Upgrade phone got lost on return to Vodafone

mrochester

Hi all

After a bit of quick advice in relation to the above.

I took an upgrade from Vodafone changing from a 30 day sim only deal to an 18month minimum term contract. I decided I didn't like the phone, so I returned it to Vodafone under their 7 day cooling off period. Vodafone sent me a pre-paid Special Delivery envelope, and I returned the phone on Monday 20th Sept for a guaranteed delivery on the 21st.

On the 21st and again on the 22nd I checked the delivery status on the RM website, and on both days it stated the package was progressing through the Royal Mail network. I spoke to RM customer services on Wednesday and they assured me that the package would have been delivered to Vodafone on the 21st, even though the website stated otherwise.

Yesterday on the 25th I posted a message on the Vodafone forum asking how long it takes for an account to revert back to its previous deal when an upgrade phone is returned. This message was removed and is being dealt with by email. The answer seems to be that the account would revert back pretty much straight away upon receipt of the returned goods, and the guy who emailed me confirmed that Vodafone have not yet received back the phone from me. As such, this means I am still committed to an 18 month contract for £30pm as RM have failed to deliver the item.

My question is, should the item arrive late, or never arrive at all, what sort of compensation can I claim from RM? The item itself has a value of £0, as it was a free upgrade, but the cost to me is actually an extra tenner a month, and being stuck with Vodafone for 18 months, rather than 30 days.

Has anyone got any idea what the legalities of this situation are?

Thanks!

Michael.

OneADay

mrochester wrote: »

My question is, should the item arrive late, or never arrive at all, what sort of compensation can I claim from RM? The item itself has a value of £0, as it was a free upgrade, but the cost to me is actually an extra tenner a month, and being stuck with Vodafone for 18 months, rather than 30 days.

It does not have a value of £0!
If you sent it via RM, it can take a few days for items to go through and their web site to get updated. Also you have to allow vodafone to process the phone (probably something like 7 days as a minimum.

If its lots and you sent it "signed for" delivery - compensation is £39 top from Royal Mail and they will ask for proof of the item being what you say it was.

If you sent it special delivery, the value is full value of phone which RM would compensate.

If sent just normal delivery and its lost - RM will compensate for the delivery cost only.

mrochester

OneADay wrote: »

It does not have a value of £0!
If you sent it via RM, it can take a few days for items to go through and their web site to get updated. Also you have to allow vodafone to process the phone (probably something like 7 days as a minimum.

If its lots and you sent it "signed for" delivery - compensation is £39 top from Royal Mail and they will ask for proof of the item being what you say it was.

If you sent it special delivery, the value is full value of phone which RM would compensate.

If sent just normal delivery and its lost - RM will compensate for the delivery cost only.

So how do you value a phone that was sent to you for free? Is it the extra cost of the contract (18 x £10 = £180), or is it Samsung's RRP, or something else?

How do you put a value on being committed to a contract for 18months rather than 30 days?

The package was sent by Special Delivery.

Thanks

Michael.

OneADay

mrochester wrote: »

So how do you value a phone that was sent to you for free? Is it the extra cost of the contract (18 x £10 = £180), or is it Samsung's RRP, or something else?

How do you put a value on being committed to a contract for 18months rather than 30 days?

The package was sent by Special Delivery.

Thanks

Michael.

If its special delivery, then I would wait for proof to appear of delivery -give it a few more days.
Most likely vodafone have it and they have not processed the return through their systems yet.

The value of an item is usually stated at the post office (you tell the person in the post office what you are sending). If that is not given - the compensation would be the price of the phone.

mrochester

OneADay wrote: »

If its special delivery, then I would wait for proof to appear of delivery -give it a few more days.
Most likely vodafone have it and they have not processed the return through their systems yet.

The value of an item is usually stated at the post office (you tell the person in the post office what you are sending). If that is not given - the compensation would be the price of the phone.

I said the value was zero, because it was a free upgrade. It doesn't make any mention on the receipt what the insured value is, so I assume it simply went through as the maximum amount for the basic special delivery service (£500 I believe).

OneADay

mrochester wrote: »

I said the value was zero, because it was a free upgrade. It doesn't make any mention on the receipt what the insured value is, so I assume it simply went through as the maximum amount for the basic special delivery service (£500 I believe).

In that case, if its lost, RM will want proof of what the item was - something from vodafone showing what it was. Then the price of the phone is determined from market price.

Its highly unlikely a special delivery item gets lost, for one thing they would have a full proof of who received and when etc.
As I said, you have to allow time for vodafone to process the return (they can't tell you where it is till its recorded on their systems).

mrochester

OneADay wrote: »

In that case, if its lost, RM will want proof of what the item was - something from vodafone showing what it was. Then the price of the phone is determined from market price.

Its highly unlikely a special delivery item gets lost, for one thing they would have a full proof of who received and when etc.
As I said, you have to allow time for vodafone to process the return (they can't tell you where it is till its recorded on their systems).

Well I do have the invoice from Vodafone showing what I received, so that's fine. The reason I came and asked this question is because having been in touch with Vodafone, they are saying that they have not received the item, and if they had done on Tuesday 21st, it would have been processed by now.

custardy

pop into your local RM delivery office and ask them to do an "audit trail" on the items tracking number
this will show all the tracking points on the SD item
you can see where it did or didnt go to

boliston

mrochester wrote: »

So how do you value a phone that was sent to you for free? Is it the extra cost of the contract (18 x £10 = £180), or is it Samsung's RRP, or something else?

How do you put a value on being committed to a contract for 18months rather than 30 days?

The package was sent by Special Delivery.

Thanks

Michael.

I would say that your "loss" is the cost of the extra months that you have signed up to in exchange for the upgrade.

I'm not sure what happens to the extra minutues/texts/data included in the bundle as you have not really "lost" those.

It probably comes down to what it would cost you to replace the handset as a sim-free purchase.

mrochester

boliston wrote: »

I would say that your "loss" is the cost of the extra months that you have signed up to in exchange for the upgrade.

I'm not sure what happens to the extra minutues/texts/data included in the bundle as you have not really "lost" those.

It probably comes down to what it would cost you to replace the handset as a sim-free purchase.

I'll see what happens this week. Fingers crossed it will magically appear with Vodafone and I'll be returned to my sim only deal!

Money_Grabber13579

Personally, I don't think you can claim anything because you didn't pay for the postage. If anyone is to claim, it will be Vodafone. However, it might not even be lost!