music magpie

fatblokekeith

hi there
agreed an offer on music magpie. sent away my iphone only for them to tell they were reducing the offer as my phone has a scratch on it. phone was blemish free and i took photos to prove it . i rejected their offer and they have sent my phone back with a big scratch in the middle of the screen which was not there before. i have contacted them but they are making excuses saying the scratch was there and you cant see it because of angles and lighting. they have ruined my phone 
what course of action is open to me regarding this as to me, this is fraud.  in my opinion they got the phone. showed me photos of a different phone with a scratch in it . when i refused the offer they scratched my phone , in a different place to the photo and sent it back    that to me is fraud

any help would be appreciated 
thanks 

la531983

How is it fraud when they are presumably offering you the phone back and cancelling the transaction and therefore incurring no loss?

fatblokekeith

It’s fraud because my phone was flawless when I sent it. They said it had a scratch which was on the ear piece area which they sent a photo off. I rejected the offer. The sent my phone back which has no scratch near the ear piece but a big one straight across the middle of the phone. It was there intention to show me a scratch on another iPhone. Tell me it was mine and make a low ball offer thinking I would accept it. But it back fired because I took photos and rejected there offer. So if they’d sent back my phone without a mark on it. It would have looked suspicious.  So they scratched it and the phone now worth a quarter of what it was worth. 

That why it’s fraud. 

la531983

Its not fraud though is it, its likely damage in transit. 

The sending of the wrong phone is morally dubious but no fraud has actually occurred.

km1500

it is not fraud but equally they have damaged your property whilst on their care and therefore you need to first of all ask them to pay you compensation and if they refuse then go to the small claims procedure.

housebuyer143

As above I wouldn't go shouting fraud, especially as you can't prove malicious intent, but I would complain as you have here, that the scratch they alluded to was on the back and no mention at all of it on the screen while in their possession and none in yours. So if they didn't notice the scree scratch then it must not have been there. 
They potentially damaged it in transit and they should pay you compensation as a result.