Having taken a new 18 month package with Phones4U, I received a far better renewal from my current supplier having served them notice on my existing contract with them - over the 18 month period it was a saving of £300+. Our assurance from the sales person at Phones4U was you won't find a better deal - plus you have a 14 day return period. Today, on the 9th day after the purchase with Phones4U I returned to the shop with the phone and attachments. During this 9 day period the new phone had remained unused, other than trying the new camera and charging the phone. Having been asked by the manager the reason for returning the phone to which I told him 'cost' he called a colleague across and began examining the phone under the spotlight. To my amazement 'I'm sorry it's damaged and not in perfect condition', came his reply. Upon very close inspection he pointed out two minute scratches. I questioned him was the phone in perfect condition when I bought it? He stated the shop procedures were to produce a new phone from a box in front of a new customer - during our sales experience this procedure was not followed. I asked him to review the shop camera footage on the day we were in to ascertain what happened - surprisingly he didn't have access to it. I asked him for a copy of the selling procedures so I could determine if they had been followed or not - again nothing was available. The manager kept on returning to the point the phone was in perfect condition when we bought it - his assurance is surprising considering he did not serve us. He assured me his staff always followed the selling procedures despite the fact he could not allow me to review them. Whilst in the shop the manager called Phones4U Customer Relations - having initiated the call by referring to my complaint by an 'internal code' (e.g I have a customer with a 111 situation) the Customer Relations individual mirrored the managers view without deviation. One final point the manager chose to dwell upon - on asked how long I was in the shop for at the initail point of sale I said 'about an hour and a half'. The manager used this time period as a major factor in his defence - surely in the hour and a half you checked the phone thoroughly. Our time in the shop was not spent inspecting the new phone under a microscope and we were only given the phone in the last ten minutes.

On reflection now I could not recommend Phones4U to a sole - the 14 day cooling off period is a joke at their discretion.

Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.