elite mobile were helpful in chasing up returns but totally useless on order status and so forth.

Also i think prepaymania is based next to global connect. maybe david is moonlighting?

unit 20 as opposed to unit 10

director ketan gokani set up connect global within elite by buying stock from within his own company and then selling on ebay as prepaymania. the set up seems to work well.

phone 02087998000 after 11am and ask for lalji……. a direct line into the packing area of prepaymania!

I did however happen to stumble upon the fact they are a part of elitemobile.com (though they will deny it profusely when questioned), all orders are sent out from the elitemobile warehouse in Wembley.

You could go down the route of contacting their Directors about the problem (matt.gaunt@elitemobile.com, ketan.gokani@elitemobile.com) or phone the elitemobile head office on 02087998000 (advise them that you know they are a part of prepaymania if they try to claim they’re not).

This ‘Dave’ you all talk about, wouldn’t happen to be a David Halliday would it (he is the head of customer services apparently)? If so, he too can be contacted on david.halliday@elitemobile.com (notice the elitemobile.com email address for a prepaymania employee).

Hope this helps, I’m sure if you bother their directors enough they might do something about their lack of after sales support.

Thanks for stopping by, I am glad you were able to save your account details.

I am also amazed that something like Watchdog has not picked up these problems

On receipt of my new contract phone I received a phone call on my mobile from a withheld number claiming to be from an insurance company (guy with a Welsh accent) wanting to confirm some details in order to send out my insurance certificate. He stated that the insurance would be discounted and due to a change in regulation, I would no longer be required to pay any excess should I make any claim.

I confirmed my name, address, the bank which my direct debit was with and the type of card used to set up the direct debit which I apparently got wrong (and oddly enough he was right!!!)

I was then asked to confirm my card number to which I politely refused to divulge over the phone as I didn’t feel comfortable giving out this information. The agent then went through the details he already had and said that he wouldn’t know these details if he wasn’t genuine and then asked me to confirm my card number again to which I gave the same response and asked if he could send me a letter with the details his company requires and I would happily respond with the information required.

The conversation went round in circles several times over until the agent turned round and said and I quote “Look mate, you are doing my bloody head in now so fuck off!” and then he hung up on me. To add insult to injury the same person called me back not 5 seconds later and went through his introduction with me all over again until stopped him and said I knew who he was, he just called me and told me to fuck off, to which he again hung up on me.

shame I didn’t know about this wesbite beforehand otherwise I would have given this guy nothing…hopefully I didn’t give out enough information for them to take money from me…but I shall be checking

My phone should arrive on Monday

Seems like they just overwhelmed by the sales! thus support is suffering- probably takes a few weeks to hire new customer service staff.

Ps i think your address is wrong- they don’t send out from london anymore. it’s all in house now.

It’s a pain isn’t it

I’ll not be using these people again.

Glad you got your money back .. plus another phone Not bad.

I see now on their site that they accept visa and mastercard direct when it was just paypal and google checkout when I bought from them.

Suggests they are intendending to stay around. I’m not sure they are “dodgy” but just have crap after sales follow up

Thanks for commenting by the way

I bought an Apple iPhone from Carphone Warehouse. I know, should have gone directly to the Apple shop but such is the price of laziness… I also got the insurance. Nothing underhand there, it was purely my choice. I was given the option to refuse.

Hours after purchasing, a bizarre phone call from Dan representing ‘Freedom’, the name of some ‘insurance company’. His accent was so thick and unintelligable that I didn’t even know what he was trying to offer at first. I smelled a rat and asked him for contact details – he gave his direct line as 07878 032 801 and the company number as 01792 477 015. They were based in Swansea (166 St Helens Road SA1 4DQ). He was very reassuring that this was all above board. Once he started asking for postcodes and credit card numbers, I terminated the call.

Cue several other repeated attempts. I just hung up. Numbers were always blocked. So point one – there should be an option on ALL phones to block anonymous numbers. (Unless someone knows of a method?)

Once the paperwork came through from the real insurers (Lifeline), there was enclosed a warning leaflet about rogue insurers pestering new purchasers with cheaper insurance deals that weren’t worth the paper they were written on. These companies are largely based in Swansea… they attempt to establish your personal details… bingo.

It apparently is a well-organised scam. They buy a contract themselves, knowing that the new mobile numbers are dished out sequentially (e.g. if your new number is 07000 100 100, they’ll try phoning numbers 07000 050 050 to 07000 200 200). Potentially thousands of victims then.

I just had another call tonight from Katy, using a script that I’ve almost got memorised by now. As soon as I asked her to confirm my customer number, she immediately terminated the call.

Be careful out there people… there’s scumbags about.

Wow – you say the lady on the phone gave you this web address!!!

That is amazing – I have contacted Watchdog a number of times and evern given the url to this post but never heard from them.

For me, the tale is slowly fading as a bad memory but I am so pleased that this post can still act as a channel and vent for people to post their story.

As to everyone who has posted before – I hope you make some progress with your claim.

Thanks