CPW swapit deal, breach of contract?

[falten]

I purchased 2 Blackberry Pearl phones from Carphone Warehouse 10 months ago. I was sold an 18 month contract. The reason I took the 18 month rather than the 12 month contract was that they were offering the Swapit deal, so after 9 months I would be able to get a new handset.

The person that sold me the contract stated that I would be able to take any other Blackberry phone available when coming to swap my phones at 9 months. So this was the condition of sale for me. I have now gone back to CPW and tried to swap my phones. They are now stating that different phones have now been put onto different price bands and subsequently my swapit that I took out does not even allow me to swap my BB Pearl phones for the same phone nevermind any other BB. They say if I pay £50 extra per phone then I will be able to get a BB.

When I was sold this Swapit deal, there was no mention made of having to pay towards getting a replacement BB after the 9 months. What are my rights now, as I really don't have £50 to spend per phone to even get the same phone as I currently have. The person that sold me the phone said they can't really do anything to help me and just said that the system has changed and sorry my Swapit no longer covers any BB phones. They never notified me of the fact that I would not be able to get at least my equivalent phone without paying £50 per phone.

So my question is, have CPW breached their contract by suddenly changing the terms of the Swapit deal. They did not give me any Swapit terms and conditions at the time of contract. I'm not sure what I can do now?

Thank you for your help

Falten

[barracad]

Full details are here:

http://media.phonehouse.com/mediaser...&asset=CONTENT


You should be entitled to a 'bronze' phone for free - but this doesn't necessarily mean that the BlackBerry Pearl will be in the bronze banding.

[falten]

I don't recall any info that they gave us about the Swapit deal at all. Is it standard for the CPW to make you take out another deal when you Swapit? I was very much not aware of having to be tied in even further. I don't know if I should apply for copies of all the data they have on my account? If they don't produce any Swapit information then what happens?

[barracad]

Sorry, no. There's another similar offer with a different provider where you are forced to extend your contract, I thought it was the same thing.

I've updated my previous post with the Swapit details.

[falten]

Thank you for the link. I also read on there that you can only swap one handset under this offer and I have the 2 hansets under 1 contract. So again the person that sold us the phone blatently lied to me as he knew that I required 2 new handsets at the end of the 9 months. He never once stated that there are different price bands etc. and possibly could not even get a phone the equivalent of what I already have. It just makes me really really irritated and I will make sure that I never use CPW again.

The other thing that I also read on the link that you posted is that when you sign up to the airtime contract terms and conditions you automatically sign up to the swapit terms and conditions. So if you aren't given any terms and conditions for the swapit at the time of signing up, how can you know that you agree to the terms and conditions. Is this legal?

[buzby]

Unfortunately you cannot say it was a 'blatant lie', they may only have been mistaken, as these deals are written up by Philadelphia lawyers and (as always) caveat emptor applies. You need to be sure the deal offered meets your requirements - folk make mistakes (!) and because they do and it is difficult to prove, you need to double check yourself! Also these deals often morph into different offerings once they see how they are being used and abused - so what you were promised at that time may have been correct, but the 'update' worked to your disadvantage.

That said, I'm sure your original BB isn't life expired after just 40 weeks!