Stealing the insides of my phone!

howd00

Hi,

Can anyone help advise me which direction to go with my issue?

We have an iPhone 5 that we’ve owned from new. One night it stopped working after going flat. Research told me it was likely caused by using non-standard cables. I took it to a phone shop in Manchester to be repaired. The took about 4 weeks (they said less than 5 days) and eventually handed it back and told us it was still dead and not fixable.

I didn’t believe they had researched the problem and found a company that had identified the chip that was likely at fault and deal only with fixing I-devices. They opened it up and told me there were screws, brackets, heat deflectors etc. missing. They repaired the faulty chip and some soldering that was not working (possibly deliberate but not sure). I asked them to check the IMEI was the same as on the case (which was the correct one). They said they couldn’t as the serial number on the main board had been deliberately removed. They got it working again and booted up. They sent me a picture of it working, but, the background image was not ours! Essentially they have removed all the internals from out phone and put back in another faulty main board. They have scavenged a lot of the spare parts.

Now, from there I identified that the background image was from a small business also in Manchester. I contacted them and spoke to the owner. Low and behold her phone also broke around the same time. She told the same story of taking ages to fix. She now has a dead phone. However, she was shocked to find that we had her actual phone in our case. She had a different phone with her case. We don’t know yet if her case contains the internals from our phone – it’s still dead.

I spoke to the police who said they would not be interested and to speak to trading standards. I called the citizens advice bureau line and they reported it to trading standards. They told me to write to the company asking them to fix their faulty work or I will report to trading standards. I know their response is likely to be ‘it was like that when we received it’.

However, we have proof that they did do this as we know that the internals of this phone we now have were taken in by this other customer (who is also jumping mad now).

The major issues I see are… There are personal pictures in each phone and business contacts data – this has been compromised by them stealing the insides of our phone and giving them to someone else or doing something else with it. They have deliberately removed the serial number from this other person’s phone in order to deceive.

The original store didn’t charge for looking in the phone and handing it back dead. They just stole parts and the internals! The new experts I have sent it to will be charging around £100 for the repair, except it’s not our phone they’ve repaired.

Should I pursue this with the police for deliberately stealing/deceiving/defrauding? If through trading standards or the courts what should my process be? Should I spend another £100 getting the other person’s phone checked by this company incase it’s ours? I really feel on my own with this and that neither the police nor citizens advice/trading standards want to know.

Many thanks, Howd00

Spicy_McHaggis

howd00 wrote: »

Hi,

Can anyone help advise me which direction to go with my issue?

We have an iPhone 5 that we’ve owned from new. One night it stopped working after going flat. Research told me it was likely caused by using non-standard cables. I took it to a phone shop in Manchester to be repaired. The took about 4 weeks (they said less than 5 days) and eventually handed it back and told us it was still dead and not fixable.

I didn’t believe they had researched the problem and found a company that had identified the chip that was likely at fault and deal only with fixing I-devices. They opened it up and told me there were screws, brackets, heat deflectors etc. missing. They repaired the faulty chip and some soldering that was not working (possibly deliberate but not sure). I asked them to check the IMEI was the same as on the case (which was the correct one). They said they couldn’t as the serial number on the main board had been deliberately removed. They got it working again and booted up. They sent me a picture of it working, but, the background image was not ours! Essentially they have removed all the internals from out phone and put back in another faulty main board. They have scavenged a lot of the spare parts.

Now, from there I identified that the background image was from a small business also in Manchester. I contacted them and spoke to the owner. Low and behold her phone also broke around the same time. She told the same story of taking ages to fix. She now has a dead phone. However, she was shocked to find that we had her actual phone in our case. She had a different phone with her case. We don’t know yet if her case contains the internals from our phone – it’s still dead.

I spoke to the police who said they would not be interested and to speak to trading standards. I called the citizens advice bureau line and they reported it to trading standards. They told me to write to the company asking them to fix their faulty work or I will report to trading standards. I know their response is likely to be ‘it was like that when we received it’.

However, we have proof that they did do this as we know that the internals of this phone we now have were taken in by this other customer (who is also jumping mad now).

The major issues I see are… There are personal pictures in each phone and business contacts data – this has been compromised by them stealing the insides of our phone and giving them to someone else or doing something else with it. They have deliberately removed the serial number from this other person’s phone in order to deceive.

The original store didn’t charge for looking in the phone and handing it back dead. They just stole parts and the internals! The new experts I have sent it to will be charging around £100 for the repair, except it’s not our phone they’ve repaired.

Should I pursue this with the police for deliberately stealing/deceiving/defrauding? If through trading standards or the courts what should my process be? Should I spend another £100 getting the other person’s phone checked by this company incase it’s ours? I really feel on my own with this and that neither the police nor citizens advice/trading standards want to know.

Many thanks, Howd00

In a word. No.

andycris3107

The police are very unlikely to get involved at this stage unless there is a large scale fraud going on.

Much depends on the company involved and how you feel they may react to any potential action being taken against them.

At the moment you know that phone parts have been swapped however you cannot prove that this was done deliberately. If you have some evidence that they actually took the phone (I assume they gave you a receipt when you handed it over) then you can at least prove that they have been involved and that this has resulted in two customers receiving products which are different to those handed over.

Assuming that both you and the other person are prepared to stick together and approach the shop you are in a good position to demand that they put the situation right, including paying any other expenses that you have incurred elsewhere.

If they refuse to do this then you have the option of going to the small claims court in order to recover the cost of replacing "your" phone which you do not have.

AJXX

My head hurts reading that. Apple replace phones out of warranty for about £200. Flat rate swap for another handset - saves all this B/S of little repair shops who haven't got a clue what they're doing swapping random insides of the phone hoping to bring it back to a sorry life as some sort of frankenstine phone.

I would assume it's common practice for a repair shop to re-use internal parts etc... Although obviously if they're not checking/erasing data before giving them to a new customer that is a concern.

howd00

AJXX wrote: »

My head hurts reading that. Apple replace phones out of warranty for about £200. Flat rate swap for another handset - saves all this B/S of little repair shops who haven't got a clue what they're doing swapping random insides of the phone hoping to bring it back to a sorry life as some sort of frankenstine phone.

I would assume it's common practice for a repair shop to re-use internal parts etc... Although obviously if they're not checking/erasing data before giving them to a new customer that is a concern.

That's all good and well but the horse has bolted now. Next time perhaps i'll get a replacement from Apple. To be fair, we took it in there first and their response was "That's a dead unit that". Nothing more than that.

The fact here is not that they're reused parts, but the whole internals of the phone. The only part that is ours is the casing on the outside.

They scribed their name on the main board. The other person is happy to go to them together. As yet i have no idea where the internals of our phone are. They could be in the other person's. The information commissioner has suggested writing to them to report a data concern.

With the evidence we have, i would suggest a small claims court is very likely to find in our favour. I would rather not have to go down that route.

Poppie68

Have you tried ringing Apple care?...Its a long story but in short......My daughter had problems with her IPhone went into the Apple Store at the Trafford Centre last summer 1 month before end of warranty, got fobbed of....
Couple of weeks ago rang apple care who rang the store with my daughter on a 3 way...Store told her to go down a couple of days later and they would sort it out....She arrived they said nope nothing we can do..
She went home rang Apple Care back who made her an appointment themselves with a note on saying phone must be replaced....
Off she went again....New phone handed over.
Its worth you trying.

agrinnall

howd00 wrote: »

With the evidence we have, i would suggest a small claims court is very likely to find in our favour. I would rather not have to go down that route.

What would your claim be for? You took them a non-working phone and you got a non-working phone back. Do you have a quantifiable loss that the court could order compensation for?

howd00

agrinnall wrote: »

What would your claim be for? You took them a non-working phone and you got a non-working phone back. Do you have a quantifiable loss that the court could order compensation for?

I took them in my phone, i was returned another phone in my case. I have lost my phone. That is my loss. They are welcome to have back the phone from inside my case. It just so happens that i've managed to ascertain whose phone it is inside my case - that corroborates the fact that it was the store in question that switched it. Plus, our data is on that phone that they have taken.

bod1467

howd00 wrote: »

I took them in my phone, i was returned another phone in my case. I have lost my phone. That is my loss. They are welcome to have back the phone from inside my case. It just so happens that i've managed to ascertain whose phone it is inside my case - that corroborates the fact that it was the store in question that switched it. Plus, our data is on that phone that they have taken.

So to ask again ...

agrinnall wrote: »

What would your claim be for? You took them a non-working phone and you got a non-working phone back. Do you have a quantifiable loss that the court could order compensation for?

The fact the innards may be different doesn't change the fact you gave in a non-working phone and received back a non-working phone. So you need to quantify (financially) what are your losses, as this is all a small claims court will consider. They won't touch possible breach of DPA or criminal actions.

timbstoke

I'd agree. All the evidence that you have right now is that they looked at two (or more) phones and put the wrong case on when reassembling them. They didn't charge you for the failed repair, and assuming the insides of your phone are complete in the other persons handset, there doesn't appear to be any reason for them to deliberately do what they have. You also have no evidence that the other phone is yours, and without that you'll have problems getting anywhere.

Your situation now is that you have somebody else's phone, and they have a phone which may or may not be yours. In practical terms, your options are:

1. Keep the phone you have which is working. Probably not ideal, since this puts you at risk if the other phone is ever IMEI blocked.

2. You approach the shop yourself, with your evidence of the wrong phone. You won't get anywhere right now with the missing parts argument, since that phone may or may not have already had missing parts when it came in, and unless your phone is in the shop, there's not really going to be much they can do about it.

3. See if the other person still wants their phone fixing, and direct them to the same place you sent yours. If it turns out they have your phone, you can simply swap phones. If they have the same parts missing, then it's clear that the shop is stripping bits out, in which case you can both approach the shop in a far stronger position to get something done - realistically, you'd be looking for the cost of having those parts replaced by a reputable dealer so you know they weren't stolen from somebody elses phone.

howd00

bod1467 wrote: »

So to ask again ...



The fact the innards may be different doesn't change the fact you gave in a non-working phone and received back a non-working phone. So you need to quantify (financially) what are your losses, as this is all a small claims court will consider. They won't touch possible breach of DPA or criminal actions.

So by way of an analogy, if i take in my red car to a garage because it won't start, then go to pick it up and they tell me they can't fix it and hand me a blue car with no engine, are you saying this isn't an issue as i started with a car that won't work and now have a car that won't work?

In this phone i now have a black iphone with the internals from a white iphone, the brackets, screws and backplate are missing, i have no idea on the battery condition and the imei number is different to the case/our phone. It the imei is reported as missing then the phone won't work at all. The experts i have sent it to have got it working for me but it is still not my phone in my case with matching imei numbers, my data etc. Is there not somewhere there that i have lost out financially? Or should it be considered theft, my fault, a bad day at the office?!