Beware the hard sell

Interesting story on the BBC website about the Carphone Warehouse in Britain misleading customers about the implications of not taking out insurance on their new iPhones. Viewers contacted the excellent Watchdog after being told by Carphone Warehouse staff that if they lost their precious iPhones, they’d have to buy an new 18 month contract - at a minimum cost of £630. This is untrue and while customers would have to buy a new handset their contracts would be unaffected. In three out of five stores visited by Watchdog, undercover researchers were told the same thing, a fact the store attributed to “some element of confusion among an isolated number of sales consultants”. It said it did not believe that the “small number of complaints” were “a fair reflection of the experience of thousands of iPhone customers who have received insurance advice in our stores”.