T-Mobile - PAYG mobile lost/stolen by Royal Mail

beverley1471

Hi,

On the 5th of September I ordered a pay-as-you-go mobile phone from T-Mobile's website, and paid the full amount (£109.99) on my debit card.

According to the order confirmation email the phone would be delivered using Royal Mail's two-day tracked delivery service, and the parcel would need to be signed for.

At no point was I given a tracking reference number so, unable to track the progress of the delivery, I merely waited a few days for it to turn up ... it never did.

On the 10th of September I rang T-Mobile to ask where the delivery had got to only to be informed that it had been delivered to my address on the 7th of September at 1.22pm (although no signature had been obtained).

I explained to T-Mobile that I had taken no such delivery nor did any of my neighbours (I did check), and no card had been left by the postman to suggest it had been dumped anywhere (e.g. in a bin or behind a gate) or taken back to the depot.

This triggered a chain of events which involved T-Mobile liaising with Royal Mail and lodging a claim for the lost item. Royal Mail posted a claim form to me asking for details which I completed & returned to them immediately (27th of September).

Since then I have rung T-Mobile practically every week for an update only to be advised they are still liaising with Royal Mail. No-one from T-Mobile has made any effort to contact me at any point during this process and they will not entertain any talk regarding sending a replacement phone. It is now nearly 7 weeks since I first contacted T-Mobile and quite frankly I'm starting to wonder whether anything is being done about my case at all or whether they are just fobbing me off in the hope that I'll give up eventually.

I am £110 out of pocket and have no phone !

Does anyone have any advice as to how best to proceed in this case ?

cheers, Bev.

wealdroam

beverley1471 wrote: »

Hi,

On the 5th of September I ordered a pay-as-you-go mobile phone from T-Mobile's website, and paid the full amount (£109.99) on my debit card.

According to the order confirmation email the phone would be delivered using Royal Mail's two-day tracked delivery service, and the parcel would need to be signed for.

At no point was I given a tracking reference number so, unable to track the progress of the delivery, I merely waited a few days for it to turn up ... it never did.

On the 10th of September I rang T-Mobile to ask where the delivery had got to only to be informed that it had been delivered to my address on the 7th of September at 1.22pm (although no signature had been obtained).

I explained to T-Mobile that I had taken no such delivery nor did any of my neighbours (I did check), and no card had been left by the postman to suggest it had been dumped anywhere (e.g. in a bin or behind a gate) or taken back to the depot.

This triggered a chain of events which involved T-Mobile liaising with Royal Mail and lodging a claim for the lost item. Royal Mail posted a claim form to me asking for details which I completed & returned to them immediately (27th of September).

Since then I have rung T-Mobile practically every week for an update only to be advised they are still liaising with Royal Mail. No-one from T-Mobile has made any effort to contact me at any point during this process and they will not entertain any talk regarding sending a replacement phone. It is now nearly 7 weeks since I first contacted T-Mobile and quite frankly I'm starting to wonder whether anything is being done about my case at all or whether they are just fobbing me off in the hope that I'll give up eventually.

I am £110 out of pocket and have no phone !

Does anyone have any advice as to how best to proceed in this case ?

cheers, Bev.

Time to put something in writing, isn't it?
Don't understand why you have not done this already.

Write to them giving them, say, 14 days to refund your money or supply the phone. Tell them which you want if you have a preference.

Tell them what will happen if they do not do what you ask. I.e. you will start legal action to recover your money.

beverley1471

Thanks for the tips, and you're absolutely right - I should have written to them by now. I am now in the midst of doing so !

Quick question: in terms of recovering money, would I be able to recover the cost of any legal action as well ? (I have no idea how much this would be by the way...)

cheers, Bev.

baza52

what legal action?

beverley1471

If I state in my letter that 'Failure to comply with my request will result in the commencement of legal action to recover this money' can I add 'plus all associated costs' on the end ?

cheers, Bev.

wealdroam

beverley1471 wrote: »

If I state in my letter that 'Failure to comply with my request will result in the commencement of legal action to recover this money' can I add 'plus all associated costs' on the end ?

cheers, Bev.

Yes.

Google Letter before action for some sample letters.

Maybe start reading about Money Claims Online.

beverley1471

Many thanks for your assistance. The first pair of letters (one to head office + one to customer services) were sent by recorded delivery yesterday. I haven't threatened legal action on this occasion as it is the first time of writing, but have warned that notification will be served if I receive no satisfactory response within a 14 day timeframe.

Hopefully one of the letters will reach it's destination ...

zipman23

I work for Royal Mail (I don't have your phone before you ask ) and the tracked system we use for parcels - as far as I am aware - would only have been delivered by a driver rather than a foot postman (the ones who deliver the letters) or at least that is how we do it at my office!!

You can either get a signature required tracked parcel or a no signature required. For the no signature required, if it fits through the letterbox it goes down as having been delivered. It only goes down as being not delivered if it needs a signature and/or doesn't fit through your letterbox and as it was a phone, its unlikely it will have! It will have been scanned by the PDA and a reason for non delivery would/should have been given eg: you were out!

So basically if a tracked parcel doesn't go back to the office, it is assumed that it was a successful delivery (there was somebody home in other words) so the first place for Royal Mail to look IF it was 'stolen' would be with the driver who was delivering that duty on the day. You should still be able to get a tracking number from T-Mobile for it though and then Royal Mail can check it on their in-house systems!

Hope you get it sorted!

beverley1471

Seriously not happy !

Just received this response from T-mobile :-

Dear XXX

Re: mobile number XXXXX XXXXXX

Thank you for your letter regarding the order you placed in early September. I appreciate you sharing your concerns over this matter as it allows me to look into them for you.

Having reviewed your account I see that Royal Mail have declined your claim as the package was signed for at the given address. In the circumstances T-Mobile will not refund you for the phone, we have acted in good faith by sending the phone to the address you provided as the point of ordering. I would recommend that you pursue your claim against Royal Mail.

I understand that you are considering seeking third party advice about this matter. Please be assured that we will respond to any correspondance we receive from your appointed representative.

Thank you for taking the time to write to me XXX. Whilst I appreciate this may not be the response you were hoping for, I trust I have clarified our position with respect to the delivery of your phone.

Your sincerely

Simon Cheape
Complaint Investigations

A few things spring to mind :-

1) if the package was delivered and signed for it was certainly wasn't by anyone living at the intended address.
2) when I questioned Royal Mail about it on the 9th of September they were unable to produce any evidence of a signature.
3) why on earth would I take it up with Royal Mail ? Why would they even discuss it with me given I am not even their customer in this instance ?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated at this time !

cheers, Bev.

geordieracer

write to Royal mail immediatly and ask them for proof or signature. This really should have been done earlier but i hope you get some result.

beverley1471

Thanks, I will do asap.

Unfortunately we had our summer holiday from 10/9/10-24/9/10 so we lost some time straight away, but then compounded it by giving T-Mobile too much slack ...

I now fully expect some dodgy half-assed attempt at my signature to come back as "proof"

cheers, Bev.