Carphone Warehouse scam
Yes, another rant.
I signed up to phone insurance last year when I bought my phone via The Carphone Warehouse. The cost was £30 for three months of insurance – a bit steep but it was my first contract phone and I was worried what might happen if I lost it. The commencement date was the 9th of August 2005 and I would be billed by Direct Debit quarterly.
A year later and my phone contract was up. Being relatively okay with paperwork I remembered to phone the insurance company on the 8th of August 2006 to cancel my insurance which they did. While I was on the phone I asked them to confirm they wouldn’t be taking a fifth quarterly payment (£30) as I’d only had the insurance for the one year. They told me that I’d paid £30 by direct debit just a week before on the 1st of August 2006 and so I asked them to refund it. I was told they would notify the credits department.
A month later and no credit has appeared on my bank account. I phoned them back to be told I never applied for a credit and that they probably wouldn’t be able to refund me. The man on the phone kept asking me about when I cancelled the phone contract even though I told him that it wasn’t relevant to my insurance problem. He also told me about my Direct Debit days being on the first day of the quarter. I told him that this wasn’t relevant either. And looking at my insurance confirmation it says that the Direct Debits would be taken “every three months commencing 9/11/05”.
I wanted 4 quarters of insurance, I HAD 4 quarters of insurance and yet you’ve taken 5 quarters out my bank. I have all the terms & conditions here and there is absolutely nothing about this. Just the fact that I want to pay quarterly. He had no answer. But would send the request to his line manager.
Today I got a response from an ‘administration team leader’ telling me that my ‘refund request’ has been unsuccessful. Ha! What a con. I didn’t really see it as a ‘request’, more of a ‘please pay me back my money you took from my account’ for services I never asked for. Apparently I can ‘appeal’!!! Well they’ll get their appeal alright the Shysters. Check the ‘comments’ out below later for my reply.
Hello, I am writing to you following an unsuccessful refund request. The fact that this is the third time I have asked for MY money back for services I haven’t used is quite worrying. What sort of department are you running?
Here are my details:
John King
XXXXX
XXXXX
XXX XXX
My customer number given to me by a phone operative is: XXXXXX
My insurance proposal number is: XXXXXXXX
I would include the reference number at the top of the decline letter if you had remembered to print one.
Now here are the relevant dates for my insurance contract:
Proposal Date: 09/08/05
Cancellation Date: 08/08/06
By my reckoning thats a year exactly which, I was told from a young age, was made up of four quarters. It is this reasoning that made me feel aggrieved when I was billed for a fifth quarter and then told I could not receive this fifth quarter’s payment back.
Your refund decline letter states that “Payments are requested on a quarterly basis, with a second payment being requested on the first day of the month during which your second premium becomes due (unless you have chosen an alternative day of the month to pay).” Unfortunately, I can see no mention of this on any of the terms and conditions I’ve been given up until this new letter and was never notified of this during signing-up. I had always assumed that the Direct Debit would be taken three months from the date of the start of my agreement.
The letter also states that this action was, “in line with our aim to provide best customer service, by requesting at the beginning of the month”. This must obviously be some sort of humour as I’ve yet to work out the logic behind that statement. It certainly hasn’t made me feel like I’m receiving good customer service as you can probably tell.
You mention that, “these two dates are advised to you at the point of sale, is stated at the bottom of the invoice document, and is in line with the Direct Debit scheme rules.” Looking at the invoice here is says that you will, “debit from *my account* every three months commencing 09/11/2005, not the first of the month. It also says that if the payment dates change you will notify me within 10 working days in advance of my account being debited, which I was not.
The scheme rules state that if an error is made by you then I am guaranteed a full and immediate refund from your branch of the amount paid. That is why I ask again that you pay me back £30 which you took from my account without my permission for services I had cancelled before the year was up.
You do mention that you will be liable for bank charges if you put the moeny back into my account. Luckily I’m a generous man so if it makes it easier and cheaper for you I would accept a cheque made out to me sent to the address above.
I look forward to my refund, along with the many readers of my blog who are currently being entertained by your antics.
Yours Sincerely
John King
The only problem you have here is, that they won’t actually read your letter, even if they were capable of doing so.
j.
Is going postal an option??? I hate when stuff like this happens.