Carphone Warehouse Christmas Gift - returns help

little-miss-little

Hi all,

Just after some advice regarding returns to the Carphone Warehouse.

My mum has bought my dad a mobile phone for Christmas from the aforementioned establishment. She bought it at the beginning of the month but was told they weren't doing gift receipts until December but if it was faulty she'd be able to return it anyway.

However, now she's worried that it's not going to be the right phone for dad and wants to return it to the shop with the idea of buying it back with a gift receipt as they've started doing them earlier than she was told.

When she's gone to Carphone Warehouse they've told her that she can't return it as returns are only accepted within 14 days of purchase and if it's faulty within 28 days (contrary to what she was told originally and if it's faulty on Christmas day she won't be able to return it).

I think this is unreasonable from the Carphone Warehouse as she wasn't made aware of this at the time of purchasing and is now potentially left with a phone that may be faulty and/or unwanted. She's tried phoning head office who have said they can't discuss anything with her because when she bought the phone they put it in dads name (which head office have said they shouldn't have done) and therefore is breaching data protection and head office have said that she only had 7 days to return the phone if it was unwanted.

I'm personally really cross with them because they've talked mum into going ahead with the purchase, knowing that it was a Christmas gift and they haven't made her fully aware of the returns policy.

Does anyone have any advice of what we can say or do? All we want is a gift receipt with the product thats already been purchased.

Thanks in anticipation.
LML

SamLomax

I bought a phone from this company and it went wrong within 24 hours, I took it back and they demanded £65 from me to send it away to be repaired.

I advised them that under the Sale of Goods Act they could not do this as the phone was not Fit for Purpose or of Merchantable quality. The staff laughed at me.

I would suggest that you do what I did last Saturday, pick the busiest time for the shop go in when its packed, ask for the Manager and very loudly explain what you require.

I had to resort to announcing to the whole shop that Carphone Warehouse where actualy breaking the law by not abiding by the Sale of Goods Act.

The shop Manager was so concerned about the loss of revenue he immediately replaced my phone for new and could not wait to get us out of the shop quick enough.

I have complained to their Head Office about this issue and got no where.

Good Luck

Littlemiss27

OP-Unfortunately by law you are not entitled to a refund/exchange on an item because you change your mind. Some retailers offer exchanges/refunds in addition to your statutory rights but in general (due to the nature of the items that they sell) mobile phone retailers do not.

It is always best to assume you will only be entitled to your statutory rights, if you have not specifically asked the retailer their policy on exchanges/refunds.

There are several post about non faulty exchanges/refunds on the consumer rights board. Here a few:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1838491&highlight=change+mind+refund

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1750965&highlight=change+mind+refund

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1702087&highlight=change+mind+refund