Tesco Mobile - Wrong phone delivered - Refused refund

alyalyaly

Hi, 
So in a bit of a customer service nightmare scenario here, I ordered an iphone 11 pro on a 32 month(about £60 a month) contract last month (6/11/2020) from tesco mobiles website. I ended up receiving a very cheap Chinese android phone called a "Ulefone Note 7" (Tesco does not stock this phone, presumably either a driver or someone within a warehouse has done something dodgy). On realising what happened I called in to try and get the problem resolved, thinking it would be a quick replacement issue, they advised me to, order a new iphone 11 if I wanted it within a few days, and strongly implied I'd just get a refund, so I did. So, what's followed has been a month and a half of them stalling, routing me to the wrong customer service line, promising to call back but then just forgetting etc, and finally today I am in the position of them saying its not their end (The guy said it was "impossible that people would steal from a warehouse" and all the paper trails said nothing was stolen, which, duh) without outright accusing me (Presumably for legal reasons), with them saying they will not refund the phone, which will end up with me £1000+ out of pocket for a phone I did not receive).
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Who is best to contact about this? And what are the best steps moving forward? Tescos customer service teams been beyond useless so my preference is something more external.

tacpot12

Presumably the phone can be traced using the IMIE to see if it is being used and where. I would report the theft to the police, get a crime reference number, and ask the Police to trace it by getting the IMIE which they can get from Tesco.

I would give the crime reference number to Tesco and sue them in the small claims court. Keep the Ulefone as evidence. This is difficult because people do scam the mobile phone companies; how do Tesco's know you've not received the phone and sold it, then claimed it was substituted. Did you sign for the phone without  checking it? If so this puts you on difficult ground. 

alyalyaly

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Edit- 22/01: Worth updating cause like, its publicly searchable (Unless you can close threads) and I don't want it to negatively impact things - I don't think its him. Paid me enough that it wouldn't make sense for it to be a money making thing his end.
(Hopefully this doesn't bump the thread and waste a bunch of peoples time)
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Unfortunately it was delivered to my neighbours first as I was out. Didn't have the opportunity to sign for anything
To make things even more difficult, basically I ordered the phone for a family member, who decided to throw away the packaging(easy mistake to make I suppose but made the whole thing a lot more difficult). I'll see if I can find the IMEI number on the website, as the ulefone box just came with the ulefones IMEI,will just have to figure out logging in as it's got 2FA with the phone I don't have (customer service have been equally helpful in changing that as well)
Cheers for advice on that though!

williamgriffin

tacpot12 said:

Presumably the phone can be traced using the IMIE to see if it is being used and where. I would report the theft to the police, get a crime reference number, and ask the Police to trace it by getting the IMIE which they can get from Tesco.

I would give the crime reference number to Tesco and sue them in the small claims court. Keep the Ulefone as evidence. This is difficult because people do scam the mobile phone companies; how do Tesco's know you've not received the phone and sold it, then claimed it was substituted. Did you sign for the phone without  checking it? If so this puts you on difficult ground. 

There's a good chance the police will not give the OP a crime number and either say it's civil or fraud. Therefore a matter for action fraud. 

tacpot12

williamgriffin said:

tacpot12 said:

Presumably the phone can be traced using the IMIE to see if it is being used and where. I would report the theft to the police, get a crime reference number, and ask the Police to trace it by getting the IMIE which they can get from Tesco.

I would give the crime reference number to Tesco and sue them in the small claims court. Keep the Ulefone as evidence. This is difficult because people do scam the mobile phone companies; how do Tesco's know you've not received the phone and sold it, then claimed it was substituted. Did you sign for the phone without  checking it? If so this puts you on difficult ground. 

There's a good chance the police will not give the OP a crime number and either say it's civil or fraud. Therefore a matter for action fraud. 

The police can be slippery about civil matters, but this is not a civil matter. A phone has been stolen. 

williamgriffin

tacpot12 said:

williamgriffin said:

tacpot12 said:

Presumably the phone can be traced using the IMIE to see if it is being used and where. I would report the theft to the police, get a crime reference number, and ask the Police to trace it by getting the IMIE which they can get from Tesco.

I would give the crime reference number to Tesco and sue them in the small claims court. Keep the Ulefone as evidence. This is difficult because people do scam the mobile phone companies; how do Tesco's know you've not received the phone and sold it, then claimed it was substituted. Did you sign for the phone without  checking it? If so this puts you on difficult ground. 

There's a good chance the police will not give the OP a crime number and either say it's civil or fraud. Therefore a matter for action fraud. 

The police can be slippery about civil matters, but this is not a civil matter. A phone has been stolen. 

Maybe but it's the op the victim?

The phone may have been stolen from Tesco or their supplier and Tesco have innocently provided the OP with the wrong phone. Since the OP never received an Apple phone what has been stolen from them. 

Its civil in the contract hasn't been fulfilled or Tesco have defrauded the OP.

Even if the neighbours swapped the phone and rescaled the packet it wasn't stolen from the OP.

born_again

32 month contract?
Not the phone ordered yet packaging thrown away (looks nothing like I-Phone)
Any 2FA will not have been set by Tesco. But by the user.
Nothing is signed for Since March & Covid.
Not sure police would be interested as no hint as to where exchange happened, given any evidence destroyed. Action fraud would only log it, No action would be taken other than passing to local force, who would look at it and say "Not worth the time & effort"

You could ask Tesco for the IMEI of the phone they supplied as it will be on their system. They may even be able to trace where it is, but at least they could report it as a stolen phone.

alyalyaly

______________________________________________
Edit ->  Worth updating cause like, its publicly searchable (Unless you can close threads) and I don't want it to negatively impact things - I don't think its him. Paid me enough that it wouldn't make sense for it to be a money making thing his end.
(Hopefully this doesn't bump the thread and waste a bunch of peoples time)
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Yeah I'm pretty annoyed at them throwing out the packaging, would certainly make the whole affair a lot simpler, and I can understand Tesco being like "whelp, this seems suspicious"

I think I'm going to at least check out the IMEI number, might at least get some info from it.
Can you reduce the data paid for in a contract?  Thinking if I can't get this resolved I can at least reduce the costs

williamgriffin

alyalyaly said:

Yeah I'm pretty annoyed at them throwing out the packaging, would certainly make the whole affair a lot simpler, and I can understand Tesco being like "whelp, this seems suspicious"

I think I'm going to at least check out the IMEI number, might at least get some info from it.
Can you reduce the data paid for in a contract?  Thinking if I can't get this resolved I can at least reduce the costs

You may be able to reduce the data, however the bulk of the monthly payment is for the iPhone you didn't receive.

Aylesbury_Duck

alyalyaly said:

Unfortunately it was delivered to my neighbours first as I was out. Didn't have the opportunity to sign for anything
To make things even more difficult, basically I ordered the phone for a family member, who decided to throw away the packaging(easy mistake to make I suppose but made the whole thing a lot more difficult). I'll see if I can find the IMEI number on the website, as the ulefone box just came with the ulefones IMEI,will just have to figure out logging in as it's got 2FA with the phone I don't have (customer service have been equally helpful in changing that as well)
Cheers for advice on that though!

Tesco won't allow delivery to anyone but the account holder.  I tried to order a phone for my son at university and have it delivered to his student address.  Wasn't allowed.  When I had my last phone delivered from them (October), they refused to let DPD leave it with a neighbour, either.  It went back to the depot and was delivered when I was in the next day.

Assuming the family member lives with you  a. Why did they open a parcel not addressed to them? and b. Why couldn't you recover the packaging, or did they chuck it in the bin and the bin was literally collected the same day, before you got home?  It seems incredibly odd that someone would open a package expecting an iPhone, find a totally different handset and then irretrievably chuck all the packaging.

I can see why Tesco might be suspicious. 
 

alyalyaly

The family member does not live with me, and, they did deliver to my neighbour, I'm not certain if that's the issue (they never brought up that it can't be delivered to a neighbor, and given the driver took a picture of them doing that I'm not sure if that's the problem)

What happened, just to clarify is I bought the phone for them (as they have a bad credit score with them just paying the difference each month) , and gave the unopened package to my parents to deliver to them. I don't live in the same house, or want to travel too much as I've got to shield. Tesco's customer service only got on to asking me about the packaging a week in as they delayed a fair bit, but obviously yes, them throwing out the packaging was stupid (I'm not necessarily discounting the possibility of foul play from him, but would rather not cause a major family row over Christmas! So thought best to see what options I had with the company first, as it's not implausible that something went wrong their end)