to expect an online mobile phone compaany to respond to my emails?

[bombi]

I ordered a smartphone from mobiles.co.uk late last Sunday evening.

There website promises, " guaranteed freed next day delivery".

My order was accepted and I expected the phone on Tuesday, being the delivery date after Monday's working day.

I have received two emails from them; the first telling me there was a dely on the order, ( no reason given), and the second saying there were no stocks left but they were expecting some more phones " very soon".

As we are due to go to my step-daughter's for a holiday this Saturday, I emailed them to say I MAY have to alter the delivery address, depending on the dispatch date.



Neither of these emails have been replied to in any useful way, simply acknowledged by an automated emailgiving me a " ticket number " as an acknowledgement.

I ordered with this company as the deal was just what my husband needed and the price was right.

Am I being unreasonable in these days of computerised retailing to expect a company to know whether their stock matches their orders and to inform customers initially that there will be a delay when their orders outstrip their existing stock ?

They are STILL advertising " guaranteed free next day delivery - DHL or Royal Mail ), grrr

(angry).

I don't want to cancel my order as it is just right for my husband's needs.

Have any other Mumsnetters had experience with this company, and did they have their problems resolved satisfactorily please ?

[GingerbreadWoman]

Hi Bombi,no I have had no joy either, maybe they will resolve your issues and give other people just a glimmer of hope that this shoddy 'customer service' (HA!) is a temporary blip and not a mission statement. IMO they should have just given you a free contract as way of apologising for the hassle you have endured. There are very few companies nowadays who actually know the meaning of customer service.

[bombi]

Mrshess, thank you for your advice re. my contract.

Glad to hear that you received your penultimate redemption cheque and you're in the happy position of having only one more ( November's ) to claim.

But, surely a contract is just that - a contract.
How would I get out of it ? I've had another email from Aliso Bayliss saying I should be getting a signed contract from them, with the schedule for claiming the redemption cheques, early next week.

Shall never, ever order a phone from them again, that's certain.

[mrshess]

I sent one last letter special delivery and i received the money i was owed for 3 monthgs redemption although i am yet to claim in Nov for final redemption.
Bombi i strongly advise getting out of the contract as i have spent a lot of money sending special delivery letters getting them to pay redemption. They will not respond to emails and claim they have never received your bill for redemption

[bombi]

Still trying to get some satisfaction from mobiles.co.uk, who must be the most inept mobilephone company in the uk, both interms of actual service and professionalism.

Have got my phone, at last - after many emails to and from myself, mobile.co.uk and the CEO's office at Carphone Warehouse. It was delivered to our holiday address on Monday 20th September, 15 days after my initial order ! I had cancelled the order as I was worried about them being bona fide, so I guess that was a blip in the middle of it all.

Now, I am still waiting for a signed contract from them, set out on headed company paper - layng down the criteria and dates for me to claim back the redemption cheques.

So far I have had an email contract and one through the post, albeit on company paper, as per my request, but NOT signed and one of the redemption dates typed as September 201 - SPOT THE MISTAKE. Grrr. what a bunch of clowns !

It seems that the CEO's office at F [email protected] only intervenes when problems are not solved by the mobile.co.uk team.

I have been in contact with Alison Bayliss, the Team Manager, from the Order Fulfilment Team at mobiles.co.uk. ( pretentious or what ! ) but she went on holiday at the start and has just got back, so hopefully I will get a legal contract .

It seems to me mobiles.co.uk would not need a dedicated team called " Order Fulfilment Team" if they would just operate in an straighforward and professional manner.

Alsion's email is :- [email protected]

Maybe this will be resolved satisfactorily eventually, but there is a lot of poor management and lack of training evident with this company.

Wonder how Gingerbread and mrshess have faired since my last posting ?

Would be interesting to hear from you.

[bombi]

Hi GingerbreadWoman, yes have had a reply from Stuart Grant, he never gave his title within the company, but from CPWarehouse Customer ( dis ) Service, saying nothing to do with CPW, mobbile.co.uk a separate company, which is rubbish, as is all owned bt Charles Dunstone.

No help for me as my order had been cancelled there was no trace for him to look at my case. Surely a legal require ment to keep proper records of fulfilled and cancelled orders, hmmm?

I had said that I would be happy to renew my order if the terms were satisfactory and guaranteed., said that at the time.



Anyway, his reply was a " brush-off sucker " answer, albeit written politely.

That had been picked up from the email address:- [email protected].

Have emailed same letter of complaint to the latest email for CD :- [email protected]

Hope to get a satisfactory reply , but probably after the weekend.

I was comparing this company with Mobens, who had really messed up big-time on our kitchen, back in March, but they more than made up for their shortcomings and I posted on AIBU to say so.

However, this group of companies, Charles Dunstone being the CEO of them all, CPWarehouse,Talk Talk, mobiles.co.uk and one other also in the phone/media business, is probably unconcerned that they have and will continue to have a bad reputation.

Hope OFCOM deals with them as we all would like to if we had the chance !

Can't beieve all this time and stress expended on a few phone deals, unbelievable !

DH and I have had to postpone our holiday because of all the stress, just couldn't face the packing and journey etc, so stressed.

[GingerbreadWoman]

Bombi, have you had a response or would that be too good to be true expecting one over the weekend?

[bombi]

mrshess, I suppose your court case against mobiles.co.uk is still pending ?

Hopefully it will be resolved by CD ?

If I were he I certainly would do all I could to avoid a debacle similar to their Talk Talk fiasco ! Same kind of situation, aggresive marketing campaign with deals and reasonable price tariffs, then as now with the mobile phones, the company took on more orders than they could reasonable fulfill !

Don't they learn their lessons, good grief !

Wonder if this episode of poor planning and abysmal customer relations will come to te attention of the media, like the Next paid/unpaid returns saga ( last month was it ? )

I am so cheesed off by being taken for a fool by these high-handed and greedy companies! Bah !

Good luck with the latest email address.

[bombi]

mrshessand gingerbreadwoman I have had an up-t-date email address for C.Dunstone, and it should be the latest. From a very useful site :- htpp://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceomail.html

Did have an acknowledgement from my email that did get through to his previous email address. Maybe the different emails addresses are filtered in some way according to their perceived importance, I dunno.



Have ready the biogs about him, just type in his name, and he does appear to boast about his attention to " customer service ". More like " customer dis-service " from the mobiles.co.arm of the group !

Maybe he's the kind of CEO who really desn't want to know about any problems and is shielded from them by his close staff ?

Or maybe the company's aggresive selling policy accepts that there will always be a percentage of dissatisfied customers that will suffer for the drive for greater profits and share of the market ?

Wonder if we'll get anywhere over the w/end, or have to wait for Monday for some action ?

[mrshess]

I have tried both email addresses and both were sent back failed delivery. The company must be about to go bust so dont hold much hope of getting money.

[bombi]

GingerbreadWoman thank you, shall try those two email addresses.

Have had an email enquiry from " the mobs. " sales team asking me if my query is still live ?

Was sent at 4.17 'ish and by the time I saw it and rang the number, guess what - yes, all the lines were down due to " unforeseen circumstances ". Probably those circs. so many customers angry at being ripped off !

Have replied by email, but doubt if I'll get a reply any time soon, but would love to be proved wrong ( if any of The Mob's management read this do take the reins.


Will post if either of those two latest emails find their mar

[GingerbreadWoman]

Hi mrshess & bombi, email address is [email protected] (not cpwplc). I have sent one to that address this afternoon and got a confirmation of receipt back from the address [email protected] so maybe worth trying those 2 addresses as they are definitely working.

[bombi]

My email message to Charles Dunstone sent at 3.00pm today has been rejected, sent it to
;- [email protected], has anyone else had their recent emails to him rejected, too ?

Put a hold on my complaint to Ofcom, but I saved it so can whizz it off quickly.

I'm surprised no-one from mobiles.co.uk has posted here, hmmm?

[mrshess]

Gingerbread have tried new email no luck, bombi i will post complaint as well and hopefully the company will be looked into. After reading so many bad reviews of being ripped off this company how do they expect to get away with it?

[bombi]

Ooops sorry, GingerbreadWoman, I should have checked very latest postings, I'm new at this, sorry again. Will try nthis new email, thank you.

[bombi]

Mrshess, I am typin g out a complaint about mobiles.co.uk on the Ofcom site at this moment ( on laptop). I just typed in Ofcom/complaints in the search engine then went to sub-section/consumers/mis-selling mobile and phone services/switched company without p-ermission or given misleading info.during sales proccess/ tyhen you have to fill in an obligitary field musual stuff, then space for a precis of the complain.

Hope this puts a rocket up mobiles.co.uk and Charles Dunstone. Wonder if his non e-mail address is anything to do with all this, as you think ? Bit of a coincidence really ?

Have spent so much time chasing my phone am getting more and more angry.

I'm meant to be packing for our hols.tomorrow, grr!

Also, I've e-mailed that connectotel.co CEO info service that GingerbreadWoman posted yesterday giving CD's email address, and have informed them it is no longer valid - do they have his new one. Will post if/when I get a reply.

[GingerbreadWoman]

Oooops!!!My fault, gave you an old address, try this one, this one does work [email protected], good luck!!

[mrshess]

I just tried that email and it failed to deliver. Do you reckon he has had a flood of emails?

[bombi]

Flossie , thank you, I've been trying to get a alid contact number since GingerBreadWoman posted CEO's email address. Unfortunately it is longer valid, so more frustration,grrr!

S

but how can I cc Charles Dunstone when I haven't got a current email address, please ?

Have had an automated Customer Satisfaction Query sent to me by " The Mob.co.uk " !!!
Priceless !!!

[flossie64]

you will get a relpy from his PA. They ask you to keep in touch if you do not get your problem resolved.
I CC'd him and OFCOM on my last email to Mobiles.co.uk , funny they acted on that one

[bombi]

Thank you GingerbreadWoman, I'm drafting my email to Charles D. now. Unfortunately my DH is really brassed - off with it all and thinks I'm wasting my time pursuing any redress.



However, I'm a firm believer in the combined power of the M/Netters, after all weren't the Main Political Party leaders falling over themselves to be on Mumsnet before the Election in May ?

And, my Moben kitchenhorror story was resolved satisfactorily after the massive pressure of M/N's complaints.

I''ll post when I have some new development.
Thanks for the encouragment, Ilythia but it was a redemption deal, but don't know why they can't deliver a " guaranteed free next day delivery" as per their website, STILL,
under those terms.

Maybe in the very,very small print there is a waiver re this guaranteed next day delivery promise that exonerates them.
as far as I'm concerned they have acted and are still acting fraudulently re this.

I'd be very happy to have a conversation with Mr Dunstone or his head of sales about it and will share with you all.

[Ilythia]

As reassurance I ordered a phone and netbook deal from them recently and it all came through fine. I did order a handset that was ouit of stock but cancelled trhat order and changed it, so that delayed my delivery by a day, but I ordered on the saturday and it turned up on the wednesday with no problems.
I did see the reviews and just didn't choose an option with redemption as that seemed to be where the problem lay.
So don't be disheartened!

[GingerbreadWoman]

Charles Dunstone's (Carphone Warehouse CEO)email address is [email protected]. Happy emailing!

[bombi]

thank you all MumsNetters, what a lot of similar stories to mine.

Thank you Flossie and GingerbreadWoman for the contact phone number and option number and the name of Dawn the escalation manageress.

I have cancelled my order and received yet another automated " Ticket Number" grr! Had that acknowledgement twice for some reason ?

After reading the reviews on the reviews website for mobiles.co.uk ( could kick myself for not looking for them before I ordered), we were very worried we would end up with no phone and an open-ended bank account/credit account grab from their end.

Shall try to get the email address for the CEO Charles Dunstone ( Carphone Warehouse Ltd), will post it here if I get any joy.

[BootyMum]

Hopefully your bank should be able to cancel any direct debits for you... Good luck!!!

[mrshess]

Good advice from flossie i forgot about them charging £5.99 a month for gadget helpline which i didnt ask for but they bill you automatically.
I really hope you have more luck than i have had although my issue with them is cashback and they dont respond to recorded letters