I'm surprised no-one has come up with any suggestions, given that there are so many people on this site who know their stuff regarding claiming money back from big companies. Have there been any developments since your last post? Regards Jeff

They may have offered the refund because you are entitled to receive copies of the recordings of all your calls for a small fee, so you could have proved your case easily. The advantage of emailing Mr Dunstone is that if someone is telling porkies regularly, then they hopefully won't last long at the company. When I was there, one guy was suspended because several customers emailed him to say that this guy had lied. Regards Jeff

I used to work for the loyalty department. In my opinion, the big problem with the loyalty department is (at least when I worked at CPW) that it is about both sales and customer service. The longer an advisor spends dealing with customer service issues, the fewer calls they will be able to take from customers who want to upgrade. As a result, they often wouldn't take the time to properly deal with the customers' problems. BTW, a tip for anyone renewing their CPW contract with the loyalty department: don't take their first or second offer, as it is unlikely to be their best deal. And I would ring up saying I want to cancel, not that I want to upgrade- the more they think you want an upgrade, the worse the package is that they are likely to offer you. Jeff

When I was at Carphone Warehouse, telephone advisors were instructed by senior management not to offer to listen in to calls when customers claimed they had been lied to. It was felt that it was better to assume that the advisor who had made the alleged claim was telling the truth. The manager in question may not have been keen for the call to be listened into, as he would have had to have listened to it himself. That is, of course, unless he accidentally forgets to do so... I often took calls from frustrated customers who were promised a call from a manager within 24 hours, but days later no-one had got back to them. In my department, every time a customer phoned, it was the responsibility of the person the customer spoke to to deal with them, regardless of who they had dealt with previously. Some cynics might argue that this encourages staff to spend more time making sales and less time dealing with customer service queries. When the customer rings back to kick off, it won't be their problem... By the way, to the best of my knowledge, if you can supply the phone number you called in from, then CPW should have recordings of all your calls. I would drop an email to Charles Dunstone, the CEO. His email address is [email protected]. He does read his own emails, and an email to a senior manager from his office does focus minds... Jeff

Forgive me, but I am not sure what you mean by this. Have you asked them for all information they hold on you under the Data Protection Act? Or have you asked them to supply the letter they wrote to you regarding your default, as one is required under the Consumer Credit Act (which doesn't cover phone companies, unfortunately)? Regards Jeff

The cost does indeed depend on how many calls you would have made. However, unless you make no calls and send no texts (which would beg the question of what you are doing on a monthy contract), there is clearly a saving for T-Mobile. I wasn't aware that T-Mobile make money from O2 every time someone rings a number that has been disconnected; I learn something new every day. Jeff

I did not set out to mess anyone around. Like many people on this site, I was unfortunate enough to go through a period of financial difficulty. It is better for all parties if phone companies can try to find a win-win solution, and to be friendly (and, where required, firm), rather than adopting a bombastic, unhelpful and inflexible approach. In my case, I was cut off just before Christmas, so maybe the firm could have thought 'Maybe, like lots of people in this country, this guy's a bit short of cash at this time of year, so we'll give him the opportunity to catch up in January'. I'm sorry you find my arguments spurious; I will endeavour to put more thought into my posts in future. Jeff

Surely the true cost to T Mobile is the monthly subscription you would have paid them had you continued your service for the remaining 12 months, minus the cost to T Mobile of your inclusive texts and calls. BTW, T Mobile are b******s when it comes to cutting you off. They cut me off without so much as a warning, and it was not possible for me to call even them from my phone. So I had to spend loads of money on a public pay phone trying to get an arrogant and self-righteous 'customer service' representative to sort the matter out (and as I recall the store were about as useful as a chocolate fireguard...) Jeff

Thanks for your replies. I am still waiting for my Subject Access Request to be processed (and I have a feeling I will continue waiting for some time!). However, if what they send me contains extremely limited information, then could I not argue that the information they have provided the CRA is unreliable as it cannot be corroborated, and that it therefore it must be removed from my record? Regards Jeff

Thanks for your comments guys. You may be right about me putting this thread in the wrong place. I started this thread here because I was hoping that someone who worked for a bank might say 'Well, actually the bank I work for, Bank X, is often willing to lend to people with defaults providing they have been paid off and are not recent'. Does anyone know of any lenders (apart from companies whose APR for people with defaults is extortionate), that are willing to lend to people with defaults? Jeff

A couple of months ago, I phoned T Mobile and paid off the oustanding amount on my default. Unfortunately, they were unable to send me a letter confirming this transaction, due to computer problems. I then contacted Experian, and asked them to amend my credit file accordingly. Experian contacted T Mobile, who eventually told them that I still had money owing on my account. I phoned T Mobile's customer services, but they said that all that was coming up on the screen was my name and address. They could not explain this, and suggested I write in. I then wrote to T Mobile, and their finance department said I have £30 outstanding. Given that Customer Services were unable to retrieve information relating to my account, this suggests that some data corruption may have taken place in respect of my account. Would the Information Commissioner therefore be willing to instruct that all information relating to my T Mobile account be removed from the Credit Reference Agency records, as its accuracy is questionable? Regards Jeff

I don't know about MAC codes, but with PAC codes the Carphone Warehouse requires you to write in (in writing, not by email) for the PAC code. And if they don't have any record of receiving your letter, they assume you haven't sent it (unless you sent it recorded delivery). I used to work at the Carphone Warehouse, and I got the impression that getting a PAC code was often more painful and time consuming than having dental work done! This is something that the salespeople in the shop for some reason don't tell customers about... I would drop an email to the CEO, Charles Dunstone, at [email protected]. I once wrote to him about a fairly minor problem, and he referred it to a manager just below director level to sort it out. Regards Jeff

Hang in there! Barclays like to play a game of brinkmanship- they finally agreed to pay what I was asking for at about 3.30 pm the day before the case was due to go to trial! Jeff

I have a default that is about 3 years old. The amount of the default was £120. If I pay off the outstanding amount due, how much of an impediment will the default be to me in getting credit? Thanks Regards Jeff

I have a default issued by T-Mobile on my credit file. Does anyone have any advice on removing defaults issued by mobile phone companies? As they are not covered by the Consumer Credit Act, the default notice cannot be removed on the grounds that a default notice was not posted to me. Does anyone have any success stories regarding getting defaults from telecomms companies removed? Thanks in advance. Regards Jeff