I have the sort of Contempt for Phones 4 U that i susauly reserved for Peadophiles and rapists. Or perhaps peadophile rapists.

here are some extracts from a letter of complaint i will be sending shortly:


Dear Sir,

I wish to express my deep concern with the way in which my partner, Miss Kelly Whitehead, has been treated by your potsmouth store. On 14th Septembeer 2006, she was collared in the street by one of the sales staff. She was then asked to fill in some forms "to see which tarrif would suit her best", and she was then pressured into signing up to a Ã,£30 per month contract which she could not afford. It later transpired that she had been mis-informed by the sales staff and this contract was really for Ã,£35 a month. Not only that, but she had also been signed up for phone insurance without her knowledge or consent. It is clear to me that Kellys kindly and compliant nature was abused by the staff.

After discussing with kelly if she could afford to keep the phone, we decided that it would be impossible for her to keep up the payments of Ã,£45 per month, and that the only course of action would be to return the phone within the 14 day limit.

The next day, 15th September 2006, i accompanied Kelly back to the Portsmouth store to return the phone and cancel the contract - Kelly feeling too scared of the previous days pressure tactics to go alone. We spoke to a colleague called Gary, whos attitude left me cold. I explained the situation and clearly asked for the contract to be terminated so that Kelly could remain on her Pay as You go system, but it seems that this really is too much to ask of your staff - despite my repeated requests to just have the contract terminated, we were subjected to a barrage of questions about why the contract was unsuitable, and were given a seemingly endless stream of alternative contracts - again, all of which were vastly unsuitable and Kelly would not be able to afford.

I again clearly stated that we just wanted to end the contract and remain on PAYG, but Gary then attempted to corner my girlfriend into getting a different contract. Luckily Kelly felt strong enough to say no, but if i had not been there for moral support I have no doubt in my mind that she would have been forced into another decision that would have been totally unsuitable for her.

With Garys options exhausted, he then phoned head office to sort out the cancellation. But over the phone Kelly was subjected to exactly the same treatment again and again, despite her repeated requests that she just wanted to stay on PAYG. She was actually on the verge of crying from the threatening tactics that your staff were employing. At the end of the phone conversation she was given one last contract option - again, way too expensive for her to be able to afford. When she again declined it, the telephone operator then insisted that Gary try and sell her the contract as well. At this point my patience was completely exhausted, we had been in the store for apporximately 40 minutes being subjected to hard sales tactics which bordered on the insulting and abusive. Eventually we were able to succeed in getting the contract cancelled, with no thanks the obstructive methods of your staff.

I have nothing but contempt for the way in which Kelly and I were bullied and harrassed by your staff, and while I have no expectations of any kind of retribution for the actions of the Portsmouth store, I feel I must ask for some kind of explanation for apalling treatment we were subjected to.

Yours faithfully,


Christopher Underhill

What a bunch of pricks.

If you want a payg phone off the high street try carphone warehouse on comical road. Last time I went in there I was like I want that one on payg please. and they were like sure hold on a second and Ill go get one. Not a single mention of contracts

Quote from: sdpWhat a bunch of pricks.

Agreed.



How old is she btw?

Quote from: ChrisI have the sort of Contempt for Phones 4 U that i susauly reserved for Peadophiles and rapists. Or perhaps peadophile rapists.

here are some extracts from a letter of complaint i will be sending shortly:


Dear Sir,

I wish to express my deep concern with the way in which my partner, Miss Kelly Whitehead, has been treated by your potsmouth store. On 14th Septembeer 2006, she was collared in the street by one of the sales staff. She was then asked to fill in some forms "to see which tarrif would suit her best", and she was then pressured into signing up to a Ã,£30 per month contract which she could not afford. It later transpired that she had been mis-informed by the sales staff and this contract was really for Ã,£35 a month. Not only that, but she had also been signed up for phone insurance without her knowledge or consent. It is clear to me that Kellys kindly and compliant nature was abused by the staff.

After discussing with kelly if she could afford to keep the phone, we decided that it would be impossible for her to keep up the payments of Ã,£45 per month, and that the only course of action would be to return the phone within the 14 day limit.

The next day, 15th September 2006, i accompanied Kelly back to the Portsmouth store to return the phone and cancel the contract - Kelly feeling too scared of the previous days pressure tactics to go alone. We spoke to a colleague called Gary, whos attitude left me cold. I explained the situation and clearly asked for the contract to be terminated so that Kelly could remain on her Pay as You go system, but it seems that this really is too much to ask of your staff - despite my repeated requests to just have the contract terminated, we were subjected to a barrage of questions about why the contract was unsuitable, and were given a seemingly endless stream of alternative contracts - again, all of which were vastly unsuitable and Kelly would not be able to afford.

I again clearly stated that we just wanted to end the contract and remain on PAYG, but Gary then attempted to corner my girlfriend into getting a different contract. Luckily Kelly felt strong enough to say no, but if i had not been there for moral support I have no doubt in my mind that she would have been forced into another decision that would have been totally unsuitable for her.

With Garys options exhausted, he then phoned head office to sort out the cancellation. But over the phone Kelly was subjected to exactly the same treatment again and again, despite her repeated requests that she just wanted to stay on PAYG. She was actually on the verge of crying from the threatening tactics that your staff were employing. At the end of the phone conversation she was given one last contract option - again, way too expensive for her to be able to afford. When she again declined it, the telephone operator then insisted that Gary try and sell her the contract as well. At this point my patience was completely exhausted, we had been in the store for apporximately 40 minutes being subjected to hard sales tactics which bordered on the insulting and abusive. Eventually we were able to succeed in getting the contract cancelled, with no thanks the obstructive methods of your staff.

I have nothing but contempt for the way in which Kelly and I were bullied and harrassed by your staff, and while I have no expectations of any kind of retribution for the actions of the Portsmouth store, I feel I must ask for some kind of explanation for apalling treatment we were subjected to.

Yours faithfully,


Christopher Underhill

you handled it well, bring trading standards or an analogous setup in to sort it out, its pressure tactics, and its not on...

theyd see you dead, as long as they got their wedge every month.

She signed up to a contract and then realised afterwards she couldnt afford it, am I right?

Sure theyre aggressive in the way they try and sell their things, but it seems to me (Ã,£30/Ã,£35 argument notwithstanding) to boil down to your girlfriend not being able to say no.  Buyer beware.

Quote from: funkychicken9000She signed up to a contract and then realised afterwards she couldnt afford it, am I right?

Sure theyre aggressive in the way they try and sell their things, but it seems to me (Ã,£30/Ã,£35 argument notwithstanding) to boil down to your girlfriend not being able to say no.  Buyer beware.

its not as straight forward as that, they hammer you until you dont know what day it is, most people would tell them to f*ck off, but some  people are more easily intimidated...

Ive been in arguments about the same thing, I know what its like.  But signing up for paying Ã,£30 a month is still Ã,£30 a month, however you dress it up.  And in my mind youd be a bit silly to sign up to it if you knew you couldnt afford it, regardless of how many free fridge magnets they throw your way.

But hey, spending money you dont have seems to be the new bread and butter.  A single advert break on daytime TV shows that  :?

Quote from: DeltaZero

Quote from: sdpWhat a bunch of pricks.

Agreed.



How old is she btw?

She;s 19! shes fairly switched on (for a lass, lol) but really shy, and their tactics had me breaking out in a sweat so god knows how she must have felt on the day!!

Will be sending the letter to both the Portsmouth branch and to the head office, grrrrrr.

Age usually doesnt matter in this, its whether you are emotionally strong or if they can intimidate you. TBH one of their reps has tried the hard sell on me too and getting rid of them is something else. Most just ask if you re interested and are then helpful though.

It isnt only Carphone warehouse that will try this, plenty of other companies have hard sell peeps and tactics of trying to hold onto your direct debit dosh. AOL is particularly known for doing it with their internet access.

Similar issues with my sister at home.

All of a sudden she had a letter through the post from KLM Marketing, saying that shed signed up to a Ã,£30 a month contract, and her new phone would be coming from orange over the next few days. Shed signed nothing, nor even been in a phone store, nor spoken to sales staff in over 2 years (when she bought her current payg mobile).

She called and kept getting through to an answer machine, left a message saying "I have no idea what your on about, im not interested. Please remove my details from your records thank you." along with her contact details. Got a call back confirming that theyd cancelled the agreement that she had apparantly signed (she had not signed anything!), she wasnt happy that they kept saying she signed it, when she had done no such thing, but accepted it was cancelled.

Last week a bill came from orange. Ã,£75 for a phone shes never ever had, and for calls shes never made. Called orange, got told to call KLM marketing as its their problem, called KLM marketing and got told "er im sorry" and palmed off back to orange.

Needless to say its an ongoing issue, and my parents have now spoken to The Ferret, X-Ray, and have written to Watchdog to complain as well as the OFT.

Phone companies are bastards.

On Topic:

I do sympathise with your girlfriends predicament, but she did sign stuff at the end of the day, and she didnt read the contract. While she was presented with a hard sell, its technically not phones 4 us fault for her signing a contract that she knew (if shed read it... shed have known) she couldnt afford with them.