The Carphone Warehouse - Please find attached the letter that I wrote to the Carphone Warehouse Group Director, Mr Andrew Webb, whom I am still awaiting a reply from

The Carphone Warehouse - Please find attached the letter that I wrote to the Carphone Warehouse Group Director, Mr Andrew Webb, whom I am still awaiting a reply from

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Carphone Warehouse / New Phone Sales

Carphone Warehouse, Ashton Under Lyne

Please find attached the letter that I wrote to the Carphone Warehouse Group Director, Mr Andrew Webb, whom I am still awaiting a reply from. I know that the letter I sent has been posted, as I sent it to him by first class recorded delivery (Ref: RE 5745 1072 0GB) just incase you would like to check it on www.royalmail.com .

I addressed the letter to him as I have experienced in the past, just writing to the normal complaint recipient, you tend to only get a pre written letter back and not a personal letter for your case.

If you have any further advice, I would be most obliged to listen.

Regards

Vipul M

Mr Vipul M &#160 Stalybridge Cheshire SK15 3GJ Sunday 25th April 2004

Mr Andrew Webb The Carphone Warehouse North Acton Business Park Wales Farm Road London W3 6RS Dear Mr Webb, I am writing to you to give you feedback as a customer from the Carphone Warehouse, as a result of the recent setbacks I faced dealing with your colleagues. On the 8th April 2004 I entered the Ashton–Under–Lyne store, willing to upgrade/purchase a mobile telephone. I came to the carphone warehouse as I had previously purchased from here and received full 12 months of trouble free service. I purchased a Nokia 6230 and was going on to the O2 network. As a previous customer of Vodafone, I would have liked to have stayed with them, but at this time they could not offer me a better deal than O2. I asked if I could keep my same mobile number as I have had this since the very first mobile I had in 1998. The customer assistant that was assisting me at the Ashton store, kindly called Vodafone for me and got the PAC number that I needed to port 07961 147655 to O2. He then explained to me that it would take 10 days for the O2 account to become active. His explanation meant to me that on the 18th April 2004 my Vodafone sim would be disabled and my O2 account would become active. I accepted this and left with the phone. On the 18th April 2004, I was expecting for the vodafone sim card to switch off at some point during the day. But it did not and I thought that may be it was because of the Easter weekend from when I bought the phone, or the sales assistant may have meant to say 10 working days. I phoned the Ashton Under Lyne store on the 19th April 2004 to ask why my number had not been ported over. They explained to me that it would take 10 working days from when I purchased the handset. This would make the porting date 26th April 2004. On the 21st April 2004 at around 11am was the last time that I received a call. I was expecting several calls today as a result from my business and personal calls. I checked my mobile handset about an hour later and had discovered that there was no network access to Vodafone and that my sim card had been disabled. So I then got my O2 sim card and inserted that into my phone. It then asked me for a pin, which I was not told about so I tried the obvious normally pre set combinations. (0000, 1234, 12345).

As these were all wrong and I had not been told what the correct pin was I blocked the card and required a PUK code. I called the help line on 0870 111 7200 and was told that nothing could be done until my number had been ported over to O2 and they could not give me a PUK code to unblock my sim. I asked what kind of timescale would be likely before this would be sorted out. I was told that it could take anything up to 24 hours. I was shocked and disgusted at the time scale that my phone was likely to be of no use. I explained to call centre assistant that the timescale was just not good enough and that I was expecting important calls.

She said that there was nothing that she could do. So I then said that I shall go to the store that sold me this phone and sort it out with them. I then travelled to the Ashton store and spoke to an assistant there, explained my current situation to her and she kindly phoned the porting team to see what the problem was. They said that a PAC number that was given to them was originally wrong and that my number had ported from O2 to O2 rather than Vodafone to O2. They put me on high priority and the timescale that I was told still remained at up to 24 hours.

I said to her that this was not good enough and that I wanted to give that phone and sim back and stay with Vodafone as I had no trouble with them, even when I ported from T – Mobile to Vodafone in January 2003. This was an option but I could not keep the same number. This just added to my frustration, as every minute I was wasting time sorting this mobile situation out I knew that I was losing money and losing time on that day, and would have to re-schedule the rest of the week and the week after. I finally had to accept that this was the problem and there was nothing that anyone could do about the situation, so I left the store and proceeded home a very unhappy customer. After I got home I found the number for customer care 0870 168 0870 and spoke to an assistant there and explained my situation to him once more. All he said was no problem I shall be able to sort you out. He asked for the number from the back of the sim card and provided me with a PUK code which I entered into my handset. Hey presto, in a 3 minute phone call to the right person who works for the same company as all his other colleagues that I spoke with namely “The Carphone Warehouse” my whole encounter was solved. This was at around 17:45 that evening. I could not thank him enough for resolving your company’s error and said to him “Why was none of his colleagues aware that they were able to have carried out this simple method and let me carry on with my duties at first call this morning?” He was unable to answer my question and so I left it at that. I would like to know firstly why this situation was allowed to happen, even with today’s technology. If communication is what you sell, then maybe a practise of this would be recommended within the company. If there was going to be a delay, so you claimed, on the O2 front, my Vodafone sim card should not have been disabled. I should have been given some warning as to when the porting was due to take place, so that I could have at least diverted my phone calls for that day to an alternative number, or even ask my clients to call me on another number. I stress a fact that I mentioned earlier, that on this day I have encountered a loss towards my living. As well as being a failure to my clients on this particular day. If I told them the situation I faced and give them a true reason as to why I couldn’t answer their calls, I am almost certain that they would never even like to do business with me again and probably call me unreliable and untrustworthy as a result from The Carphone Warehouse mistake. Five Fundamental Rules At The Carphone Warehouse everything we do is based on our 'five fundamental rules'. The rules speak for themselves and need little embellishment. However, it is worth stressing that the rules are applied not just in our stores, but in our call centres and support functions too, to ensure that we provide the best possible customer experience. If we don't look after the customer, someone else will.

Nothing is gained by winning an argument but losing a customer.

Always deliver what we promise. If in doubt, under promise and over deliver.

Always treat customers as we ourselves would like to be treated.

The reputation of the whole company is in the hands of each individual.

These are your fundamental rules that you like to stress, I do not think I was given any of them until I got to your last point of call for me. I honestly would like to end my contract with your company and would like to tell as many people as possible of the experience I had and let them judge for themselves to shop with you. I hope that you are able to give me a satisfactory explanation after reading this letter and compensation for my encounters. I have enjoyed your service from January 2003 till April 2004. But unless you can tell me otherwise, I’m sure that the next 12 months are going to be a complete nightmare for me as a customer. I look forward in hearing from you soon. Regards, Mr Vipul M

Vip M Click this link to e-mail the above consumer: //