GSM WORLD

Oh dear, what have I done.

I should have paid more attention to this group, I didnt realise CPW are
their own SP for Vodafone contracts. If I knew this before, then I would
never have gone ahead with it. I still have a gripe with them regarding them
not honouring their UPP. Anyway, too late now.

Im having big problems with the above mentioned, and was wondering if
anyone had similar troubles. I started a contract with them back in November
2003. To date, I have not received a bill from them, and they havent taken
a penny from my bank account either. Ive got to the stage where Im too
afraid to use my phone as I estimate the bill to be around the Ł300+ mark.

I have phoned them to query this, but they werent helpful at all. The droid
told me that it was strange, and would write a note to the billing
department. I was then told that a bill had been sent to me around the 27th
of January. I still havent received that either. I asked them if they could
tell me what my billing date was. No, dont know. I asked them how much the
bill they sent me was for. Dont know. I asked them why the balance and
bundle enquiry service never ever works (on the 0845/ 0870 number) Oh, you
have to register to use that. Now, whenever I try to contact them, I get
either the number unobtainable tone (NU), or the engaged tone. When I do get
through, Im told CS is closed. Ive tried e-mailing them on the address
given on mycarphonewarehouse.com, but it always bounces with ...

Vodafonecs@cpwservices.co.uk>: host mail.cpwplc.net[193.118.251.125] said:
501
5.7.1 This system is not configured to relay mail from
for 195.112.4.54
(in reply to RCPT TO command)


Im desperate, I really dont know what to do. One day theyre gonna shove a
horrendous phone bill through my door for around 3 months use and expect it
to be paid within 14 days. Can they do this? I think its a bit unfair
considering its their f*ck up. I think Ill have to bite the bullet, pay up
the remaining months on the contract and put it down to bad experience. Not
only that, but after having a search on Google I see some of you have
problems with your bills, so this could be the tip of the iceberg.

I really, really regret going through with this contract. Im a long
standing Orange customer (I get a loyalty discount on my bill every month)
who, I must say have been fantastic. Unfortunately, Ive had to switch from
Orange due to coverage issues which is a great shame. Are you listening
Orange?

Any comments appreciated,
G

Gari P wrote in message
news:c08ugk$139n5f$1@ID-75225.news.uni-berlin.de...


Others will probably respond and have other views, but personally I would
say that you are within your rights to only pay charges backdated up to 3
months - i.e. any charges incurred more than 3 months ago, they dont really
have the right to bill to you due to their inefficiencies.

Chase it through with Ofcom - if you can get them to contact CPWS on your
behalf, it might get them into gear?

Tariq

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004 Gari P wrote:


[...]

Similar experiences here. Signed up in late November, with CPW telling
me that as a previous customer they already had my bank account details
on file, and asking if I wanted to use those for the Direct Debit. I
agreed.

December came and went and, despite several e-mails to their support
droids and filling in my bank details again (twice) on their DD web
page, no money was taken. I had one automated e-mail on January 12th
telling me that my Direct Debit would be taken out on the 14th rather
than the 5th (which in itself would have been impossible unless they
employ Doctor Who in the finances department). After that there was
nothing except for standard automated replies insisting that my problem
was being investigated.

Needless to say the 14th came and went with no money taken out. Another
e-mail was sent. Another automated response came back.

Then, sometime around January 20th, I got an SMS warning me that unless
I paid my bill my phone service was in risk of termination. In the end I
phoned customer services which, I guess, is what I should have done from
the start although bad past experience with CS droids has put me off
talking to people when there are machines that (usually) handle things
better.

To be fair, though, the guy flagged up the problem straight away.
Because the DD had been finalised so late (despite CPWs promise) the
system was not authorised to take out my first payment, only payments
for February onwards. The first payment would have to be made by credit
card, which I did there and then.

It would have been nice of THEM to have phoned ME to explain this,
rather than absorbing my e-mails into their black hole and sending out
threatening SMS.

So, long story short: keep plugging away with Customer Services phone
line. E-mail is a complete waste of time. Ive no idea why the guys on
the phone couldnt get to the bottom of your problem; perhaps theres
something that only flags up once their system has sent out the
threatening text message.

Once you get them to understand the problem theres a good chance youll
have to make your first payment by some means other than Direct Debit,
but with a bit of luck everything should go more smoothly from then on.

Good luck.

--
Kev

1: Lift up receiver. 2: Insert phone card. 3: Dial 0999+number.
4: Say hello. Instructions on Japanese phone card

Kevin Reilly wrote:
Luck really should not be necessary when dealing with these companies! :-)

--
Des

Gari P wrote:

If you have a gripe with them, why shop there in the first place? Surely
makes no difference that they are the SP or not!!


Why are you afraid to use the phone? Had you not at any stage considered
keeping aside some money per month to pay the bill you are accruing? Granted
you probably dont know exactly how much you are being charged per month -
but even so!!! It isnt rocket science to only spend what you can out of
your bank account each month. Just because CPW havent taken a penny from
you, that doesnt give you an automatic right to go out and spend it on
something else!! I dont understand the problem here - are you just telling
us that youve spent the money on something else and wont be able to afford
to pay CPW when they finally get around to billing you?


Regardless of the fact that obviously their CS and billing is lousy, you are
still (or have been) using their service. They have every right to expect
you to pay for it. At some point. Put Ł300 under your mattress and add
another Ł100 per month until you receive the bill. Then voila, youll have
the money to pay for it.

Unfortunately, they do rather have you by the short and curlies. A contract
is a contract and WILL screw up your credit rating if you fail to pay when
they ask for it....


No company is perfect, eh? :(

TimG wrote in message
news:c0a9df$eus$1@visp.bt.co.uk...


Yes, youre right, why go there if Id already had my fingers burnt? Well,
at the time they had a good price on the Nokia 6600 which I really wanted to
have then. So I thought ah well, their loss, my gain, after this itll be
between me and Vodafone, so goodbye again CPW.


Money is not a problem, sorry if you misunderstood there. When I took out
the contract, I expected a MONTHLY bill. Not quarterly, or a whenever they
felt like it bill. They shouldnt expect me to pay 3/4 months worth of
bills in one fat lump sum. But if I had to, then so be it, but I wouldnt be
happy. If I couldnt afford to have a contract, I wouldnt have it!


I havent, as I explained above. But it is difficult to predict the cost of
my bill when a) I dont know when my billing date is, and b) how many
inclusive minutes I have ... or dont have. If I knew these basic things
then I would know when not to use my phone, or at least go easy with it
until the next billing date. I know for a fact that the GPRS charges for the
last 3 months are going to be huge, the phones counters show a total of
24.6MB transferred data.


No, Im saying they shouldnt be so inefficient & sloppy and send me a
monthly bill, which is what I expected (what anyone would expect) when I
took out the contract. Thats not unreasonable to expect from any SP /
network is it?


Id rather not take the chance of letting them piss away my good credit
rating due to their mistakes, so Im going to have to downgrade tariff and
pay off the remaining months and get out of this mess before it gets worse.
Ill probably go back to using my trusty old Orange Talk60 ringfenced
talkplan, which, luckily, I havent cancelled yet.


Sadly, not. Thanks for the reply.

G

Kevin Reilly wrote in message
news:wv299WDwKBKAFw$S@spamtrap.denali.org.uk...


Thanks for the reply, glad Im not alone.

I finally managed to speak to someone quite knowledgeable. I explained the
satiation and he looked into it. It turns out that I wasnt properly
registered on their systems. Even though my SIM has been live since
November, I didnt exist on the billing system. If I hadnt phoned them, I
would have NEVER got a bill. But Id rather not take that risk, they would
have found out one day for sure.

So now, theyre going to have to contact Vodafone and get call logs
alllllllll the way back to November for every call / message Ive sent. Then
they will send me a backdated bill with the full amount, but he did say that
they would arrange a payment plan so that I wouldnt have to pay it off in
one go.

Now, I know whats going to happen. Ill probably be charged for every
single call Ive made and it wont come out of my 100 min allowance, as I
didnt have any allowance to start with. Ive also learnt I have a Ł100
credit limit. With all the backdated calls etc, I will be well over this,
twice, possibly three times. Then my handset will be barred from making
outgoing calls .... you know the rest ... Ive a feeling its going to get
very messy :(

If this is the sort of service I receive from the outset then I need to get
out of the contract, quick! If this sort of blunder goes unnoticed, then to
me, that says a lot about the service TBH.

Cheers,
G

Gari P wrote in message
news:c0bc5k$154ut1$1@ID-75225.news.uni-berlin.de...


Started today. Outgoing calls / texts etc BARRED.

G