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Carphone Warehouse Chaos

M

martymcr

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 12, 2005
74
0
Cheshire, UK
Just got back from CPW in sleepy Northwich - there were 3 of us waiting by the time they opened.

Buying it was chaotic - all their Chip & Pin systems were down, they had to resort to paper vouchers in the end - escaped by 6.30pm. They didn't even bother with credit card authorisation.

Signup process with O2 was faultless - very smooth.

Just syncing!
 
martymcr said:
Just got back from CPW in sleepy Northwich - there were 3 of us waiting by the time they opened.

Buying it was chaotic - all their Chip & Pin systems were down, they had to resort to paper vouchers in the end - escaped by 6.30pm. They didn't even bother with credit card authorisation.

Signup process with O2 was faultless - very smooth.

Just syncing!
Click to expand...

I left at 6.32pm with no phone. Only 3 ppl in the queue too.
 
I tried to buy an iPhone from one of the Cardiff CPW stores, but the chip and pin system was having problems.

They claimed that it was because I have a Nationwide card and told me I could not buy an iPhone anywhere with the card, even online at their site, O2's or Apple. :mad:

So I went home and ordered one from Apples Online Store (of course it worked fine), I don't mind waiting a bit but CPW has just lost a customer.
 
harrinp1 said:
They couldn't get chip and pin to work and didn't offer any other way or purchasing it.
Click to expand...

That's crazy -they had instructions on their screens what to do - they appeared at about 6.20pm - they just fill out a paper voucher and get you to sign it.

Not a big CPW fan, but would have been very cross if that had happened to me!
 
Got to CPWH in Hayes at 6PM, 5 people in the line, had problems with the chip and pin, but guess what, they told us all to go and get the money out the machine and pay cash.
WOOHOO!!!
 
I went to CPW too, no chip and pin, so I told them to leave it in the end, they also wanted allsorts of details, home address, tel number, if I had broadband?? had to put a £1 charge through on my card just to confirm where i live:confused: And they also said that you can only insure it through them, oh how it made me laugh!

So I got in my car, 5 mins to O2, walked in £269 please sir (pay), thank you, goodbye. Done!!

Now just waiting for it to activate!!!!:D
 
About 15 people waiting at my CPW. I was near the back as came straight from work.

There systems were down and the first person in the queue didn't leave until 6:45pm

We had to give ID and manually do the card.

I've just got back with mine. All activated and working :D

CPW were seriously doing the hard sell on accessories and insurance. Quite aggressive in a way.
 
Same here, when I get there I was at the back of they queue - there was probably about 8 people in front of me. The first person left about 6.30 due to the chip and pin issues. They started offering to accept cash but nobody did.
 
CarphoneWarehouse sales people were very reckless in Manchester Arndale, boasting that they're selling the phone before 6.02. Coming along the queue they were shouting: "We're selling the iPhone before the Apple store and they'll be taking ages with you. We'll be very quick, plus there's no queues there."

I've heard similar reports from London. I hope Apple give them a good seeing too. No doubt the official line is "it's a few rebels".
 
Same problem

Had to enter my pin about a million times before it went through
but I was home by 6.45 and been loving every minute since.
 
Hmm CPW asked me a load of credit check style questions, like wanting to see proof of ID and asking for address details. Then they done a security check on my card, they said it failed, then basically told me to clear off.

So then, I went to the o2 shop, they took the money and I walked away with one in a matter of seconds.
 
harrinp1 said:
They couldn't get chip and pin to work and didn't offer any other way or purchasing it.
Click to expand...

Finally got one from a different CPW store, in a different country!, they also tried the hard sell on insurnace - said I couldn't get it elsewhere, no over policy would cover me, if it was stolen I would have to pay £900 for a new phone.....

All working now :)
 
card auth systems went down in the CPW I was in (SW London). 'Hold on, it'll be fixed soon'...sorry, see ya. Popped up the road to 02, no such problems. Clowns.
 
I was a bit miffed that I was not first in line, however I'm now glad, at about 6.40, you could pay cash for the iPhone! I went got cash out and bought the iPhone. activation was easy and took about 3 minutes! so apart from waiting 1hour 10 minutes in the store whilst the staff stuck! I'm now happy!
 
CPW is a useless company with clueless salesmen so this is not a surprise.
i'm happy i've chosen O2 store
 
I was the first and only person in the ashington store. Tried a couple of times before the message came through to say chip and pin was down. Lads in store were canny and thought it was funny given the fact it was the only form of payment u could use. They offered me a cup of tea and a go on the demo units which I didn't do as I wanted my first experience to be on my own.

At about 6:30 they got instructions through for an alternate method and I got my phone. We had a good laugh and I enjoyed the whole experience. The only thing that. Bothered me was my I phone was on the counter and I had this sinking feeling I might not get to take it home.

Couldn't believe I was the only one who got one. They had even reserved it for me bless them.

Activation was flawless though.

Love the phone its awesome. This message was typed on it.
 
ibanana said:
CPW is a useless company with clueless salesmen so this is not a surprise.
i'm happy i've chosen O2 store
Click to expand...

The guys at the CPW in Sunningdale, were really nice, Its just unforunate the chip and pin went down, they do try and hard sell the insurance, and I had to buy it there and then, so I said no, I will just have to look else where.
 
Carphone warehouse insurance policy on iPhone: 40 quid per quarter (3 months) and can only replace your iPhone twice only.......... if you don't take insurance you have to buy a new iPhone and you cannot port your number AND your 18 months starts again........ (this is if you loose it, it gets stolen or iPhone breaks).........iPhone defective limit is only 21 days... after that you're on your own....... ummm and if you buy an iPhone take it home and it fails the credit check you have 7 days to bring it back for a full refund.......
 
i went to o2 at 6.02 and some 1 come up to me and said what would u like with your iphone and i said a itunes card and i went down and they said that i cannot pay on solo so i was pissed off. they i went to cpw and i went stright in and they game me food and every think then i was trying to pay it but it was not lettin me. but computers were down and they tryed my card that many time it blocked it because the bank thought it was getting hacked so the person serving me phone them up and i had to get my card unlocked they i finally got home at 9 o clock.! but im happy love it
 
Card processing was down at London Bridge. I went to get cash. By the time I got back they had card processing running again, but would take the cash.

Otherwise all good. Did get offered insurance, but no problem when I declined.

Painless really. Activation mostly fine (one hitch with address, which I worked out how to fix). What a great device.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48a Safari/419.3)

I was on my own at the car phone warehouse and it took three people to process my purchase. Activation was very smooth though.
 
I went CPW and they are a bunch of dumb dicks. Had to phone in my card for authorization, told me that it'll probably break and that I'll be screwed unless I take their insurance. I didn't. Shocked about the whole CPW experience. There was a lady in there that was crying!

Now I've been in iTunes hell trying to connect this thing.

I quit after three hours and am now on the enter your pin page for the last forty minutes. It's just "accessing itunes store."
 
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