Is This Why Some Of Your Mobile Phone Sales Are Being Rejected?

In the last two months I’ve made four sales on behalf of Carphone Warehouse and could have been £100 richer for doing so.  As it is I haven’t earned a penny because all four sales were rejected. No reason is given for the rejections, but in two of the cases I don’t need one. I know exactly what happened because it was me who placed the orders.

This sorry tale started on the 25th of March 2009 when I ordered a PAYG mobile for my son via the Carphone Warehouse website. A Samsung Soul to be precise.

Later that same day I received an email from the Carphone Warehouse saying that with regards to my order:

“We have now processed it through our secure systems, but are unable to despatch the item to you for security reasons. This order has now been cancelled.  If you still wish to make a purchase please call 0870 087 0870.”

Security reasons? This intrigued me because I’ve ordered from Carphone Warehouse before without any problems.  So I made the call and it emerged that the “security reasons” were because I’d used the card on a previous transaction. and so the order had been cancelled.

The fact that I had used the card before without later contesting the charge should have been a bonus for any company worried about internet fraud, not cause for a “security reason”, but according to the man on the other end of the phone there was nothing he could do. Unless of course I had another card and would like to order again there and then.

I realised that if I ordered by phone bang goes my chance of earning any commission and so I politely declined.  Instead I returned to the website and ordered again, this time using a different card.

I received an email from Carphone Warehouse confirming the new order and that evening had a phone call from my card provider regarding the transaction. Interestingly, my card provider told me that the Carphone Warehouse hadn’t actually requested authorisation up to that point, but that having confirmed that it was indeed me using the card, the transaction would be authorised when they did.

The following day, with no word regarding the despatch of my phone, I had no option but to phone the Carphone Warehouse again to see what was happening.

This time the man on the phone said that he would check with Finances to see if the order had been processed. A few minutes of listening to music later and he asked me to confirm some of the digits from my card. That done, he disappeared again for a minute or two and then returned to tell me that the order had now been processed and that I’d receive the phone the following day.  “And I have a new order reference for you Mr Marshall . . . ”

That’s right. Instead of processing the order I placed online, it had obviously been cancelled and a new order created. Which of course means the Carphone Warehouse don’t pay me the commission on that cancelled order and can mark it as “rejected”.  Even although I did order the phone online via my own affiliate link, paid for the phone, and am now in possession of said phone. Or at least my son is.  A fully completed order marked as “rejected”.

If I was a little more cynical, all sorts of things would be running through my mind.  Like just how many sales that are rejected by the Carphone Warehouse are actually the result of orders being “cancelled” and then resurrected by the telephone sales people as new orders?

Luckily, I’m not that cynical and put the above down to my own bad luck.  Afterall, I’d hate to think that this was in any way commonplace.

That said, I would still like my £5 commission please.