Shop charged for items I never asked for!

BabysCoffee

Sounds like there could have been confusion when the father bought the item.
The father was sent in on an errand by another person.....in my experience this can lead to mistakes being made.
We are now near hearing an account of what happened in the shop by a 3rd party - we don't really know what conversation took place.
I'd be slow to claim the shop assistant was scamming the father.

xabi

Lia Melted Backstop wrote: »

He said it was a galaxy s6. He said there was a word after it but he couldnt remember. He described the colour and the shiny finish and round edges. He said the exact price on the price plan he was on.

Only one possible phone could have been sold with those details and it wasnt the correct one.

Again let me remind you. He sold him a phone 1/3 of the price then added accessories without my fathers knowledge or permission to bring the price up to the €149.

Seriously Xabi how can you defend this behavior?

Not defending anything, just doubt that the sales assistant is scamming. Did he get an S6??

qvsr46ofgc792k

BabysCoffee wrote: »

Sounds like there could have been confusion when the father bought the item.
The father was sent in on an errand by another person.....in my experience this can lead to mistakes being made.
We are now near hearing an account of what happened in the shop by a 3rd party - we don't really know what conversation took place.
I'd be slow to claim the shop assistant was scamming the father.

Ok aside from the point the sales agent added in accessories without my fathers permission or knowledge to round the price up to €149.

Explain him refusing to take back the phone claiming it was what my dad asked for until my father showed him the receipt to remind him it clearly wasn't what he asked for?

tayto lover

BabysCoffee wrote: »

Sounds like there could have been confusion when the father bought the item.
The father was sent in on an errand by another person.....in my experience this can lead to mistakes being made.
We are now near hearing an account of what happened in the shop by a 3rd party - we don't really know what conversation took place.
I'd be slow to claim the shop assistant was scamming the father.

Then why all the extra stuff to make up the price when the phone he wanted was 149 euro on it's own?

Snakeweasel

Is there any chance that there was a deal for a different model s6 with the extras as part of a bundle for the same price? As others have said, sounds a bit far fetched that sales agent would be so blatant in trying to scam your father. Especially as your father described it as an S6 with some other word he couldn't remember.

dudara

tayto lover wrote: »

Seems a lot of unnecessary trouble though. Especially as the sales person was definitely trying to pull a fast one on an elderly person. Is that shop policy?

You have to be able to prove that statement. Right now we have one side of the story

Lia Melted Backstop wrote: »

And what if my father had walked out of the store without challenging the sales agent when he said it cannot be returned?

Are you actually saying that a sales agent can make unauthorized sales of goods not requested and be protected by consumer law?

If the phone was being returned as a change of mind, then yes, the shop can refuse it. But in this case, it was an instance of mis-sold goods, which falls under consumer law, so the shop has to engage with your father.

Look, it's definitely suspicious, but the shop are resolving it in the manner that they should. It's made a littler trickier that we're dealing with Chinese whispers here (your mother spoke to your father, then your father spoke to you and now you're telling us). Finally, your father should follow up with an official written complaint. (Not you, as you weren't the customer here).

BabysCoffee

Which phone was on the receipt? The one your dad took home?

Seve OB

Big problem here is they opened the phone

why would you do that when you can see it is the wrong one????

that was a schoolboy error,

tayto lover

dudara wrote: »

You have to be able to prove that statement. Right now we have one side of the story

He didn't get what he asked for.
He got things he didn't want to make up the price.
He was refused a change when he pointed it out to the assistant.

It's plain enough to me.

dudara

tayto lover wrote: »

dudara wrote: »

You have to be able to prove that statement. Right now we have one side of the story

He didn't get what he asked for.
He got things he didn't want to make up the price.
He was refused a change when he pointed it out to the assistant.

It's plain enough to me.

Can you provide the evidence to support this - given that you have no involvement at all in any of this and you're going by a third party account. All I'm asking for is to refrain from the definite statements and provide advice to the OP on how to proceed.

tayto lover

dudara wrote: »

tayto lover wrote: »

Can you provide the evidence to support this - given that you have no involvement at all in any of this and you're going by a third party account. All I'm asking for is to refrain from the definite statements and provide advice to the OP on how to proceed.

The evidence to support it?? Why did the sales assistant put in extra items without even saying something like " i'm giving you great value here with these extras". That's what they usually do when they are giving extras. This seems to have been done very sneakily.

My advice to the OP is to go back and refuse to leave the shop until the matter is rectified. Otherwise get on to the Ombudsman.

qvsr46ofgc792k

dudara wrote: »

tayto lover wrote: »

Can you provide the evidence to support this - given that you have no involvement at all in any of this and you're going by a third party account. All I'm asking for is to refrain from the definite statements and provide advice to the OP on how to proceed.

It does not matter if he has no involvement on this he is taking me at my word as should you.

I'm looking for advice, if people are giving replies they should be taking what I say as 100% truth, sure how else can one advise?

I mentioned no names for this specific reason, just take me at my word and advise accordingly.

Thank you.

xabi

The advice would be to accept that mistakes were made on both sides and take what the shop is offering.

eezipc

I had a similar issue a couple of years ago with a Vodafone shop.
My wife bought a phone and brought it home and found that she could not connect it to her laptop to upload/download photos.
There was no cable with it and this could only be done via Bluetooth.
She went straight back to the store and they would not budge. Their line was that they don't do refunds over "change of mind".
However, she did not change her mind. The phone did not do what she wanted it to do.
So I went in and after quite a bit of arguing in the store, they relented and allowed her to swap for a different phone.

I managed to persuade them because my wife had told them originally that she needed the phone to transfer her photos as her old phone was full. My line was they never told her she could only do this via Bluetooth and her laptop is not Bluetooth enabled.

Anyway, my point is that perhaps the shop in this occasion was not pulling a fast one and there may have been a mix up. However, they should have resolved it straight away. Just because the box was open is not a excuse as a lot of phones look very similar so you may not notice it straight away. (i guess the same excuse that the shop can make for their mistake.)

Seve OB

eezipc wrote: »

I had a similar issue a couple of years ago with a Vodafone shop.
My wife bought a phone and brought it home and found that she could not connect it to her laptop to upload/download photos.
There was no cable with it and this could only be done via Bluetooth.
She went straight back to the store and they would not budge. Their line was that they don't do refunds over "change of mind".
However, she did not change her mind. The phone did not do what she wanted it to do.
So I went in and after quite a bit of arguing in the store, they relented and allowed her to swap for a different phone.

I managed to persuade them because my wife had told them originally that she needed the phone to transfer her photos as her old phone was full. My line was they never told her she could only do this via Bluetooth and her laptop is not Bluetooth enabled.

Anyway, my point is that perhaps the shop in this occasion was not pulling a fast one and there may have been a mix up. However, they should have resolved it straight away. Just because the box was open is not a excuse as a lot of phones look very similar so you may not notice it straight away. (i guess the same excuse that the shop can make for their mistake.)

not any kind of excuse at all. the phone did what it was supposed to do.

TerrorFirmer

Some chains put incredible pressure on staff to make accessory sales, it's where they make major money. This does sound rather suspicious to me overall. You should ask to speak to the manager and have a cordial conversation outlining your concerns and the situation - if you're not happy with the result you can escalate it higher up the chain at that point.

Also the above issue with the laptop/bluetooth situation is nowhere remotely near the OP's situation. It was courtesy that they changed it really, they're not to blame for that. Many laptops have bluetooth built in and if not, a bluetooth adaptor or a micro USB cable are about €2 to buy online. Or else you could use a card reader, similarly priced. There are loads of ways that could have been easily resolved.

seagull

Seve OB wrote: »

not any kind of excuse at all. the phone did what it was supposed to do.

Perfectly valid excuse if the shop have been told what it's wanted for, and sell you something that doesn't meet those requirements. If I ask for a particular model, then it's assumed I've done the homework. If I ask for advice, and say what I need the phone to do, then it's assumed the staff member will advise according to those requirements.

ED E

While the shop (in the OP) seem to be acting a bit nefarious going in and saying "I want the one for €150" isnt how you should shop for a device. For all we know the combo he got was on a poster in the window for said price.

VincePP

<SNIP>

In many phone stores staff have targets to make to earn a proper wage.

Margins on accessories are huge and attract a nice commission hence you get aggressive selling tactics and if you seem like you don't know too much, you will be mis-sold.

Whether you blame the sales person or the company's commission policy is neither here nir there, the op's father was mis-sold and has an absolute entitlement to have it corrected and it does not matter that the phone has been opened.

Purely by adding in accessories that were not aaked for and which were charged separately is proof of mis-selling.

That is consumer law and there's no ambiguity about it.

dudara

@VincePP - comment on the post, not the poster. Next time will incur mod action.

dudara