05 October, 2005

Fresh (Carphone Warehouse)

Fresh is the name of the mobile phone network operated by Carphone Warehouse (UK), of which I used to be a customer. For your pleasure and entertainment, I present an ongoing email exchange I am "enjoying" with them. Personally identifying information has been scrubbed.



Sent: 14 Jul 05
To: onlinebilling@cpw.co.uk

Dear Sir or Madam,

My December bill was not collected from my bank account, despite a direct debit mandate being in force and funds being available. The January bill then contained a statement about the previous bill not having been paid. I wrote to you about this (11 January), and received a reply that this was a one-off mishap and future bills would be taken from my bank account. The next few bills were likewise not deducted from my direct debit, and my phone was disconnected. After spending a great deal of (peak) time on the phone to your customer service line, I was informed that your operators had incorrectly entered the details of my direct debit into your system, and that was why the bills had not been paid. After a few unpaid bills, the line was disconnected. Why you consider disconnecting customers' phones to be an appropriate response to your operators' incompetence, instead of rectifying it, was not adequately explained. This is particularly inept considering that I had written to inform you of a problem months earlier, and you replied that it had been fixed.

My June bill contained an charge for "Unused Calls", to the sum of £10.24 + VAT. I contacted your customer disservice line, and was informed that the calls which were not made (but for which I was being charged) related to a credit placed on my account when my wrongly disconnected line was reconnected, and which had now expired. No such credit had in fact been placed. A great deal of (peak) time was again required to explain the basics of accounting and simple arithmetic to your operator, who seemed to be overwhelmed by the complexity of suggesting that credit which was never paid cannot be later deducted. Having completed his training (at the expense of my time), he told me that that the Unused Calls would not be deducted from my account. As I have come to expect, nothing came of this, and the full amount of the incorrect bill was deducted by direct debit.

The sheer incompetence of your operations and atrocious service would disgrace a student start-up, and it is beyond belief that a publicly traded company behaves in such an abominable fashion.

Whilst I look for a service provider which does not charge for service not provided or punish customers for its operators' errors, I request that you:
(a) Immediately refund the sum wrongly deducted from my direct debit.
(b) Refund approximately two hours of peak time phone calls (much of it being forced to listen to music which I dislike).

Yours Sincerely,



Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005
From: carphonewarehouse@cpw.co.uk

Dear

Thank you for your email regarding the level of customer service you have received. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your e-mail.

Please accept my sincere apologies for the standard of service you have received with regard to the management of your account. This is certainly not indicative of the normally high standards we strive to provide.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank your for your constructive criticism as this information is imperative to find our short comings and when we have not provided the level of service we are proud to provide.
I would like to assure you that you are valued as a customer of the Carphone Warehouse and we as a company are aware of the competition on the Mobile Phone industry.
In regards to refunding the charges for calling our Customer Services please be advised that The Carphone Warehouse does provide its customers with a number of ways in which to contact us, if you do not wish to pay for calling our Customer services Team.

Kindly note, you can contact our Customer Services Team by email at fresh@cpw.co.uk, you are also welcome to take your quire to any Carphone Warehouse store where a sales assistant will be happy to try resolve the issue in person. As we do provide all these services to contact us regrettably we will not be able to refund you the charges for calling our Customer Service Team, please accept my apologies.

Kindly note, whilst we appreciate that we was at fault for entering your details wrong on the system you were still able to make payments towards your account at any Carphone Warehouse store or by contacting our Customer Services Team with your credit card or debit card details.

Please be advised that as explained in your terms and conditions you are responsible for all charges on your account up to the point of disconnection.
As a gesture of goodwill I have requested that a £5 credit be raised on your account for the level of service you received in this instances, and because the issue has taken 7 months to be brought to our attention.

Please allow up to 14 working days for the credit to be raised on your account.
I hope the information I have provided has been of use to you and once again please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your e-mail and any inconvenience it may of caused.

If you need any more help, please reply back to fresh@cpw.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 111 5000.

Regards
Lincoln Polson
Correspondence Department



Sent: 09 Sep 05
To: carphonewarehouse@cpw.co.uk

I have still not received a refund for the £12 wrongly deducted from my account. I have now received my final Fresh bill for £2.70. Please send me a cheque for the balance of £9.30 within 14 days, or explain why you are not doing so, otherwise I will be forced to pursue other avenues to recover this sum.

Yours Sincerely,



Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005
From: carphonewarehouse@cpw.co.uk

Dear

Thank you for your email regarding your refund. Please accept my apologies for the delay in the response to you.

I am pleased to inform you that your account was credited £5.00 as a gesture of goodwill on the 29th July 2005. We do not have any records of refunding or offering a £12.00 refund or the reason for doing so.

Please reply to this email outlining when and why the credit was due and I will investigate this for you.

For the latest information on products and services please visit www.carphonewarehouse.com.

If you need any more help, please reply back to fresh@cpw.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 111 5000.

Regards
Intikhab Shah
Correspondence Department



Sent: 13 Sep 05
To: carphonewarehouse@cpw.co.uk

In the email I sent you on 14 July, which you have included in your reply, I clearly stated the details concerning your theft of £12 from my bank account.

Seeing as we have reached a deadlock, I will take up the issue with Ofcom.

Yours Sincerely,



Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005
From: carphonewarehouse@cpw.co.uk

Dear

Thank you for your email regarding your refund of £12. Please accept my apologies for the delay in my response.

I can confirm that the £12 that has been deducted from your account is for expired credit. Kindly note, that on the 31st March £20 credit was applied to your account. On the 6th May £5.18 worth of call charges were deducted from the £20 credit. However please be advised that credit expires after 60 days if not used. The remaining £12.03 was then deducted from your account on the 6th June.
Please note, that this is stated in the terms and conditions of your Fresh welcome pack. Regrettably I am unable to refund the credit of £12.03 on this occasion.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your valued custom since joining with us. If the Carphone Warehouse can be of any service in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us or visit our website www.carphonewarehouse.com.

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience that has been caused.

If you need any more help, please reply back to fresh@cpw.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 111 5000.

Regards
Samantha Greaves
Correspondence Department



Sent: 15 Sep 05
To: fresh@cpw.co.uk

Please send me the bill in which a £20 credit appears, as it has not been credited to any invoice which Fresh have billed me for.



Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2005
From: fresh@cpw.co.uk

Dear

Thank you for your email regarding your Fresh account. Please accept my apologies for the delay in my response.

Kindly find below a breakdown of your account transaction history. This details all credits and debits on your account.
DATE   DESCRIPTION         MTH/CHG    CALLS   OTHERS    DEBIT   CREDIT  BALANCE
310305 ICBINSTALL FORDD -20.00 -20.00 -20.00
060405 INVOICE 5036127840
060505 INVOICE 5037812713 5.18 5.18 5.18
060605 MTjUnused Calls 12.03 12.03 12.03
060605 INVOICE 5039603921 2.78 2.78 14.81
200605 PTDDIRECT DEBIT -14.81 -14.81
060705 INVOICE 5041604340 5.83 5.83 5.83

I can confirm that you currently have an outstanding balance of £2.70. Please be advised that this payment will be deducted on the 19th September.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your valued custom since joining with us. If the Carphone Warehouse can be of any service in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us or visit our website www.carphonewarehouse.com.

If you need any more help, please reply back to fresh@cpw.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 111 5000.

Regards
Samantha Greaves
Correspondence Department



Sent: 17 Sep 05
To: fresh@cpw.co.uk

As far as I can make out from the email which you kindly sent me (although the unintelligible formatting precludes any certain conclusions), my account should have been reconnected with £20 credit on 31 March, and all calls made up to 31 May should have been deducted from this credit. Please explain accordingly why you deducted £5.33 from my direct debit on 20 May, and a further £14.81 on 20 June.



Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005
From: fresh@cpw.co.uk

Dear

Thank you for your email regarding billing. Please accept my apologies for the delay in the response to you.

I am happy to inform you that your account has been debited £5.18 on the 20th May 2005 and £14.81 on the 20th June 2005. This is for charges for being overdrawn, you are billed afterwards as has happened in this situation.
I apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope this information is of
assistance to you.

For the latest information on products and services please visit www.carphonewarehouse.com.

If you need any more help, please reply back to fresh@cpw.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 111 5000.

Regards
Intikhab Shah
Correspondence Department



Sent: 18 Sep 05
To: fresh@cpw.co.uk

How did my account become overdrawn during this period? The total value of calls made was less than that of the credit supposedly applied.



Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005
From: fresh@cpw.co.uk

Dear

Thank you for your email regarding your billing query. Please accept my apologies for the delay in the response to you.

Having looked at your account, I can inform you that your account has been charged for calls made. I have attached in word format the charges for the account made according to invoice number 5045315218 which is £2.70. This can be paid in store or on the number below.

I apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope this information is of assistance to you.

For the latest information on products and services please visit www.carphonewarehouse.com.

If you need any more help, please reply back to fresh@cpw.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 111 5000.

Regards
Intikhab Shah
Correspondence Department



Sent: 19 Sep 05
To: fresh@cpw.co.uk

The attached document only details calls made in August, which is not relevant to the query which you are purporting to answer. You have still not explained why £19.99 was taken from my direct debit for the April/May charging period, whilst a credit of £20 was supposedly applied at the end of March, and only £7.96 of calls were subsequently made.



Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005
From: fresh@cpw.co.uk

Dear

Thank you for your email regarding your billing query. Please accept my apologies for the delay in the response to you.

Having looked at your account I can inform you that your account has had £5.18 deducted on the 6th May 2005, £12.03 deducted for unused calls on the 6th June 2005, a total of £14.81 was removed on the 20th June 2005. Your total balance is £2.70 in debit.

I apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope this information is of assistance to you.

For the latest information on products and services please visit www.carphonewarehouse.com.

If you need any more help, please reply back to fresh@cpw.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 111 5000.

Regards
Intikhab Shah
Correspondence Department



Sent: 22 Sep 05
To: fresh@cpw.co.uk

My contract with fresh only required payment for services used, not "unused calls". I demand a refund of this £12.03 unjustifiable debit to my account. After deducting my final bill, you owe me £9.33.



Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2005
From: fresh@cpw.co.uk

Dear

Thank you for your email regarding your unused calls charge. Please accept my apologies for the delay in the response to you.

Having looked at your account I can inform you that you were on Fresh One rate, the service offered stated in the Fresh user guide that you can lose your initial credit if not used within 60 days. Your current balance is £2.70 in debit.

I hope this information is of assistance to you.

For the latest information on products and services please visit www.carphonewarehouse.com.

If you need any more help, please reply back to fresh@cpw.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 111 5000.

Regards
Intikhab Shah
Correspondence Department



Sent: 25 Sep 05
To: onlinebilling@cpw.co.uk

The initial credit you refer to was never actually applied, as evidenced by the fact that I was charged for all the calls made within the 60 following days.



Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005
From: fresh@cpw.co.uk

Dear

Thank you for your email regarding your query.

I am sorry that you have not been replied to earlier.

Please note that you have been advised of Fresh terms and conditions as stated in the Fresh user guide state any unused credit is lost within the forst 60 days. Please explain what the £9.33 you refer to is for.

I look forward to your response.

If you need any more help, please reply back to fresh@cpw.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 111 5000.

Regards
Intikhab Shah
Correspondence Department



Sent: 29 Nov 2005
To: fresh@cpw.co.uk

We have been arguing around in circles for several months now, and we are clearly at a deadlock. Please send me details of Fresh's formal complaints process so that I can take the issue further.



Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005
From: fresh@cpw.co.uk

Dear

Thank you for your email received on the 5th December 2005. I appreciate your patience in the reply.

I am sorry that you have not been satisfied with the response. You can contact Higher Level Complaints for further assistance by calling on the number below.

If you need any more help, please reply back to fresh@cpw.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 111 5000.

Regards
Intikhab Shah
Correspondence Department



I phoned Customer Service today (6 December), they agreed to my request for a refund after very little arguing, and promised a cheque in 14-21 todays. Let's see if it arrives ...



Finally! A cheque for £12.03 has arrived, although they sent it to the wrong address.

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