I went in to Carphone Warehouse today to buy my son a mobile phone for crimbo as we had browsed around at the different ones available over the weekend, he decided on an LG Optimus £99.95 with an extra £10 topup and sim card, annoying as he already has a sim, so I bite the bullet and agree to purchase, so I hand over my £110 in cash, Oh the salesman says its £120 by cah £110 if you pay by card WTF 👿 👿 👿 I dont want to pay by card I say why is it more expensive if I pay cash, Oh thats the policy sir, how ludicrous I said and turned around and walked out.
I was jumping up and down at this point furious about the crazy policy, so not to be defeated, I tried another Carphone Warehouse in the next town, same response but with a totally moronic excuse, that the reason its more to pay by cash is to deter box breakers or something, apparently there are gangs going around buying up these phones on cheap deals, rather than hit the idiot I walked out again.
So I phoned Carphone Warehouse to ask some to explain this policy, I had no satisfactory explanation other than its policy throughout the industry. I will give Argos a go tomorrow.

Rant over.

avoid that swear filter…

Fascinating but why not just pay by card?

we’re on 02, the mrs wanted a new phone the other day…walked into the 02 shop in town. picked the phone she wanted…went to pay…saleswoman said that because we were already on 02 that we didnt need to pay the £10 top up. says everything really about the carphoney warehouse 🙂

Fascinating but why just pay by card?

Because I had the cash and wanted to pay by cash, it is still legal tender what difference should it make. Also out of principle why should anyone be penalized with regards to their method of payment.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwH1fLEMDkY[/video]

box breakers

Sorry, can someone explain?

Because I had the cash and wanted to pay by cash, it is still legal tender what difference should it make. Also out of principle why should anyone be penalized with regards to their method of payment.

What principle in fact people often ask for discount on for cash when buying from small trader or having repairs building work done. On this occasion the discount was for a card. Me I’d pay by card rather than troop around town.

MC Ban Hammer

Because I had the cash and wanted to pay by cash, it is still legal tender what difference should it make

Just because it’s legal tender doesn’t mean they have to accept it from you. They don’t have to sell you anything if they don’t want to.
Who pays for stuff more that £20-30 by any other means than card nowadays anyway? Next thing you’ll be saying is that you wanted to give them a cheque instead. 😉

I only found out about the policy when I came to pay, the price was advertised at £99.95 on condition you bought a ten pound topup, so Drac your not making any sense.

As for box breakers, when I phone customer services I found out the store manager was making that up.

Making perfect sense. A lot more than the guy who could have saved himself walking around town going to the same supplier to be shockingly told “yes that’s the price” and then feel the need to ring customer services.

CPW are a bit of a pain but I think you are taking this a bit far.

(also you really should be impressed that the story was the same in both stores.)

I new the price anyway Drac just do not see why it should be more expensive if I pay cash, why is that so hard for you to understand, are you in charge of policy at Carphone Warehouse.

do not see why it should be more expensive if I pay cash

Because they have to spend extra time doing identity checks (a card is enough ID for them) on you and it costs them more to handle cash than cards.

Happy now?

also you really should be impressed that the story was the same in both stores

Not true as the Customer Service guy told me that policies can differ from store to store.

Nope sadly not that multi millionaire I’ve got a job that gives me enough stress not to worry but why it’s cheaper to pay by card for something and saves me the hassle of making phone calls and stomping from shop to shop demanding justice.

People buy up pay as you go phones, then ship them abroad and cpw don’t make there network commision on them, normally cash purchases or people buying with via cash are less likely to be high spenders so to keep there margins up charge more, or cpw buy phones at the best price available and then bundle with a sim card rather than buying the handsets bundled by the network, this means that they may well be unlocked to other networks and so people can use there current sim cards and again cpw loose out on there network commisions.

Because they have to spend extra time doing identity checks (a card is enough ID for them) on you and it costs them more to handle cash than cards

Utter rubbish they demanded a £20 topup if you paid by cash, £10 topup by card! No reason you should have to pay more. At no time did they say anything about id checks or anything.

No reason you should have to pay more.

their shop, their rules is what it boils down to.

You’ve voted with your feet and fair play to you but they have their reasons.

Sorry OT – Drac – why hasn’t this thread been pulled?

Hans Christian Andersen was terrified of naked women, of being buried alive and of sailing.

Its done like this to put you off buying a phone cash and using a card so that they can trace the person who bought the phone by their bank details anti fraud / terrorism init.

stomping from shop to shop demanding justice.

I didn’t need to stomp as my work took me from one town to the other so I did not inconvenience myself thanks 🙄

Perhaps you should take time off stress is not good for your health, especially if you work for Carphone Warehouse. 😉

FWIW, I agree with the OP and think it’s a stupid policy. For the sake of trying to squeeze an extra tenner out of the customer, they just lost a £110 sale.

Its done like this to put you off buying a phone cash and using a card so that they can trace the person who bought the phone by their bank details anti fraud / terrorism init.

So terrorist have to pay an extra £10, hardly a massive tax is it? Times must be hard for them 😉

I believe for any national company it is cheaper to accept payment via card than via cash. The problem with cash is its very easy for it to “go missing”, get stolen, damaged, be faked and also you have to pay another company to take it away for you!

Of course it is still possible for all these things ot happen with a card but probably nothing like as easy.

Its something to do with linking the phone / SIM to an address by way of a bank card. Should you be considering going bombing etc.

Perhaps you should take time off stress is not good for your health, especially if you work for Carphone Warehouse.

I’d miss it too much.

There are about 1500 reasons why I would never trust Carphone Warehouse with my card details ever again.
Luckily my bank refunded them.

I tried to use my credit card on-line at CFW but my bank stopped the first transaction and then phoned me asking if I was at the CFW website, after explaining I was, I tried again and CFW had black listed my card!

18 months down the line I had another call from my bank asking if I was at CFW. I wasn’t… but my card was, twice… 👿

Never had any other fraud attempts on my card before or since.

carphone warehouse have lost my business forever 1 of there completely useless staff has cost me £299.19 in Data cost’s in less than 7 days.

Then lied about telling me stuff she didnt. What a disgraceful company !

The manager in the store i went to is 1 of the most arrogant people i have ever met…