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Carphone Warehouse Reviews

1.6 Rating 1,631 Reviews
13 %
of reviewers recommend Carphone Warehouse
1.6
Based on 1,631 reviews
Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods
Postal Service, Courier
Average Delivery Time
Within 5 Days
On-time Delivery
Greater than 25%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders
Greater than 85%
Customer Service
Communication Channels
Telephone, Live Chat, Email
Queries Resolved In
Over A Week
Customer Service
1.3 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process
Difficult
Returns Process
Could Be Better
Read Carphone Warehouse Reviews

About Carphone Warehouse:

The Carphone Warehouse was founded in 1989 to bring mobile services to consumers. The market has always been complex and our aim from the very beginning has been to offer our customers simple, impartial advice while also offering outstanding value. As a result we have grown from a handful of stores operating exclusively in the UK selling mobile handsets and contracts, to a European-wide platform of over 1,500 stores in 10 countries, providing a wide range of mobile and residential telecoms services.

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Phone:

0870 111 6565

Location:

The Carphone Warehouse, PO Box 375
Southampton
SO30 2PU

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Carphone Warehouse 1 star review on 25th April 2022
Rachel Pollard
Carphone Warehouse 1 star review on 25th April 2022
Rachel Pollard
Carphone Warehouse 1 star review on 1st July 2021
Neil
Carphone Warehouse 5 star review on 1st September 2020
Ilyas
Carphone Warehouse 1 star review on 2nd July 2020
Brian Gillbanks
Carphone Warehouse 1 star review on 5th July 2017
Unsatisfactory Treatment!!!
Carphone Warehouse 1 star review on 2nd December 2016
Yeakub Kiani
3
Anonymous
Anonymous  // 01/01/2019
Carphone Warehouse have a policy that if you find a better deal they will match it and refund you one months line rental. When I last changed my phone this worked for both myself and my wife as we found a cheaper deal elsewhere and were price matched and were refunded accordingly. Tried again today and guess what, they have reworded their terms so that they now only offer this if you find a cheaper deal with any 'Network' but not with any competitor. This is misleading as they connect to all networks, they aren't however cheaper than most of their competitors. I am now taking all of my families phones to another provider and will complain to the advertising standards authority for misleading with intent. I would advise you to do the same if you are considering Carphone Warehouse.
Helpful Report
Posted 7 years ago
Ordered phone on line it didn't turn up on day promised. Phoned after giving them another 24 hrs. Turned up next day package contained sim and free gift only. Phoned on several occasions and repeatedly had phone put down on me. One of these occasions was actually from instire witnessed by staff. Despite numerous phone calls and visits to store still no phone or even an explanation. Decided to cancel order, they won't allow that because order not complete. To make matter worse they have open , not 1 but 2 accounts with EE for me. This has stopped me going direct to EE. Despite trying the store staff have been no use. I was told over the phone it will take 32 days to investigate. I am without a phone which is needed for work etc. MY ADVISE GO TO PHONE COMPANY DIRECT WHOEVER THEY MAY BE THEY WILL OFFER YOU THE SAME DEAL. STAY AWAY FROM CARPHONE WAREHOUSE.
Helpful Report
Posted 7 years ago
Got a new phone and old phone not disconnected. Ended up paying for both phones for 5 months. Called customer service twice only to be cut off twice mid conversation. Sent written complaint. Got a rude message back to say its your responsibility to disconnect, which if this is the case would be nice to be informed of this at the outset!!!!
Helpful Report
Posted 7 years ago
I purchased an S7Edge on Monday online. I arranged local branch collection. The online confirmation was rather slow and the phone help line assistant found my BBC English voice rather hard to understand. I had to repeat my number 5 times and repeat everything I said. (This is why I've marked down 1 star, no problem with international call centres but a basic grasp of things like numbers should be a minimum training standard). My order did then, however, get expedited and I received notification that it had arrived at the store, Albian Retail Park - Warrington. The man who signed over my phone was efficient and polite - a fast service. Unfortunately, the phone wasn't quite right from the off. It got incredibly hot and the battery ran down quickly (less than three hours with no use). I kept it on the side for four days, doing its own thing, removed the case I'd purchased and disconnecting it when it hit 100% charge and reconnecting when it got low, to see if it was just a matter of updating software etc making it work hard. It didn't help so I decided to exchange. This is when I was really impressed. Expecting a polite but firm exchange and armed with my husband and youngest child I checked online the returns policy, had it confirmed on the recorded phone message and returned to Albian retail park. Staff were again friendly, I explained the issues I'd had, showed them the phone (it performed - or didn't as the battery could be seen losing charge in front of us) They performed a no hassle exchange including data transfer. It wasn't what I expected and after 30 minutes I was off with my new phone ready to go as the data and set up had been done in store. Really impressed and so glad not to have had any exchange issues.
Helpful Report
Posted 7 years ago
My IPhone kept losing it's signal, and therefore I took it back to the Apple Store, and unfortunately it was two weeks out of warranty, but I still had over eleven months on a contract which CPW sold me. I was advised to take this back to CPW as due to the otherwise emaculate condition of the phone I was advised under Consumer Protection Law (and common decency) they should pay for this to be repaired. When I arrived at the store (Meadowhall) I got the usual gracious greetings, until they realised I wanted a repair. At that point they showed a distinct lack of interest, merely pointing me towards a very junior colleague. She fumbled around and kept me in store for around an hour whilst she attempted to resolve my issue, and when she asked for help, her colleagues virtually ignored her. She eventually kept my phone overnight whilst she tried to arrange a repair, and they gave her the task of informing me that I would need to pay £216.47 for a repair for a phone which I am now able to buy for £200. When I complained about this, I was told by an assistant manager that he would look into this for me and discuss it with the store manager, that was three days ago now, despite assurances he would be in touch quickly! Because of the lack of information I decided I was not going to get anywhere with them doing the decent thing and paying for the repair and tried to them to cancel my repair. I was on hold for over an hour whilst to cancel, and then I was asked why I had not contacted the store. When I tried this, the phone line I was given by the repair centre went dead after about two minutes and listening to Acquiescence by Oasis, I tried again and the same thing occurred. Carphone warehouse are your best friends when you buy from them, but do not care once they have taken your money! I will not be using them again, and will encourage others to avoid them too!
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Took a tablet in for repair 5 weeks ago, not 1 single attempt from the shop to call me with updates, had to file 3 complaints online to find out where the tablet was. The store then tell me they have the tablet back from the repair centre, it is unrepairable. I ask for a diagnosis, software or hardware fault? They tell me that it's just unrepairable. I ask for documentation from the repair centre, they tell me there is none. I said I don't believe you. Showed them 2 emails from the repair centre clearly stating they had not received the tablet at all. The tablet never even made it out of the shop, I have the proof from the repair centre. Absolute liars, covering up their own ineptitude. The whole process has been littered with terrible customer service from the shop, to the repair centre, to the complaints dept. So now 5 weeks later I have my tablet back from the shop, unrepaired, in what was previously a pristine box, given back to me all bashed up. Abysmal company, no one takes responsibility avoid at all costs. If the apple store is a 10/10 for customer service, CPW are a -10. Never again. Liars.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Carphone Warehouse you are a disgrace so I am shaming you publicly! For the past three months I have been fighting with customer services to replace my Experia X which was sold to me on the basis that it was water resistant (listed on their official website as so) which I found out on holiday that it was not and I had been mis-sold the product. After returning home I raised the complaint to the store I purchased the Experia X at the Currys PC World Almondvale Retail Park who were more than happy to help to the best of their ability. The phone was sent to their repairs centre only to be sent back two weeks later untouched and would not be replaced as the phone was water damaged beyond repair and not water resistant (under specification)! They also tried to palm me off to other companies saying that the issue would have to be resolved by Sony or EE as it is out of the companies hands. Now I was paying £46 per month for a phone that I don't have because I was misled! Stuck! Sony and EE (in their own right) couldn’t help, but asked me to push this further as this was terrible customer service handling. I seeked legal advice from trading standards and Citizens advice and found that they were in breach of the Consumer protection amendment regulation 2014. A letter was sent to the Carphone Warehouse Almondvale store advising the company that they had 14 days to comply by either giving me an alternative replacement or cancel the contract free of cost, I also added a print off from their official website specification page stating that the Experia X was WATER RESISTANT. The manager of the store Scott was/is brilliant and has gone beyond his means to help me to resolve this. He forwarded the letter onto head office to be dealt with his own letter stressing that I should be given the replacement phone, and that he himself has tried numerous time and has spent countless hours with me in-store on the phone to customer services to have a care package/authorisation code of £499 raised to give me a new phone only to be denied by management in the South African call centre. After the 14 days I returned to the store and still no reply from head office………. Another FIVE hours on the phone to customer services and they came to an agreement that if I sent the damaged phone to their warehouse in Britain they would send a Sony Experia XZ in replacement, I took the damaged phone to the Almondvale store to be sent away in a tracked and recorded tote that Scott packed himself. After Two weeks (yesterday) I had not received any correspondence from Carphone Warehouse of the damaged phone being received at their warehouse or my Experia XZ being sent out to me, so I returned to the Almondvale store to demand what was going on…… After 3 hours on the phone to customer services with scott the manager as a witness the outcome was that the tote was not recorded as being received and could not be processed!! Scott once again advised that he would happily give me the Sony Experia XZ if they would raise an authorisation code/care voucher. Their response was that they would not do that as they cannot account for the lost phone and could not contact the warehouse via email to see where the Experia X is…….. Today I was contacted by Scott advising that he received an email telling that they had found the Experia X and are going to send out the new Sony Experia XZ! To my frustration I have refused the phone and have requested that I have the contact terminated. I know that this is not the end of this gruelling and very frustrating situation… I hope that Carphone Warehouse are ashamed of their poor handling of my case…. My business depends on my smartphone as I am a self-employed hairdresser!! PLEASE SHARE AND STAND WITH ME!!! Make it known to the World that The Carphone Warehouse does not care for you as a consumer! Once they have your name on that dotted line they will not help or resolve any problems you have, even when they are evidently the ones at fault!
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Just wanted to say a big thank you to the guy that helped me out at the Edmonton, London branch today. I bought a Huawei P9 lite yesterday and had to swap it for the P8 lite as the SARS rating in P9 was too high for me, which I didn't find out till I got the phone home and read about it on the internet (luckily I did this before opening the box). I forgot to bring the card in that I paid with and you were kind enough to phone your head office and get the money left over after swapping phones, put back on my card without me having to go back home and get it. Thanks so much for that. Very much appreciated.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
STAY AWAY! Purchased the new Samsung Edge s7 - broke in the first 2 months of purchase, was treated like a fool and laughed at when going into the store. Terrible customer service (Birmingham branch), took ages to fix and then didn't even tell me when it was ready for collection. Also sent me round each store in Birmingham for a temp phone .. Shocking! biggest regret not paying the bit extra and going with a phone network.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Ordered two I phone 6s sim free online Black Friday price payed and arranged to collection in store . Then received an email 5 hours later saying they can't complete my order no explanation and they will refund me my money. Are they actually selling these phones at the discounted price or do they just want people on contract I will contact trading standards and buy my phone directly from apple in the future
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Really poor service. I took my phone back for a repair under it warranty as it crashed frequently (Sony M4 Aqua). When I tried to collect my phone the fault hadn't been fixed so it had to be returned, it didn't make it out of the shop. Despite the staffs' assurances that it would be replaced quickly I have now been without my phone for 5 1/2 weeks. I phoned today to be told that they couldn't tell me what was happening for 72 hours while they waited from a response from the repair shop. Just not good enough!
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Be very wary of any information given in store, we were purchasing two phones having arrived from abroad to be told iD had a coverage second to non....Wrong.....coverage is very poor, does not work in seaham, dover, parts of London, Cambridge. when complained about this was told they only guarantee to work in your own home, I did explain that we have a wired phone at home, we wanted a mobile to use when we were out! that did not cut anything with the staff, home use was only guaranteed for 14 days, after that your on your own...Staff are not very helpful, Then you have no recourse to Ofcom as they are only a retail shop.... Use anyone other than carphone warhouse
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
This is not the first time I've been to this store hoping that it was a one-off bad experience. Usually I love the warehouse stores to every one I've been, but this one. Shocking lack of knowledge and interest, and the worst is lady who's happen to be I believe a manager. Her attitude is pretty much "you buy or you jog off!", to which I would have bought expensive piece of equipment in cash if not her. Her colleagues seen to be watched ("sell or don't waste time"), not able to learn about gadgets they sell as they should only concentrate on selling. I felt really sorry for the guys. I was greeted with "what you want?" from her and find this unacceptable. If I asked a simple question such as price, and when they can get my equipment, I was told to go online and find out for myself. To top it all off as soon as she realised she lost me as a customer she ran off to her chair and left me. I never leave bad reviews, as everyone can have a bad day occasionally, however this has happened time and time again and I'm mean time I have bought 3 phones, tablet and smart watch elsewhere. I'd recommend for others too- there's a Carphone warehouse right outside this one and they have really friendly, knowledgeable and helpful staff over there. Customer service on the Golden Square store seems to be some alien thing, and when staff know less than a frozen chicken nugget then what's the point of having then in the first place
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
No one has any clue what is happening at any given time. They have to wait days before they can answer even the simplest of questions (like, for example: why does YOUR tracker say you haven't even started to work on repairing my phone even though you've had it for over 2 weeks?). They are dishonest (repair tracker says that the fault wasn't covered under warranty so they're doing me a courtesy repair that I don't need to pay for, which I don't buy because at no point did my phone even reach diagnostics, and customer service said on Twitter "we don't know what's happened with your repair so we're sending an exchange phone out today and giving you £30".) Some customer service reps are rude, and nearly all of them take too long to reply. Not to mention that the phone I bought in June wasn't available to pick up next day even though it said it was (should have got my money back on the spot) then after only 3 months the phones speaker breaks and Carphone Warehouse didn't even manage to get it fixed, somehow they messed that up and have just sent another one instead. HAVING WAITED ALMOST 3 WEEKS. Just completely unacceptable. More security shopping elsewhere, not to mention that you'd get as good of a deal but wouldn't have to deal with these idiots.
Carphone Warehouse 1 star review on 18th November 2016
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
I ordered a contract phone on Sunday. It stated 1 day delivery (which i allowed until Tuesday with it being a weekend). It also stated that if there were any issues with regards to the order I would be contacted within 1 day. After 2 complaint emails, on Wednesday afternoon (3 and a half days later) they decide to reply telling me that the network provider have not accepted my application. Absolutely disgusting service. I have now been without a phone since it broke on Sunday and have to now go and order elsewhere. All this could have been sorted on Monday if they weren't so disorganised. Terrible service, I suggest to anybody even contemplating using their service to go elsewhere before being messed around as I have been!
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Bought an iPhone SE from Kings Heath, Birmingham store in July this year for £359 i.e. the full price because I wanted an 'unlocked' phone for an existing SIM. Recently, changed network provider to find that the new SIM wasn't usable. It took a degree of on-line searching to learn that iPhones sold by CPW lock to the service provider of the first SIM inserted. Getting them unlocked must be done by that service provider or a company specialising in that task. This can be a lot of bother and potentially quite expensive (£50-£100). At the time this issue was not communicated by CPW. This problem is not confined to CPW, apparently, so check before you buy!
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Posted 8 years ago
The customer service team need to stop hanging up on customers, telling lies and trying to patronise them. Maybe listen and provide consistent information. People should be warned about your company. The standard robotic response "I'm so sorry to hear about that" is all they are capable of, while they mislead the customer and dodge providing any real assistance. You only have a customer service team to make additional money for the calls
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Can't believe I've spent over 3 hours trying to sort out what I would have though a simple issue. I have spoken to approx 6 different people, each one giving conflicting information. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. NOT happy.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Bought a phone for my son yesterday. The assistant manager, who we asked for advice, did not hide her lack of interest in my queries. It was very difficult to engage any of the team to give advice. Once we decided on the phone we were told we would receive a free accessory pack. This turned out to be an error. We were initially quoted annual insurance as £20. This went up to £24.99 and finally £39.99. We wasted a great deal of time and energy being encouraged to take up deals that changed before our eyes.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
I bought a new contract online on October 10th to be delivered the next day to nearest available store. I was going away for work so needed it straight away. I went to the store in Christchurch the Currys PCWorld branch. The phone was there ready for me to pick up. I had my bank card for confirmation, note: I have only one bank card, yet it apparently did not match the card details I had ordered with, again I have only one card. Thus I was unable to pick up my order. The instore assistant then said he couldn't cancel it and they couldn't offer me the same deal instore - I had to insist they cancel it as it wasn't my fault. S So they refunded it - or so I thought, with me leaving the store empty handed. I then went away on business and whilst away I noticed that I had still been charged a the set up fee and extra pack which I bought totalling 40 pounds. I called whilst away and spoke to the most inadequate customer service agent ever. She had me on the phone for 40 minutes to finally tell me there was nothing she could do. She said there were no managers available to speak to me, when I asked to speak to the complaints department she said the complaints department was down then proceeded to tell me they were the complaints department. After getting back to the UK I have spent 4 hours in total on the phone. An agent told me i had to go instore for a refund so I returned to the store where I had the phone delivered and on arrival they said they couldn't return it and that I should speak to a customer service agent!!!!!! At this point I was incredulous and extremely annoyed at which I refused to leave the store until they resolved it. The guy instore himself even had to call Carphone Warehouse customer service line and go through the same ridiculous process. He also spoke to someone within the UK customer service team, for which I can find no number and they said the would send the problem to the banking team. This was a week ago. While instore I managed to get to speak to a manager albeit on the phone still. While doing this they assured me that they would send the refund plus 30pounds compensation - a measly figure imho. At this point I should note I had been in the store itself for 2 hours. I accepted the poor offer in hope that it would actually happen, I was assured the refund and compensation would appear in my bank after 3-5days this is the 6th day of that time and still no refund. I was also assured I would get a phone call to confirm my refund and they have never called me back once. So basically Carphone Warehouse have taken money from my account in return for no product or service and not given me a refund for it. I'm pretty sure that's in violation of the trade descriptions act. Carphone Warehouse and their system or lack there of is without doubt the WORST experience in retail I have ever had.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Carphone Warehouse is rated 1.6 based on 1,631 reviews