Carphone Warehouse Reviews

Name: Carphone Warehouse
Address: The Carphone Warehouse, PO Box 375, Southampton
Rating: 1.57

1.6 Rating 1,636 Reviews

13 %

of reviewers recommend Carphone Warehouse

1.6

Based on 1,636 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Postal Service, Courier
Average Delivery Time	Within 5 Days
On-time Delivery	Greater than 25%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 85%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Live Chat, Email
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.3 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult
Returns Process	Could Be Better

About Carphone Warehouse:

The Carphone Warehouse was founded in 1989 to bring mobile services to consumers. The market has always been complex and our aim from the very beginning has been to offer our customers simple, impartial advice while also offering outstanding value. As a result we have grown from a handful of stores operating exclusively in the UK selling mobile handsets and contracts, to a European-wide platform of over 1,500 stores in 10 countries, providing a wide range of mobile and residential telecoms services.

Visit Website

Phone:

0870 111 6565

Location:

The Carphone Warehouse, PO Box 375
Southampton
SO30 2PU

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Carphone Warehouse 1 star review on 14th June 2025

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Carphone Warehouse 1 star review on 14th March 2025

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT ABOUT THE SHOP ASSITANTS, IT IS ABOUT THE CARPHONE WAREHOUSE COMPANY HEAD OFFICE MANAGEMENT. BEWARE!!!THERE IS NO AFTER SERVICE IF ANY KIND FOR FAULTY 'TOP OF THE RANGE' MOBILES. Wednesday 5th October - We visited Sutton Carphone Warehouse store to buy two new iPhone 7s plus broadband and Sky TV. The shop was closed for no apparent reason at about 10.30am. Thursday 6th October - We bought the phones from Tamworth Ankerside store approx 11.30am until 1pm. Friday 7th October - went into Tamworth store to get PAC code as we weren't told the number would change, otherwise we would have done that the day before! This took about 1 and a half hours Thursday 13th October - We went into Sutton store because the mic/voice didn't work so when anyone phoned me I could hear them but they couldn't hear me. The staff member said their machine was broken so he couldn't help. He told us to go back to the Tamworth store. This was all affecting my income as my job is based around my phone. We were told that the Princess Alice store was open until 8pm after our work but then advised it had to close due to staff problems. Sadly my mom passed away during this time and, desperate to get a phone that worked, we went to Tamworth store as advised on Wednesday 19th October. The staff member there said he'd changed a few settings on the phone handset so to try it again and if it didn't work go back to the Sutton shop. People were phoning me and, though I was answering, they couldn't hear me so were putting the phone down. The stress level was colossal for me with needing to speak to family regarding my Mom's funeral and at the same time losing my work. The following day, Thursday 20th October, we went into the Sutton shop. The staff member said that his machine was still broken so he couldn't help. By now it was DAY 14 of my contract so myself and my partner insisted we had to have a phone that worked before cancellation allowance of my contract expired. I said that all I wanted was a phone that worked and pleaded for him to help (it was my Mom's funeral the following day and I couldn't risk not having a working phone or cancelling my contract which would give me no phone. He said that his manager had thrown the forms in the bin that would allow him to replace a faulty phone. We insisted we must have a replacement so he phoned Tamworth store who told him that they would email a form there and then straight to him so we could get a replacement. He said that he was scared he would get into trouble with his manager. Another staff member at Sutton then came running out and insisted not to replace the phone as they were scared of their manager's response. After 2 hours of this my partner and I were both late for work again and despite our desperation, being the last day of cancellation and my mom's funeral the next day, we very reluctantly had to rush off without a phone. He said to go back to the Tamworth store and they would give us a replacement the next day. We went to Tamworth on Saturday 22nd October to supposedly collect the replacement phone. We were in there for nearly 3 hours as the staff member tried to obtain an 'authorisation code' to give us a phone that worked. Despite hours of him trying he eventually said he couldn't help as there was no back up from Carphone's head office. I heard him saying "wow" repeatedly upon hearing they weren't prepared to help. At this I phoned customer services from the shop phone myself. I was greeted by a foreign voice who was totally disinterested so I asked her to put her manager on. Someone else came on but I think it was the same person pretending to be management. She said that because the 14 days were over there's nothing she could do and I would have to use the phone for the two year contract, despite the fact that she knew nobody could hear me when I spoke on the handset. On hearing this the staff member gathered together his staff, phoned each other on my phone and all confirmed the voice piece didn't work. They then, against management instruction, all signed a piece of paper to witness that they collectively wanted to help me, the customer, and gave me a replacement. I have to say that I have never witnessed such disregard for a customer for as long as I've lived. The whole experience cost me in loss of work, huge stress levels, my partners loss of work, in excess of 20 hours of time and travel expenses. I have now been deducted the first two month's bill. I felt I had to write this to raise awareness of such hurtful disregard for customers in the Carphone Warehouse hierarchy. Can you help? Stuart and Catherine”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Sim only contract applied for and ready for delivery to store as I requested. Then they email me and say there is a problem. Usual joke of on hold when I call them then when I get through they say call back later as system is down. Any way they just sent me an email cancelling the sim that evening. Basically wasted lots of my time. I shall now go in store for a phone and walk out as they try to get me to sign on the line. I can waste time wasting thee time.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“I order iPhone7 sim free. It's supposed to deliverd on Saturday but Have not had any email on Friday. Contact adviser and told I still can have phone by Saturday. Saturday morning I got email payment is successfully taken. Contact them again I was told now it's gonna be Sunday. Later Saturday I got email said you can pick Monday. Contact adviser again. Then I was told they cannot do nothing. They passed phone to local shop and they said might be deliver tomorrow. I went to shop Sunday and shop keeper said they do not have any delivery weekend usually. Well. Monday morning I called shop and shopkeeper told me delivery came to yesterday. Omg that's so confusion. I was not really happy and I went to pick phone then they said once I put sim, lock to provider. I do not want to that. It's no point to buy the simfree phone if once put sim card then lock them. It's maybe my mistake to did not read website. But I cannot trust them anymore. I cancel phone. Now I hope my money comes back to my account soothly. Overall avoid this company!!! It's so much better to go apple shop to buy.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Ordered pay as you go phone, has not delivered as expected then called to customer service, waited for 15 minutes to answer an advisor after security check the advisor put on hold to confirm with warehouse but after 15 minutes holding she disconnected the line and never call Back . Would you believe that same thing happened again in my second attempt. Very disappointed”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“One star is even too generous. I pre-ordered an Iphone 7 Plus Upgrade, last Friday (28th Oct) to be delivered today (4th Nov). So i already had to wait a week for this phone, no big deal to get the phone I wanted. On Friday, the day of expected (guaranteed) delivery, I get a text saying the phone is going to delayed for 8 days! Even though the phone had been preordered for a whole week and they should've known to keep one for me. In the text it says i have £20 in-store credit to use, but thats no good as now i will have to pay £39.50 for an extra month on my current contract because my new phone should've came to replace this one with my new data before my data for this month runs out. Customer service for my upgrade has been disgusting, it took over an hour to actually order my new Iphone over the phone and now I have to wait and extra 8 days because you didn't reserve a phone when I have already paid my upfront cost!! And after emailing them to complain they tried to put the blame on Apple, saying it's because they didn't provide enough stock. When Carphone Warehouse are the ones who oversold phones they didn't actually have to give to customers! And if I want reimbursement i should go through Apple. disgusting. This will be my last contract with Carphone Warehouse...”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Honestly, i regret buying phones in carphone warehouse. I got blackberry Q5 (£230) in December 2013 December and the phone developed faults after few months which cost me almost £100 to fix it. I n April 2016, i got a blackberry Classic (£330) phone (a lover of keypad smartphones) and the speakers stopped working. At present , I am receiving a message that Blackberry phones will not support Whatsapp. Previously, I used to get my phones from 3netwok (a customer for the past 9 years plus)i have not had issues with the phones they have given me. I stronlgy believe that refurbished phones are beng sold to customers. If not why are the phones developing phones after five weeks ? It is total wast eof money. I will NEVER do this again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Worst company ever. Please take advice and avoid. firstly they sold me an illegal contract when i was under aged. On my 18th birthday i tried to cancel this then which they said no and were very rude.... So 4 years later i decide to give them another shot... on wednesday i ordered 2 phone contracts... friday? still no phones... so i phone them up where they assure me the checks have passed however because of no phones being delivered they will cancel that order and give me a new one but with a better deal. they tell me on sunday it will be here 100% and that it has all gone through ok ... roll on sunday .. any phone?- No ... so i then phone them up .. they say i have no orders and no order history either (useless/ an indian chap).... i then go on the fb page... they say that my order had gone through but has failed check so now i cant get an order for 30 days.... so i then phone up again .. this time they have no record of the first order but the second order actually failed as i got 2 phones in the same day ... phone up again to different department and they say that as they were with the same network ..it should be absolutely fine....next thing the orders have both now vanished again ... very rude people... not helpful at all . they then try and get me to sign up for these phones i want to get for the 4th time... i have spent a total of 4 hours on hold and 3 hours speaking to different people.. i have never had such a sham of a company. there is loads more i can go into but that would take days .. just awful!!!!!!!! they don't know what they are talking about... biggest regret is ever trying to give this sham of a company another chance... i hope they go bankrupt if their customers are going to get treated like how i have”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Went to get my phone cover replaced after it fell and cracked. Waited 30mins at the geek squad station and no one turned up to talk after asking some very rude employees.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“the phone broke within the 28 days warrenty so they sent it off to be 'fixed' I later rang up to find out that apple say they should of replaced it Under the 28 days warrenty, they point blank refused to replace it as mine had been 'sent off' ", apple tracked the parcel to theire stock room, they still refused in the end I had to get apple to send me a voucher to replace the phone of £540 and they would take it out with car phone warehouse but not to mention I had traveled a half an hour journey 3 times to try resolve this and not to mention I was 90 muinites late for workView less”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Horrible customer service, rude and offensive staff in multiple stores”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“member of staff upgraded wrong phone,”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Got a faulty device from them sent three times for repair and never repaired. I asked them to replace it with a new one, as I have never been provided with a well woking phone. As an answer they firstly offered me with an option to buy another phone and keep paying for the faulty one. After rejecting an offer, they sent me to sort my issue out with the network (o2) which obviously had nothing to do with the phone. After numerous of phone calls and complaints they offered me a replacement giving an impression that this will be a new phone, but as a result of further conversation it appeared that they tried to give me a refurbished item! I refused that as in fact I was paying for a new phone and never got it so they said this is a final offer. After getting in touch and involving citizen advice bureau, sending them multiple emails, official tracked letter and phone calls I finally got my phone replaced. AFTER NEARLY A YEAR!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“i up grade my phone through the carphone ware house november 2015. after 5 months while still under manufacturer warranty stopped charging. i took the phone the apple was refused to fixed . i was told this phone has modified parts, i had not taken the phone to anywhere as it was still under warranty. took phone back to carphone ware house ,where i was told same thing.i refused to take the phone back from the carphone ware house .took this case to small claim court. the carphone warehouse said since than they have lost the phone . i won the court. but court judgement was that the carphone ware house had to pay the upfront cost , which was only 50 pounds. i was still left with the contract for 2 years .what should i do next ?”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Returning of a note 7 due to the recall to be told I have to revert back to my old contract even tho they say I can change my deviceon the website, but also to be told I have to wait a week before I can upgrade again. In the mean time I have rang o2 to be told that carphone warehouse have to ring o2 to let them know I returned the phone poor poor poor customer service and don't worry they will be getting it when I go back on Sat.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Took phone back when it wouldn't stay on staff said phone faulty within thirty days asked for new phone wouldn't give me new one unless I ieft my phone with them till new one came in stock couldn't say how long rang customer services said car phone warehouse have their own rules that overrule uk consumer law would not give me cash refund for three days when I insisted on speaking to manager said to hold then they put the phone down worst customer service I have ever come across don't go there”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Went into a Carphone Warehouse store in Berkshire today. I asked to puchase a SONY XA on PAYG. As I've washed my hands with all phone contracts. When the person brought out the phone firstly it was unsealed and secondly it didnt have earphones which i thought was strange. So i questioned it and the reply from the advisor was it dont come with headphones anymore. An it clearly doesn't come with a security seal either. Moments later i walk out and go into EE who assure me it contains earphones in the box. But then........wait for it. I go to order it through cpw telesales who assure me it comes sealed with all accessories inc. Earphones lmao. Avoid if i were you. Im guessing in my opinion as im not applying for a contract im not worth the customer service. As the telesales bloke decided to lecture me as to how much payg top ups wpuld cost me lol blatant tactics to steer ppl into 24 month contracts they might not be able to afford.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Went into the Uxbridge store to enquire about an iPhone 7 Plus and when it might be available. Rude and curt answers with zero enthusiasm. Walked out of the store and will never go near the store again. Congratulations on having such ignorant, unhelpful & useless staff.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Avoid Avoid Avoid carphone warehouse only want to lock you into a contract and when your phone breaks down they don't want to know. customer service are rude, unprofessional and arrogant, they just don't know the meaning of customer loyalty. Avoid Avoid Avoid. Tell all your friends and family too so they know just what sort of company this is. Avoid Avoid Avoid Avoid.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“If you ever thought to by a "SIM free" iPhone from carphone this might make you change your mind: "Hi Rosen, Thanks for your e-mail. I'm sorry if there is any confusion surrounding the matter of using your iPhone abroad. I can explain that the region lock that is on iPhone's sold by us is put in place by Apple. This region lock can not be removed. The iPhone will only work with UK SIM cards. If your phone is locked to a UK network, you'd need to contact them to unlock it. Once its unlocked, it will again be open to any UK network, however it will again lock to the next network you use. To establish if you can use the iPhone abroad, you would need to contact the UK network you are planning on using whilst you are abroad. I apologise if any of this has been unclear but this is why we advertise our phones as 'SIM free', because they are sold without a SIM. We do not advertise them as 'unlocked', as I believe you may have thought they are. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. Should you require any further information please simply reply to my email or you can call our Customer Services team on 0370 111 6565. Kind Regards, M..... B...... Customer Services Carphone Warehouse'' Oh... I forgot to mantion... From Apple they claimed that they do not deliver locked phones to anybody and what happened to my must be a company policy of carphone”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“After one month wait, i finally get the email i was waiting for with huge anticipation: Your order has been dispatched! Joy! Then, 24 hours later, i get a new email: Your order has been cancelled! Not one word of explanation but the guts to write "Thank you for shopping at Carephone Warehouse" ! Seriously? after being a client for 18 years???”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

Carphone Warehouse is rated 1.6 based on 1,636 reviews