OK.
Here’s a good one. I think.
Recently, I damaged my phone. I er.. dropped my hand on it. It was a high gravity day; there’d been a neutron star collision in Nether Edge, Sheffield. Seriously. Anyway, the screen was damaged, and hand cut. Old phone, but pathetic
Screen stopped working the other day, so went looking for a new one. I’ve called 3 to discuss an upgrade.
I was cold called by “Fone City” (Fone city.uk) who tried to sign me up for what seemed like a very good deal. I was worried about the amount of information they wanted to set up the account, direct debit, upfront charge etc. Anyway, I agreed to proceed. Samsung S10+ on a good tariff. 24 months @ 12/month.
I called my bank (Nationwide) because of my suspicions. A payment (£30) had already been taken, but seemed to be assigned to the wrong network. (Voda not 3). They thought the questions weren’t too unusual for purchase/direct debit, but noted concerns anyway.
The next day DPD deliver the phone. The deal’s great; I’m excited. Open the box.. and it’s an iPhone 12 Pro Max and Vodafone sim. Completely wrong delivery, so I call Fonecity, who seem to be in a bit of a panic. I’m told that “dispatch” sent the phone to the wrong customer, and they try to get me to pay to return the phone, “don’t put the sim in” (the one I’m using now
) etc.
I’m called throughout the day by various characters, the dispatch manager, accounts, sales etc, who all appear to be the same person. They want me to return the phone as a matter of urgency, offering various incentives, delivery of the correct items the next day (Saturday) together with additional gift, reduced tariff etc, so I explain that I’d pay to return the phone once the refundable upfront charge is paid, and depending on what I receive the next day. I suggest they send me a pre-paid returns label/bag etc with the replacement phone. Of course, they don’t seem to be able to do that.
I call Nationwide again, and say I’ll stop my card if the correct delivery isn’t received. I’m called a few more times by Fonecity, who point out that I’m a very reasonable man etc, and they assure me that they will refund the postage if I get to the post office before 11am Saturday. “Text me the returns address, and we’ll see what I’m delivered tomorrow, and whether you’ve refunded the upfront cost”.
Searching online, all the references I can find regarding the delivery of “unsolicited goods” suggest that incorrect items received from distance (not eye:eye) selling, can legally be treated as a gift; it’s a criminal offence to try to take payment for items delivered in error.
I was going to post up on UKB last night, to find out what other people thought.. you know, chop their heads off, that sort of thing
However, the delivery time came and went today, plus a few more calls from Fonecity. I get a text from Nationwide, asking that I send an authorisation code to verify a payment of £400 to “smallworldfs” (Small World Fone Services?).
I call the bank, and we stop the Visa card. Apparently there’s been a lot of activity, but all transactions have been blocked - apart from £2.35 to Tesco and 35p ! to Sainsbury’s. All really impressive. The scam had involved “successfully” changing my registered mobile number and email address! Surprisingly, no transaction had slipped through the net.
Amazingly I have another call from Rahul at Fonecity, so I tell him that I don’t think we should be speaking, and that the only other people I’ll be speaking with about this are the police. Rahul hasn’t called back. I’m feeling lonely. Maybe we could have had a laugh about it
I’m also contacted by 3 - my mobile provider. Someone had been in touch to “agree” an upgrade on my plan, and to arrange for delivery of a new phone to me. I’m assuming that Fonecity would have then pretended the handset was the new one I’d ordered from them! Anyway, it’s sorted out, with no change to plan or tariff. Great.
So, that just leaves me with a new iPhone 12 “Mega Pro”.
Whoopy do!
It’s my birthday tomorrow too (53 - so quit your moaning about being a groaning pile of spare parts OMM
)
Thought that was worth sharing.
