Being given the run around
So in October last year right before I was due to travel to Europe I started to have some battery issues with my Huawei so I went to cex and I panic bought the nearest handset that I could get to my model with a bit more memory to take as a backup.
It was just in case my phone died while I was away because I needed to rely on digital boarding passes etc
while I was there I asked if it had been tested, I asked about the battery because I know that these handsets can have battery issues because I was experiencing one with mine and I didn't want to end up with a Dud etc
I was told that the handset had been completely tested and there was no issues with the battery I paid £120 and I packed the phone in a hard case with my external hard drive, put that in my carry on and I never opened that again until I was back home.
my phone had survived the trip and I hadn't needed to use it so I ended up just putting it in the cupboard and I thought in the coming weeks when if my phone finally does die, I will swap it over to the new handset.
I went to a couple of gigs and the camera on the Huawei didn't get any good footage and I was upset and I realized the handset that I'd panic bought had exactly the same camera.
So I didn't want to be stuck with it and i decided to look at other phones. my friends talked me into getting an S22 because of the zoom on the camera and I decided to look again at CeX because I don't have a lot of money.
I found one, my daughter told me that I would be able to use the phone that I had bought in October and trade that in towards my new phone.
I hadn't even switched the phone on since purchase. I hadn't taken it out the packaging that they provided it me with. everything still had the stickers on it, the elastic band was still around the chager cable and it was still in the plastic wallet that I was given it in.
I took it to the store I asked to see the phone that I wanted to buy and then I told them about my phone and that I wanted to trade it in. I passed it over and they opened all the packaging they could see it was stickered they could see that it never been switched on. it had 14% battery and I explained to them that i'd never used it. they could tell because it was asking them to set it up asking them to choose the language etc.
They told me that I could get £59 in voucher form towards the S22 but that I needed to be tested first. they said it needed to be charged for a little bit before they could test it and they gave me a test slot receipt and told me to come back at that time to pick the phone up.
I wasn't even 10 minutes around the corner before they rang me and told me I needed to come back into store because they'd found a problem.
they said that there was evidence of battery expansion because the casing at the back near the camera was lifting. they showed me a gap and other than that there was no scratches or evidence of damage other than the condition that it had been in when I bought it.
so I asked them what I needed to do and they said that they couldn't use it to trade in for the new phone and because they knew I hadn't used it, switched it on and it hadn't even been out of its wrapping they said I needed to contact customer services immediately to talk to them about the store that I purchased it from.
they told me that it was obviously out of warranty and the returns policy wouldn't have covered this specific situation.
i've never been a customer of CeX before and they could see this from my account. they could see that i have good history and I genuinely didn't know what I was doing which is why I was asking all of the questions and asking for their advice.
I ended up buying the S22 from them and paying the full asking price that they asked and while I was on the bus journey on the way home I started up my correspondence with customer services.
when they got back to me they said they would need to investigate with the original store.
when they finally did get back in touch with me they focused on the store that I have brought it into not the og store.
they said that it had been reported that there had been a crack in the back of the phone.
there isn't a crack in the phone and it certainly wasn't pointed out to me either at purchase (because had it have had a crack in it I would never have purchased it) and they're certainly wasn't a crack in it when I took it in to the second store and left it with them to test.
I was told battery expansion and lifting of the rear casing. I wouldn't even know what that terminology meant without them telling me.
The battery must have been degraded enough for it to have this happen over a six month period when it hadn't been switched on or used and was just in storage.
so it brought up the whole thing that the phone wasn't fit for purpose when I was sold it and was covered under the Consumer Rights Act which Trumps any kind of store policy.
i stated all this to them, they said they understood but they asked me to provide photographs of the phone and I gave them around 50 plus photos across two different occasions of the asking me for it.
they desperately trying to re-frame this as me damaging the phone.
according to the Consumer Rights Act it's up to them to present evidence of the alleged damage, when they found it and when it was logged. But they cannot provide me with photographic evidence and have admitted the Testing Service did not document it in full.
They wouldn't proceed in even considering a refund until I brought it into a third store one closer to home to me where they can inspect the phone again.
they have had ample chance to inspect the phone, they have asked me every step of the way to provide evidence and answer questions and I've given them every single detail that they've asked for. I've done everything that was asked of me.
I only got in touch with them on advice of one of their stores. I only purchased the phone originally because of advice and guidance I was given by another one of their stores and I feel like I've been pushed to a point where they just want to deliberate this further.
They've had ample time to investigate the phone previously and they're not allowed to do this again.
i feel like they're just looking for an opportunity not to give me my money back and it's so disheartening because this is my first experience of being a customer.
i put my trust in them and I've obviously been sold a dud, whether the staff hadn't been trained properly or they're just getting bored of their job and cutting corners... Either way they sold it.
nevertheless I've paid out money for a phone that wasn't fit for purpose and when I've discovered this embarrassingly when I've tried to trade it in... when I'm even purchasing another phone from them because I assumed that they were a good place to do this... I've then been given full advice on what to do.
I've followed it to the letter. I've provided all of the information. I've given them everything that they've asked for and now they want me to go into another store for further embarrassment and further burden on me to investigate it more and try and find some kind of loophole after the fact.
i did tell them that if they couldn't confirm that I would be getting a refund before I even turned up that I would be going through trading standards and charge back from my bank.
which at the end of the day would end up costing them a lot more money and they would be without the handset.
You would think it would have just been easier for them to realize that their employees can make mistakes humans can make errors and to apologise, give me a refund and investigate this internally.
at this point I'm storing the handset with battery expansion in a metal tin hoping that it doesn't explode in my home and I just wonder if there is any staff members out there with any advice of what happens in these situations?
if they've ever had to deal with it. is this a regular thing of how they treat customers because honestly it's terrified me and I never want to purchase from them ever again.
what is your advice moving forward? because they're waiting for me to tell them what date I'm going to go down to a specific store.
they're going to forward the details onto somebody to expect me. Just feels like a set up.