Provider won't mend my phone - say tampered with

goldeneagle69

I had a phone call from the Tesco Chairman's Office yesterday. The lady said that because of the special arrangement that Tesco have with HTC, HTC won't let them deal with anybody who purchases one of their phones and started going on about Data Protection. To be honest I don't care what arrangements Tesco have with other suppliers, the Sale Of Goods Act says that I should deal with the person I purchased the item / service from. Why is it that Tesco feel that they can just ignore this and do what they want?

I have still had no reply from HTC with regards to the proof that I tampered with the phone, so I am left paying a contract for something I can't use. I have also had no response from the Citizens Advise Bureau, so have no idea what I should do next.

gjchester

goldeneagle69 wrote: »

I had a phone call from the Tesco Chairman's Office yesterday. The lady said that because of the special arrangement that Tesco have with HTC, HTC won't let them deal with anybody who purchases one of their phones and started going on about Data Protection. To be honest I don't care what arrangements Tesco have with other suppliers, the Sale Of Goods Act says that I should deal with the person I purchased the item / service from. Why is it that Tesco feel that they can just ignore this and do what they want?
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They can't

You bought it from Tesco so they have to resolve the issue. Try asking for there legal address so you can serve a smalll claims court summons on them, and see if that makes them respond. You may need to follow it through and issue the summons too to get somewhere.

As you say they can say that HTC will deal with all support, and in mancy cases it may be faster, but they ultimatly are responsible as you bought it from them.

Techhead_2

See my earlier post, if you want to go down the Sale of Goods Act route then you need to prove that the handset is inherently faulty (because its longer than 6months since purchase).

goldeneagle69

I had a call from Consumer Direct a couple of days ago. The woman was really helpful. She informed me that Tesco were totally in the wrong by making me deal with HTC direct, but said that this wasn't unusual for Tesco. She pointed out that because the phone came free with the contract I should have quoted the "Provision of Goods & Services Act (1982)" rather than the "Sale of Goods Act", but she said that apart from the name it basically says the same thing. She has told me to give Tesco one more chance to resolve this and then start a claim for damages through the local courts.

I then received an email from HTC with proof of how I had "tampered" with my phone. It turns out that the screen had a big crack in the top right hand corner. They said that I had done this and was responsible for all costs. Luckily, I took photos of the phone before I sent it off, and these quite clearly show that the screen was in perfect condition before I put it into TWO padded envelopes and gave it to the UPS man. I have sent the photos to Tesco and HTC and said that I now expect them to repair or replace the phone immediately. I am still waiting for their reply. I have given them 7 days before I take things further.

goldeneagle69

I forgot to add that the woman from Consumer Direct also pointed out that Tesco were completely wrong when they said that they couldn't talk to HTC because of the Data Protection Act. Tesco and HTC have some sort of internal deal with regards to their phones, so there is absolutely no reason for them not to be able to pass any relevant information internally.