Phone held hostage by 3rd Party Repairer

Moxey

Morning all

I dropped my 3 month old Samsung phone a few weeks ago and dented the volume down button, not the end of the world cosmetically but this forces the phone to boot in Safe Mode (and locks use of all apps). Did some Google search for a company to repair it and submitted an enquiry.
Next day was rung by Elite Computers and Phones who said they would fix it for £59+VAT. Which I thought was steep but a lesson learnt on clumsiness. Sadly I was not at t a computer at the time so couldn't research them and just went ahead with it.
Now they have my phone and have said they opened it up and 'discovered' some issues that they were forced to fix - this means the price is now £200....
I am refusing to pay and they are refusing to return my device stating they have a clause in the T&Cs that they are allowed to do work up to £150 without approval. I agreed to theses when I sent them the phone apparently.

What can I do!?
Thought about reporting the phone stolen to the police (and pointing at Elite). What are my rights on this?

maninthestreet

£200 is more than the £150 limit you state is in their T+Cs - how was the contract to repair the phone entered into - by phone, email or some other way?

Moxey

Hi maninthestreet

Over the phone only. They did then send an email with more information about how the repair would be done in 48 hours (it wasn't, ho hum). The email had a link to the T&Cs as well as a link to login to check the process of the repair. As the email repeated the only way to track this was to login, I was forced to to 'agree' to the T&Cs by ticking a box. This was three days after the phone call and after they had received the phone.

They are claiming the £150 is allowable as it is an additional repair on top of the agreed amount - taken from their T&Cs "Items that come in for diagnosis will be diagnosed on arrival; if the price of the repair falls below £150.00 the technicians will automatically repair the item. Non-repairable items will be returned for a non-repairable fee from £9.99 - £24.50 depending on item"

Even if I agreed to pay up to the £150, I suppose they would refuse to return it. What would my best course be then?

Wish I had just taken a pause on the phone, said I'd get back to them and not trusted them....

maninthestreet

T+Cs need to be in a 'durable form' - please post a link to them.

Moxey

They are here: mobilephonerepairing.co.uk/index/cms/aToyNTE7 [sorry, I can't post links here]
As I agreed to the repair over the phone I don't think I should be held to them.

I've tried arguing this point and that they have the line "Once a message has been left on the messaging board, please bare in mind you have 48hrs to reply otherwise the repair will be acrried out automatically" which implies they will ask before doing work, but they aren't interested and want money before returning my phone

You might also enjoy the sheer volume of spelling errors which is another red flag!

m0bov

What was this extra work?

Moxey

They reckon there is some damage to the internal items, the screen is apparently cracked and needs replacing.
The phone worked fine for the last 3 weeks with no issues other than the volume rocker being bust (phone got stuck in safe mode after an update restart). Screen was in perfect condition before I sent it away and I have the pictures to prove it

I'm going to report this to trading standards but can't report this to an Ombudsman for another few weeks (8 week limit) and have already been without a phone for a long time.
Can I ring the Police and report it as theft as I never agreed to any of the work?

m0bov

They have not stolen the phone, its a civil matter. Ask them for photos of the damaged parts.

Moxey

Hi m0bov

Tried that, they are just not interested in providing any information. Asked them how it was cracked and if it was, was it cracked on arrival? They just repeated that it was cracked.

I've mentioned consumer rights etc but they aren't overly concerned. I've just sent them a message about the durable form that T&Cs should be in (as mentioned above) so we shall see if this prompts them to do anything useful

shaun_from_Africa

Moxey wrote: »

Over the phone only. They did then send an email with more information about how the repair would be done in 48 hours (it wasn't, ho hum). The email had a link to the T&Cs as well as a link to login to check the process of the repair...

They may try arguing that they did provide access to their terms and conditions.
If they do, use this:
https://goo.gl/O7KUjX
for your comeback. (page 16)

An email is a durable medium. However, information contained via link to a website which may change, and which is embedded in an email is not. Sending the email to the address given by the consumer is provision of that medium. If the consumer does not look at their email account, or deletes the email, the information has nevertheless been provided on the durable medium.

bod1467

To spell it out further ... the T&Cs needed to be IN the email, not just a link to them.