Redemptions from buymobilephones - how do these guys rate?

Can anyone advise me how buymobilephones are with their rebate/redemptions?
It would make a damned useful site if someone were to allow people to
give ratings on phone sellers in the redemption departments!
Thanks
David

DCA wrote:
> Can anyone advise me how buymobilephones are with their rebate/redemptions?

I have a contract with them and asked the same question a few weeks
back; got no replies at all. Haven't yet had to claim. All I can say
is that there procedure seems pretty onerous - you have to send in
*every* bill, original copies only; and they don't send you any info on
how to do it either, you have to find it buried in their T&C in a pop-up
window (so rendering it awkward to make a hard copy, and if it were to
disappear you'd be up the creek without one).

I've no evidence at all to suggest they won't honour my cashbacks, but
you can be sure I've printed out absolutely everything related to the
deal as hard copy (with browser-printed dates included), just in case I
things should get unpleasant later!

> It would make a damned useful site if someone were to allow people to
> give ratings on phone sellers in the redemption departments!

Mmm, wouldn't it just - Reestit??!

Having said that, googling this group for <cashback> and <company name
here> is *usually* quite effective.

David

"Lobster" <davidlobsterpot601@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:9g3zf.44552$zt1.35241@newsfe5-gui.ntli.net...
> DCA wrote:
> > Can anyone advise me how buymobilephones are with their
rebate/redemptions?
>
> I have a contract with them and asked the same question a few weeks
> back; got no replies at all. Haven't yet had to claim. All I can say
> is that there procedure seems pretty onerous - you have to send in
> *every* bill, original copies only; and they don't send you any info on
> how to do it either, you have to find it buried in their T&C in a pop-up
> window (so rendering it awkward to make a hard copy, and if it were to
> disappear you'd be up the creek without one).
>
Would Print Screen not do it if nothing else?
Roman

Lobster wrote:
> DCA wrote:
>
>> Can anyone advise me how buymobilephones are with their
>> rebate/redemptions?
>
>
> I have a contract with them and asked the same question a few weeks
> back; got no replies at all. Haven't yet had to claim. All I can say
> is that there procedure seems pretty onerous - you have to send in
> *every* bill, original copies only; and they don't send you any info on
> how to do it either, you have to find it buried in their T&C in a pop-up
> window (so rendering it awkward to make a hard copy, and if it were to
> disappear you'd be up the creek without one).
>
> I've no evidence at all to suggest they won't honour my cashbacks, but
> you can be sure I've printed out absolutely everything related to the
> deal as hard copy (with browser-printed dates included), just in case I
> things should get unpleasant later!
>
>> It would make a damned useful site if someone were to allow people to
>> give ratings on phone sellers in the redemption departments!
>
>
> Mmm, wouldn't it just - Reestit??!
>

On the case, lobster.

There are a number of hoops for me to jump through first, data
protection probably being one of them. For a number of reasons, I
believe it will have to be a registered user facility and I suspect that
I will need permission to collect user details.

Also, there are a number of issues that I need to work through as I
intend this to be a very different kind of beast to your average
feedback system and I want to get it just right.

Anyway...it's probably a long way off ATM but it is definitely a
facility that is firmly on my to-do list (and, boy, what a long list
that is!!!) as I believe that in the long run it is an essential add-on
to my site. I get far too many emails asking opinions on this retailer
or that as it is and as I cannot have personal experience of all of them
(from a customer cashback point of view) it is impossible for me to
satisfy many of these requests for info at present.

One rather clever thing a user-controlled ratings system would allow me
to do is make rule-based decisions about inclusion or exclusion of any
particular retailer from the site. For instance, if a retailer's ratings
fall below a given threshold I could put them in the sin-bin by placing
warnings on all their deals alerting readers of their poor user-rating.
If the feedback ratings fall even further, I could bar them entirely
from the site until their ratings increase again.

HtH
RM
--
www.reestitmutton.co.uk

Bringing you the best-value mobile phone contract deals in the UK
Presented the way it should be...in plain English

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 14:43:55 -0000, Reestit Mutton <not@this.address>
wrote:
<snip>
> One rather clever thing a user-controlled ratings system would allow me
> to do is make rule-based decisions about inclusion or exclusion of any
> particular retailer from the site. For instance, if a retailer's ratings
> fall below a given threshold I could put them in the sin-bin by placing
> warnings on all their deals alerting readers of their poor user-rating.
> If the feedback ratings fall even further, I could bar them entirely
> from the site until their ratings increase again.
>

But if site visitors didn't take up the deals because of poor rating or
non-appearance then there'd be nobody to provide subsequent positive
ratings and no possibility of a return even if they'd cleaned-up their
act! It looks like a one-way slide unless you can devise some tricksy way
to evaluate feedback.

Possibly safer to avoid exclusion based on (what amounts to) your criteria
and let the customer decide with the added benefit of feedback.

--
JonPhred

Lobster wrote:
> DCA wrote:
>
>> Can anyone advise me how buymobilephones are with their
>> rebate/redemptions?
>
>
> I have a contract with them and asked the same question a few weeks
> back; got no replies at all. Haven't yet had to claim. All I can say
> is that there procedure seems pretty onerous - you have to send in
> *every* bill, original copies only; and they don't send you any info on
> how to do it either, you have to find it buried in their T&C in a pop-up
> window (so rendering it awkward to make a hard copy, and if it were to
> disappear you'd be up the creek without one).
>
> I've no evidence at all to suggest they won't honour my cashbacks, but
> you can be sure I've printed out absolutely everything related to the
> deal as hard copy (with browser-printed dates included), just in case I
> things should get unpleasant later!
>
>> It would make a damned useful site if someone were to allow people to
>> give ratings on phone sellers in the redemption departments!
>
>
> Mmm, wouldn't it just - Reestit??!
>
> Having said that, googling this group for <cashback> and <company name
> here> is *usually* quite effective.
>
> David
Hi David, Hi Lobster

Lobster, it looks like you took the same path as me, going from OSPS to
BMP IIRC !

Anyway I have taken out 2 O2 contracts with BMP, based on the fact that
they are infact A1 comms and have been around for over 9 years.

Also I called them several times to aks questions, emailed them
questions and the replies were always pronpt and to the point.

As far as claiming cashback is concerned, you need to send in your first
4 bills within 28 days of getting the 4th bill. You send the pages
that show your contact details and payments, they do not need or want
the itemised calls page. They told me just to send them in with a
covering letter by recorded delivery. Simple as that really.

I also printed out all the details and the T&Cs just in case, but then I
did that last year with OSPS and they have delivered the first 2 claims
with a little chasing for the first (CPW takeover time) Just waiting for
the 3rd but they have only had it a week or so.

So as far as BPM is concerned they appeared to be one of the *safer*
options as far as I was concerned, due to the CD responses and time in
business. The other option was going to be mobileshop but that another
story.....

hth

DeeBee

JonPhred wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 14:43:55 -0000, Reestit Mutton <not@this.address>
> wrote:
> <snip>
>
>> One rather clever thing a user-controlled ratings system would allow
>> me to do is make rule-based decisions about inclusion or exclusion of
>> any particular retailer from the site. For instance, if a retailer's
>> ratings fall below a given threshold I could put them in the sin-bin
>> by placing warnings on all their deals alerting readers of their poor
>> user-rating. If the feedback ratings fall even further, I could bar
>> them entirely from the site until their ratings increase again.
>>
>
> But if site visitors didn't take up the deals because of poor rating or
> non-appearance then there'd be nobody to provide subsequent positive
> ratings and no possibility of a return even if they'd cleaned-up their
> act! It looks like a one-way slide unless you can devise some tricksy
> way to evaluate feedback.
>

Yes...but a user would be allowed to amend their rating if a retailer
eventually pulls their socks up and there will always be new users come
on to the site who may feel that a particular retailer has had unduly
bad press based on their own experience and, hence, redress the balance
slightly with some more positive ratings.

To be honest, for a retailer to have got that far that they're banned in
the first place, it's either probably not a retailer that people should
be doing business with anyway or it's just a scam - in which case the
one-way slide is probably appropriate.

The trick is in assessing the ratings in the early stages to see where
each retailer lies on the scale and then setting the bar where I believe
it should be - yes, that involves a certain amount of personal judgement
(something that I was hoping to avoid) but in the long run newer
retailers would be judged solely on automatic means and older retailers
that I had judged safe in the early days will have to continue to behave
(in the main) to avoid subsequently falling foul of the automatic chop.

> Possibly safer to avoid exclusion based on (what amounts to) your
> criteria and let the customer decide with the added benefit of feedback.

True enough, but I like the idea of giving the users some power to
dictate the site's content to an extent. However, I agree with you that
it will take a well thought out scheme to be able to distinguish
sensibly between genuine retailers that are temporarily going through a
difficult period and out and out dodgy dealers who will try and wriggle
out of anything purely based on the ratings statistics.

Anyway...the first hurdle is in getting a ratings system up and running
- only once it's been in use for a while can I then decide if it would
be sensible to use the ratings as a form of automatic content
moderation. Statistical analysis is a wonderful thing if used to good
effect.

RM
--
www.reestitmutton.co.uk

Bringing you the best-value mobile phone contract deals in the UK
Presented the way it should be...in plain English

> (Getting back to the topic: do you know happen anything about
> buymobilephones?!)
>
> David
>

AS mentioned in a previous post, they are or at least part of A1 Comms

A1 Comms Ltd
Contract House,
Turnpike Business Park,
Alfreton,
Derbyshire,
DE55 7AD

BuyMobilePhones.net
Contract House,
Turnpike Business Park,
Alfreton,
Derbyshire,
DE55 7AD

Our airtime agreements came with the retailer marked as A1

DeeBee

DeeBee wrote:
>
>
>> (Getting back to the topic: do you know happen anything about
>> buymobilephones?!)
>>
> AS mentioned in a previous post, they are or at least part of A1 Comms

Sure; I just meant in relation to their willingness to part with
cashback payments, which is what the OP was wanting to know. Too late
for me really, as I'm now locked in their contract for another 10 months..

David