Can I take online mobile company through Trading Standards?

starlaa

I sold my mobile phone to selloldmobile.co.uk. I posted it to them 10th of June, their site said they received it a couple of days later. Up until yesterday I had been ringing them and emailing them trying to find out where my cheque was. Anyway it arrived today.

I am livid because they have classed my phone as non-working because it needed a replacement fascia which is absolute nonsense. There was nothing wrong with it at all. They have sent me a cheque for just £30 when it should have been £50 because they said they needed to pay £20 for a replacement fascia.

Is there anything I can do about this because they are lying. There was nothing wrong with it. Can I take them to trading standards or similar?

Halloway

You could try Trading Standards. However I am not sure you have much of a leg to stand on. I haven't dealt with this company although I did investigate another similar company when I had a mobile phone to dispose of. Basically the T&Cs said that once I sent the phone to them they would make a valuation which I had to accept and if they felt like it they didn't have to pay me a penny and under no circumstances would they return the phone. This sounded to me like a deal best avoided and I think these companies are best avoided full stop.

So you could contact Trading Standards but I don't think you will get much joy, I'm afraid.

Halloway

From selloldmobile.co.uk's T&Cs:

Non-Working is defined as: Badly damaged casing needs re-housing
Scratched screens
Cracked screens
none original casings
Cracks or missing pixels
Flaking paintwork
Handset back/battery cover missing or broken
Does not power up
Broken/missing aerial
Faulty keypad
Memory card holder broken or missing
Pin or security locked
Very poor condition

If a phone fails to meet our terms and conditions we may have to downgrade the phone accordingly. We will either issue an adjusted payment in the event that the phone is downgraded from Working to Non-Working, or in the event that the phone is graded as a BER phone we will be unable to offer you any price. You will be notified by post. All valuations include VAT at 15% and no phones will be returned to the sender. In the rare event that an exception is made and a phone is sent back to the sender then selloldmobile.co.uk will make every effort to send the original phone subject to a £15 administration charge to cover all packaging, postage and recorded delivery fees, but can only guarantee that you will receive the same model, not the exact handset that was sent in. If the unit was working, you will receive back a working unit. If the unit was defective you will receive back a non-working unit.

So basically they have you over a barrel. My advice (which will no doubt be contradicted) is to take the £30. You won't get your phone back and if you did you would get a non-working one for which you pay £15. It's shocking really.

starlaa

Halloway wrote: »

From selloldmobile.co.uk's T&Cs:

Non-Working is defined as: Badly damaged casing needs re-housing
Scratched screens
Cracked screens
none original casings
Cracks or missing pixels
Flaking paintwork
Handset back/battery cover missing or broken
Does not power up
Broken/missing aerial
Faulty keypad
Memory card holder broken or missing
Pin or security locked
Very poor condition

If a phone fails to meet our terms and conditions we may have to downgrade the phone accordingly. We will either issue an adjusted payment in the event that the phone is downgraded from Working to Non-Working, or in the event that the phone is graded as a BER phone we will be unable to offer you any price. You will be notified by post. All valuations include VAT at 15% and no phones will be returned to the sender. In the rare event that an exception is made and a phone is sent back to the sender then selloldmobile.co.uk will make every effort to send the original phone subject to a £15 administration charge to cover all packaging, postage and recorded delivery fees, but can only guarantee that you will receive the same model, not the exact handset that was sent in. If the unit was working, you will receive back a working unit. If the unit was defective you will receive back a non-working unit.

So basically they have you over a barrel. My advice (which will no doubt be contradicted) is to take the £30. You won't get your phone back and if you did you would get a non-working one for which you pay £15. It's shocking really.

That is absolutely ridiculous. I have been trying to ring them all day and the phone just keeps ringing out. I am not letting this go. I'll contact watchdog, and let them know I will. Plus put bad reviews of them all over the internet.

Their tagline is recycle today for a greener tomorrow what they mean is send it to us so we can make money on it. Recycle rubbish, they don't care, just trying to exploit me.

Halloway

Well good luck. It's about time someone held these scumbags to account.

davieboy2009

I have used selloldmobile to recycle my phones a number of times and had no problems whatsoever, i posted my latest order off on 15/07/09 special delivery and the next day i recieved an email confirming that money was paid into my bank account the next day and to be honest my phones were in poor condition in my opinnion and wasnt expecting the full amount, anyways i will be using them again as i found it an easy and very quick service..

Davieboy!

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Halloway wrote: »

Well good luck. It's about time someone held these scumbags to account.

Is it really that unforseeable that the phone was damaged in transit?

I have used these sort of companies fine several times. By the nature of the business they have to cover for fraud as people will try and sell damaged phones. Of course there may be exceptions were phones are damaged in transit.

Does the OP really think its worth the hassle for £20 and more importantly can he prove the phone wasnt damaged.

starlaa

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

Is it really that unforseeable that the phone was damaged in transit?

I have used these sort of companies fine several times. By the nature of the business they have to cover for fraud as people will try and sell damaged phones. Of course there may be exceptions were phones are damaged in transit.

Does the OP really think its worth the hassle for £20 and more importantly can he prove the phone wasnt damaged.

Yes consider it was wrapped in bubble wrap, are you suggesting the sharp corners on the bubble wrap scratched the screen?

Yes it is worth the hassle because it's the principle of the thing. No I can't prove it but doesn't mean to say I should just let a company treat me in this way.

I wrote to them sent them a letter recorded delivery saying they had broken their contract by the rules of business act 1982 (or something like that) which is was consumer direct told me to do. I said they must either return the phone to me or send me the correct sum of money. I got a cheque for the extra money about 4 days later plus an extra £5 for "postage charges".

BargainGalore

Interesting you joined up today to tell us that in a old post

davieboy2009 wrote: »

I have used selloldmobile to recycle my phones a number of times and had no problems whatsoever, i posted my latest order off on 15/07/09 special delivery and the next day i recieved an email confirming that money was paid into my bank account the next day and to be honest my phones were in poor condition in my opinnion and wasnt expecting the full amount, anyways i will be using them again as i found it an easy and very quick service..

Davieboy!

Poppycat

They also logged off within a minute of joining

BargainGalore wrote: »

Interesting you joined up today to tell us that in a old post