesterday to say it was there, and went in to collect it earlier today, having been without it for almost 5 weeks, well over the initially promised 2. When I inspected the phone in store I noticed that the slider was still sticking exactly as it had before it was sent away, but I was assured by your staff member that this was because it was a new part and it would loosen off. I find this hard to believe as this did not happen when the phone (and all it’s parts) were brand new, the only time it happened was when the phone was broken. So asked him to call the repair centre and see if this was the case. They said that it could be, and I should take the phone for 2 weeks. If after this time the fault was still there they said they would look at it again. I was not happy with this as even to me it was obvious the fault would not just disappear, when the slider stuck you could hear something inside it grinding as you pushed it fully open. But I was told I had no alternative but to take it, so I did.

When I got the phone home and went to put my sim card back in it, closer inspection revealed that is not the only fault the phone has been left with. The front part of the phone has not been put back on properly, so it does not sit flush as it should when it is closed, and one side is sitting further out from the back of the phone than the other. The pressure caused by this and/or the slider not working properly is scraping the 2 parts of the phone together when it is opened and closed, and so the paint on the back had been scraped away down one side, and the camera has not been replaced properly in it’s aperture, it is off to one side.

As soon as I noticed this I returned to the store and spoke with the manager. I pointed out all the faults to him and explained that since it had already been away so long and was nowhere near properly repaired I wanted a new phone as replacement. He informed me that the insurance I am paying £30 a quarter for does not cover new phones, the only thing I would be offered was a ‘rapid replacement’. This is apparently a reconditioned phone which will not even be the same handset I have now, just whatever is in stock at the time. I can assure you this is news to me. When I was sold your insurance it was with the promise that if my phone could not be repaired it would be replaced with a new phone in the same model, and when I visited the Doncaster store previously was told that if my phone wasn’t back in 4 weeks I would get a ‘new’ one. I am sure this is a misconception most of your customers are under, as, funnily enough, it is never pointed out by the commission based sales people you employ that you are paying almost £10 a month for a used phone if anything happens to yours.

Since I knew nothing of this, I was not prepared to accept this ‘rapid replacement’ (which incidentally I was told would take another 2 weeks), and said again that I want a new handset. The manager said he would have to speak to customer care to get this authorised, they told him to speak to repairs. Their only solution was that I send it back to them to look again. Having been without my phone for almost 5 weeks, and considering the state it was in when it came back having been repaired and quality checked my them, I am sure you can understand why I am unwilling to do this.

And so I was told to put all of this in an email and send it to you and my last option. I now want either a replacement handset and some form of compensation for all the trouble and time I have taken over what should have been a simple matter, or else the termination of this mobile phone contract and my insurance policy at you expense so I can go to a company who has some concept of customer service. Either way I can assure you that as soon as I can get out of this contract I will be, as will the 4 members of my family who currently hold contracts with you, as I wish to have no further dealings with the Carphone Warehouse. I would very much appreciate your response within the next 24 hours.

As you can see, I have cc’d this email to the BBC programme Watchdog, as I feel your service and particularly the misleading way you sell your insurance polices need to be investigated in the interests of future customers.

Yours

Miss Jackson “

Pardon the odd spelling mistake, as she was understandably a bit upset !

Now the glaring question here, is why is there no-one able to authorise a refund below CEO level? I can only assume this is BS, and a ploy to get her out of the shop. Surely this level of customer service is not acceptable, especially from a company as well established as CPW. I can not believe that the store’s only response to the problem was basically, if you don’t like it, complain to the bloke who runs the company. If I had done that in my position of management, I would get one hell of a roasting.

I would be VERY interested in hearing any similar horror stories regarding the Carphone Warehouse. If there’s too much to fit in a comment box, feel free to email me at the address listed on my ‘About’ page.

All I have as a final comment is, ‘Buyer Beware’.

EDIT: http://www.the-iblog.com/2008/02/29/carphone-warehouse-a-result/ Got somewhere, thanks to the blog