Warning, If buying a phone from Tesco.

Capyboppy

My husband bought me an new phone last week. As well as other minor niggles, it appears to have a faulty battery that meant I had to charge it up every day. So he took it back to exchange it for another one. Simple we would have thought. Apparently because we put my existing sim card in it, it cannot be returned without the original sim card. This we had given away to a friend halfway across the country. My husband explained this and was willing to buy a new sim card so it would have one it it. Not acceptable we were told. Apparently the make of phone along with the Tesco sim card are linked up together, and they said that they would not be able to get their money back from the phone provider. We have now had to explain to the person what has happened and have the embarrassment of asking if they could send it back. (we have sent them another one in exchange.) Thankfully the person hadn't put any credit on it yet. My husband also put the point across that should we have had my number changed to the new phone and sim card, that I would have "lost" that number on returning it, to which they agreed. If the person hadn't been so amiable to sending the sim card back, we would have ended up with a duff phone and being out of pocket. The morale of the story seems to be, if you buy a new phone from Tesco and want to put your original sim card in it (same Tesco network by the way.) Hang on to the original sim card in case something goes wrong.

djohn2002uk

Could you not have asked Tesco to take the new sim out of the phone you were going to get as a replacement and put it in the returned phone?

Capyboppy

We haven't actually got the new replacement phone yet. Waiting for the original sim to be returned from the friend. Hopefully will arrive tomorrow. But in answer to your question, no. Husband offered to do that as well. When he got home he examined the Tesco sim and found there were a lot more numbers on the sim card than the old o2 sim card we used to have. Ironically it is o2 that are behind Tesco's sim cards.

mike_wall15

The trouble with this is that Tesco will be told by the phone company that they need the two items back... it'd be standard practice with most companies though if on PAYG.
If this was a Nokia phone then you should have taken it to the CarphoneWarehouse to be repaired ;-)

Mike

groover_3

Capyboppy wrote:

it appears to have a faulty battery

Could have picked one up on ebay for a few quid.

Capyboppy

Why should anyone want to spend more money to buy a battery? The phone was new on special offer and we shouldn't have to buy anything extra, that isn't the idea when buying something new. If you bought a new car and the exhaust dropped off, would you go on Ebay to buy another one? No, you would take it back to the dealer.

This morning after receiving the original simcard in the post back from a very understanding friend, hubby traipsed back to Tesco. Would you believe despite them knowing he was coming back, they had sold the last two before he arrived. They then rang through to another branch where they said they had the same phone, so off he trotted to that one, to find that they didn't have the phone! Needless to say after all that performance he went elsewhere to buy me another one. (Not the same make by the way!) While I have eventually got a nice phone, he has had the hassle of all this, and also paying extra for a different one. I am sure if it had been bought from anywhere else they would have accepted swapping the replacement sim card over. Still, if this experience is of help to anyone else having to go through this, it will be worth it.

eco21

The thing is, as soon as you put a sim card in the phone, tht isnt the one which comes witht the phone, you void the warranty of the phone. They would need the original sim with the phone so that when the phone is sent back to Nokia or whoever then they wont get in trouble.

Dont mean to be harsh, but you were lucky, as done somethign similar from a carphone warehouse, and didnt get my money back

Woby_Tide

the networks only pay the commision when the sim and phone are used in tandem normally. something called box-breaking I think where retailers used to buy the package from teh network, then sell the phone sim free and the simcard seperate as it was more profitable for them

Capyboppy

The thing is, as soon as you put a sim card in the phone, tht isnt the one which comes witht the phone, you void the warranty of the phone.

That sounds a little crazy. What about people who like to change their phones regularly? Based on that assumption they would have to change their number everytime they changed their phone.

How can a phone that has gone faulty have the sim card apportioned to blame when it is an obvious fault, and nothing to do with the sim card? As the simcard was bought from Tesco, and also on the Tesco Network, you would think they would be lenient. I suppose like you all say. someone or all is getting a cut from linking a phone and a network and/or simcard together.

Also, talking of breaking the warranty; what if you were to buy a sim free phone, and then put in a provider's sim card separately? If the phone was to go wrong, The Retailer wouldn't be able to throw that up surely? I suppose it is all down to profit.

ben500

To me this whole thread looks crazy the answer is simple.

Goods must be of merchantable quality and or fit for the purpose for which they were sold, the phone wasn't you are entitled to a full refund with or without the simcard as this is an incidental supplement to the sale. Contact Trading Standards and I am confident they will confirm for you, you were given the runaround by this store.

The conditions set by the manufacturer are not an agreement between you and Tesco but between Tesco and the manufacturer, ie Tesco's problem.

It would of course be a different story if the phone did not have a fault.