Carphone Warehouse

Carphone Warehouse is the number 1 independent mobile retailer in the UK. It has grown rapidly and now has over 2,400 stores in Europe. In the UK and Ireland, it is known as Carphone Warehouse; however, in other parts of Europe, it trades as Phone House.

About Carphone Warehouse

Carphone Warehouse was first founded in 1989 and now has over 12,000 employees and 1,100 stores across the UK and Ireland. It was founded during a time when mobile phones were still too bulky to carry around with you everywhere.

Luckily those times are long gone but in those days, people used to leave them in their cars and call them car phones. Can you believe the first car phone weighed 36kg!?

Since August 2014, Carphone Warehouse has been a subsidiary of the holding group Dixons Carphone, after merging with electronics retail giant Dixons. It has also since been listed on the London Stock Exchange and has been included in the FTSE 250 Index. You might see their subsidiary name Dixons Carphone being used for their careers portals and other services.

Just like Selectra compares energy (gas and electricity) and telecoms services to find the best deals for customers, Carphone Warehouse compares handsets and network tariffs. They do this both in-store and online to help their customers find the best deals and save money.

According to Carphone Warehouse, unbeatable customer service is their top priority. They even claim to monitor TrustPilot to ensure that their customer service maintains a high standard. Here, we will take a closer look to see how their customer service ranks. Their other top priority is finding the perfect deal and the perfect combination of phones, tablets and networks for their customers.

Carphone Warehouse Services

Carphone Warehouse can be thought of as a one-stop shop for all your mobile phone and mobile plan needs and really anything else to do with phones, tablets and networks.

Comparing all the deals out there is a time-consuming task and if you just can’t stand the thought of having to go through this process yourself, getting help from an expert at Carphone Warehouse is the perfect solution.

No matter what kind of deal you are after, Carphone Warehouse will be able to help you out. They compare all kinds of offers: pay-as-you-go, monthly contracts, simple SIM-only plans and if you just want a phone, they can help you out with that too.

To make sure they get their customers the best deal possible, the staff at Carphone Warehouse takes the time to find out exactly what you want. They’ll ask you what phone you want, how much data you need, if you're a Netflix addict or if you just prefer browsing and streaming online. If you're not sure about anything, you don’t have to worry as they are more than equipped to make suggestions so you can make an informed choice.

They'll also take other important factors into account such as whether you prefer to pay up-front for your phone to get it paid as soon as possible or pay monthly because it’s kinder on the bank account.

They really have everything covered when it comes to choosing a mobile phone deal or mobile network so if you do need help choosing, a trip to Carphone Warehouse seems like a no-brainer to us.

Carphone Warehouse does a lot more than just help you find the best mobile phone plan, a PAYG deal or just a phone. They’re also experts in TV and broadband deals, business energy deals and electrical appliances for businesses.

Carphone Warehouse Jobs

Dixons Carphone already has a huge team across Europe with 41,000 employees in more than nine different countries, and they could have an opportunity for you. Dixon Carphone employees get to enjoy some fantastic benefits such as healthcare, childcare vouchers, life insurance, bonuses and product discounts - but are they all talk and no action?

According to some of their employees, working conditions are more than satisfactory with about 61% of employees giving Carphone Warehouse 3 stars or higher for work/life balance, salary, benefits and job security.

Carphone Warehouse offers a lot of benefits and help you gain a lot of different skills. You meet a lot of great people on the job and it is a very positive working environment.

On the other hand, other staff members have had less positive experiences, with some calling it a horrendous place to work due to poor working conditions and terrible management.

Would not recommend working there. They do not treat staff fairly, training is poor and it is an unhappy working environment. People who work there just use it as a stepping stone until something better comes along hence a high turnover of staff.

All these mixed reviews can make it difficult to come to a conclusion about what it’s really like to work at Carphone Warehouse but looking at employee reviews, we can see some patterns. There is a pattern of current and previous employees having a lot to say about how stressful the roles are, the long hours and management being hit or miss.

You don’t need much experience to get into a customer service role at Carphone Warehouse (known as a Customer Consultant) and this is most certainly reflected in the salaries being offered for these positions.

Despite the stressful work conditions and entry level salaries, a customer service role is normally a good starting point if you don’t have any work experience so if you are looking for an entry-level job, take a look at their current vacancies.

Carphone Warehouse Customer Service

We bet you’re curious to see how their customer service reviews compare to their employee reviews. At first glance, Carphone Warehouse doesn't get off to a great start with a number of customers branding their customer service a "disservice."

This might sound harsh but unfortunately for Carphone Warehouse and their customers, it’s also true. Customers are mainly disappointed, and sometimes appalled at the lack of follow through and below average communication.

It’s not surprising that customers are disappointed with the customer service at Carphone Warehouse as they are lagging behind the industry average, scoring 60.36% compared to the average of 74.4%.

Phone brought in for repair, had a text message to say to collect it in 48 hours. Went into to collect it and it wasn’t there. Went again a few days later and still not there, absolutely appalling!!

Some customers don’t even want to look at Carphone Warehouse after the service they received and only 23% of them would recommend Carphone Warehouse to someone else. Other customers however, have a very positive opinion and about 20% of them even think that Carphone Warehouse is worthy of a five-star review. These customers who have had a positive experience overall attribute it to the useful advice they had received and the helpful and knowledgeable staff.

“Nothing was too much trouble. The staff at Greenford at Westway Retail Park are absolutely wonderful. Wilson was very patient and lovely. The vibe in the store is really comfortable and easy going.”

Just like employment experience, customer service reviews are also a mixed bag and it can be hard to come to a conclusion about what the customer service is really like. According to TrustPilot, while 18% of customers think that customer service at Carphone Warehouse only deserves 1 star, 61% have a completely different opinion, leaving them very positive 5-star reviews.

Customers leaving these 5-star reviews were extremely pleased with how helpful staff were and with the advice and guidance they were given. Going to see an expert at Carphone Warehouse can save you a lot of time as you don’t have to do the time-consuming task of comparing mobile plans or phone deals yourself.

You probably won’t have too many problems getting informed about all the available deals, their inclusions and prices with a Customer Consultant. After all, it's in their best interest to give you as much information as possible and help you make a choice and ultimately, a purchase.

Once you’ve become a customer, however, you might be on your own. If you need help getting any issues sorted, getting any discounts you are owed or getting any money you are owed back, don’t expect the service you received when you were being signed up. Although they’ve made it easy to navigate their website and contact customer service in many different ways, they definitely don’t make it easy to get returns and refunds.

Expect to run around in circles trying to get a straight answer from anyone about anything and don’t expect to see any refunds or discounts when you were promised them. Over 51% of customers have said they waited over a week for issues to be resolved and called their returns and refunds process “difficult” and “slow.”

Although this might be disappointing to hear, it shouldn't come as a surprise. Generally speaking, customer service agents from the majority of big companies will be on their best behaviour when trying to sell you something but will perhaps be less helpful later when you need help.

This is especially true if your problem involves getting a refund in any way, shape or sort and Carphone Warehouse is no exception to this rule. So if you decide to get contract any service with them, be prepared for a possible drop in the level of customer service.

Carphone Warehouse Complaints

Carphone Warehouse takes great pains to let everyone know they take all customer complaints seriously and give customers a number of ways to make a complaint. If you are unfortunate enough to have been on the receiving end of poor customer service, you can make a complaint in one of the following ways:

Carphone Warehouse Contact Numbers

1. For non-insurance related complaints - 0370 111 6565
2. For Team Knowhow insurance-related complaints - 0800 049 0221
3. For Geek Squad insurance-related complaints - 0370 111 6565
4. For Phone Care insurance complaints - 0800 049 6193

Carphone Warehouse Locations

As we've seen from the customer service reviews, customers have been pleased with the customer service agents they have encountered in-store calling them helpful and knowledgable. You can go into any store and speak to a customer service agent about your complaint. With over 1,100 Carphone Warehouse stores across the UK and Ireland, there’s one near you. To find the closest store, you can use the very handy online store locator.

Carphone Warehouse Online Complaint Form

To find all the information you need to contact Carphone Warehouse, just head to their website. Not only can you find all the contact numbers you need but you can also make a complaint using the online complaint form.

Geek Squad Legal Hiccup

It probably won’t come as a surprise that their terrible customer service and lack of staff training has caused serious problems for Carphone Warehouse. Just this year in 2019, Carphone Warehouse was fined a whopping £29,107,600 for mis-selling one of their mobile phone insurance products Greek Squad.

It turns out that staff were trained to recommend this product to people who really didn’t need it, to people who already had mobile phone insurance cover. As these people genuinely didn’t need this insurance, 35% of them cancelled their policies within three months of purchasing them. Unfortunately for Carphone Warehouse, high cancellation rates are usually a sign of mis-selling and the Financial Conduct Authority didn’t let these alarming cancellation rates slip by without consequences.

Carphone Warehouse didn’t even try to deny these allegations which worked out better for them in the end as they received a 30% discount on the sum of the fine. The sales staff also didn’t deny any allegations, with 18% admitting that they try to sell insurance to customers who don’t need it as they can cancel it within 14 days anyway.

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