Is Meteor right?

MsTempermental

My 15 year old sister rang me yesterday crying her eyes out, she spent €150 on a new phone LG Optimus (or whatever), it was opened in the shop by the sales guy, when she got home she couldn't find the battery. She brought it all back to the shop and the sales assistant said that she (my sister) had mislayed it as the boxes are all weighed and there has never been an incident where parts have been missing.

She tells my sister that she will ring LG on Monday and ask if they will send a battery, if LG are unwilling then my sister will have to buy one herself.

I rang the shop myself and there is no budging them, as far as they are concerned my sister mislayed the battery, and she is reliant on a good will gesture from LG.

Can they do this? No system is infallible surely? My sister is not the kind of person to be sloppy with a phone costing her so much. What do we do if LG decide they don't have to send a battery?

didntgotoplan

Did she see the battery when the sales guy opened the box? Did she throw out/get rid off anything she got with the purchase i.e. bag, information booklet, plastic packaging?

When she went back in, did she bring back the phone with the box, bag and receipt with it?

MsTempermental

No she didn't see the battery and neither did the sales guy, I asked this when I phoned. It's a very small battery or so we are told.

She threw nothing out and went back with everything.

MsTempermental

She also bought insurance due to previous phone trouble with this shop.

foggy_lad

was the phone turned on in the shop? this is probably a case of a phone being returned without battery by someone else and the store are now trying to pass it on to someone else now and who better than a child who they can claim lost it or threw it out with the box etc.

most stores will put a sim card in a phone but only to see the phone working because some are dead out of the box but other stores use this to get rid of returned phones by bringing the box out from the back already opened(seal broken).

amen

go back to them and tell them the ship assistant opened the box and it is their responsibility.

you said she is 15? Bet she is not allowed to enter into a contract as she is under 18. Tell them that and you want your money back. see if they can find a new batter then.

MsTempermental

They are not budging, I've tried to see where we stand legally but I guess it's a citizen's info jobbie.

Boggles

Why was the sales guy taking the phone out of the box anyways?

Get a parent or guardian to march her back into the store.

Talk to the manager. Ask for the number for head office, ring head office from the store.

Do not leave the store until you get your battery.

Even if the young lady did lose the battery, they have no proof, 101 sales gesture, give her a new phone and get LG to replace the battery which they will do at no charge.

gerrycollins

MsTempermental wrote: »

My 15 year old sister rang me yesterday crying her eyes out, she spent €150 on a new phone LG Optimus (or whatever), it was opened in the shop by the sales guy, when she got home she couldn't find the battery. She brought it all back to the shop and the sales assistant said that she (my sister) had mislayed it as the boxes are all weighed and there has never been an incident where parts have been missing.

She tells my sister that she will ring LG on Monday and ask if they will send a battery, if LG are unwilling then my sister will have to buy one herself.

I rang the shop myself and there is no budging them, as far as they are concerned my sister mislayed the battery, and she is reliant on a good will gesture from LG.

Can they do this? No system is infallible surely? My sister is not the kind of person to be sloppy with a phone costing her so much. What do we do if LG decide they don't have to send a battery?

ask them to review their cctv as they would have one covering the counter it could help the sales assistant cover his own back

oohlala

Why did the assistant open the box? Usually they only do that to set up a new phone? If they did this then they had the battery.

Jehuty42

Not to be "that guy", but has your sister tried to turn on the phone? It is fairly common for the battery to be pre-installed in the phone nowadays. I think it's possible the reason she can't find it is that it is in the phone.

foggy_lad

Jehuty42 wrote: »

Not to be "that guy", but has your sister tried to turn on the phone? It is fairly common for the battery to be pre-installed in the phone nowadays. I think it's possible the reason she can't find it is that it is in the phone.

batteries are rarely supplied installed and where they are there is always a piece of plastic to break the contact. get your sister to check for a small plastic tab at the back of the phone.

Sponge Bob

Great idea but you need to do that on a saturday, Meteor shops are never busy during the week.

arrianalexander

the are not legally allowed to sell insurance to a 15 year old so they havve broken the law so you can have that on your side.To my knowledge you have to be at least 16 but i wouldn't go in all guns blazing. ask to speak to the manager and explain that she did not have the battery when she left the shop. if he doesn't want to help you , just ask them how come a 15 year old was sold insurance. If he says well the sales assistant must of made an error in selling it to her. then could of sales assistant of made an error and forgotten to put the battery in.

Fighting Irish

Ashlyn Shaggy Bathroom wrote: »

Go back to the shop and politely say that they are going to provide a battery, because if they don't you will stand at the door and inform every potential customer of their crappy customer service. Say it and mean it. No shop likes a scene.

:rolleyes:

and what if the sister was lying?

plein de force

amen wrote: »

go back to them and tell them the ship assistant opened the box and it is their responsibility.

you said she is 15? Bet she is not allowed to enter into a contract as she is under 18. Tell them that and you want your money back. see if they can find a new batter then.

if it was a bill pay contract then no she can't

but as it is deemed as a normal purchase if it's just the phone then she would be allowed enter into the contract AFAIK

Our man in Havana

oohlala wrote: »

Why did the assistant open the box? Usually they only do that to set up a new phone? If they did this then they had the battery.

It is an annoying habit that all mobile shops engage in. I don't want my phone mauled before I get home.

The battery would not be in the phone out of the box. It is the shops problem to put right.

bongi69

Fairly typical of Meteor as a whole lately.

OP contact the NCA and see what they have to say on the matter. At the end of the day the phone is not fit for purpose (unusable without battery).

Ditto on trying to get them to check CCTV. If the assistant put it straight in the bag it strengthens your case against her losing the battery.

delllat

since eircom acquired meteor they have gone down the toilet

friendface

Ashlyn Shaggy Bathroom wrote: »

Go back to the shop and politely say that they are going to provide a battery, because if they don't you will stand at the door and inform every potential customer of their crappy customer service. Say it and mean it. No shop likes a scene.

Fighting Irish wrote: »

:rolleyes:

and what if the sister was lying?

I can see this ending up in the Cries of Retail thread:

So I work in a mobile phone store. On Saturday I had a woman come in with her daughter shouting the place down because the battery was missing from her phone. I wasn't on duty when the phone was sold and asked the woman to remain calm. She wouldn't listen to reason and stood at the counter scaring all the other customers telling them to check their phones for batteries as Meteor likes to steal things out of the boxes before selling them. In the meantime, I checked the phone she'd brought in. Turns out the battery was already in the phone but the daughter hadn't charged it. :rolleyes:

Sorry OP, hopefully this gets sorted out but I'd never advocate making a scene in a store as a solution to this. It's quite possible that the store clerk took the battery out when he was checking the contents and forgot to replace it in the box. I'm sure Meteor or LG would oblige and supply a new battery though. In a case like this, it would be highly unlikely a customer would make up a story about losing a battery just after buying a phone. It's not worth the hassle to them of not providing a replacement. These batteries could only cost LG €1/2 at most so I can't see how they wouldn't issue a replacement.

BTW, if you can't get it replaced, they are on sale on ebay for less than a tenner (w/ charger): Battery + Charger