No Phone 4U (or your money back)

It has been reported that 130 odd customers of the collapsed mobile phone chain Phones 4U who paid deposits for a new iPhone 6 prior to the failure will not get their money returned to them and will rank as unsecured creditors of the company.

This is despite best practice suggesting that customer deposits should be kept in a separate “trust” bank account and the fact that the company apparently had £100m in the bank when the Administrators were appointed.

If the deposits were over £100 and were paid by credit card then these customers may get redress from the credit card companies, if not, bad luck, the money has gone.

Surely a case for a goodwill gesture, after all the total deposits lost are probably less than a week’s interest on the £100m (which is about £19,250).