Phone contract legal question

[lbsf1]

Hi guys.

I bought a phone from phones 4 u and on their website the specs it said that it had 32gb internal memory. They have sent me the phone however it only has 16gb of internal memory. We got the phone on contract so am i right on thinking that phones 4 you are legally obliged to send you the spec of phone that we agreed too on the contract. Can they refuse to send you that phone.

We have spoken with their customer service however they are just trying to get us to agree for them to give us a small discount for keeping the 16gb version instead of the one we ordered but the 16gb version leaves only 10gb of free storage (ie not really enough and would be a major limitation over the 32gb version)

Any help or experience of arguing with phone companies would be awesome since I'm quite peed off that they send us the wrong phone and then try to only offer us a small discount as "compensation".

 

[Minty]

You sure it wasnt "expandable to 32GB"?

 

[Barra333]

Yeah, double check it says 32GB of internal memory on the specs. If so, keep at them til they send what they advertised. If they don't come through, Im pretty sure that would be an open and shut case for the consumer affairs people.

 

[Dean]

Can they refuse to send you that
phone?

In Denmark, no. Please notice, that they'll only have to send you what's said in the contract, and nothing more. I think that's "normal" procedure, around the globe.

 

[lbsf1]

Basicly I ordered a htc one x from phones 4 u, on the page where you order the phone it gives the spec as 32gb internal memory (it doesn't have a sd card slot hence why the size of the internal memory is so crucial.) However since recieving it I have found its 16gb.

Here a link to the page. http://www.phones4u.co.uk/shop/shop_contract_details.asp?ItemKey=657572

After more searching around the web it seems that phones 4 u have been doing this for a while (more than 3 months), they have shown on the website 32gb however then only delivered 16gb phones.

I was wondering what my rights are to "demand" that they send me the phone I ordered.

 

[dhandeh]

You should have 14 days to send it back. Especially as it isn't the spec that you signed up for. Expect to be fobbed off though, as phone companies are notoriously hard to deal with.

 

[Slash]

You should have 14 days to send it back. Especially as it isn't the spec that you signed up for. Expect to be fobbed off though, as phone companies are notoriously hard to deal with.

We get nasty with them. Ask for their manager etc. Eventually we made it to the CEO of AT&T and he apologized for the inconvenience everyone else caused. Paid for the phone itself, and waived the contract termination fee as well.

If there was reason to, I'd threaten to take them to court. That usually shuts them up and gets you want you want.

 

[lbsf1]

My dad has emailed their director of customer service and we are currently waiting on a response.

One of their advisors said that they do have the 32gb version in the warehouse, so we said can you swap it for ours, they said yes but since their system is automated they couldn't garruntee that we would recieve the 32gb version???? We said can't you get someone to check the box since it says it on the box, they replied saying that the system is completely automated to the point that they can't even check that for us.

How useless is phones 4 u. 3 days of argueing with them and only now are we getting somewhere. We don't want anything amazing just the phone that we ordered.

I'm just hoping that the director guy will see our email and decide to overide the stupid system and just get them to manually get the phone from the ware house and sent it.

 

[Moglet]

Just refuse to settle for anything less than the correct phone. Saying they can't choose which model they're picking in the warehouse is ridiculous, how do they expect the staff to pick and pack the orders correctly if they can't see the phone model? It's just an excuse to try and fob you off, especially as it says the model, colour and storage size on the box. On a side note I've got the 32gb model myself and you'll love it 👍

 

[Deko Wolf-GTPT]

My dad has emailed their director of customer service and we are currently waiting on a response

Make sure they don't delay on the response.
Before you know it, 14 days have passed and they can pull out the "it's too late now" card.

I've had that happening to me. There was a constant flow of information being exchange between me and the company for the first 3 days.
Then, absolute silence for an entire week. After the exchange window was gone I was forced to go trough the entire procedure again, only to find out at the very end that it was too late. "You should have contacted us sooner", that was what I got left out this miserable customer service.

Keep on it. You have received the wrong item, demand your rights.

Best of luck, let us know when you win! 👍

 

[Nessy]

^ Yep, the last thing you want them to do is string it out. Maybe you should just send back the 16gb pronto.

 

[lbsf1]

Make sure they don't delay on the response.
Before you know it, 14 days have passed and they can pull out the "it's too late now" card.

I've had that happening to me. There was a constant flow of information being exchange between me and the company for the first 3 days.
Then, absolute silence for an entire week. After the exchange window was gone I was forced to go trough the entire procedure again, only to find out at the very end that it was too late. "You should have contacted us sooner", that was what I got left out this miserable customer service.

Keep on it. You have received the wrong item, demand your rights.

Best of luck, let us know when you win! 👍

Technically my dad has bought the contract so they only speak to him about it, but don't worry I'm keeping on at him to phone them back, and if they have not emailed back by the time I get home from Sixth form Tommorow I will be back on the phone again to their customer service.


Just a question for anyone who knows legal stuff. Since we have signed a contract are they obliged to give me that phone whatever or can they just say instead that I have to cancel the contract if I'm not happy. Because this deal on the phone was pretty good.

Its sooo anoying that I'm having to chase to get what I ordered for and gettin excited when I get any news that they may give me the phone I have payed for. I feel pretty conned by them so far, they put a deal on their website that doesn't seem to materialise and then leave you to chase them up to fix it. GRRRR.

 

[Sureboss]

It's a legally binding contract, they haven't fulfilled what both parties signed up to.

If you don't get the response you want from the Director then I suggest taking a garden chair in to your local Phones4U and sit in it until they sort it out.

They can offer you a replacement deal if they can't give you what the contract says, but you aren't under any pressure to accept it. If they can't fulfil the contract then send phone back (you shouldn't have to pay postage on this, again a legal requirement that most "businesses" overlook) and get a refund.

What is the deal? You'll probably find buying the phone outright and getting a sim only deal from someone like GiffGaff or Three will save you a substantial amount. My phone was about £30/month on the best contract with what I needed, doing it myself (with a phone that is roughly the same cost as a One X) saves me a third and I'm not tied down to anyone. Though of course that does mean you need an initial outlay of about £300 for the One X 32GB.

I have to ask, after this experience do you really want to spend the next 12/24 months with them? This is probably the most important thing you need to work out.

No SD slot, but you can get cloud storage quite cheaply. £5/month gets you 100GB or more of cloud space. Add a bit to that for inconvenience and breach of contract...what's the contract in the first place?

 

[Solo]

Just out of curiosity, due to the inconvenience cause could you ask for an upgrade rather than the correct phone? The One X+ with 64GB of internal memory is now available so you could potentially get that instead?

 

[Public'sTwin]

It's too bad it didn't go the other way around: receive a 32gb after ordering a 16gb—in Canada, you're allowed to keep better merch that is mistakenly sent to you for whatever price you paid.

 

[lbsf1]

Sureboss: The phone comes with 25gb free dropbox storage, however to access that you need firstly the space on the phone for the data and secondly and internet connection. The phone is only £20.50 a month with £39.99 upfront for the phone, so getting them seperately won't be any cheaper.

Sadly they won't offer any other comparable phone, they did offer the galaxy s2 however we declined, we asked if they could swap it for the s3, they couldn't so I doubt they will do the one x+.

I've got myself some information on mobile mis selling for if they don't resolve it from the director of sales.
http://www.which.co.uk/technology/phones/guides/mobile-phone-problems/your-mobile-phone-rights/

Anoyingly it seems that ofcom only have jurisdiction for the network operators (orange, vodaphone, ect) not of the companies who re sell the phones (phones 4 u.)

 

[Sureboss]

It doesn't work like it does on PC for mobile devices, on PC it is all stored locally because hard drives are big. Dropbox will only store files from your Dropbox folder locally when you tell it to on your mobile.

 

[Grayfox]

How old is this contact as most have a cooling of period.

If you cant use that option call your fair trading.

 

[lbsf1]

How old is this contact as most have a cooling of period.

If you cant use that option call your fair trading.

7 day cooling off period, however I don't want to cancel the contract because if I do get the correct phone then it will be a really good deal, otherwise they have to give me the option to cancel anyway.

Was looking on ofcom this morning and they will only get involved after 8 weeks of stalemate.

We were refered to they "high level customer service" today who seem slightly more knowledgeable then their normal customer service and they are going to contact us back after looking into it within 3 working days (their customer service is open saturdays so I hope they count that.)

The 25gb of dropbox is pretty good however its still nowhere as convenient as having it on your phone, also it would take up my internet so its not that a convienient an option.



EDIT: HUGE UPDATE

I have been offered a replacement phone When I contacted the customer support forum moderators yesterday they said they would look into it, they phoned back this evening and offered to replace it with a HTC ONE X+ . They are sending a postage bag for us to send the other phone back and then once they have received that they will send us the ONE X+.

 

[Solo]

Thats great news 👍 And you'll love the One X+, mine is great! There's a software update to do as soon as you've got it running though so just check it in the settings menu

 

[Legendary]

Oh thats a pretty good outcome .

Just be careful if you ever drop it. The first few times you get the feeling the phone is invincible with that gorilla glass but then it only takes one time for it to break and you are left with a cracked screen or a $279 repair bill .

This is mine, it took 6 months to break the screen and the sad thing is I could have caught it but I didn't think for a moment that it would break.

 

[lbsf1]

Oh thats a pretty good outcome .

Just be careful if you ever drop it. The first few times you get the feeling the phone is invincible with that gorilla glass but then it only takes one time for it to break and you are left with a cracked screen or a $279 repair bill .

This is mine, it took 6 months to break the screen and the sad thing is I could have caught it but I didn't think for a moment that it would break.

Yeah I have seen that they break pretty easy (unlike the beasts that are the nokia lumia.) I will be getting a case for it so hopefully that should reduce the risk of breaking the screen. I also have never broken a phone before (touch wood).

I'm getting them to send me an email confirmation of what they are going to do so I can have it in writing.

 

[Legendary]

Yeah I have seen that they break pretty easy (unlike the beasts that are the nokia lumia.) I will be getting a case for it so hopefully that should reduce the risk of breaking the screen. I also have never broken a phone before (touch wood).

I'm getting them to send me an email confirmation of what they are going to do so I can have it in writing.

Yeah this is probably the 5th or 6th touch device with a large glass screen I have had and its the first i've broken. But it is also the first I haven't put a case on (god damn its sexy looks) which has turned out to be a bad mistake.

 

[lbsf1]

Yeah this is probably the 5th or 6th touch device with a large glass screen I have had and its the first i've broken. But it is also the first I haven't put a case on (god damn its sexy looks) which has turned out to be a bad mistake.

I'm thinking this case. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stylish-C...lePhonesCasesPouches&var=&hash=item2a25e3e4e2

Hoping this phone will arrive by christmas it seems touch and go at the moment.

 

[lbsf1]

UPDATE 2.

Not sure when this phone will arrive now. I was hoping for delivery tomomorow however have just seen on their forum someone complaining about this phone being out of stock when they ordered on thursday (the same day our phone probably would/should have been dispatched) and after wondering why he didn't got a dispatch confirmation he contacted them and they said they were hoping to get them back in stock within 3 weeks and it would dispatched then.

Lets hope I got one of the last ones in stock.

The incompetence of phone 4 u is unbelievable, no where on their website is an indication of stock and to have to email them to work out where your phone is just plain bad customer service. Don't order from phones 4 u you may get a good deal eventually but its no end stress until the phone actually arrives and is working.

 

[Grayfox]

Reason I suggest you play the cancel contract card.

Tell them since you can not hold up your end of the contract I will be canceling it in 2 days as you can even without a cooling off period because they failed to provide you with the right phone and you have consumer rights.

This should force them to give you the phone you should have.