Mobile phone insurance scamming at the Carphone Warehouse

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Adrian C - 09 May 2008 20:00 GMT

I bought a new phone (and contract) at CPW in one of their stores. I
expressedly declined their offer of me paying for insurance AND it says
that on the receipt.

OK, ten minutes after I put the SIM in, the new phone rings.

CPW: "Hello, how's you new phone? It says here you HAVE signed up for
insurance cover? Is that correct."

ME: "No, I don't want it. Take it off"

CPW: "OK, it's done. Probably guy in the shop added it as they get a
commission for doing so. They are always doing that. Apologies...."

A bit later, phone rings ---

CPW2: "Hello, how's you new phone? It says here you HAVE NOT signed up
for insurance cover? Is that correct?"

ME: "No, I don't want it."

CPW2: "We have a special offer, pay yada get yada yada yada... blah"

ME: "Not interested - good bye..."

A bit later, phone rings ---

CPW3: "Hello, how's you new phone? Can I ask why you have declined to
take mobile insurance cover for your new phone?

ME: "Not interested - good bye..."

Three after sales calls. Insistent or what?

Signature

Adrian C

Reply to this Message

code_wrong - 09 May 2008 21:02 GMT

>I bought a new phone (and contract) at CPW in one of their stores. I
>expressedly declined their offer of me paying for insurance AND it says
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
>
> Three after sales calls. Insistent or what?

lol ..that could get seriously annoying

Reply to this Message

Rob - 10 May 2008 22:38 GMT

So leave the phone near the radio and walk away each time they call, or put
them through
to voicemail. Why answer when you do not recognise the number calling?

Reply to this Message

ChrisM - 12 May 2008 09:31 GMT

<SNIP>

> Why answer when you do not recognise the number
> calling?

So how can you be sure that you will know every number that has a good
reason to call your phone? How about 'World Of Leather' calling to let you
know your new suite will be delivered tomorrow, or one of your friends
calling to give you their new mobile number, or someone calling from their
friends house to pass on a bit of important information or...

Signature

Regards,
Chris.
(Remove Elvis's shoes to email me)

Reply to this Message

Adrian C - 12 May 2008 10:31 GMT

> <SNIP>
>> Why answer when you do not recognise the number
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> calling to give you their new mobile number, or someone calling from their
> friends house to pass on a bit of important information or...

The amateur trolling character 'Rob' (AKA the Tiscali Idiot) is well
known among the uk newsgroups for just being spiteful for the sake of
it, sprouting nonsence and "knowledgeable" misinformation, and finally
morphing his usenet identity between John/Brian/Rob/Ian when rumbled for
the creep idiot he is.

So essentially he is trying (but actually failing) to be unrecognisable.
As such he is now blabbing "Why answer when you do not recognise the
number"? which is a bloody good question when it comes into
communication with him.

But we all how who he is ...

lol

Signature

Adrian C

Reply to this Message

ChrisM - 12 May 2008 11:06 GMT

>> <SNIP>
>>> Why answer when you do not recognise the number
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> lol

Sorry, I DO know who he is, and I shouldn't have risen to the bait... I will
try to restrain myself next time... :-)

Signature

Regards,
Chris.
(Remove Elvis's shoes to email me)

Reply to this Message

Ivor Jones - 12 May 2008 10:33 GMT

In news:34GdnY1gt74jnbXVnZ2dnUVZ8hidnZ2d@bt.com,
ChrisM <chris_mayersblue@suedeyahoo.com> typed, for some strange,
unexplained reason:

: <SNIP>
: > Why answer when you do not recognise the number
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
: reason to call your phone? How about 'World Of Leather' calling to
: let you know your new suite will be delivered tomorrow

Presumably you will have given them your number for this purpose and will
be expecting their call..?

: or one of your friends calling to give you their new mobile number

A non-urgent call for which they could either leave a message on voicemail
or send a text message.

: or someone calling from their friends house to pass on a bit of

important information or...

An unlikely scenario these days given most people have mobiles. But given
the possilility of a flat battery or whatever, what would be so urgent
they would *have* to call you then and there and couldn't wait..?

A common argument is the police or hospital calling to let you know a
relative has been in an accident. But assuming you are actually there, you
could simply screen the call with an answering machine and pick up when
you recognise the caller.

Ivor

Reply to this Message

ChrisM - 12 May 2008 11:05 GMT

> In news:34GdnY1gt74jnbXVnZ2dnUVZ8hidnZ2d@bt.com,
> ChrisM <chris_mayersblue@suedeyahoo.com> typed, for some strange,
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> Presumably you will have given them your number for this purpose and
> will be expecting their call..?

Yes, I would be expecting their call, but I wouldn't necessarily know what
number they would be calling from, or even exactly which day they are likely
to be calling...

>> or one of your friends calling to give you their new mobile number
>
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> urgent they would *have* to call you then and there and couldn't
> wait..?

I don't know what could be so urgent. Maybe someone could have been taken
ill or been involved in an accident... It's not really relevant though, my
point was that you can't always know avery number that may have a genuine
reason to call you.

> A common argument is the police or hospital calling to let you know a
> relative has been in an accident. But assuming you are actually
> there, you could simply screen the call with an answering machine and
> pick up when you recognise the caller.

Does your mobile's voicemail let you screen calls in that way then?

> Ivor

Signature

Regards,
Chris.
(Remove Elvis's shoes to email me)

Reply to this Message

Ivor Jones - 13 May 2008 19:06 GMT

In news:QdqdnR7U2I9Li7XVnZ2dnUVZ8qfinZ2d@bt.com,
ChrisM <chris_mayersblue@suedeyahoo.com> typed, for some strange,
unexplained reason:

: In message 68qh6qF2sk08eU1@mid.individual.net,
: Ivor Jones <ivor@thisaddressis.invalid> Proclaimed from the tallest
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
: what number they would be calling from, or even exactly which day
: they are likely to be calling...

So you would be expecting a call from an unknown number..? Answer it
then..!

: >> or one of your friends calling to give you their new mobile number
: >
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
:
: Does your mobile's voicemail let you screen calls in that way then?

No, but if I were that paranoid about not answering unknown numbers I'd
let the call go to voicemail and then retrieve it.

As it happens, I deal with the police a lot in my work and their systems
are configured to withhold the number, so I have no choice but to answer.
In about 10 years I think I've had half a dozen cold calls.

Are your numbers TPS registered..?

Ivor

: > Ivor

Reply to this Message

Steve Terry - 10 May 2008 23:44 GMT

>I bought a new phone (and contract) at CPW in one of their stores. I
>expressedly declined their offer of me paying for insurance AND it says
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> CPW: "OK, it's done. Probably guy in the shop added it as they get a
> commission for doing so. They are always doing that. Apologies...."

CPW sales staff have been pulling that scam on CPW for years,
you would have thought by now Chuck Dunstan would have sorted it out!

Steve Terry

Reply to this Message

Simon - 11 May 2008 12:53 GMT

>> I bought a new phone (and contract) at CPW in one of their stores. I
>> expressedly declined their offer of me paying for insurance AND it says
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> Steve Terry

Unless of course that the tactic has a degree of success that they have
been profiting on for years!

Simon S

Reply to this Message

Brian A - 12 May 2008 21:29 GMT

>>I bought a new phone (and contract) at CPW in one of their stores. I
>>expressedly declined their offer of me paying for insurance AND it says
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
>Steve Terry

Yes, expect to be pestered several times re the insurance scam.
If you are on a 'money back' deal beware! When I elected to leave,
after my contract had expired, they tried, and would have succeeded if
I hadn't cottoned on to what was happening, in offering me a 'free'
deal. I was to have 'x' number of mins and texts for FREE for the next
12 months. Of course, though they didn't tell me, this meant I would
not receive the final bill....and that meant I would not be able to
get my final 'money back' payment of about £100. Fortunately I
realised it was a scam and stopped it. The woman on customer service,
I think, was genuinely nieve. She said that 'no', we wouldn't treat
our customers like that - when she made enquiries she found that the
sales team weren't as lily white as she had thought.
I might have dealt with them again but, because of their underhand
tactics, it is not just unlikely that I will deal with them but also
others, who ask for my advice, will also not deal with them.
CPW should learn that such practices just don't pay off! Play fair
and customers will come back.
Unless I misunderstood the news item, it seems that that CPW are now
half owned by 'Best Buy' and that BB already own the
Dixons/PCW/Currys group as well as Comet.

---
Remove 'no_spam_' from email address.
---

Reply to this Message

Adrian C - 13 May 2008 10:25 GMT

> Yes, expect to be pestered several times re the insurance scam.
> If you are on a 'money back' deal beware! When I elected to leave,
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> our customers like that - when she made enquiries she found that the
> sales team weren't as lily white as she had thought.

Cripes :-( That story, you send to BBC Watchdog & OfCom, please... :-)

> CPW should learn that such practices just don't pay off! Play fair
> and customers will come back.

Amen to that :-)

> Unless I misunderstood the news item, it seems that that CPW are now
> half owned by 'Best Buy' and that BB already own the
> Dixons/PCW/Currys group as well as Comet.

May be something about the blue colour chosen in CPW's branding, Best
Buy is also blue... :-)

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/05/12/cndsg112.xml>

Best Buy do not own DSG or Comet but would like to. IMO Would be a good
thing if they did, and imported their superior customer service ideas
from the US.

Signature

Adrian C

Reply to this Message

Rate this thread: