O2 iPhone Insurance

[badgera]

I got a 3G iphone via Carphone Warehouse on the launch day. The phone came with CPW insurance, 2 weeks free and then the expensive £11+ per month.

I was intending to cancel this before the 2 weeks was up, but like everything at the moment I didn't get around to it.

Yesterday I got a call from O2 saying that they were going to move me to a new cheaper policy and they proceeded to dis the old policy (that was CPW's own not an O2 policy) and offer me a shiney new one (that I would automatically move to) at less than half the price. Well, half the price if you add up 18x the CPW monthly payment, however you have to pay for this all at one i.e. a single payment of £60+ rather than a lower monthly payment.

No a problem I said, I want to cancel my insurance anyway. "Sorry" came the answer, you can only cancel during the 14 day cooling off period then you are tied in for the full 18 months. I pointed out that this had not been explained when it was included with the phone, but the bod on the other end would not budge. Hold on though, "cooling off" periods imply a financial type contract (like HP) as O2 were changing the policy (and the payment plan) that must be a new contract with a new cooling off period.

The phone monkey was not having any of that, didn't flinch when I mentioned missellling of insurance and complaints to the relvent insurance Ombudsmen. In the end he agreed to get a manager to call me - which didn't happen.

This morning I got out my CPW paperwork - everything O2 told me about my existing policy was wrong and I manged to cancel it in 5 mins without any issue.

Somebody is poaching CPW's business I think.