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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
seeing an offer recently on cpw site for a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge sim free handset only for £429.99 I called the sales line to place an order. Attempt 1 - placing order with sales person on phone he tried to sell me insurance told I was not interested in anything else apart from the phone suddenly his computer froze and told me he will reboot system and call me straight back. Almost an hour went by and no one called me back. Attempt 2 - I called again told the second sales person what had just happened and that all I want is the handset only and nothing else he cut me off. Attempt 3 - I called again telling the sales person the service I have just received and how unhappy I was as I just wanted to order a phone. He then tried to sell me insurance I told him I do not want anything (thinking to myself I just told you what had just happened and what I wanted so why is he trying to sell me additional things) he then continued from trying to sell insurance to accessories going through a list of them even though I was getting annoyed with this and should have cut him off I persisted however as the transaction was going through my card supplier had blocked the card thinking it was a fraud transaction so we could not continue with sale which in a way was relieved as he was rude. Attempt 4 - Telling the sales person the really bad experience I have just had made the whole process as easy and friendly as possible without trying to sell me anything else.but not trying 3 times before The reason the first 3 attempts failed was because they do not make any bonuses on selling handsets alone the reason why they kept pushing for insurance and accessories and no one did not even entertain the sale in my opinion they had no customer care or give customer priority instead they put themselves and their bonuses first as their priority being selfish I have sent a complaint to them about this level of service they offered me a £10 voucher to spend in store or a phone case. SERIOUSLY Phone arrived next day by then I felt so unhappy that I did not enjoy the phone after the service I received I went to my local cpw store to return it for a full refund but their system did not allow it saying void transaction, I called my card company in store to be told there is nothing wrong with the card and the problem is with cpw system. They denied this leaving me frustrated I went back the following day and the same thing they called their IT department who blamed my card. I went back a third time I asked the sales person do a sale on any cheap product and do a refund to see if it is my card or your system which they did and guess what both sales and refund transactions went through perfectly fine. I have sent many complaints in last 2 days prior to others from few days ago and now waiting for someone from the complaints department to call or email me. I wish I came across this forum before save me all this unwanted stress for a simple return/refund
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
I have just emerged from a poor shopping experience at Carphone Warehouse. I went into my local branch and the place was empty apart from two young workers. Neither of them made an attempt to engage me. Finally the young white guy who's been sat down all the while I have been in the shop deigns to look up from his phone where'd he'd been texting and ask in the most disinterested voice if he could help me. I reply I was looking for some information about buying a new phone. He continued to sit down and when I pointedly did not go over to him abruptly got up and disappeared. It was left to his other colleague to approach me. Are these people trained in customer relations? Needless to say I cannot recommend this store st all
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
I went to my local store in Penrith, Cumbria and experienced many annoyances. First of all when I arrived there was one painfully slow member of staff working, only for a second to appear from the back 10 minutes later. There was a queue and I waited a good twenty minutes if not more. Once I was served, adding another 10 minutes on, my phone was sent away to be repaired. I didn't expect to have to request a temporary replacement as I had been asked myself in the past. By the end I asked, this then ended up restarting the whole process again. Another 10 minutes. Following the hand in there was literally no contact to tell me how my repair was going, I was told two weeks maximum, yet by ten days I had still no news. I attempted to call the Penrith branch four times through the car phone warehouse directory at different times during the day. No answer. I went online to track the repair with my repair number, I had not been given one. Fantastic. The following day I rang another two times, again no answer. I finally got through to a call centre contact who told me the phone had been replaced and was waiting in store. I had no email, phone call or text to tell me this. Again I went into he local Penrith branch, taking time from my day to walk in again. Once I got there I sent any images from the replacement phone, terrible phone by the way, onto an online storage system then put the phone into a factory reset. Once in the store there was again one person working, a queue of four people at 2.30pm on a Friday, hardly a busy time. After once again experiencing the painful service and waiting time someone appeared from the back again. I then overheard a woman in front of me coming to get her phone and she had the same experience as me in terms of having no communication from the store, her phone was not fixed, I heard no apology and the member of staff just did not seem to care. Once I had waited my twenty minutes I reached the front of the line to be told that my phone was not in store. Opposite to what I had been told. On he system I was shown it had been brought to he store than taken back again, no reason given for this. No idea why I had not been contacted. Again no apology and not much care shown. I was asked if I rang the store, I told the member of staff I had called six times and no one answered, no apology or reason or understanding given. I have been told my phone will be in store on either Monday or Tuesday, so I look forward to waiting twenty minutes in line to find out if it is there or not. Now I will again enter and download all the items I had previously spent time deleting and resetting on my far outdated replacement. I have used the car phone warehouse for almost ten years now, with a few bumps along the road. Once my contract has finished I will not be using them ever again and I would urge others to do the same.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
I went to the Carphone Warehouse store in Guildford and Aidan and Riccardo were incredibly helpful, they both took the time to help me in any way they could and were cheerful and knowledgeable. They both went above and beyond and I was very impressed.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE Have spammed me with upgrade texts/calls Joined TPS but they started using a different number Called customer service and had complaint open for 8 weeks - tried writing, email, chat, phone and FB. They just ignore me. Still get offers from them. Customer service is based in SA and "cannot contact other departments" so customer services can't even escalate a complaint Agents have hung up on me This company are full of morons and crooks. I now have a case with the ICO for them breaching data protection by lying to me (they still have my data and use it) and not releasing my data when asked. I will prosecute this company and enjoy every second of it.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
I purchased a Sony experia m4 aqua and it was faulty took it back to get repaired but was given another one,that too became faulty and I asked if I could just have a refund and I was told I wasn't entitled to one even tho the law stated I was able to, then the screen broke. They do not care about your consumer rights only sales
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Extremely poor service! (1) My husband went to CPW to upgrade his Samsung phone to the Galaxy S7 Edge. When trading his old S5 in, the moron cashier in the shop wiped his old phone before he had chance to transfer all the data to the new one. (2 years lost) (2) Then after having the GS7 for only 2 months it broke. It just turned itself off and would not reboot at all. We took this back to CPW but they advised us to take it direct to Samsung. We then went to Samsung who told us they could not provide a replacement/temp phone as we bought it through CPW. Phoned CPW who told us they provide a loan phone service whilst the original handset is being repaired, we thought great! Drove down to the shop, only to find out they don't! (3) Rang customer services to complain and it is an Indian call centre, the advisor was unhelpful, just kept repeating; its not his fault if any of the surrounding stores (every one within Greater Manchester) don't have a loan/temp phone! Which would have been easier to accept if we hadn't just been stood in a "phone shop" surrounded by phones! So in summary, we have lost 2 years worth of contacts/pictures, left without a handset for 28 days whilst the new Galaxy S7 is being repaired, paying a contract for a month on a phone we don't have, and disgusted with an extremely poor excuse for customer service! WE WILL NEVER RENEW ANY CONTRACT WITH THEM AGAIN!
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Extremely poor service! (1) My husband went to CPW to upgrade his Samsung phone to the Galaxy S7 Edge. When trading his old S5 in, the moron cashier in the shop wiped his old phone before he had chance to transfer all the data to the new one. (2 years lost) (2) Then after having the GS7 for only 2 months it broke. It just turned itself off and would not reboot at all. We took this back to CPW but they advised us to take it direct to Samsung. We then went to Samsung who told us they could not provide a replacement/temp phone as we bought it through CPW. Phoned CPW who told us they provide a loan phone service whilst the original handset is being repaired, we thought great! Drove down to the shop, only to find out they don't! (3) Rang customer services to complain and it is an Indian call centre, the advisor was unhelpful, just kept repeating; its not his fault if any of the surrounding stores (every one within Greater Manchester) don't have a loan/temp phone! Which would have been easier to accept if we hadn't just been stood in a "phone shop" surrounded by phones! So in summary, we have lost 2 years worth of contacts/pictures, left without a handset for 28 days whilst the new Galaxy S7 is being repaired, paying a contract for a month on a phone we don't have, and disgusted with an extremely poor excuse for customer service! WE WILL NEVER RENEW ANY CONTRACT WITH THEM AGAIN!
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Miss sold a contract. Asked for capped and was ensured it was. Raised a complaint which was internally handled by the Worthing store. Let's say the investigation was conducted by a very aggressive and rude lady. When I took a call to try and explain what occurred when I was sold the contract she shouted and spoke over me. She presented her case and no facts or my statement mattered to customer services. Have to now take case to trading standards. Complete fracard of a company
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Needless to say, we will never be taking our business to carphone warehouse again, after this aggressive behaviour by a member of your team! Ps, our query was never resolved as we were then asked to try another brunch or go to Samsung directly.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
To give context to the review below " only Jonathan in the brunch" was billegarant to my 60 year old mother who queried the cost of an item she had bought a few weeks ago. Rather than explaining politely, he forcefully said " that was never the cost. It NEVER cost that much" and looked at her as if she was stupid as he walked away. I have never come across such aggressive and unfriendly behaviour from a customer service personal before. Especially as it was directed to a much older woman. I have never written a negative review before, but felt I needed to as I will not tolerate anyone speaking to someone's mother in a condescending manner. I asked to speak to the brunch manager, I was informed he was not there.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
We encountered a extremely rude man at the Westfield Stratford Brunch. His name was Jonathan or as he stated " I'm the only Jonathan in this brunch." When we asked about an item that he previously sold to us.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Shocking,just the usual story of Cwh sold me an iPhone 6 that didn't work so well,went back a few times,to be told take it home,try this that and the other,this went on fo r a year,so just before my warrentry ran out they sent it of for repair,came back,no email,phone call,nothing to say it was back,then told there was evidence of moisture in the phone so they wouldn't fix it,now they sold me this phone in this condition,eh?so now I'm paying another year of an expensive contract for this dodgy phone that I have paid for a year,told can't cancel your phone as it'll cost you over £400 for the pleasure,customer service shocking,this is he first time I have used them and believe me it'll be the last should be illegal.DO NOT USE.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
I think its very good deal
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
The store near Audley Blackburn has to be one of the worst stores i have come accross, and i have been a customer of CPW for years, I went to purchase a new sim free phone yesterday and by no means not a cheap one, I entered the premises, and whilst the staff were all sat behind the counters helping people, unlike other stores there were no staff walking round the store welcoming and greeting , and directing you to a member of staff or to say im sorry but there is a little wait, after fifteen mins of looking at phones on my own, i decided to wait near the counter, I thought i would do a test and see if anyone would speak to me first, i saw people coming into the store and being served as though i was invinsible, i eventully went up to the counter and stated about time, I stated to ben i were looking for a new phone, and whilst i had an idea of what i wanted, at no time did he offer to show me a phone , or give any details of any handsets available, very very shocking service, and i wonder if the staff are glued to the seats as not one stood up, or made any form of eye contact, compared to other stores who meet you as soon as you enter, and direct you , this is a shocking customer experience, i ended up buying the phone i intended, but at no time was i given any help from any staff member.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
My phone stopped working a few months back I don't receive incoming calls I sent it for a repair through them over 5 times in space of 3 months they sent it back, then claimed they replaced it but nothing had changed still has not sometimes I still cannot receive incoming calls. The phone is faulty they don't even follow their own policy which is that they replace the phone after 3 repairs. My advice to anyone considering to buy a contract phone go directly to the service provider they are always much nicer to deal with. AVOID AT ALL COST, their staff also lie especially the customers services dept that you are expected to call. Very poor service and customer care.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
My daughter had her iPhone through car phone warehouse and it broke 18 months into a 24 month contract. We went into the store and they said that it was outside their warranty period and she would have to pay for a repair, having no joy with the rude assistant manager who just kept on quoting their policy like some sort of robot we decided to phone up customer services who were even more ruder, kept passing us around from one person to another and each perdon we spoke to made the previous person out to 've a liar who just told you stuff to fob you off. They did eventually offer to pay half the cost of the repair which we turned down cos under section 11n of the supply of goods and services act a product should last at least the length of the contract and if it does break it is down to the supplier not the manufacturer to repair replace or refund. Something car phone warehouse seem to know nothing about. Eventually after nearly 2 hours on the phone to them they assured me that the regional manager from the store would phone my daughter to sort this matter out and abruptly hung up on me. Needless to say after a week of waiting the store still has not phoned back. Avoid buying anything from this company, they will tell you anything to get a sale and then fob you off when it breaks. Staff haven't got a clue about laws or how to speak/ treat customers. Ive only given them 1 star because you have to rate them something. Truely the worst company i have ever dealt with and will NOT be dealing with them ever again, they are absolutely useless, all they want is you're money and to ty you into lengthy contracts. Avoid Avoid Avoid Avoid! ! ! ! !
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Had to order the same phone six times, all of which were cancelled. Customer service is terrible and kept changing the reason as to why the orders wouldn't go through. Very rude and unhelpful, just get transferred to other agents and I was even transferred through to an answering machine on my final call, at that time I gave up! I was reassured that my order had been placed, so when I didn't receive a confirmation email I called back to find out it hadn't been placed at all. Do not order through this company, they will cause you more hassle than anything and you won't even get your phone!
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
Bought my twins an iPhone 5s for their birthday they needed a new SIM cards my partner took them out to buy all this came home and said they charged him £5 for the sim and had to buy £10 credit twice! So £30 wasted as they already have sims with credit on we just needed the nano sims. We have been back to carphone warehouse twice two different stores the first one confirmed we did not need this as we already had and said we just need to go Vodafone who would give us the sims free he advised us to go back to the store we purchased the sims from and ask for a manger who would be able to refund us. So third visit no manager we will have to come back tomorrow but they also said they don't refund! So my partner was conned in to buying two sims and credit that we don't need and can't seem to get our money back for. Becarefull as they lie and and confuse you just to get you to buy and then lie that they cannot refund you.
Helpful Report
Posted 8 years ago
They'll tell you anything to get a sale... After placing an online order for a phone to be delivered to specific store for me to pick up on a specific day, my card was blocked by my bank because of increased fraudulent activity, and delayed delivery. After getting it unblocked and calling CPW to proceed with the order, I also made it abundantly clear of the urgency that it be delivered by the specified day, due to me working onboard a cruise ship, and having a short timeframe to collect the phone. I was assured the phone would be at the chosen store on the specified day, and finalised the order. Today I get to the store only to find no phone waiting for me. After calling CPW, I'm then told deliveries to the store take longer than to the home, and that it will be there Monday or Tuesday next week, which of course is useless to me when I'll be at sea again for several weeks. So much for their assurances then eh? Last time I buy from them, I'd rather pay extra and get the service I expect, than deal with these incompetent and greedy idiots again.
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Posted 8 years ago
Carphone Warehouse is rated 1.6 based on 1,631 reviews