Carphone Warehouse Problems - UPDATED - GETTING MY MONEY BACK

Lifeisbutadream

I bought a PAYG phone for my Daughter on 26th June - I gave it to her on 3rd July and although it worked briefly the screen 'flickered' and then stopped working on 4th July.

The external casing of the phone is not damaged at all and nothing happened to the phone whilst we had it.

I took it back to the shop where the Manager was extremely rude to me and refused to help. He said that I had dropped the phone and accused me of blackmailing him when I asked whether he was happy to lose a customer over this.

I am not at all happy with the responses and it is becoming a matter of principal now. Any thoughts or advice would be very much appreciated!

This is the communications so far (SORRY FOR THE LONG POST!):

Dear Sir/Madam

13th July 2009

Sale of Good Act 1979
Purchase from Carphone Warehouse - 26th June 2009 - telephone number XXX

On 26th June 2009, I bought a Pay as You go Mobile Phone from you for £49.95, which is not of satisfactory quauality.

The problems are:

- The screen did not work correctly when it was first turned on (the screen flickered) the next day when I turned it on the screen was not visible
- The manager of the shop after taking a quick look at the phone, told me that it had been dropped (as there is no damamge to the casing of the phone I fail to understand how he came to this conclusion. I also know that the phone has not been dropped as it was in my possesion entireley for the 24 hours that it was 'in use')
- According to the Sale of Goods Act 1979, because I am making this claim within 6 months of purchase, the burden of proof lies with you.

I wish to reject the good and claim a refund, as because the Manager of the store was so unhelpful I had to go and purchase another phone elsewhere for my daughter (I would have been happy at the time with an exchange)

Yours




xxx

Dear Mrs XXX

Thank you for your letter dated 13th July.

I have looked into the notes on your account and I can see that the issue has already been dealt with by the Branch Manager, Brent. As he concluded that this has been physically damaged we are unable to offer an exchange or a refund.

We can however book the handset into repair for a charge of £44, if you have insurance on the handset you may be able to make a claim.

I understand that this may not be the response that you were looking for, howeever, due to policies that are in place, this decision cannot be changed.

Yours


xxxx

The Manager
Customer Services
The Carphone Warehouse Group plc
1 Portal Way
London
W3 6RS


17th July 2009

Dear Sir/Madam,

Ref: Purchase from Carphone Warehouse – 26th June 2009 – telephone number XXX – purchase price £49.95.

Thank you for your letter of 15th July 2009. Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (the "Act"), goods must be of satisfactory quality, which this telephone was not since it failed to work when purchased. As explained to the store manager when I returned to the store for the second time, the screen was not working properly when turned on for the first time on 3rd July, when I turned it off and then recharged it completely, the screen had lines down it and the phone was unusable. The telephone was not dropped or in other ways subjected to unreasonable physical force, and therefore any physical damage was present at the time of purchase.

Under the Act, it is your responsibility to prove that damage was not there at the time of purchase. Since you have failed to do this, I claim a refund under the Act.

If I do not get a refund of my money within 28 days, I will pursue this as a small claim via the County Court, in which event I will produce this letter as evidence of my attempt to reach an amicable settlement.

Yours faithfully,



XXX

Dear Mrs XXX

Thank you for your letter.

I am sorry to hear that you are not happy with our previous responses. I have fully looked into this matter and can only reiterate what the store manager and my collogue's (sic) have already advised.

Your handset was purchased on 26th June 2009 in the York (monks cross) branch. The handset should have been checked for damage in store before you left with it or you should have called or returned to the store as soon as you removed it from the box and noticed there was some damage.

You did not return to the store until 7th July 2009 to advise there was a problem with the screen 'flickering' when the advisor, Edwin Richmond, looked at the phone he noticed a cracked LCD.

LCD's do not just crack and if a phone has a cracked LCD our store adviosor's can only deem it as user damage. This is not covered under the warranty and you would not be able to exchange it or have a free repair.

Im sorry this is not the response you were hoping for. If you would like any further info then please reply to this letter or call our customer support team on 0870 087 0168.

Yours

xxxx

The Manager
Customer Services
The Carphone Warehouse Group plc
1 Portal Way
London
W3 6RS

4th August 2009

Dear Sir/Madam,
Ref: Purchase from Carphone Warehouse – 26th June 2009 – telephone number XXX– purchase price £49.95.

Thank you for your letter of 24 July 2009. As I have repeatedly explained, the phone I bought was a gift for my daughter’s Birthday. I purchased the phone on 26th June 2009 and gave it to my daughter on Friday 3rd July. We noticed Immediately that the screen was flickering and thought it may need recharging – I recharged it in full, but was unsuccessful and on Sunday 4th July when the phone was turned on it did not work at all.

I tried to take the phone back on Monday 6th July, but the store was closed when I got there at 7pm. I then went back on 7th July and again on 9th July after not being helped by the assistant on 7th July. As I was also not helped again on 9th July I have tried to sort this out directly with the Carphone Warehouse. Of course it is not ‘what I want to hear’ – I paid £50 for a phone that doesn’t work!

I am frankly astounded that you are simply not interested in helping out a customer. I did not damage the phone and am willing to go to court to prove this if necessary.

Once again, I quote the Sale of Good Act 1979, where the burden of proof lies with you. Goods must be of satisfactory quality, which this telephone was not since it failed to work when purchased. As explained several times now, the screen was not working properly when turned on in the first place.

I gave you 28 days from my previous letter, which allows you approximately 10 more days from the date of this letter within which to refund me in full, otherwise I will pursue this in the small claims court as promised.

Yours faithfully,

Firefox1975

Your sure no calls have ever been made on the handset? they might use this against you to prove it was working but then subsequently developed a fault.

Not a fan of carephone warehouse much myself - although I did get my last handset from them - their staff aren't very knowledgable or presentable even.

Lifeisbutadream

Firefox1975 wrote: »

Your sure no calls have ever been made on the handset? they might use this against you to prove it was working but then subsequently developed a fault.

Not a fan of carephone warehouse much myself - although I did get my last handset from them - their staff aren't very knowledgable or presentable even.

It did work for a day - the screen was flickering but it worked - calls were made and received but nobody has bothered to check the handset. He just had a quick look then accused me of dropping it.

There is absolutely no damage to the outside of the phone.

Mark_Hewitt

It is certainly not your responsibility to inspect the goods *before* you leave the store! Who unpacks every purchase at the till just to check it is working properly?!

As for them saying "LCD's don't just break", well its up to them to prove it wasn't broken when you got it!

I had a problem with a mobile phone I got from O2, bascially the 'joystick' just dropped off after only 5 days usage, searching online revealed this was a common and known issue. But the O2 shop refused to do anything just saying "that's classed as customer damage", quoting the SOGA did nothing. Thankfully I got in touch with customer services and they arranged a replacement by post.

Firefox1975

Sounds like something loose inside - try and avoid mentioning that it ever worked in case they do - TBH I can;t understand why they are kicking up a fuss anyway. Every man jack and his dog know that the real revenue for mobile phones is generated from the calls! not the handset - that's a piece of plastic!

I can only think that with it being PAYG maybe CW don;t get as much of a kickback from the airtime provider.

I would try ringing the store to let them know you are on your way into town on x day at x time to pick up your replacement phone. Nail it down to a specific time and turn up. I think they will give in.

And please give my regards to Monks Cross when you visit. I worked in the finance team for the LLP that owns it all. :-)

Lifeisbutadream

Firefox1975 wrote: »

Sounds like something loose inside - try and avoid mentioning that it ever worked in case they do - TBH I can;t understand why they are kicking up a fuss anyway. Every man jack and his dog know that the real revenue for mobile phones is generated from the calls! not the handset - that's a piece of plastic!

I can only think that with it being PAYG maybe CW don;t get as much of a kickback from the airtime provider.

I would try ringing the store to let them know you are on your way into town on x day at x time to pick up your replacement phone. Nail it down to a specific time and turn up. I think they will give in.

And please give my regards to Monks Cross when you visit. I worked in the finance team for the LLP that owns it all. :-)

The phone was used and will show as doing so - I dont want to lie anyway, as I have not done anything wrong...

I have phoned several times, both the store and CS - they just dont care. I think I will have to take them to court, which I will do out of principal - I just dont understand why they are being so unhelpful!

superscaper

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

The phone was used and will show as doing so - I dont want to lie anyway, as I have not done anything wrong...

I have phoned several times, both the store and CS - they just dont care. I think I will have to take them to court, which I will do out of principal - I just dont understand why they are being so unhelpful!

It does sound like you've done everything you can. They don't seem to actually comprehend the SOGA, certainly as far as burden of proof etc. They say the LCD screen was cracked when the manager looked at it. You say the there's no external damage to the casing. So is there no apparent external physical damage to the screen? I.e. are they incorrect about the cracked screen?

Makes no difference I suppose as the burden of proof is still on them.

Lifeisbutadream

superscaper wrote: »

It does sound like you've done everything you can. They don't seem to actually comprehend the SOGA, certainly as far as burden of proof etc. They say the LCD screen was cracked when the manager looked at it. You say the there's no external damage to the casing. So is there no apparent external physical damage to the screen? I.e. are they incorrect about the cracked screen?

Makes no difference I suppose as the burden of proof is still on them.

I dont really understand it but I am presuming that the screen is cracked inside, as there is not a mark on the outside.

superscaper

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

I dont really understand it but I am presuming that the screen is cracked inside, as there is not a mark on the outside.

It would seem even more unlikely then that it was caused by it being dropped by yourself without actual external damage (especially as LCD screens aren't necessarily that fragile, I've dropped my own phone enough times without problem and it's a large touchscreen). But even so it's down to them to prove it wasn't like that when they sold it.

Lifeisbutadream

superscaper wrote: »

It would seem even more unlikely then that it was caused by it being dropped by yourself without actual external damage (especially as LCD screens aren't necessarily that fragile, I've dropped my own phone enough times without problem and it's a large touchscreen). But even so it's down to them to prove it wasn't like that when they sold it.

So would you just start court proceedings if you were me?

superscaper

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

So would you just start court proceedings if you were me?

Well there don't seem to be many avenues left open. I'd leave it until the time you gave them and then go ahead and fill in the forms online or whatever.