Mr Phillip Freeman
Club Mobile
24th Floor
Sunley Tower
Piccadilly Plaza
Manchester

M1 4BT

14th May 2001

Dear Mr Freeman,

I ordered two Orange mobile phones from Club Mobile at the beginning of April. At the time, I requested a number transfer for both handsets from my existing Cellnet accounts. I filled in and returned the number transfer form, which came with the telephones, on the 9th April.

Expecting my number transfer to have been completed on the 11th May, since even a conservative estimate of the transfer date would have been sooner, I contacted Orange and was told that the transfer date would be the 29th May, the paperwork having been received from yourselves on 7th May, nearly an entire month after I sent it.

My problem is that I have had to leave the Cellnet accounts running until the number transfer is complete, which I was advised to do by the salesman who took my order. The extra month of Cellnet’s services, with two telephones, will cost me around £40. Since I had wanted to avoid this cost I had promptly returned my number transfer form.

I rang your company today in order to find out what had caused the delay. I spoke to Nicola, she was reluctant to give her surname, but eventually told me that it is Smith. She told me that my form had arrived on the 1st of May, some three weeks after I sent it. She refused to accept that the postal journey from Newcastle to Manchester does not take three weeks and claimed that there is no paper trail at your end giving proof positive that the mail arrived when she claimed. She did admit that the only thing she could tell me for sure is that the 1st of May is when my form entered your system.

Nicola seemed perfectly happy for me to be £40 poorer as a result of the delay, even suggesting that she only had my word that I had sent the form back when I claimed, as if I would go to the bother of complaining about a delay that I had caused. Though you might argue that there are no guarantees of delivery with the postal service, other letters posted at the same time, in the same box, arrived within a couple of days. Though I could have chased up the transfer with yourselves, I felt it unnecessary, especially since I had followed your instructions to the letter (I felt the illustration showing how to use a post box on those instructions to be a little patronising).

Perhaps the whole process of having to post a form was superfluous anyway, I gave the transfer details to your agent over the phone when I ordered, I do not see why you could not have started the transfer immediately. If Nicola’s explanation of the form not having arrived were true, then I would, at least, have expected some sort of communication from you, asking where the form was. You know as well as I do that a delay in the process will cost. What was supposed to be a 25-30 day transfer period has stretched to nearly 60 days. This is not acceptable.

So, now we have a problem. I am dissatisfied by the service and find the explanations I have received to be faulty. Furthermore, I shall be left out of pocket. Therefore, I would appreciate your assistance with this matter. What can you do to help me?

I look forward to your speedy response.

Yours sincerely,

Ashley Frieze.