Mobile phone scam (nearly)

[Wiggo]

OK, one to watch for...

just checking my bank statement and noticed what seemed to be a duplicate entry from Carphone Warehouse.

Some digging revealed the following:

When you buy a phone/take out a contract, you get offered a quarterly direct debit for phone insurance. It works out to £107 a year, to cover the loss of probably a £400 handset if you had to buy it outright (well, it did a few years ago).

A year later or so, you get an upgrade. In the paperwork is the same standing order. My own fault, really, but I find I have been paying the same standing order three times, two of them for insurance policies that Carphone Warehouse tell me are cancelled!

Nice as pie, they immediately arrange a refund for nearly £300! NEVER when getting an upgrade are you told that the old policy is automatically cancelled, a new one started and that YOU have to cancel the old standing order.

 

[deborahann]

have very similar going on at the moment with 3i, actual phone company name is 3G UK ltd I have been paying two standing orders, one for a phone I returned to them in March, and a new phone, even got a load of other people's bills to my home address. Then started getting charged (by direct debit) for the returned phone's current calls, so I cancelled both standing orders and wrote to them to explain why.

Had some nasty letters back re cutting off my new phone unless I reinstate my direct debit with them, the amount owed is probably the same now approx. £300.

Amazingly 3i told me (repeatedly) to go to my bank and complete a form of indemnity to get the money back, the bank said no way unless 3i state in writing they will refund the bank. When i try to sort it by phone, i spend ages discussing it with their call centre in India, and getting nowhere. What a racket, my guess is that usually the direct debit double payment is spotted fairly quickly, and then folks can't be bothered to complain or give up trying to get their money back.

Have even written to otelo (one of the watchdog's for this area of business) but they said write to someone else, here's a booklet, and exhaust 3i's own complaint proceedures !!

anyway hope this might help others to avoid getting into this type of mess

 

[deborahann]

Oh and the nbr i have to call 3i on is a revenue generating 0870 number, so it pays them an income whilst they mess me about, last time i spent 20 mins on the phone, before i gave up. Not that i can call (well anyone) on said new mobile from home, as I can't get a signal at home aahhhhh

 

[gonfishing]

AFAIK the bank are fully responsible under the DD scheme, when you signed up for the DD it should have been pointed out that you are covered under the Direct Debit Indemnity and all incorrect payments made should get an immediate refund to your account, Standing orders are totally different and not covered under the guarentee scheme.

P.S has Haydn given you back your nice fancy belt yet??

Julian /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[tcm]

Mobile phone scams

Hm not sure I understood all that but I agree it sounds pretty serious. Apparently I get charged for the phone to buy it and THEN get charged for all the calls as well on top, and the longer you stay on the line the more and more they charge! There ought to be a law against it.

 

[Wiggo]

Re: Mobile phone scams

Smartarse. I pay by DD for the bill, so they can take variable amounts, but they insist the insurance is standing order. "ooh, sorry sir, we can't cancel that." Then they bury the new insurance stuff in the contract with the upgrade phone and 'forget' to tell you you have to cancel the old SO. And they can't cancel it, so they just collect your money till you spot the multiple entries on the statement.

Not exactly fraud, but damn sharp practice, IMO.

 

[Dave_Snelson]

Re: Mobile phone scams

Yeah, agreed. And most mobile phone companies are full of sharp practices. You have to watch 'em like a hawk! BTW, there are much cheaper ways of insuring a handset via your home policy. Just need to watch out for the £50 excess.

 

[Roy]

Re: Mobile phone scams

Not exactly fraud, but damn sharp practice, IMO----------- Yes I agree completely. S/o's must be cancelled by us, the customer, but the companies rarely tell you/remind you and so we forget cos we are used to DD's yes? Worse kind are those that are annual. We had a financial spring clean last January and discovered many little 'surprises' on our business and personal accounts. While I'm on about money, we also decided to dump our insurance pbroker of 10 years standing and now we have saved about 1500 per year by doing so. We found, for example that on motor insurances we saved about £850 in premiums by switching to E Sure and have same cover too. Sorry to drift away there. Roy