My rights on mobile phone purchase from Currys?

Hurley

Hello all.

Last week I bought two smartphones from Currys.  I went in to one of their stores to trade in two of my old phones as they offer gift cards to the value of them to use against the purchase.  I then used them to buy them off their website.  I got home to see emails stating the orders had been cancelled.  Apparently they have a rule where on certain products they only allow a purchase quantity of two every 90 days.  I had already bought two of these the week prior.
  
I asked what was going on and the woman on the line didn't know but said my money would be refunded to my credit card and that she'd process a refund to the gift cards.  I said to her that the only reason I traded in the phones was to avail of this particular deal and if I couldn't then the gift cards aren't of any use to me.  The manufacturer is running a separate promotion offering free accessories via claim after purchase which greatly increases the value of the deal.

I then spent the weekend contacting their phones customer support, chat service, Twitter team etc and was given the most shocking customer service you could imagine.  Most of the time was spent waiting for hours only for them to hang up when it was time to answer the question (this happened five times by my count).  I was bounced around from department to department, rudely patronised and basically told it wasn't their problem and to sort it out myself.  The only thing I got out of them was that they were in the process of refunding my gift cards but they simply wouldn't answer the question of whether I could use it to buy the phones on the deal I wanted.  I told them several times that if I couldn't then I'd like my original phones back (in the exact same condition, promptly and ideally at their expense) because they were traded in to use against this specific deal, not for generic vouchers.  Indeed, their own terms state that the vouchers aren't to be used against anything other than this specific phone.  They said if that's the case then you can refuse the gift cards and attempt to pick the phones up yourself.  I told them I don't know whether the store still has them and that there is no way of contacting them.  They said I'd have to go in myself which I wasn't willing to do without confirmation it was a worthwhile visit as it's not convenient or easy for me to do so.  No help was provided here in the form of them giving me a number to call or them being able to do it themselves (one woman tried but couldn't get through).

Does anyone know where I stand legally here?  They are stonewalling me and I have resigned myself to the fact my traded in phones have likely been processed and lost now.  It is worth mentioning that putting aside how unreasonable the term that one can only buy two of these phones in a 90 day period is, there is no mention on the product page of this term.  In the T&Cs they sent me in my cancellation email it says it will be noted on the product page.  That is the only mention I can find of  the term on the site and it's vague and doesn't specify this particular product.  I have also attempted to get my phones back but they've not helped in this regard.  I don't see how this is fair on any level.  If you haven't fulfilled your end of the bargain how can you keep my property and lock me in to spending in your store?  On items I don't even want!  As things stand I am supposedly getting two gift vouchers to use against anything other than the thing I want in Currys.  The 48 hour mark for the refund they stipulated has passed and I'm still waiting for the refund.  Only one of my credit card transactions has been refunded.  I am avoiding ringing them again for an update because pretty much every interaction with them has been frustrating and fruitless (they hung up again on me last night after another half hour on hold).

Thanks for reading and for any suggestions.

DullGreyGuy

Can you provide a link to the promotion?

Trade-ins can be a linked or independent transaction to a purchase. Its not 100% clear which of these it falls into with Currys and whatever deal you signed up for. On the one hand you say you can only purchase this product with the vouchers but then also say it could be used on other things in the store (if you want that or not is irrelevant). 

Assuming they two arent linked then 1) they are free to decide who they want to sell to or not as long as its not based on a protected characteristic like gender or race - so in principle 2 per customer per 90 days is fine  2) in the trade in you are technically the seller and as such have very few statutory rights

Personally... I'd be wondering how they are identifying me as a repeat customer and see if I cannot get around the order limit by using a new account or such. 

Flight3287462

First thing, do you have the full T&Cs?  I had a quick look but didn't find much.

Hurley

DullGreyGuy said:

Can you provide a link to the promotion?

Trade-ins can be a linked or independent transaction to a purchase. Its not 100% clear which of these it falls into with Currys and whatever deal you signed up for. On the one hand you say you can only purchase this product with the vouchers but then also say it could be used on other things in the store (if you want that or not is irrelevant). 

Assuming they two arent linked then 1) they are free to decide who they want to sell to or not as long as its not based on a protected characteristic like gender or race - so in principle 2 per customer per 90 days is fine  2) in the trade in you are technically the seller and as such have very few statutory rights

Personally... I'd be wondering how they are identifying me as a repeat customer and see if I cannot get around the order limit by using a new account or such. 

The trade in value was boosted if you traded in specifically to buy this phone.  You get more if you state it's to use against the Pixel 7, that's how they determine the trade in value.  The reason why they're saying it can be used against anything I think is because they simply haven't got a clue and saying anything.

Here is the product page.  There is no mention of the purchase limit so how can they retroactively apply it?
https://www.currys.co.uk/products/google-pixel-7-128-gb-obsidian-10243722.html

Here is a screenshot of the trade in promotion

Alderbank

Is this a business transaction?
I ask because you say you bought two of these phones last week and now want to buy two more. 

You say  'I told them several times that...I'd like my original phones back (in the exact same condition, promptly and ideally at their expense) because they were traded in to use against this specific deal, not for generic vouchers.' 

However Currys phone trade-in T&Cs include:

• You will be deemed to have accepted these terms and conditions ("Conditions") when you provide us with the Device. If you have any questions relating to these Conditions please ask in store before completing the trade in process.
• Once you have traded in the Device, it becomes our property and it will not be possible to retrieve it under any circumstances.

You say 'It is worth mentioning...how unreasonable the term that one can only buy two of these phones in a 90 day period is...'

Not at all unreasonable.
It's very common to restrict special offers, which presumably this is.
In any case, there are no circumstances where you can force a retailer to sell you anything. What if they don't have stock?

ETA: I have just seen your recent post where you say the offer was subject to availability

Hurley

Alderbank said:

Is this a business transaction?
I ask because you say you bought two of these phones last week and now want to buy two more. 

You say  'I told them several times that...I'd like my original phones back (in the exact same condition, promptly and ideally at their expense) because they were traded in to use against this specific deal, not for generic vouchers.' 

However Currys phone trade-in T&Cs include:

• You will be deemed to have accepted these terms and conditions ("Conditions") when you provide us with the Device. If you have any questions relating to these Conditions please ask in store before completing the trade in process.
• Once you have traded in the Device, it becomes our property and it will not be possible to retrieve it under any circumstances.

You say 'It is worth mentioning...how unreasonable the term that one can only buy two of these phones in a 90 day period is...'

Not at all unreasonable.
It's very common to restrict special offers, which presumably this is.
In any case, there are no circumstances where you can force a retailer to sell you anything. What if they don't have stock?

ETA: I have just seen your recent post where you say the offer was subject to availability

Not a business customer no, just wanted to take advantage of a great deal.

The phone was in stock.  The transaction went through.  If I knew of this term I wouldn't have bought the phones.  It doesn't state it on the product page and on the hidden terms it's vague.  It just says 'certain products'.  That's what I meant by unreasonable, sorry.  Restrictions on promotions are standard, not telling the customer about them isn't.

km1500

Your complaint is with the store

If you told them you were going to use the vouchers to buy Pixel phones, then this is all part of the contract and you can go back and get the contract cancelled and your phones back as Currys are refusing to sell you the phones.

If, on the other hand, you didn't mention Pixel phones and just swapped your phones for vouchers then you have no redress.
 

Hurley

km1500 said:

Your complaint is with the store

If you told them you were going to use the vouchers to buy Pixel phones, then this is all part of the contract and you can go back and get the contract cancelled and your phones back as Currys are refusing to sell you the phones.

If, on the other hand, you didn't mention Pixel phones and just swapped your phones for vouchers then you have no redress.
 

They don't give you the option to use it against anything other than the Pixels.  That's the promotion.  You get £125 on top of what they value your phone if you agree to use it against a Pixel.  They then log that whilst doing the trade in and issue the card which gets an inflated value as a result.  The guy in the store said I had to use it against that phone and that's what I intended (and did).  Without the boost their trade in value is half of what the phone is worth so I wouldn't even have considered it.

Grumpy_chap

It is not uncommon for offers to be volume restricted.
Can you ask one of the other people that will be using the 3rd and 4th phones to register the purchase at their email and still use the vouchers?

Hurley

Grumpy_chap said:

It is not uncommon for offers to be volume restricted.
Can you ask one of the other people that will be using the 3rd and 4th phones to register the purchase at their email and still use the vouchers?

I asked the customer services about this.  She didn't know.  I said I could just give the vouchers to my sisters and they could buy them (the phones are for them) but they didn't want to commit to outright saying I could.  I tried to tell them I needed an answer urgently as if the vouchers were specifically tied to my account then they're really of no use to me and I needed to cancel everything and try to get the phones back while it was still possible to do so.  If worst comes to worst then that is what I'll try to do I guess but I'm concerned now that I won't be able to.  Currys themselves have no idea.

jon81uk

Currys terms state Terms and conditions (currys.co.uk)
"That we are only able to accept orders for a maximum of 2 PAYG mobile

Some additional products also carry a maximum product limit per customer in a 90 day period.

Where these product restrictions apply the relevant products will be highlighted on the product display page."

I think you need to ask them where it is highlighted on the product display page that this is a relevant product.

But what is odd is that you did the trade-in in-store but then went to buy online later and yet there is a restriction on using the gift cards?