Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

get rid of them Paul. Bad service shouldn`t be tolerated - otherwise it will just carry on.

plus, as you say, no wonder we have a phishing problem.

@Nic - you’re right. I just need to sit down and write the letter. Another process made difficult. To leave Carephone, you need to:

1) call a specific number
2) get put through to a specific team
3) request a specific reference number that only they can give out
4) write to their PO Box number quoting that reference number.

Do you think they’re trying to make it difficult? Obviously it has worked because my contract was up in May. I’m definitely going to do it tomorrow!! Will report back with a new post and have a drink tomorrow in London to celebrate

5423-6345-0789-1234 exp: 07/08 code: 171

oh shit..

@Phil, you missed a digit

Pretty funny, Phil. I never give out personal info on a cell phone, especially when you have no way to identify whom you’re speaking with.

Customer service is just so awful nowadays.

i have just re your post and am in complete agrement with you. i used to work for cpw and i understand the importace of data protection, expecialy when taking in coming calls, and would never progress a call if the customer on the other end did not meet all the requirements, however i became very irratated with carphones ”outbound call” data protection verification, on reciept of the customer answearing, we then had to procedee to ask full name and address, mobile number and if they could confirm the name of the bank they use and account details!! and yes i found that many people are very reluctant to provide this information when you are calling them, i my self will never give this information so can understand the customers point of view. i will advise that all cpw employess have acesss to all your personal information and most of this info can also be found on you bill, however the ivr will ask for a pin number when you call and this held on the system and will never be available on any paper form (fyi staff canot print of customer account details as each team do not have acess to a printer only team managers can arrange this. So as it has been pointed out to the managers, wouldnt it be advisable when making outbound calls just to confirm the customers full name and address to them, then ask for them to confirm the customer service pin number? but in hind sight the company is full of staff that just dont have the first idea of what customer service actually is!! whislt working for cpw i found that the company is more staff focused than on the customer and coming from the customer service background that i have i found the way of working totaly unaceptable from the point of the customer, but if you have a major problem with the company, you will be told to right in to high level complaints, this is just another way of avoiding the problem, unlike most call centers cpw does not have a set team to deal with complaint calls, if you ask to speak to a manager you may get a little resolution but at the end of the day when the agent tells you thats all they can do or they can’ not do that they are not feeding you bullshit, the reason for this is that most requests are sent to a ”back office team based in portugal to complete any account amendments!!! ohh and the only way for the agents to contact them is via email and then you would not get a response back!! most things the staff can do are change your mobile number, address and any other personal details, view calls made and recived add extras to your account and provide settings for your phone, take payments and amend billing dates and payment dates!! the important things like disconecting your account, re-billing etc can only be done via submiting a request to the idiots in portugal!! so my advice if you have a major complaint is save your money and bypass the call center and just write in it may take a little longer to get a resolution but at least you will get it sorted, ohh and another handy bit of advice is to send any correspondance recorded delivery as most complaint letters seem to get lost!! also the number iu use to call customer service isnt free it is allocated from your allowance!!!

Andy, I took action. I left Carphone and am now with O2 direct again. I’ve never had any problems with O2 customer support so I probably shouldn’t have left them in the first place.

Thanks for your comment. I actually got to learn most of the process you explained after a constant struggle over 12 months of pure hell.

Customer service? Carphone Warehouse can’t even spell that one!

My personal experience with them is soured, I was a happy Talktalk phone customer when they brought out their broadband package. As an IT Manager who occasionally works from home this looked great, until that is, I started using it.

Problems began almost immediately, calls to their technical helpline ended in talking to a techno-muppet who had no technical knowledge at all. They did promise to have a techie call me back but they never did and I fixed it myself in the end. That call cost me £5!!! should have suspected something was up then.

I took their standard 18 month contract but was never happy with their service. The conection rates were slow but that was OK, they promised that their own equipment would be installed in the exchanges with 3 months, ermmm how long was it guys??

Main problem for me was the disconnection rates, when logged into my companies system remotely and trying to work I would be disconnected on average every 30 minutes. Numerous calls to them resulted in… you guessed it Nothing!

Eventually I had had enough and migrated to BT.. Talktalk then passed me my final bill - in the region of £70 pounds which included £16 for an early termination fee. By this time I was 17 months into an 18 month contract. I gladly paid the due fees but refused to pay the termination fee.

Guess what, the nice guys at Talktalk set the lawyers and debt collectors loose on me for the £16. Not only that but when I coughed up they charged me an extra £2 to process it.

I hope you’re proud of your business ethics Mr Dunstone, I’m afraid that I do agree with the header here - you ARE a bunch of criminals who have prostitued yourselves for profit

Carphone Whorehouse more like, Merry Christmas Mr Scrooge!

couldnt agree more  my phone is 4 months old and been in for repair 4 times  C P W staff are appalling and arrogant   Its still not working and 3weeks on phone and  7 visits to shop and i still cant get a new phone  !!!        CPW are total crap

 
Just in relation to the above comment posted by mr crouch, if your phone goes for three repairs and the problem is still happening you receive a new phone, unless you have caused the damage yourself ie physical damage or liquid/moisture damage which are not covered under a warranty on any electrical product.
Michelle (cpw staff)
 
 
 

Hello everyone

I thought it was just me. After 12 months i canceled due to the rubbish service. I then got promised the world and even a brand new phone the next day unlimited texts everything beginning of Feb. Like a sucker i agreed!! Phone never turned up. First bill after the call not the deal i agreed to. Ive been trying to cancel every week since February and although I’ve been nearly there still got a new bill this morning.I even said I’d pay the first bill as a halfway house back in February. How can organizations like this still operate legally? This isn’t just any bad service its car phone warehouse bad service.The worst I’ve seen ever for a large organization.

cpw - what a load of old shit! i used to work thier and was fired for slating aol on behalf of a customer who had been mugged off

@Gary, as much as I detest Carphone Warehouse, surely they were right to fire you for slagging off its company? It’s one thing to admit you’re wrong, but it’s another to slate your own company to a customer.

Just bought my daughter a phone from cpw richmond.
After previous poor service from 3 network when it first started up was assured that 3 network coverage was now as good as anyones. My daughter couldn’t even get a signal in her bedroom ! Returned phone to cpw and guess what? Not interested. “Didn’t guarantee that you could get a signal in your bedroom!” Staff smug and arrogant. Couldn’t care less, and anyway, don’t come back to us, take it up with 3. They are only interested in makilng their sale and taking their commission. Avoid cpw they are crap.

HI i actually work for CPW, and from what i understand the majority of your problems such as canceling your contract, change of details you really do need to sort it out with your mobile service provider, yes, of cousre we are interested in our commission, it dictates our wages, why wouldnt be intersted in it. Also @ gary hill your ment to be impartial and not slate any network or service.@michelle, that whole 3 repairs is not always true, it must be the same fault. I’m actually in the retail Dept but i have covered in customer service and the ,main thing ive noticed is that customers tend to over complicate things. There’s 1 thing i will never take and that is them shouting to my face or down the phone, iu give as much as i get, ive had people theaten to beat me up while i was on lunch, Also make sure you get through to the right Department Re: a complaint portugal have nothing to do with customer complaints, if you worked there for any lenght of time you would know that, Everyone must remember we are an agent for each network, we are not the network itself customers seem to forget that. if yoiuor have signal faults or billing problems its the networks problem and only they can fix it.