Anybody know about misselling of Phone Contracts? : Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:01 pm  

I took out a contract on New years eve on something called JUMP at Phones4u (see www.jump4u.co.uk) Anyway basically you can trade your phone in and upgrade every 6 months. The guy told me that the difference is limited to an extra £3.99 everytime so I thought "great I will take this HTC now and when the new iPhone comes out I can have it for an extra £3.99 a month." (I had a 4 that died and didnt want to get the 4s as it was almost identical so decided on something different) anyway I looked into it when I got home and found that there is no limit to how much extra it costs and that it is actually decided based on how much is owed on the phone that you take out at the start (which is being paid off at £23.99 a month) a price that they conveniently do not show anywhere on the paperwork, though obviously you can multiple 23.99 by 24 to work this out but you shouldnt need to do that. This would mean that (if the new phone was also 23.99 a month) that based on current trade in value my contract would go up by an unfeasible £16 a month. What I'm asking is does him saying that there is a 3.99 limit when there isnt (and this being the reason I took the contract out) class as misselling the contract?

I took out a contract on New years eve on something called JUMP at Phones4u (see www.jump4u.co.uk) Anyway basically you can trade your phone in and upgrade every 6 months. The guy told me that the difference is limited to an extra £3.99 everytime so I thought "great I will take this HTC now and when the new iPhone comes out I can have it for an extra £3.99 a month." (I had a 4 that died and didnt want to get the 4s as it was almost identical so decided on something different) anyway I looked into it when I got home and found that there is no limit to how much extra it costs and that it is actually decided based on how much is owed on the phone that you take out at the start (which is being paid off at £23.99 a month) a price that they conveniently do not show anywhere on the paperwork, though obviously you can multiple 23.99 by 24 to work this out but you shouldnt need to do that. This would mean that (if the new phone was also 23.99 a month) that based on current trade in value my contract would go up by an unfeasible £16 a month. What I'm asking is does him saying that there is a 3.99 limit when there isnt (and this being the reason I took the contract out) class as misselling the contract?

Re: Anybody know about misselling of Phone Contracts? : Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:21 pm  

I'm confused. When you mention New Year's Eve that must be at least a year ago more or less. Why are you now wanting to rescind it? What should be absolutely clear to anyone with even a slight knowledge of mobile 'phones and the like is that pricing is not transparent so that its very difficult to make comparisons between different so called 'deals.' IMO, the whole industry is a disgrace that plays on the gullibility of youth. With all that in mind, you should have been alert and checked the precise terms of the contract when you entered into it. I will bet the written terms were as you now find them. If someone meslead you in the shop then that'll be hard to demonstrate after all this time.

Re: Anybody know about misselling of Phone Contracts? : Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:41 pm  

Dally wrote:

the whole industry is a disgrace that plays on the gullibility of youth.

Nailed it in one.

I currently have in my possession a Blackberry which I need to continue paying for until April as two years ago (in April) I signed for it on behalf of my youngest (hence I am ultimately responsible for it), she was persuaded a few months ago by an assistant in one of the major mobile retailers that she could "easily" cancel the contract for the Blackberry with Orange, subsequent conversations revealed that she was told that she could easily cancel the "bolt-ons" to the contract, other than the fact that there weren't any bolt-ons then it would have been valid advice but my daughter heard what she wanted to hear and she signed for a new gimmick, sorry, mobile.

Moral of the story to any parent with children approaching their 18th birthdays - hammer into their brains, with a real hammer if needed, that if at any time they wish to sign a contract, they run it past you first, and do not ever make a decision based on your first visit to a phone shop - I think my youngest will still be asking me for contract advice when I'm ga-ga in a nursing home after the bollacking I gave her.

On a slightly different note I got a letter from Orange last month advising that they would be increasing their contract prices by 5% in January, because they could. Oh they tried to offer some excuse about rising payroll costs (oh yeah ?), rising fuel prices, rising food prices and other such bollax but what it boiled down to was that in all of their contracts they have a clause which entitles them to increase their prices by no more than the inflation figure in August of each year - they struck gold this year when the inflation figure hit 5% and so their board decided to go for it and fook the customer goodwill, presumably they need a bump in profits in the last fiscal quarter, I won't be renewing after April.

Re: Anybody know about misselling of Phone Contracts? : Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:42 pm  

Well, looking at the video, my take on this is....
You don't get anything for nothing.
To have the Jump contract you pay a bit extra every month, up to a maximum of £3.99.
Dave and Sarah(in the video) got the same phone, texts, minutes and Data, but it didn't say for the same price.
Therefor, for the contract you have, without Jump it could be £21.99 but with the Jump £23.99, an extra £2. Larger contracts would attract a larger premium upto a maximum £3.99.
So, at the end of the video it says, if you choose to Jump, the new tariff will depend on the hand set you upgrade to.
So, if the phone you had was worth £100 and you chose to upgrade to a phone worth £600, you can't really expect your monthly payment to go up no more than £3.99.
What he told you is a bit ambiguous as is the video.
You say you took the contract out on News years eve, i'm thinking you mean Christmas Eve, if so, you should have 7 days to cancel, so get back sharpish...

Re: Anybody know about misselling of Phone Contracts? : Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:47 pm  

Sorry I mean Xmas eve haha and theyre claiming I dont have that 7 day right to cancel. Hence why Im trying the route of misselling as it clearly was.

Re: Anybody know about misselling of Phone Contracts? : Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:58 pm  

with most mobile companies (i worked for carphone warehouse) you have a 14 day cooling off period you may have to pay what you have used but it is there if you dont want it take it back quick

Re: Anybody know about misselling of Phone Contracts? : Wed Dec 28, 2011 5:04 pm  

I have found an exclusion that phones4u have that limits the 14 day period to signal issues. Incredibly convenient then that it shouldve dropped my call to phones4u customer services twice today then while at home! Be paying phones4u a visit tomorrow to exercise this right that they have in black and white on their contract.

Re: Anybody know about misselling of Phone Contracts? : Wed Dec 28, 2011 5:14 pm  

http://www.which.co.uk/mobile/advice-an ... ne-rights/ Not sure from the link that you are in a strong position. Suggest you act quickly though. Go to the shop in person and kick up a fuss. If its full of people sat down ready to sign up tell them that you wouldn't if you were them. They probably let you off to get rid of you. If you act now - less that a week later it'll be clear you feel you have a rightful grievance. If they won't do the decent thing immediately put it in writing to the company and Ombudsman and don't give up.

http://www.which.co.uk/mobile/advice-an ... ne-rights/ Not sure from the link that you are in a strong position. Suggest you act quickly though. Go to the shop in person and kick up a fuss. If its full of people sat down ready to sign up tell them that you wouldn't if you were them. They probably let you off to get rid of you. If you act now - less that a week later it'll be clear you feel you have a rightful grievance. If they won't do the decent thing immediately put it in writing to the company and Ombudsman and don't give up.

Re: Anybody know about misselling of Phone Contracts? : Thu Dec 29, 2011 10:39 am  

hula89 wrote:

I have found an exclusion that phones4u have that limits the 14 day period to signal issues. Incredibly convenient then that it shouldve dropped my call to phones4u customer services twice today then while at home! Be paying phones4u a visit tomorrow to exercise this right that they have in black and white on their contract.

Re: Anybody know about misselling of Phone Contracts? : Thu Dec 29, 2011 12:06 pm  

Dally wrote:

What should be absolutely clear to anyone with even a slight knowledge of mobile 'phones and the like is that pricing is not transparent so that its very difficult to make comparisons between different so called 'deals.' IMO, the whole industry is a disgrace that plays on the gullibility of youth. With all that in mind, you should have been alert and checked the precise terms of the contract when you entered into it. I will bet the written terms were as you now find them. If someone meslead you in the shop then that'll be hard to demonstrate after all this time.

Yes this is the problem and the misleading of people in selling is commonplace, there are a lot of dirty tricks. Many years ago I was 'done' when I went to switch contracts and the company I was in came with a counter offer to get me to sign up to a new 18 month contract but with the first three months 'free'. However as the monthly fee was higher it wasn't worth it and I'd be paying more over the duration. So they offered me the first six months 'free'. This changed it so that it was cheaper so I agreed. The girl selling it to me said that the way she would have to do it is that the company would send me a cheque to the value of the six months and I would just have to start paying the normal (high) rate from the word go. In good faith I said OK. A cheque duly arrived to the value of three months, I then called up to question it and was told "no salesperson would have offered six months free, its our policy to only offer three" so I was locked into that 18 month contract. That experience wisened me up.

A couple of years later a girl started working with me who had come from working for a phone company, I told her that story and she said that's a classic con trick, and there was a culture in her company of pulling these small scale scams to get people to sign up, they were encouraged by managers to drop little lies in here and there to encourage people to sign up, and then when anybody queries anything, they were told to give the standard answer "do you want me to send you your terms and conditions". She herself had been scammed when she left - as soon as she'd given her notice her manager offered her a contract worth about £60 a month at a 'staff rate' of £20 a month and he told her that she'd be paying £20 a month for the full 18 months even though she'd left as she had started the contract whilst on their payroll. She was a bit concerned about this but her manager (who she got on well with) said don't worry I'll ensure that any problems are sorted out here. Not surprisingly after she left they started charging her £60 a month. She phoned up and they gave her the line "do you want me to send you your terms and conditions". She tried for ages to ring and get through to her old manager but he was never available, and when she eventually managed to speak to him and told her what had happened he just said "you'll have to sort it out centrally, nothing I can do sorry". She realised she had just become another sales figure for him...