Actually I got a good result (eventually). I'll set it out so that you and others can follow my example.

I sent an e-mail to Charles Dunstone headed "UNPAID CHEQUE BACK - SMALL CLAIMS COURT PENDING". His e-mail address is on all the CPW literature.

In the e-mail I set out the history of my claim (and naively I had not sent it by recorded delivery) and subsequent phone calls.

I then said that unless the matter was resolved by the end of the week, I was proceeding to the Small Claims Court and I would be claiming for my time costs as well.

At 4pm on the Friday I had a call from someone in Charles Dunstone's office. Basically they apologised for my experience and blamed it on the original CPW shop, saying the shop had made a mistake and told me to claim back months 4 & 8 when it should have been months 8 & 12. I still have the contract and the shop were right but I wasn't going to spoil my chances of getting the cheques back. I asked her to send me an e-mail saying that it should have been months 8 & 12, which I copied and sent in with each claim. I had the cheques back within 2 weeks so I am now square apart from a delay.

So, don't mess about with telephone calls, e-mail Charles and threaten legal action.

Good luck.

With apologies for posting the same comments in two threads. I just want to deter as many people as possible from dealing with this outfit. They've got a Royal Warrant for pity's sake. Do you think Her Majesty ever gets her cash back cheques? I've dealt with some pretty shabby enterprises, but this lot take the grand prize.

We're not talking pocket money here. Take a little off a lot of people and you can make millions. This behaviour is worthy of an organised crime syndicate. I am being denied my final cash back payment by e2save/Carphone Warehouse, because they say they did not receive the claim (sent by recorded delivery and validated as delivered by Royal Mail) I had an interesting conversation with a woman from the Royal Mail tracing service who said Carphone Warehouse are notorious within her department for saying they have not received recorded delivery items delivered to them. They refuse to sign for deliveries on an item by item basis and only sign for batches of 100s at a time. Why do they ask for claims to be sent recorded delivery? It's meaningless, but costs the consumer more! Some people will just give up. Carphone Warehouse also tele-sold me a '£10 a month 1 month rolling contract' with O2 when I said I wanted to switch to a lower tariff at the end of the existing deal. There is no such O2 contract! I was then actually put on a '£15 a month 12 month contract' (that I explicitly rejected during the sales call). I suppose they thought I wouldn't notice. I complained about mis-selling. I then tried to cancel the contract within the legally enforceable 'cooling off period', only to be told that I couldn't cancel as the sale of the contract was 'under investigation'. Unbelievable! Carphone Warehouse is, without doubt, the worst company I have ever dealt with. And you have to pay them to complain (via premium rate customer service numbers). And they seem to own most of the online retailers (including e2save). If this was a small business they would have been closed down by now, but because they're a big 'blue chip' company they seem able to act with impunity. I'm ranting now, but they've driven me to it!

Another hapless Dunstone victim.

Craphone Whorehouse has become one of the real cesspits of the High Street. Shiny offices paid for on the backs of hard working people who are fobbed off with poor service and non-existent customer support.

You think Dunstone cares? He's sunning his backside somewhere exotic leaving the drongos in advanced management screw-ups to pay for the next round of fat-cat pay-outs.

I've been on this forum for nearly a year now and the number of complaints that CPW is attracting is as high as the small outlets who know they cannot honour the cahsback swindle that has been infecting our populous for the last two years. I'd love to see that man brought to justice and forced to answer the consumers that his company has cheated out of their earnings.

SHARK! 

It seems I'm only one of many many people who tell the same tale of phones bought in good faith, cash back claims made on time and in the correct format with receipt acknowledged by text, only to get no cash back and rubbish customer service people who tell you documents get lost within the company, sometimes employees don't do as they're told and it's no-one's fault, so fax it here (again), post it there (again), this time it'll be alright so best just wait......

I've e-mailed Dunstone explaining my intention to proceed to the small claims court and I will go down that route.

I know a few people are receiving their cheques back but why are so many not? Why haven't CPW lost their reputation over this? How dare they treat their customers so badly?