Mobile phone blocked

Emmia

Paul74 said:

savergrant said:

Paul74 said:

savergrant said:

Paul74 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Paul74 said:

Ermm,,

flaneurs_lobster said:

Paul74 said:

Seems like a really specific scam that makes buying a 2nd half phone extremely risky. Surely Music Magpie and others are aware of this? Shouldn't they explain this when selling mobile phones??

Explain what exactly? That at any time after you purchase a phone from them a previous owner can claim that the phone has been stolen from them thus causing the phone to be bricked?

Kind of destroys their entire business model.

Errmm, exactly. This practice shouldn't be allowed. Thanks for your extremely helpful input anyway.

Not in any way meant as a criticism of your genuine complaint, rather a real concern at the way phones can be made non-operational by fraudulent and/or malicious actions by previous owners.

Apologies for the misunderstanding! Yes, this practice should not be allowed. Maybe Music Magpie did act faithfully, but there's a major technical glitch as you say. I'd be suprised if this scenario doesn't happen quite often. So I fully expect Music Magpie & the other phone recycle companies to be fully aware of this situation. 

Surely I have grounds for a legal claim?

If music magpie are prepared to replace the item after over a year then you will not be out of pocket but they will be. The solution is for secondhand retailers to register all items which are sold to them and the police to investigate any which are subsequently reported stolen. It is extremely unlikely that someone will just discover that a mobile tablet was stolen over a year ago, so it looks like insurance fraud or a genuine mistake and reporting the wrong item as stolen. Either way it makes no sense to deactivate a perfectly good electrical item when we are supposed to be reducing our waste footprint.

I get your point, but getting another phone from Music Magpie is simply kicking the can down the road! - it could very easily happen again in 1 month, 12 months time........who knows!

I would rather buy a new phone then pursue Music Magpie for a refund or at least fair value for this current phone. It should be up to them, the carriers & insurance companies to get their acts together & work to ensure these scams do not happen again & pursue the original sellers.

I think they are acting reasonably given the timescale. The only thing would be if anything in their point of sale or seller's terms explicitly guaranteed that this would not happen. Unfortunately as has been said there is no way to register a change of ownership of these devices so the original owner could report it as lost or stolen at any time. The only safeguard is the paperwork held by the likes of Music Magpie saying how they came by the device. If they are insured against this then their insurance company should be able to liaise with any insurance claim regarding the 'stolen' item and hand over information to the police. There has to be a deterrent to false reports of theft or secondhand sales will be killed off by high insurance prices.

Music Magpie have now back tracked. They are saying the phone is outside of it's warranty, so tough luck. I have to try & get EE to unblock it 🙈

This is a lost cause. Save yourself the headache and just buy a brand new phone. 

Jon_01

Emmia said:

Paul74 said:

savergrant said:

Paul74 said:

savergrant said:

Paul74 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Paul74 said:

Ermm,,

flaneurs_lobster said:

Paul74 said:

Seems like a really specific scam that makes buying a 2nd half phone extremely risky. Surely Music Magpie and others are aware of this? Shouldn't they explain this when selling mobile phones??

Explain what exactly? That at any time after you purchase a phone from them a previous owner can claim that the phone has been stolen from them thus causing the phone to be bricked?

Kind of destroys their entire business model.

Errmm, exactly. This practice shouldn't be allowed. Thanks for your extremely helpful input anyway.

Not in any way meant as a criticism of your genuine complaint, rather a real concern at the way phones can be made non-operational by fraudulent and/or malicious actions by previous owners.

Apologies for the misunderstanding! Yes, this practice should not be allowed. Maybe Music Magpie did act faithfully, but there's a major technical glitch as you say. I'd be suprised if this scenario doesn't happen quite often. So I fully expect Music Magpie & the other phone recycle companies to be fully aware of this situation. 

Surely I have grounds for a legal claim?

If music magpie are prepared to replace the item after over a year then you will not be out of pocket but they will be. The solution is for secondhand retailers to register all items which are sold to them and the police to investigate any which are subsequently reported stolen. It is extremely unlikely that someone will just discover that a mobile tablet was stolen over a year ago, so it looks like insurance fraud or a genuine mistake and reporting the wrong item as stolen. Either way it makes no sense to deactivate a perfectly good electrical item when we are supposed to be reducing our waste footprint.

I get your point, but getting another phone from Music Magpie is simply kicking the can down the road! - it could very easily happen again in 1 month, 12 months time........who knows!

I would rather buy a new phone then pursue Music Magpie for a refund or at least fair value for this current phone. It should be up to them, the carriers & insurance companies to get their acts together & work to ensure these scams do not happen again & pursue the original sellers.

I think they are acting reasonably given the timescale. The only thing would be if anything in their point of sale or seller's terms explicitly guaranteed that this would not happen. Unfortunately as has been said there is no way to register a change of ownership of these devices so the original owner could report it as lost or stolen at any time. The only safeguard is the paperwork held by the likes of Music Magpie saying how they came by the device. If they are insured against this then their insurance company should be able to liaise with any insurance claim regarding the 'stolen' item and hand over information to the police. There has to be a deterrent to false reports of theft or secondhand sales will be killed off by high insurance prices.

Music Magpie have now back tracked. They are saying the phone is outside of it's warranty, so tough luck. I have to try & get EE to unblock it 🙈

This is a lost cause. Save yourself the headache and just buy a brand new phone. 

This.  There is no way EE (or any of the networks) will unblock a phone for anyone who isn't the owner, as registered on their system.

savergrant

Paul74 said:

savergrant said:

Paul74 said:

savergrant said:

Paul74 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Paul74 said:

Ermm,,

flaneurs_lobster said:

Paul74 said:

Seems like a really specific scam that makes buying a 2nd half phone extremely risky. Surely Music Magpie and others are aware of this? Shouldn't they explain this when selling mobile phones??

Explain what exactly? That at any time after you purchase a phone from them a previous owner can claim that the phone has been stolen from them thus causing the phone to be bricked?

Kind of destroys their entire business model.

Errmm, exactly. This practice shouldn't be allowed. Thanks for your extremely helpful input anyway.

Not in any way meant as a criticism of your genuine complaint, rather a real concern at the way phones can be made non-operational by fraudulent and/or malicious actions by previous owners.

Apologies for the misunderstanding! Yes, this practice should not be allowed. Maybe Music Magpie did act faithfully, but there's a major technical glitch as you say. I'd be suprised if this scenario doesn't happen quite often. So I fully expect Music Magpie & the other phone recycle companies to be fully aware of this situation. 

Surely I have grounds for a legal claim?

If music magpie are prepared to replace the item after over a year then you will not be out of pocket but they will be. The solution is for secondhand retailers to register all items which are sold to them and the police to investigate any which are subsequently reported stolen. It is extremely unlikely that someone will just discover that a mobile tablet was stolen over a year ago, so it looks like insurance fraud or a genuine mistake and reporting the wrong item as stolen. Either way it makes no sense to deactivate a perfectly good electrical item when we are supposed to be reducing our waste footprint.

I get your point, but getting another phone from Music Magpie is simply kicking the can down the road! - it could very easily happen again in 1 month, 12 months time........who knows!

I would rather buy a new phone then pursue Music Magpie for a refund or at least fair value for this current phone. It should be up to them, the carriers & insurance companies to get their acts together & work to ensure these scams do not happen again & pursue the original sellers.

I think they are acting reasonably given the timescale. The only thing would be if anything in their point of sale or seller's terms explicitly guaranteed that this would not happen. Unfortunately as has been said there is no way to register a change of ownership of these devices so the original owner could report it as lost or stolen at any time. The only safeguard is the paperwork held by the likes of Music Magpie saying how they came by the device. If they are insured against this then their insurance company should be able to liaise with any insurance claim regarding the 'stolen' item and hand over information to the police. There has to be a deterrent to false reports of theft or secondhand sales will be killed off by high insurance prices.

Music Magpie have now back tracked. They are saying the phone is outside of it's warranty, so tough luck. I have to try & get EE to unblock it 🙈

This isn't a warranty issue as you have proof that they sold you a device which is now classed as stolen property. However it seems that it wasn't reported as stolen until some time after they sold it to you. How did you pay? Can you claim compensation for the purchase price?

Paul74

It was bought using Paypal - pay in 3. Will have a look at that.

Have purchased a new phone, but obviously out of pocket. So I want to recover the costs in anyway possible.

savergrant

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/PayPal-Section75/#problem

Looks like in this case paypal is the lender and you should claim against them.

Frozen_up_north

Take Music Magpie to the small claims court, it really works. A friend took a large car dealership to court and won hands down.

Companies have a reputation to maintain and hate the adverse publicity, the chances are that they will settle before it goes to court. You have nothing to lose and are odds on certain to win if you can show in writing evidence of sale, the phone being blocked, what you have done to resolve the matter, etc.