Tesco Mobile

lasercutter

New Member
Apr 16, 2012
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Hello there, looking for a thoughts on a phone purchased from Tesco Direct.

The phone, a Blackberry Curve 9300, was purchased on the 7th of Jan and seemed fine for a few weeks then over the next few weeks the trackpad would occasionally lock up which seemed to be cured by rebooting the phone, this however progressively got worse and ended with the trackpad stopping altogether and rendering the phone unuseable under 12 weeks from purchasing the phone.
Calling Tesco mobile support eventually resulted in agreeing to send the phone in for repair, at no time was I offered a loan handset and as they said repairs usually took only 10 days I didn't worry too much.
After paying the shortfall in postage costs for their pre-paid envelope the phone arrived at the repair centre on the 28th of March, two days later I received an email say that the phone had been examined and new parts were needed, they also said "The manufacturer of your phone is experiencing delays in providing the necessary parts to repair your handset. Your handset will be dispatched as soon as the parts are made available"
One week later I received a phone call to say the parts had still not arrived and there would be a short delay in repairing the phone.
Since the repair centre had now had the phone for nearly 20 days and it was starting to cause quite an inconvenience I decided to phone the support centre (yesterday 16th April) and was told that they were still awaiting parts and had no idea when they would receive them, at this point I told the person on the phone that the delay wasn't acceptable and that I would like either a replacement handset or a refund, this apparently is not Tesco policy and I was refused, asking to speak to a manager or someone with the authourity to help me I was told that nobody could help and everyone there would give me the same answers, I was also told that there was no other number to call or email adress to use and my only option is to write to head office to complain.
I decided to call another number that was given in an email and this turned out to be the repair centre itself, I explained the situation to the person who answered and when I said I wanted the handset replaced I was at this point told that this is exactly what was going to happen but did I want the address to send a complaint to anyway, my response was that if the handset is being replaced then I was satisfied and did not want to take the matter further, I then asked when this would happen and was told that they were still waiting for parts, confused I said that I thought the phone was being replaced and the response was that the system didn’t allow for differentiating between replacement parts or replacement handsets and so it still showed “awaiting parts” and that the repair centre doesn’t actually repair any Blackberry device, when I asked how long this would take I was told that there was no E.T.A on the handsets arriving, before finishing the call I wanted to clarify the situation and asked for confirmation that I would be receiving a new handset to replace my less than 3 month old phone, at this point I was told that this was incorrect and that I would be sent a refurbished phone as Tesco do not repair any Blackberry handset, at no time was I told that my phone would not be repaired, all the emails stated that parts were required and never was a refurbished phone mentioned, this I personally found totally unacceptable and I have refused to accept a refurbished phone of unknown age, usage or history as a replacement for my virtually new (though totally unusable) handset which I know has been looked after and certainly not misused. Again I was told that my only course of action was to write a letter to head office, something that I usually reserve as a last resort. It amazed me that a company the size of Tesco in this day and age have removed the ability to talk to anybody with an ounce of authourity to deal with customer problems and that people are forced to write to them, maybe they think most people will just give up and go away.
Still not believing that Tesco phonelines were manned by totally powerless individuals I phoned the Tesco Direct support line, as it was ordered from the Direct service, this time I was told to phone Tesco Mobile, when I told the woman on the phone that I'd already been there and that nobody there was empowered to help me she was shocked and assured me that a manager would certainly be able sort things out and it was ridiculous to say otherwise.
Phoning Tesco mobile again the first person wouldn't put me through to a supervisor until I fully explained everything again, at which point he told me it wasn't Tesco policy to refund after 28 days, insisting on speaking to a supervisor this 28 day Policy was once again used as a blanket refusal for a refund or replacement and my request to speak to someone higher up was refused and again I was told to write a letter, to cut an already overlong story short I have drafted a letter but would like to know what people think on this situation, my position regarding the phone sold to me is that in my opinion it was faulty when sold to me and therefore not of merchantable quality or fit for purpose it has not been repaired in a reasonable amount of time and is now causing me significant inconvenience. Having read a fair bit about refurbished phones it seems the experiences are mixed with some people saying they were like new and others saying they had handsets that were clearly second hand, I have no aversion to refurbished and am still totally happy with my refurbished laptop that I bought, however if I wanted to have I refurbished phone I would have bought one from ebay (actually I did buy a phone from ebay to use whilst mine was repaired) I bought a Brand new phone from Tesco that in an unreasonably short time developed a fault that made the phone unusable, I gave them adequate time to repair the phone which they have failed to do and now I want either a refund so I can buy from somewhere else or a new replacement, I don't see that as unreasonable.

sorry for the long post but a lot happened yesterday afternoon, I called with a simple enquiry at about 2pm and 2 hours later was spitting feathers at the attitude and runaround I experienced, never again will I use Tesco for anything other than groceries.
 

Witch consumer

Moderator
Sep 8, 2008
1,593
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Debtors retreat
It looks from your post that you bought this phone from Tesco without a contract, if this is the case, the item is like any other and covered by SOGA, replace, refund or repair at your request within this timeframe. Any Tesco 'policy' would be in addition to your statutory rights.

If it is part of a contract then your agreement is that they provide you with a working handset and network coverage for the period of the contract although they are within their rights to replace with a reconditioned handset.

Given the above, your response to Tesco (and I would suggest it is directed to their Head Office) would be either to demand a replacement phone/refund dependant on your preferences or a replacement phone and refund of charges for the period of time you have been without your phone as compensation for their failure to meet your contract terms in full.
 

rs1985

New Member
Apr 20, 2012
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Lasercutter, I am in an almost exact same situation as you.

Bought a BB9900 in store in October. 7 weeks ago today, it broke JVM software issue. Got all the drivel about part coming from Canada etc. Customer service can't do anything and neither can they in store its all guided by their policy... which they seem to believe is above the law. I eventually got some where by writing to their complaints or 'escalation' department. They rang me back and the response was they'd send me a NEW phone. It arrived today, the seal is broken and it has scratches. I took it into the store this evening and they said it was meant to be like that..... its just scuffs that happen in manufacturing I am positive it is a second hand phone. I'm off to see the store manager about it tomorrow.

According to customer services, 'escalations' can't be contacted by phone..... however I have their number 01202 713 714 give them a ring.

On top of all this I phoned to ask for my line rental to be refunded that i still was paying despite not having a phone. I also wanted compensation on top of that they said

As a gesture of good will they'd refund £43 of the line rental and I should be happy with that.

I am waiting for a call back from trading standards to take this further....
 

lasercutter

New Member
Apr 16, 2012
2
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0
Just a quick update, after writing to Tesco I received today a cheque for the full amount of the purchase price, as this was a pay as you go phone it was the best I could hope for.
Although I got my money back I feel the lack of information and the unhelpful support staff who simply quote "Tesco Policy" to anything that they can't provide a decent response to means that from now on I'll only ever buy groceries from them.

Thanks for your help.
 

ianc

New Member
Jan 23, 2013
3
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i bought a motorola motoluxe at the beginning of september for my daughters 12th birthday.by the end of october it was having camera issues and kept freezing or rebooting.took it to my local tesco who to be fair did what they could and even talked to technical support who said it was faulty and needed to be booked in for repair.
3 phonecalls and 4 weeks later i eventually got a pre-paid package to send off and was quoted approx 10 days to repair.
mid december i phoned them for an update and was told they haven't recieved it and would look into it.2 days later they contacted me and told me they had found it and was now booked in as a priority.the week before christmas they contacted me again saying they couldn't repair it and needed to go somewhere else more technical for repair.
4 weeks without phone and my wife buys my daughter a blackberry for christmas (what she really wanted as most of her friend have them).
first week of january i contact them again for an update to be told they will find out and get back to me, 2 days later they phone me and tell me phone cannot be repaired and and can offer me 1 of 4 different phones as a good will gesture a galaxy s3 being one.nice i thought i'll have that myself and give my daughter some cash.
phone turns up and keeps coming up with "not registerd on network" - off to tesco we go again.chap in tesco suspects issue with phone and to call customer services.
chap at customer services thinks repair centre has flashed the phone to the wrong network and that i will need to send phone back to repair centre for re-flashing.

here we go again.total shambles.
 

ianc

New Member
Jan 23, 2013
3
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just an update.phone came back on thursday with a letter saying they did extensive tests and couldn't replicate the fault.put simin and powered up and guess what - no registered on network.put an orange sim in and it works ok.

back to tesco phone shop who replicated the fault in 30 seconds and phoned customer services who came up with the usual advice, reset ect which we had already done.he came up with the idea that the phone was faulty and had to be replaced.off to the service centre it goes again.

to be honest i can't fault the sales staff as they do all they can to help but at the other end of the phone and the service centre itself is pants.i would like to know what the extensive tests they did was and whether it involved a tesco sim card.
 

ianc

New Member
Jan 23, 2013
3
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0
they sent the same phone back to me today saying they couldn't repair it as it's blacklisted.

wtf.they supplied it like it what do they think i'm going to do with it.they really are the biggest bunch of muppets i've ever dealt with.

next step trading standards.
 

loopyloo

New Member
May 23, 2013
1
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0
Want to praise tesco mobile repair centre, my 5 month old blackberry wldnt charge, foned up last wed, got a prepaid envelope friday, sent it off same day, got an email mon confirming receipt, got another email confirming it it on the way back nd received a brand new fone yesterday! Brilliant service nd took just 1 week from start to finish! Well done tesco!