CEX Sold me a Fake iPhone and will likely refuse a refund.

flaneurs_lobster

jasonwatkins said:

I'm not opposed to involving the police buy my main worry is what happens to me if the shop pushes back even harder and escalates.

I literally have no way of proving that I didn't do what I'm being accused of and they'll have the store manager, the owner and, eventually, the tester all making statements clarifying that their testing procedure was followed correctly and that the correct phone was tested and purchased from whoever was selling it.

I'll literally just have my word that I didn't do it.

As I understand it you are still in a process with CeX, your quote

She said she’ll contact their loss prevention team to see what, if anything, they can do but told me it could be quite a while before I hear anything.

That sounds horribly open-ended to me, does "quite a while" mean a week or six months?

I'm guessing that a Cex loss prevention team's primary role is to prevent loss to CeX.

Which is more likely, that they come back (eventually) and say "It was all a terrible mistake, here's your £1800 and a £5 voucher for the inconvenience" or "we've done all our checks and we're sticking to our position".

Can't see how telling them that you've filed a police report would sway their decision, they have either made a genuine mistake and will be keen to rectify it or they are less than scrupulous.

As you say, it's your word against theirs, the only place that a judgement can take place as to who is telling the truth given all the evidence is a courtroom.

I can't help thinking that somewhere out there is the genuine iPhone, is not finding that, or at least determining it's status, not useful?

Boohoo

jasonwatkins said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Would a visit to the local nick to make a report of theft? be appropriate? Don't imagine the police would give any time to a report of dodgy Channel Perfume down the market but here the OP is down £1800. 

Would you also report the (real) iPhone as stolen? After all, the OP is the legal owner, no?

A police report reference number would at least show seriousness on any future communication with CeX.

I'm not opposed to involving the police buy my main worry is what happens to me if the shop pushes back even harder and escalates.

I literally have no way of proving that I didn't do what I'm being accused of and they'll have the store manager, the owner and, eventually, the tester all making statements clarifying that their testing procedure was followed correctly and that the correct phone was tested and purchased from whoever was selling it.

I'll literally just have my word that I didn't do it.

That's the chance you may have to take to get this resolved.

I don't know how anyone can prove about the 2 different IMEI numbers.

I mean is there a way of tracking/tracing the 2 IMEI numbers and finding out where they were last pinged as that could prove where the mobiles were last used before the OP got the 1tb iPhone and not the 2 tb iPhone.

That could mean last used in the cex shop before putting it on display and next turned on in the OP's home. If the 2 tb iPhone was not switched on after the op bought it from the shop but the 1tb mobile pinged as in use then it should mean that the OP has been given the wrong mobile and if 2tb is still active but not at the cex store or OP's home that may prove the OP has got the wrong mobile.

This may only be done by Police or network providers I think but CEX must be able to check IMEi on a database.

I hope this makes sense.

jasonwatkins

Aylesbury_Duck said:

jasonwatkins said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Would a visit to the local nick to make a report of theft? be appropriate? Don't imagine the police would give any time to a report of dodgy Channel Perfume down the market but here the OP is down £1800. 

Would you also report the (real) iPhone as stolen? After all, the OP is the legal owner, no?

A police report reference number would at least show seriousness on any future communication with CeX.

I'm not opposed to involving the police buy my main worry is what happens to me if the shop pushes back even harder and escalates.

I literally have no way of proving that I didn't do what I'm being accused of and they'll have the store manager, the owner and, eventually, the tester all making statements clarifying that their testing procedure was followed correctly and that the correct phone was tested and purchased from whoever was selling it.

I'll literally just have my word that I didn't do it.

I think you're worrying unnecessarily about that.  No one's going to prosecute you for theft or fraud.  I agree with the previous poster that getting a crime number would signal more serious intent when mentioned in your letter before action.

I'm almost certainly autistic (long story) so worrying unnecessarily and massively over-thinking things is just what I do

Romford is an hour away on the bus as it is but I don't think i'll be able to get there until after Christmas now but I think it wouldn't hurt to go and talk to someone at the police station.

Grumpy_chap

I agree that *someone* should be reporting this iPhone as stolen and I understand that then triggers the process that allows the phone to be pinged or blocked from the IMEI number.

I am not sure whether the OP can do that as, from the content of the thread, the OP is claiming they never had the missing iPhone and it can't, therefore, have been stolen from the OP.

Maybe the next step would be for the OP to contact the store and firmly state the expectation that the store will report the missing iPhone as stolen, hence triggering the CEX process for loss recovery, pinging / blocking the phone, insurance process and such like.  Then continue that, if the store will not report the phone as stolen, then the OP will do so.  I am not sure whether the OP reporting the phone as stolen also enables a mechanism for the phone to be pinged / blocked via IMEI number.

jasonwatkins

I’ve just been informed that their loss prevention team are actively investigating so I’ll probably put a pin in this now until I hear back from them.

jasonwatkins

Well that escalated.. 

Got a call from my local CEX and the manager asked me to come in so off I went.

Apparently the investigation is already complete because they viewed the CCTV footage and saw that the day before I bought the phone it was shown to a traveller who switched it.  

And that was the entirety of what the manager told me as well in case anyone does feel the urge to ask more questions.

Anyway, I have to go back there tomorrow to return the fake phone and I will receive a full refund so to say I’m relieved is a little bit of an understatement.

Thankyou to everyone who got involved in this thread and gave some excellent advice.

MeteredOut

Well done on persevering. Ignore the anti-Apple people who used this thread as an opportunity to knock the cost of iPhones, and go buy one from the official site.

(sent from my 6 year old iPhone 11)

Grumpy_chap

That sounds like a good outcome (for the OP at least) and an honest investigation by the CEX store.

This must have been quite stressful for the OP - potentially down £1.8k and at the same time feeling accused even if not directly so.  Glad it has all been sorted.

The store won't say any more for fear of breaching GDPR and nor is it really any of the OP's concern now as to how CEX handle the situation, blocking the missing phone, etc.

Once the OP has the refund, it might be worth considering whether such a high-spec phone is necessary and / or whether it is worth the extra to buy from Apple direct (given that no-one else currently has discounts compared to AppleStore).  If the OP can wait, there might (or might not) be deals in the New Year?  
With regard to the need for the high-spec phone, I am not querying the choice of phone per se, but just wondering whether a phone with lower storage capacity would suffice.  The storage capacity adds up to £800 to the cost of the phone compared to the base-model and I can't fathom what anyone would need 2TB storage on a phone for.  That is a lot of storage - by way of comparison I have just purchased a new NAS drive which is far bigger than we'll ever need at 4TB and we have loaded everything we have ever obtained by way of digital data on it and only at <1TB used.

screech_78

It’s all very odd though. 

Why didn’t they ask you to bring the phone in when you went in today?

You’ve went there in person today and now have to go back tomorrow for a refund? Bizarre. 

eschaton

Great outcome, well done OP. 

The only advice I’d give is never buy 2nd hand from anywhere unless the saving justifies it. Certainly never to save 10%.