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.
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.