iPhone upgrade problems - what're my rights?

Squink · 5 Dec 2010 at 11:58

Two weeks ago today I upgraded to an iPhone 4 at £35/month for 24 months. I went through mobiles.co.uk as they were offering £100 cash back through Quidco and there were no comparable offers at the time. They sent me the phone out straight away, but because of 'technical problems' they haven't been able to upgrade me to the iphone contract, so the phone won't connect to the internet (I had a thread about it at the time and someone said I could connect to the internet on my existing tariff, but I don't want to risk possible bills through not knowing what I'm doing).

I've phoned mobiles.co.uk twice and each time I was told "1-2 weeks" for upgrades to go through. I was ok to wait for a little bit because £100 is better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick, but now 2 weeks is up and I can get £100 cash back going direct to T Mobile (and I think they give more than 500mb data). Do I have any rights to cancel my 'upgrade' through mobiles.co.uk? As mentioned, it's now the 14th day since I asked them to upgrade me.

Myshra · 6 Dec 2010 at 09:48

So you're using your new iphone with your old SIM? You'll need to look through your contract (you should have been mailed a copy) and look for the cooloff period, which is now probably past as it's usually 7 days but if it's longer you might be OK. You'll probably still be fine if you're out of it - If you havn't received the SIM for the new contract then you technically never started the contract so you could probably phone up and demand it to be all terminated and you want to send the phone back.

IIRC you basically are nearly always OK with this sort of thing thanks to the distance selling regulations. Also, I'm pretty sure they are bull****ting you. If you can find out what the reason is we can probably tell you if it's true or not.

Squink · 6 Dec 2010 at 11:07

I'm using the iphone with a new mini-SIM they sent me as the iphone doesn't take the normal size SIM. They've not actually done anything as far as I can see, so I don't know if the distance selling cooling off period applies. One of their customer services people tried to bumble her way through an explanation, but since I'm unfamilar with how their upgrades system works it didn't make a lot of sense.

I'm sat here trying to decide whether to phone them today or give them till tomorrow morning to sort it out.

JayToukon · 6 Dec 2010 at 12:29

I'am *almost* sure that anything purchased online has a 28-day 'distance return cooling off period' - not 100% on how that works with mobile phone contracts.

Lesson learnt is don't do a contract through small, unknown online companies. Go to your network or a high street store. Phones4U have a thing called 'webmatch' where they can usually match any deal you've seen online and you're safe in the knowledge you're doing it through a reputable company.

"andy" · 6 Dec 2010 at 14:21

JayToukon said:
I'am *almost* sure that anything purchased online has a 28-day 'distance return cooling off period' - not 100% on how that works with mobile phone contracts.

Lesson learnt is don't do a contract through small, unknown online companies. Go to your network or a high street store. Phones4U have a thing called 'webmatch' where they can usually match any deal you've seen online and you're safe in the knowledge you're doing it through a reputable company.

the distance selling regs changed a year or so ago and its a horribly short time now.

as for phones4u being a reputable company i am genuinely LOLing. worst company ive ever dealt with. total scumbags

mobiles.co.uk are bigger than them anyway !

Joe500 · 9 Dec 2010 at 21:46

Hi, Did you resolve this ?

I am in exactly the same situation and two weeks in they still inform me it can take 1-2 weeks for the upgrade to go through. They advise I am within my rights to return the phone but I must make my own arrangements due to their arrangement with DHL being suspended due to abnormal weather conditions! What nonsense and dreadful service from mobiles.co.uk

Squink · 10 Dec 2010 at 13:11

Joe500 said:
Hi, Did you resolve this ?

I phoned them up a couple of days back and someone on the phone tried another attempt to put the upgrade through, which failed. I was given the option of a return or I told I could "just keep waiting", with no indication that they were really that interested in fixing the problem.

I asked for a return. I've had to pay for Special Delivery back to their warehouse but can claim the money back (via cheque....woo hoo). As it happens, it's a fair old inconvenience for me to do this as I sold my old phone so am now back to a previous phone I had in a drawer from about 5 years back. Still, it's the principle of it. I can now get £100 cash back on an iPhone going direct to T Mobile who I'm sure won't **** up and I'll get more data for the same money.

I'll try my hardest not to do business with mobiles.co.uk again.

Joe500 · 10 Dec 2010 at 19:56

mulpsmebeauty said:
I phoned them up a couple of days back and someone on the phone tried another attempt to put the upgrade through, which failed. I was given the option of a return or I told I could "just keep waiting", with no indication that they were really that interested in fixing the problem.

I asked for a return. I've had to pay for Special Delivery back to their warehouse but can claim the money back (via cheque....woo hoo). As it happens, it's a fair old inconvenience for me to do this as I sold my old phone so am now back to a previous phone I had in a drawer from about 5 years back. Still, it's the principle of it. I can now get £100 cash back on an iPhone going direct to T Mobile who I'm sure won't **** up and I'll get more data for the same money.

I'll try my hardest not to do business with mobiles.co.uk again.

I also got the impression they were not interested in fixing the problem. Which network was your upgrade? They told me the problem was specific to o2 upgrades. Coincidently I received a text survey from Carphone Warehouse yesterday (retail branch of mobiles.co.uk), needless to say my comments about their utter incompetence will fall on deaf ears.

jimbobaggies · 10 Dec 2010 at 20:03

You can get £120 cash back through Quidco for all Vodafone iPhone pay monthly contracts.

Squink · 10 Dec 2010 at 22:24

Joe500 said:
Which network was your upgrade? They told me the problem was specific to o2 upgrades.

Mine was O2 as well. Can't remember if they said it was network specific. It's a shame they've been so cack this time - my last O2 upgrade was through mobiles.co.uk and it was both much cheaper than going direct to O2 and was done very efficiently.