yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Touch HD General] xb00t:
*** MAJOR NEWS FOR CARPHONE WAREHOUSE CUSTOMERS ***

I just got off the phone with CPW customer service and they have informed me that they will have the Blackstone on O2 by the end of the week. They have the stock (which is the same as mobiles.co.uk's) and the device is being put on the system as I am writing this. They also said that because mobiles.co.uk is their website they can match any offer that is on there. They will be calling me back as soon as they have the device on the system so I can place my order. I will post as soon as that happens.

Good luck to you all on getting your Blackstone sooner. :D
[Touch HD General] sonypc100:
Mmmm not sure I would believe what you have been told...for one, CPWH price match policy clearly states they do not price match their own sites (such as mobiles.co.uk)
[Touch HD General] xb00t:
Could well be so, however the customer service guy was quite curtain that he will match the offer exactly because it was on one of their websites. Or maybe when they get the phone they will have a similar plan. Dunno. :rolleyes:
[Touch HD General] jamief00:
Surely this whole miserable affair should teach people to take anything that the CPW groups tells them with a large pinch of salt?

Otherwise we would all have received our Touch HDs from mobiles.co.uk on the 7th of November or whenever they initially said they would arrive.
[Touch HD General] zoro25:
This is a classic example of CPW taking over smaller companies or seetting up subsiduries and not having any internal communication at all.

Its no way to run a business.
[Touch HD General] smurkej:
wake up pal. I rang theorder.co.uk (affiliate of mobiles.co.uk) yesterday and was told under no uncertain terms that they are definitely and comprehensively NOT ABLE TO PRICE MATCH THEIR OWN AFFILIATE SISTER COMPANY.

So, with that said, I think without hesistation that what you have said in your previous post is complete and utter ****e.
[Touch HD General] smurkej:
Also Ben, I don't think this has been mentioned, but finally getting through to a company on the phone to be greeted by some monosyllabic half-wit who is unpleasant and unhelpful is no way to run a business. Everytime I've got through to mobiles I've spoken to some incoherent arse piece who can't wait to get me off the phone as quick as possible. My phone manner envelopes absolutely nothing to get arsey about. I run my own PC Repairs Business and if I ever employed someone like that they'd be collecting their P45's before you can say dole scum.
[Touch HD General] Shetlander:
Hate to rain on you rant but from personal experience I know for a fact that they will.

I bought my HD from e2save :D (a CPW company) who price matched it to mobiles.co.uk (a CPW company).
[Touch HD General] Sillysod:
Think we should keep a look out for a decent deal, and all cancel our Mobiles.co.uk orders when we find one.

Can't ever get through. when or if I do its a fob off.
[Touch HD General] smurkej:
ok i fair enough, but from what I got told theorder.co.uk do not price match with mobiles. (affiliate companies)... again, whether this is factual or not is anyone's guess ... it's merely what I got told - and if it is untrue, and theorder do idd price match then it just backs up what everyone is saying about the sheer idiocy of CS within each of these companies.
[Touch HD General] Shetlander:
Couldnt agree more about the CS especially mobiles.co.uk.

Im just hoping that I receive confirmation as requested to cancel my order with them. Id hate to spend hours waiting to get through just to cancel it, still, I have my original email requesting cancellation.
[Touch HD General] jamief00:
If you want to cancel, you'll need to phone. I emailed a LONG time ago trying to cancel (CC'ed it to sales@ customer.service@ order.processing@). Had to wait about 20 minutes on hold to get through to sales, told them to cancel it.
[Touch HD General] Ben_Mobiles.co.uk:
Bearing in mind all the things we've discussed about not being able to despatch any until official O2 approval is in place, and that nowhere else is actually selling these on O2, if anyone does want to cancel but is unable to get through on the phone or has not received confirmation of cancellation please email me quoting your order number and I'll get your order taken care of.

Remember though that orders are fulfilled first-come, first-served so I'll be unable to reinstate any of these orders when we start shipping the goods.

My email address is ben at mobiles.

Thanks

Ben
[Touch HD General] smurkej:
psssst...

e2save have sold at least one on o2, as have theorder.co.uk...
[Touch HD General] Mark One:
Was informed this afternoon that it's now "next week" but even the sales assistant sounded as though she found this hard to believe.

Ben - we simply want an honest answer re what's going on. If you don't know when O2 will complete their (& we all suspect this is fictitious) testing how can you be saying you can't fulfill orders until next week? What happens if you get the go ahead right now?

It's a simple question do you have stock? Yes or No?
[Touch HD General] IrNath:
Well considering i have emailed you and 3 other email addresses at mobiles.co.uk and have not got one reply at all not very good at all i am giving it while end of this week for the phone before i cancel as i have some patience.
[Touch HD General] Mark One:
Likewise - if there's no solid commitment and a delivery date from nomobiles.co.uk by Friday I'm off.
[Touch HD General] smurkej:
mobiles simply haven't got a ****ing clue when o2 will give the phantom go ahead. That's why they say "uuuuhhhhhhh........ next week"

Ring 1 minute later "uuuuuuuuhhhhh stock is in tommorow, definitely.

Ring 5 mins later.... "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh stock is definitely end of this week

Ring 5 minutes later "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh stock is end of next week"

Ring 5 minutes later "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh what's my name again??????????"

*dribble*
[Touch HD General] smurkej:
Honestly, all this LYING is making me ****ing irate now. :mad::mad::mad:
[Touch HD General] IrNath:
Just this minute got an email back saying they are expecting it mid week so lets me hope they deliver if they dont im canceling.
[Touch HD General] smurkej:
Same, if they haven't Friday is the deadline for me. Even if people say they have got theirs in on Saturday I will still be glad I'm not paying mobiles 25 quid a month and I will wait till the new year to get a reduced price on it.

Mind you, I think mobiles have known all along that they won't have any o2 hd's going out in 2008.
[Touch HD General] Ben_Mobiles.co.uk:
Again, I can come here to give you the latest information on O2 Approvals, which is what's holding up despatch or I can not come here and you can all accuse us of whatever it is you think we're doing (I honestly have no idea what we're supposed to be gaining by whatever it is you think we're lying about).

I've replied to each and every email received from members of this forum, I've given you very specific reasons why the orders have been delayed several times and I've asked that you understand the problems we face in trying to get these despatched. If after all this you still wish to we're lying for no obvious reason then fine but please, leave your silly conspiracy theories at the door?

E2Save accidentally despatched *one* order, correct - why aren't they fulfilling more? O2 Approval.

Stock has run out, correct, but there's 600 due in today or tomorrow exactly as I have stated previously. The Orange variant is selling very well and it's common stock.

In any event, orders will be fulfilled as and when O2 Approval is finalised, and though you might not like to admit it I know a lot more about selling mobile phones than you do - so please, bear with us and keep watching for the email confirming your phone has been despatched.

If you want to use this thread to attack my company then all I ask is that you start your post with your best theory on why secretly we're lying to all of you and don't want to ship your orders. I've yet to see one even vaguely plausible theory along these lines and yet half of the posts push this angle.

Obviously my offer to cancel anybody's order is part of this conspiracy - we're a very evil bunch, from what I understand.

Regarding our issues with handling phone calls (something which making 6 calls to us in half an hour is going to help?) we're very, very busy and I can only apologise for any delays in getting through, but we're a web-based business and not a call centre; this is reflected in our offers and it's reflected in the number of calls we can field at any one time. Phoning us doesn't make O2 Approval happen faster unfortunately.

If any of you know how long it takes BT to arrange (working) installation of additional ISDN-based lines then I'm sure you can have a wry smile at what we're going through, but if you haven't had to try then I hope you never have to :D

Regards

Ben
[Touch HD General] Mark One:
Ben, I can only ask then that you stop selling units that should be allocated to O2 pre-orders so that they can be dispatched the second O2 stop ****ing around.

I will not be impressed if o2 approve and you have no stock because you've flogged them all with Orange contracts.
[Touch HD General] fowler002:
as has been said before, if all of the phone mobiles is selling aree sim free then I don't understand this orange stock, o2 stock that keeps getting thrown around. you either have stock or you don't have stock, this has nothing to do with if you can/can't send out send them out to people that ordered an o2 contract(due to whatever the reason maybe).

the example about this person going around unknowingly crashing the network, I'm sure there are quite a few people going around crashing the networks(whichever it maybe, o2, t-mobile, 3 etc) with their £500 phones. this I'm sure someone has also mentioned in this thread.

before I read this thread I was tempted to place an order for the o2 £35/month one but I stoped myself, prob a good thing too. prob going to wait till january now(deciding between this, g1 & xperia x1).

ben whats the latest news on the xperia x1 stock? just says out of stock on the website.
[Touch HD General] tommyturnip:
Ben, all I can say is that I am a great deal more chilled out than many people here and am calmly sitting back and waiting for my HD to arrive whenever it all gets sorted out. I am quite sure that it is indeed in your interest to forfill orders as that is of course how you make money.

However, all that aside I think that the common theme throughout this thread is the poor communication with your customers and with your own CS team, its all about managing your customer's expectations - the first rule of CS.

If you kept your customers updated then they would not be hassling your CS so much and if you gave your CS up to the date information then they would be able to manage the customers who do call you.

Putting in extra ISDN lines is dealing with the symptoms of your flaky CS, it does not solve the problem and is not a cost effective solution. Sending out emails costs very little except for the time of someone to draft the email and click send. I don't think you need a business degree to ascertain that the pro-active approach is better than a reactive approach in every way.

So Ben, I understand your issues with o2 and am willing to accept that this is the truth and thus the delay is not your fault, what I am really interested in is whether you are 'big enough' as a company to stand up and admit your failings on this forum and tell everyone that you are sorry and what you are going to do about ensuring that this sort of thing never happens again.
[Touch HD General] tommyturnip:
CPW is a business first and foremost, if they have stock then they will use them to forfil Orange orders, they are not going to put any aside for o2.

The real question is whether CPW would prioritise Orange over o2, due to getting better commission, once the o2 approval is received. I'm sure the 'offical' answer would be no.
[Touch HD General] zoro25:
People have to remember that O2 approval may never go ahead, So CPW would be mad to put and order on hold for another one that may never go ahead.

CPW is about the money. I'm sure that Ben and his team have targets to hit.

I just wonder if pre-orders are counted in those targets.

I've seen similar pre-ordering malarky happen before when I got my eeepc on release date.

Everyone said they had them and would be shipped on release day All you had to do was PRE ORDER, yet only one place had the stock when the time came.

So what does CPW gain by a pre-order as they don't charge until pre-shipping. Well a Pre-Order for them is one less for the competition.

And just like may happen here, most cancelled their orders with the biggest seller and jumped ship.

I'm a system test manager and I know for sure that to put a phone though a network test they will have a set regression scripts which will run though.

It won't take long and the O2 Network Test Monkeys would be able to tell NoMobiles exactly how long those regression scripts would take to run.

The only deviation to that time line would be if a bug was found. Now if one was found I doubt O2 would change their network infrastructure for one device which they are not officially selling.

Therefore its either running the test a max of three times and pass

or a fail.

The test would take no more than 3-4 days max from deploy date. I know for a fact that stalling is happening somewhere.

Ben you may know more about selling mobiles then I do. But I know more about test practices than you. :-)

And Ben you can check any of what I've written with your contact at O2 and see what they say.
[Touch HD General] sonypc100:
o2 will be using the phrase "network testing" in the same way the police use "security reasons" to stop something happening or BA use "operational reasons" to cancel a flight.

Its simply the way PLCs give out information, without in effect giving out any information.

There maybe 101 reasons why o2 are not allowing the sale of this handset at present, stock of an older xda they want to sell, apple not wanting them to sell it, cost issues, support issues, trying to push htc for better rates, promotions etc etc

But they would never divuldge these, so they just give a blanket "network testing" response.

But the bottom line is, o2 will decide when it can be sold and then, hey presto! companies like mobiles will start selling it, along with a multitude of others.

People on here with absurd conspiracy theories, need to get out more!
[Touch HD General] Mark One:
I guess the frustration of pre-ordering "to get our phone first" and the fact that somebody is mucking us around is the root of the problem here.

nomobiles are bearing the brunt as they are the distributor. Which as a customer seems fair enough to me.

They may well be being buggered about in turn by O2 - who may be stalling for all sorts of reasons - so that they can get the phone into other outlets that are more profitable for them may be one.

I don't know - but I'm pretty sure that someone at CPW does - and someone at nomobiles should get an answer for us.
[Touch HD General] lawmcd:
Hi Again Guys,

Just to chip in... i 've had my mobiles.co.uk o2 pre-order since about three minutes after the release email was published back in october and tbh honest by biggest gripe so far is that i'll probably have to ar$$ about with a pac code to keep my current number if there is any further delay...

Anyhoo, while i've kept my order at mobiles I noticed the theorder were advertising the touch hd on o2 in stock so I placed a second order with them (i know they are all part of CPWG) but like i said - there were, and still are advertising in stock - but surprise, just got an email saying we have processed your order (and taken you money) but we do not expect to have stock for possibley seven days.

Now, considering they have already taken the payment for the handset and they are advertising as being in stock I think they are about to get a nice little phone call from me... :rolleyes:

Not too bothered about the hassle of cancelling this order, tbh i was more just bored at work today lol
[Touch HD General] hmillhouse:
I've not put my pre order in with mobiles.co.uk yet, but was looking at their free HD 24m £30pm, 9m 1/2 price, £40 quidco cashback deal.. 24m I know, but its keeps the monthly costs down.

Do you guys reckon as soon as they get o2 "approval" and/or stock they'll wack up the prices? Just because they are so low in comparison to their affiliates & competitors.. If so, will they honour the pre-order deals?

Been reading this thread almost hourly waiting for mobiles.co go ahead. Sad I know! Would like the HD on O2 sooner rather than later, like a lot of you!

Cheers

H
[Touch HD General] remixme:
Aren't some bits of this thread getting out of hand? I mean when you pre-order something surely you expect some uncertainty in delivery.....

Obviously some feel that the companies communication could be better. It's clear to me that they just don't know when they are going to be for sale. Unfortunately that kind of thing is something a company will never own up to.

(On a related note, every retail phone store I have ever been into to ask about availability of upcoming phones has either given me a date that's woefully inaccurate or an outright lie as the phone never turns up on that network, there must be a black hole of information somewhere!)

Try to remember though that Ben has taken the time to communicate via this forum, and should be encouraged.

Ben one question though....

Can we have a definite answer on whether the unlimited texts on the O2 contracts worth £35 upwards are a bolt-on that can be exchanged for unlimited data?

I think you will either gain a lot of extra business or save a lot of cancelled orders with a firm informative answer to that question! Thanks.
[Touch HD General] fowler002:
if you read the rest of this thread you'll see that, that question is also one of those 'in the black hole' things as well.

everyone is being told something diiferent, but its one thing you need to take up with o2 once you get the phone(or should that be an if?) tho that is also another thing we're getting told differnt things about(i.e. who the contract is with, tho if I recall ben did say in one of his replies that the contract is with o2).
[Touch HD General] tboy2000:
Why can't Ben just tell his CS team to say "we don't know" instead of "by friday" or "next week" or "next tuesday" etc etc. It's because customers are told approximate dates which fail that they are getting angry. If customers were not given any specific dates then they can't complain. Simple.
[Touch HD General] chaosdefinesorder:
here's an idea for a delay explanation:

O2's consultants haven't yet come up with the XDA name for the Touch HD and so haven't OK'ed it for that reason?;)
[Touch HD General] tboy2000:
O2 should call it the XDA Galaxy! That's got a nice ring to it :D
[Touch HD General] chaosdefinesorder:
XDA Forever? :D
[Touch HD General] davenash:
They can complain about 'that order I placed and the damned company won't even tell me when they think they can deliver it!!' ;)

I will be the first to say that Mobiles.co.uk service is appauling, I have redialed over 40x in a row just to get through to the first step of the IVR let alone getting cut off after pressing 1/2/whatever bloody option you may (which makes no sense once you're actually connected to their network in some form, and I think this must be a capacity limitation of their internal phone system and switchboard at fault rather than BT's ISDN lines... which will just help with the engaged tone, so not all to blame on BT I think...)

And I've had all the different dates given to me that everyone else has been told put together.

But, I do appreciate Ben coming on this thread and explaining things. I mean how many times does that happen? ***** about the lack of XYZ in any of our phones, guaranteed HTC will not come and discuss it with us.

I think some of the comments in this thread take the piss. Serious things need to change at that company, but it is not Ben's personal fault and after he takes the time to try and explain things to at least give us that info which his CS team is incapable of doing (yes they do sound like the laziest CS I've every spoken to other than 3's, every time) I'm surprised he continues to read this.

I can't believe O2 didn't get their testing done in advance...what was wrong with a month ago to start all this?? But, just wait and go elsewhere as soon as stock arrives. I will if stock is anywhere before mobiles.

If they do get stock on O2 this week, it (CPW) will probably still be the first place in the UK to en mass sell an HD O2 contract, thus the preorder was sort of worth it, even though the fiasco with the dates is ridiculous. I think everyone with a pre-order should be given a switch to the unlimited data tariff though to compensate. I'm sure mobiles could arrange it with O2 if they really wanted, particularly given it's supposedly O2's fault.

But it's not Ben's fault, and it is a web company so we shouldn't expect great phone support (e2save don't even publish an easy to find number), the alternative could be for them to hide the number/even close it and become truly web-only which would be worse. (Then they should outsource their phone sales to my telesales group!) Next time they need to be more honest about dates: 'Stock expected 7th November, but potentially could be delayed by weeks due to Network Testing' would have been a much more honest message, and maybe they should use it in future.

Been on order since the 6th, but I'll probably fail the credit check anyway, due to Halifax CCs screwing up my record and lying... Is it an O2 check or a mobiles.co.uk check who decide on behalf of O2? If you have statements showing over £2,500 paid on time over the last 18 months to T-Mobile can that help/change a decision?
[Touch HD General] tommyturnip:
XDA Invisible

XDA Unattainable

XDA Longtestable

XDA Losecustomersable.
[Touch HD General] tommyturnip:
I'm glad to see this thread has calmed down since my post and even a little humour has crept back in. If we continue to support Ben's efforts to keep us informed then we are more likely to get the most up to date information from him, attack him and he is less likely to want to post here.

Personally I think mobiles are constructing a huge death ray out of all the HDs running in parallel. They only need another 600 to complete the matrix and then the evil Dr Charles Dunblackstone will hold the world to ransom for 'one billion dollars'!
[Touch HD General] Ben_Mobiles.co.uk:
Early Dec - sold much faster than they could make them :)

Will get the site updated.
[Touch HD General] Ben_Mobiles.co.uk:
As I understand it (having spoken to a staff member who tried to arrange this for a customer) the bolt-on is not exchangeable as it's purely a 'bolt-on' to get their billing system to give unlimited texts - ie it's a systems bodge rather than an actual product. As such the swap shouldn't be allowed but as with many things I think it depends on the CS rep you speak to at O2; sometimes customers have managed to get it, other times not.

Ben
[Touch HD General] Ben_Mobiles.co.uk:
I think it's been a little bit of death by information - we've been passing on the latest supposed approval date to our guys on the phones, but because it changes so frequently you end up with pockets of different information.

Trust me, we're looking at our information systems and the ways we keep customers up to date. Part of the issue with the HD is that it's the longest period pre-order launch -> availability that we've ever had (apart from the iPhone, but that's another story :) )
[Touch HD General] Ben_Mobiles.co.uk:
Anadin XDA

XDA IB

Ex-XDA?
[Touch HD General] eaglesteve:
Ben,

It seems that many sellers are selling without getting the stock first this time. You think there is a production problem or is the demand so high that HTC was caught by surprise?