On Sunday my husband and I decided to go and find out about upgrading our phones. He is with Orange and I am with Vodafone and we thought we see what deals there were out there. We traipsed up and down Oxford Street and visited the Orange shop, the Vodafone shop and the o2 shop and were greeted by the most unenthusiastic staff who clearly didn't want to be there. I swore I would never set foot in Phones 4 u because of the awful adverts but we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a very friendly and very enthusiastic salesman, so we sat down with him to talk about offers.

He was incredibly thorough - told us the tariffs on offer for the new iPhone 4s and how much we would have to pay for the handset etc. He showed us the network coverage for our area on the computer so we could see which was best.

My husbands was straight forward - he stayed with Orange and just needed the new phone and to sign a new contract. Sorted.

I decided that I would change from Vodafone to o2. I find it quite sad that even after years of being with them, there are no offers and any reasons to stay with them, whereas Orange offer a discount after a while. The reason for o2 was to take advantage of advance rugby tickets! The salesman then claimed to telephone Vodafone to let them know I would be cancelling my contract. We didn't hear the conversation, but saw him make a call, so when he returned and told me all was fine and that I would get a text tomorrow with my PAC code to transfer my number, I was over the moon at how easy it had been, and that I finally had a new iPhone rather than my terrible Samsung Galaxy Y (see previous review!).

He went on to tell us about special Virgin internet packages and if we signed up now we could leave the store with £120 in cash. This we declined as we wanted to look into it more and not rush into anything.

Paperwork signed, we both left happy bunnies with our shiny new iPhones. The salesmen escorted us to the door, saying he hoped when we got asked for our feedback on him we would be complimentary, and we thanked him for all his help.

On Tuesday having received no text from Vodafone, I called about my PAC code. They had no record of any telephone call from Phones 4 u. A bit miffed, I went in to the store, where I was served by a lovely young lady. When she called Vodafone to find out what was going on, they said I would have to pay to cancel my contract as I still had 3 months left to run. News to me as I had been told it was all OK. After telling the lady all that had been said on Sunday regarding this, she called head office to let them know. I ended up speaking to the most unhelpful person who told me that despite what I had been told in store, it was my responsibility to cancel my contract and that I would have to pay the money (£100). When I explained that I had been told by their salesmen that I was able to cancel without charge, I was told it was my responsibility to find this out, and I should know how long was left on my contract. I agree that I should know, but he told me he was calling to check! After several more minutes she agreed as a goodwill gesture that they would pay half. By this time I was fuming! She just kept repeating that I had signed the paperwork so therefore there was nothing I could do about it! It then transpired, that said salesmen was actually fired on the Monday for all the problems he has caused, and I was far from the first complainant. Apparently he was transferred to the Oxford Street branch for causing similar problems elsewhere as well! Despite this, as he wasn't there to 'back up what I was saying' the lady on the phone continued telling me that I had to pay the cancellation. I then said I would like to cancel my new contract, to which I was told it was too late, there is no cooling off period!

Out of sheer frustration I agreed that I would have to pay as there was no alternative. Step in my lovely young lady in the shop, when seeing how angry and upset I was, took control of the situation. After she had had numerous conversations with Head Office and her manager, and after I had been in the shop for nearly 2 hours, she sorted it for me. She managed to get authorisation for me to cancel my o2 contract with nothing to pay, I just had to return the phone.

After 4 hours in the shop in less than 48 hours, I finally left with the same phone and tariff I had walked in with, but having learnt a great lesson! Always check the information given to you by someone clearly driven by making a sale, as some will just blatantly lie! If it wasn't for the fabulous girl who sorted it for me, they would get 0 stars from me, but because of her I am upping it to 2. I knew I should have trusted my first instincts - dodgy advert - dodgy shop!

Thanks for reading.
Rachel