Evening all.

This afternoon I went to Phones4u to see if they could match a price I’d been quoted by Orange. They said they could.

We got most of the way through the process, phone IMEI and sim card barcode scanned into the system etc. and then the price came up higher than we’d agreed. It turned out that they couldn’t get the price we’d agreed earlier.

So we decided not to go ahead and that I’d just go direct to Orange. I’ve since had some texts with the usual “Congrats on your new contract” type bumph, and my contract is now showing a 2013 renewal date on Orange’s system. Orange reckon this is a pretty common problem with the chain phone stores, and that I need to take it up with them.

I’ve phoned the store and they reckon it just takes some time to process through the system. But they’re phone salesmen, a breed I trust about as much as estate agents and used car dealers.

Have I even entered into a contract? P4U obviously still have the new handset and SIM, and I’ve not signed anything, perused or been given any T&Cs, paperwork etc.

If you didnt agree to the contract then you’ve not entered into the contract – regardless of what they try and tell you.

That’s pretty much my thinking. The store at present are saying that everything is cancelled. I’m more concerned by Orange’s attitude that it’s not really anything to do with them, when they’re the ones sending me texts about new contracts…

Contract is an agreement between two (or more parties). Just because they are telling you that you have entered a contract doesnt make it true.

Ignore it. Jsut make sure they cant take any money off you.

Sharks, would’nt trust them an inch, Mrs Ming signed up to them a few years ago for a new mobile and they conned/tricked her into signing a landline agreement as well. Trouble for them was that I pay BT for our landline, so reported them to BT and OFCOM, BT said it was not the first time they had heard of this scam.

Attitude back in the shop was “well you signed up”.

*unts, wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire.

would not take their word for that,can you not phone orange and check? phone4u stiched me right up with my first phone the sales persons are like sharks in this industry.
when i contacted their head office i was past to their legal department big long words and the courts thrown at me and i ran away and said no more
got 3 to take the contract away from them. where possible always go direct to the mobile provider better deal and better service i find but i could be wrong.

With my amateur lawyer’s hat on, I say there was a contract, there was fundamental breach on their part and either you terminated it or you/shop agreed to terminate it by mutual agreement.

to see if they could match a price

Offer

They said they could.

Acceptance

It turned out that they couldn’t get the price we’d agreed earlier.

Fundamental breach

we decided not to go ahead

Termination

Now having said that, there might actually be a statutory writing requirement for phone contracts (does it count as consumer credit? I’m clueless), but that would come to effectively the same conclusion.

So in theory they can ram it up their poop chute. The difficult bit is that they have access to the computer systems and you don’t – bugger. Do they have your payment details?

konabunny you need to swat up some more.

“They said they could” = invitation to treat not offer nor acceptance

When you see a phone in a shop window for £50, its an ITT not an offer. You make the offer to buy at £50 and then the shop accepts your offer. You still need consideration to seal the deal.

Don’t you have a cooling off period you can exercise?

If they have connected it prior to it being processed through the tills then they will need to submit a cancellation request which is quite a formal process with P4U I believe, as most likely that store will end up having a couple of hundred pounds charged to its P&L because its a cancellation rather than you just deciding not to sign up.
It’s likely that it will take a couple of days.

As scummy as P4U generally are, in a situation like yours where their is no ambiguity they can’t do anything other than cancel it.
There is no your word against theirs situation. You didn’t sign, you didn’t take the product.

Don’t fret about it, but do follow up on Wednesday. You might also get a first bill which you can ignore as this will probably have already been printed and posted.

I’ve been on the phone to Orange this afternoon and the cancellation is now showing on their system.

Cheers to all for the advice.

“They said they could” = invitation to treat not offer nor acceptance

When you see a phone in a shop window for £50, its an ITT not an offer. You make the offer to buy at £50 and then the shop accepts your offer. You still need consideration to seal the deal.
I can see what you’re saying because perhaps I didn’t explain myself.

I was treating “to see if they could” as being the offer i.e. assuming that OP had walked into the shop and said “can you match this deal?”. The acceptance was them saying “yes they could”. An invitation to treat on the part of the shop didn’t make sense to me in the context of a price match.

The consideration is separate from offer/acceptance. There is no problem with consideration here – the promise to pay & the promise to provide phone service.