As dealers we are supposed to send a welcome pack with Upgrades and new connections, detailing tariff name agreed, contract length, inclusive allowances, out of allowance charges, distance selling regs, warranty info, contact details, opening hours, customer services numbers etc. I send this out with the phone, and wait up to 48 hours for a call from the customer from receipt of the phone, to say they are happy to go ahead with everything, before the agreement is processed. Why do the networks feel they are exempt from there own requirements, but independant retailers have strict controls. To be honest though, i would do this anyway, even if it was not a requirement.

I would advise anyone wishing to take up a verbal offer, to get the offer in writing in full, before agreeing to the wonderful offers that these companies come up with.

The Onus is on the supplier to prove that the phone was in working order within the first 6 months. Why was it left so long to get the phone looked at. Within 28 days, three will swap the phone for a new one. After that, they normally collect the phone from your home or workplace, take it to the repair centre, fix it and get it back within 3 working days. If my customers have a faulty 3 phone i loan them a phone whilst it is away. If the phone now has water ingress it will have invalidated the warranty, as it is not mechanical breakdown, whether or not the fault was there before it was sent. I have had customers whom have left the phone in the bathroom whilst having a bath and the steam has got into the phone. There are also lots of other ways the phone can get water ingress, i.e sweaty hands, drop of rain, dropping in water, spilling drinks etc, but if the phone was not sent away until 11 months after it was first used, they will argue that it was working up to then. In the networks terms and conditions they cannot guarantee reception in all areas, and they all meet and exceed the required standard, and at the time Three offered a 14 day Customer Satisfaction Guarantee, so if your wife wasnt happy, she could have cancelled. I do not think you would have a leg to stand on now, and you woudl probably be better off getting a 2nd hand Three phone on Ebay, for £40 - £60.00 and seeing out the contract and then porting to another network, or paying the £95 to three, seeing out the contract and then selling the phone.

I will put a complaint in. Thanks for the link. The wording is very ambiguous as they are still offering 12 months half price, but the implication that it is a 12 month contract being offered suggests that the offer is for that period. I suppose it sounds better than offering an 18 month contract with 12 months half price line rental, which is what it really is. They are also offering the Motorola F3 at half price of £9.99, but the new RRP of this phone is £4.99, which is mad, but it costs us -£3.50. I have seen special offers in thier shops on accessories at greatly reduced prices, where many independant retailers offer the same items at prices lower than thier Offer prices as standard. Just don't get sucked in by the glossy banners.

If you look at their 12 month Half Price offers on 12 month contracts, you will find that to get the cashbacks you have to claim £45 a time at 6, 12, 14 & 18 months to get the money back by sending in a copy of your latest bill.The Carphone Warehouse Sale Therefore to get 12 months half price on a 12 month contract, you have to be connected for 18 months. If you cancel at the end of the 12 months contract you will only have 6 months half price. Good old CPW

Obviously it is one rule for CPW and another rule for everyone else, unless an error was made on thier part. I own an independant dealership, and we have to and would do anyway, send a welcome pack when we complete a mail order sale. This has to list tariff details, contract term, any extras signed up to etc. We also include distance selling regulations offering 7 days return of unused product, and full contact details including company reg details. i have a policy of not connecting the handset and sim until i have received verbal confirmation with 48 hours from receipt that they are happy with the whole package. I would have thought, that CPW would also do this. In fact, i had someone come into my shop about a month ago, asking if i would buy his LG Prada that he obtained from CPW online on an 02 contract, as he could not get on with the phone. I asked for proof of purchase and proof of ID. He included a welcome pack, with an invoice detailing the whole package including insurance, and T's & C's so i do not understand why you did not receive one. I agree with Busby, that you were remiss in checking your bank statements, for anything out of the ordinary. Sky recently upped my package by £10 a month as i did not have the box put in the phone line, but i noticed that straight away, and resolved the matter. If CPW say that paperwork was initially sent out with the package, detailing the insurance, then where will you stand. It was obviously an error that you did not pick up on till your contract had ended, and they may offer a goodwill gesture. I personally don't think a fraud case would stick. Sorry could not be of more help. I now await a tongue lashing

Hi, welcome to the Forum. Did you not get any proof of posting whatsoever. Unfortunately, responsibility of the phone and sim lies with you, until they have received it safely back. Have you spoken with Orange, because as far as they are concerned you are still connected. I would ask for a bar to be put on the line, and a replacement sim to be sent out to you. Did you call the company you purchased it from to check if they had received it back. With some mail order companies you have to contact them first to obtain a return reference. Sorry i could not be of more help.

This is worth a read, as it includes a lot of the problems that are mentioned on this forum.... http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/mbp/cop.pdf

The networks will all start to amend their tariffs, mainly due to having to bring International call charges down and the reduction in income they will receive. As of the 15th August 07, TMobile are introducing a minimum call charge of 1 minute and Voicemail Retrieval at 12p per minute, which does not come out of your inclusive allowance. This applies to new customers from the 15th August 07, and existing customers whom migrate to a different tariff. than their current tariff. Apparently if you take up the WebnWalk option at £7.50 per month, you will not be affected. We have been told to ensure that customers know about the changes, and the advisor at 02 should have advised you of the implications of changing your tariff. You have been misled and they should transfer you back to your existing plan, unless they can prove that they gave you the option at the time.

Hi, Was it a TMobile shop you went into. I am an independant retailer whom deals with TMobile, and a cancellation of an upgrade is possible. A few days before the Free Evening and Weekend calls promotion came in a couple of months ago, I upgraded a customer for a phone that he wanted. I was not advised of the new promotion coming up. A couple of days into the start of the following month, the customer called me to see if he could take up this offer. He is a very good customer of mine, and has been for over 10 years now, so i called cancellations. Cancelled the upgrade. Got a cancellation reference and then called Retentions, and got him this offer and he re-signed a new contract and kept the upgraded phone he took. When i received my commission which covered the cost of the phone and a little bit of profit, i was paid it, and then it was cancelled off and the re-paid it again. We dont like doing it, as TMobile and other networks re-strict us to 4.5% cancellations, and then will charge us a sum for the privilage, but this customer has 4 lines, and so does his brother, and every upgrade is done through myself. If he had been treated as you were then TMobile would have lost 8 contracts. They need to look at the whole picture. Good luck.

The only right of cancellation since May 2005 with TMobile, is the 7 day distance selling regulations, but this is only if the handset is unused or the handset is faulty. Other networks are going the same way, such as THREE. They cannot guarantee that the coverage will cover every inch of the UK, and it is not the networks fault if someone previously enjoyed coverage at home and then moved to a home with poor or zero coverage. TMobile offer Street Check where you can check coverage down to street level. http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/your-choice/coverage-check/ If you have checked coverage and it turn out that it doesnt work in that street then they give you 14 days to return the handset.

On a wider scope, re contracts, there are millions of contracts signed every year, and the only ones you hear about on forums such as this are the ones that have gone wrong. Things do occasionally go wrong with everything, but to tar them all with the same brush is wrong. I have had mobile phones on contract since 1988 and have never had a problem. I just make sure i make a decision as to what package i require, and ensure i know the full T's & C's and get them in writing. I pay my bills and get the service i expect. If you don't feel comfortable then go on PAYG as you say, but if you make over 100-200 minutes of calls you would be financially better off on contract, and you also get the facility for negotiating a new deal at the end of your minimum term. I always try and negotiate better deals for my customers at upgrade time, and often get them a new phone with between a £5 to £15 per month discount on either thier current tariff or on a new tariff if that is better for them. I actually like selling pay as you go, as i have made a profit (less than contract) but the sale usually only takes 5 - 10 minutes and then that is it. I can charge extra for accessories that i have to give away on contract, and then earn a small amount when they top up. No worries about clawback as i make sure the phones are credited at point of sale, no commission queries, and money in my bank straight away. As stated before the networks love it too.

I am just giving one side of the coin and Busby is giving the other. Every person is individual, and should go for what they feel happy with, in the long term. If you do get a contract, get the whole package laid out in writing, before agreeing to anything verbally, wherever you go including full details of any special offers.

Pay as you good is a great option, but not when there's an emergency, such as car broken down, whilst out in the sticks, at night, and you wished you hadn't said that you were going to get some more credit the following day. You have to contend with making sure credit is available, and you have no control over unexpected tariff changes. The networks love PAYG, as a small amount is used to subsidise the handset, and then it is income from day one....

There's pro's and cons to everything. If you use less than 100 minutes per month then you are better off on Payasyou go with a decent-ish payasyougo phone for about £100.00 then you would spend approx £17.56 per month over an 18 month period. You can get a Nokia 6151 or SonyEricsson K610i for £15 a month on 3 for 18 months with 250 minutes and 50 texts or for a fiver more you can have double that, with no cashback. All you have to do is pay your bills and monitor your usage to make sure you don't go over. I think its worth the little bit of hassle ....