Phone repair scam, should I go to small claims court?

Chris842

Hi,

In September, I broke my mobile phone, a Sony Xperia Z3 after a drop. The glass smashed. For a couple of weeks prior to that, it had been overheating too and the battery drained very very fast - although there were no problems charging it (that point is relevant to later on).

I googled "Xperia Z3 repair Manchester" and found https://www.sonyrepairer.co.uk. (Other 'fronts' include Samsung repairer and Apple repair man). It was the first link in the results, even ahead of Sony themselves.

I visited their store, which was fairly local. I described the damage, said they could definately fix it and quoted £130. I agreed and left it with them.

I came to collect it the following day. They showed me a fixed Xperia Z3 (which may or may not have been mine in hindsight) and said something like "We've fixed your screen, but there's a new problem... the battery is only 5% charged after 2 hours of charging. You can pay the £130 as requested, or we can revert it back for a £50 service charge. I said I wanted a day to think about it (so I could ring Sony) and despite some pressure, they agreed to that. Said I'd ring them in the morning to let them know, and give them time to revert it back if that was what I decided, then get it at lunchtime.

Sony told me they'd fix it. They also said that if I did send them an unfixable phone, they'd replace it. So now I just wanted to get it back as cheaply as possible.

I rang the following morning, planning to tell them to revert it back. The guy spoke very aggresively at me and swore at me. He said something like "Alright, we've already reverted it back like you've already told us (I hadn't), hurry up and come and get it".

In the shop, the engineer said "OK, thats £10 please". I paid it. On my way out, the guy from the phone came out and said "that's actually £50". I stupidly went back, stupidly paid it after some conversation, and stupidly did so in cash! A couple of other phone shops have since told me that that £50 charge is unbelievable and said I'd have it back for free if the same situation happened with them.

I paid to get it back in the state it was originally in, but one of these phone shops told me that a fake, broken screen had been put on.

Called Sony.... they won't touch it at all now that it has fake part(s) on.

---

This is where it gets really interesting...

There is a group on facebook called EPAC (Elite phones and Computers) Victims Support. It was only created at the start of September and already has 120 members.

Everyone has posted their stories on there, and they all sound familiar! These are people from all over the country, not just where the store is here in Manchester, and people post their devices to EPAC.

Some people never get their devices back. Others get told theres a new fault that will cost more money to repair (sounds familiar!). Some of these people pay it. And for the people who do get their devices back, they come back broken and usually in a worse state.

Some of the group have been doing some investigating, and have figured out they have close ties with a company who sell mobile phone parts (so theres a good chance they are stealing parts from people perhaps, to sell on).

They have a load of unpaid CCJs against them.

One lady went to court recently to enforce the CCJ. After a load of threats, and two court date cancellations (they are allowed to postpone twice apparently), they finally paid up, the day before the court date. They paid £800 (cost of a replacement phone + court costs).

Now I'm wondering whether or not I'd have a good case in the small claims court myself? I was going to forget about it, but I still feel angry about it, and this result gives a bit of hope.

My concern is the evidence I have - would this be enough? As most people live around the country, they have emails with the company and UPS courier records. They've also paid electronically (and I paid cash remember).

The evidence I do have is...

- The phone itself
- I could get a report, from another phone repair shop, of what has been done to the phone. Other victims have done this.
- A receipt (this is actually just a scrawled note on a piece of paper. No VAT number. Although it does have their company stamp with the company name and address). There is no date on the receipt.
- My bank statement shows a cash withdrawal of £130 from a cash machine in Eccles, which is the area in North Manchester they are based in. I live in South Manchester and never go to that area apart from this one time. The withdrawal was on the day I originally went to pick the phone up.
- A lot of testimonials from other customers which maybe shows they can't be trusted.

My dad has said, what if I do go to the small claims court and lose? Could they then counter sue me for solicitor costs?

Really appreciate any advice on this matter. And I'd like to ask, if this was you, would you go to the court? If you would, what would you try to claim?

I'm thinking the following:

- What they charged me (£50).
- Cost of a new phone, which they have made a write-off, minus the cost of a repair since my phone was broke anyway beforehand.
- Court costs.

Really appreciate any advice on this, I'm likely going to go with whatever advice I get on here. Thanks.

Chris842

Just one more point I forgot to add... I know I said some people have had reports done of what has been done to their phones. Some have had parts missing. Others have also had malicious damage done to the inside.

wealdroam

MSE's Small Claims Court guide may help in some small way.
At least it tells you that you are unlikely to have to pay the other party's costs if you lose.

Fosterdog

The only problem I can see you having is that when the phone dropped and the screen cracked you don't know what internal damage may have been done.

You took it to them just for a screen replacement, which they did. It was only after completing that repair they found a secondary fault which may have been caused by the drop and until the screen was fixed and they could test it fully they wouldn't have known about it.

They could have just charged you the £130 for the screen repair as was originally agreed and left it at that. Instead they offered to put your old damaged screen back on and only charge £50 which considering they have done two screen replacements that is only £25 a time for labour which is quite cheap.

Of course any other phone shop is going to tell you that their competitor did a poor job, unless they are willing to give an engineers report for you to take to court their word means nothing.

The company really do sound dodgy but you can't use other people's experiences for your case against them, without some sort of evidence of their wrongdoing it's all just assumptions.

Enterprise_1701C

Just one note about taking the first result on a search. People PAY Google to come up high on searches, genuine people do not need to pay. Just put in something like EHIC renewal, I think the NHS free renewal comes in second at the moment and then there is a lot of paid for ones.

Elsewhere

Chris842 wrote: »

Hi,

For a couple of weeks prior to that, it had been overheating too and the battery drained very very fast - although there were no problems charging it (that point is relevant to later on).

Though it sounds like you've been scammed I think you've had a lucky escape in another way...

My husbands phone began to behave like that. One day he reached into his pocket to get it out and it burned him, the battery had failed and was starting to melt the phone. We were lucky it didn't start a fire.

JimmyTheWig

Fosterdog wrote: »

The only problem I can see you having is that when the phone dropped and the screen cracked you don't know what internal damage may have been done.

You took it to them just for a screen replacement, which they did. It was only after completing that repair they found a secondary fault which may have been caused by the drop and until the screen was fixed and they could test it fully they wouldn't have known about it.

They could have just charged you the £130 for the screen repair as was originally agreed and left it at that. Instead they offered to put your old damaged screen back on and only charge £50 which considering they have done two screen replacements that is only £25 a time for labour which is quite cheap.

I agree with this (and even if the £50 isn't cheap, you agreed to it), apart from the fact that they appear to have put on a different cracked screen.