Carphone Warehouse (by alaric)
...appear to be incompetent.
About a year ago, we moved house. I wrote them a letter with my new address, and asking to change the bank account my direct debits come from, since Sarah and I consolidated all of our direct debits to come from the one account that our pay goes into, to simplify our joint finances.
Some time later, the mobile phone stopped working, because apparently I'd not been paying the bill. A little prodding revealed that they'd been sending the bills to my aunt (who lives next door), since they had the address somewhat wrong, and appeared to have not performed the direct debit change; I'd stopped putting money into my old account, so the DDs had been failing.
So I wrote them a grumpy letter, and they apologised profusely, and said they'd send me a new direct debit form to fill in.
Which never arrived.
Instead, nasty letters and phonecalls from a debt collection agency started to appear.
I spoke on the phone to CPW, who said they'd send me a direct debit form. Which never arrived.
I spoke on the phone again to them, and they said I could set up the DD over the phone, which I did.
Then a letter came bearing the mysterious message "We have no direct debit details for your account", which I rang them about; apparently this is SECRET CODE for "We tried to send the DD to your bank and they rejected it". They suggested I rang the bank, who said they'd had a DD come in for my account, but with some of the fields not filled on, so they rejected it. I spoke to CPW again, who said they'd do no such thing, but consented to send it again.
The debt collectors then threatened us with bailiffs.
So I went to a CPW shop in a nearby town, and they looked in their databases, and said that my DD should be working now, but it'd be a while before the next monthly billing run, so I should pay off the outstanding balance with my debit card in order to stop the bailiffs, which I did. They said I should have no more problems.
But the debt collectors keep ringing me demanding payment.
So I told them CPW said they shouldn't be ringing me any more.
They apologised, and said that CPW had neglected to tell them this, and suggested I write to CPW pointing this out, which I did.
CPW have not replied.
And tonight, at 8pm, I get called again by the debt collectors, and this time they're being nasty and saying that unless I pay up TODAY they're going to Take Further Action and Harm My Credit File. I explain the history, but they have none of it. So I say I'm not going to pay anything until I've spoken to CPW first. They say that they're very busy right now and if I hang up to ring CPW then try to ring them back I'll be in a very long queue and they close at 9pm so I might not get through, and if I don't pay today, I'm in trouble. The woman also suggests that if I just pay up then I can pursue CPW for a refund if what I'm saying is correct.
sigh
I don't like the principle of people ringing me up saying I owe them money, and when I disagree, threatening me with Trouble if I don't pay, and saying that if I really don't owe, then I can claim the money back. Since it seems to have taken CPW some trouble to understand that I paid them off, I don't fancy being out of pocket until they get their act together, if they ever do.
Anyway, I dug out a number for CPW and rang them, and went around their voice menu system, unable to find a human being, and it's now just turning 9pm, so apparently I'm in trouble.
I think I need to visit the Citizens Advice Bureau...
Tue 3rd Oct 2006 8:01 pm 
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By Charlee, Tue 3rd Oct 2006 @ 10:52 pm
And send 1) a letter to CPW hq 2) write a nasty blog entry and LINK TO CPW (get them bad press) 3) email watchdog etc 4) letter to ombudsman 5) letter to bank
if all else fails, wait for the debt collectors to come round, and call the police. You can get a credit history reversed if it was incorrect.
And never EVER touch CPW again. And not onestopphoneshop either because despite not advertising it, they are also CPW and I nearly failed in my attempt to cut all ties with CPW for their incompetence (see http://www.charleebrown.co.uk/blog/index.php?s=cpw for further grumbles)