Advice needed! Disgraceful behaviour from both Tesco's and Motorola after my phone goes wrong!

[Guest TescoHudl]

My Moto G developed a fault where the vibration motor would only vibrate the phone very weakly, and sometimes not at all. The vibration was always very weak and after a couple of vibrations it would stop working completely. The phone was still within the warranty period, so i took it back to the Tesco Phone Shop where i bought it from and informed them of the issue. They booked the device in for repair and said that an envelope would be sent to me through the post, so then i could send the phone to the Tesco repair centre to be fixed. 

 

After a few days the envelope arrived, so i packaged the phone up and sent it to the repair centre as instructed. The phones bootloader has been unlocked, so i flashed the original boot logo to the device to remove the warning message. However, if they went to the bootloader they would still be able to see the 'Unlocked: Status Code 3' message.

 

Then, about a week later i receive a message on the answer machine to say that they needed to speak to me about the phone. I called back and they said that the standard technicians were unable to fix the fault, and that the phone had been passed on to a higher level of repair at Tesco's. But despite it being passed on to the higher level of repair, they were still unable to fix the device. The man told me that the phone had been sent to Motorola where they could inspect it further, but then he offered me full refund of approximately £130 via a cheque through the post. I quickly decided to take the refund and we agreed that the repair would not take place and Motorola would keep the phone.

 

After almost a week i had still had no cheque for the refund, so i phoned Tesco's once again to ask what was happening. They confirmed that the cheque would be coming to me shortly, but said that i couldn't include Saturday and Sunday as days where the cheque would be sent out because they were not working days at the repair centre. I was told to wait until Wednesday (Today) for the cheque to turn up.

 

So after getting 100% confirmation from Tesco's that i would be getting a full refund for the phone, i went online and ordered the new OnePlus One from the OnePlus website. I paid £274 for the phone including £5 postage and packing via PayPal.

 

But then to my horror, i received a parcel yesterday afternoon with a Tesco's label on the wrapper. I opened up the parcel and sure enough, there was my Moto G which i was supposed to be getting a refund for! A letter included said that the technicians had inspected the insides of the phone but were not prepared to carry out a repair because they had found "traces of liquid corrosion/water damage which may have corroded part of the internal circuit board".

 

I think this is complete bullshit because i have owned a phone since November 2013, and not once have i taken it into an environment where the phone could have got wet. It has never been used in the rain and i have never dropped it into water. And also, i have never seen any condensation on the phone either. Besides, the Moto G is also supposed to be water repellent anyway!

 

Taken from The Guardian website (Amongst thousands of other sources): "Gorilla Glass also covers the screen, making it scratch resistant, while a nano waterproof coating on the inside and out of the Moto G makes it water repellent and splash proof."

 

So if the Moto G has a waterproof coating on both the inside and out, how would the circuit board have got damaged? And surely if the circuit board was corroded it would affect more than just the vibration motor?

 

I also tested the vibration motor to see whether the problem was any different, but now it doesn't work at all. When i sent the phone to them, the vibration motor worked very weakly for a couple of vibrations before stopping altogether; but the vibration motor will not work at all now. So they have now messed up my phone even further!

 

I phoned Tesco about this once again and they said just to wait until this morning to see whether the cheque turns up. But obviously the cheque did not arrive.

 

I think this is disgusting behaviour from both Tesco's and Motorola to say three times that i will be getting a refund and allowing me to spend £274 on a new phone, and then sending my old phone back saying they won't repair it.

 

So the purpose of this thread is just to ask your opinions on this, and also what i should do about this now? Any suggestions of what to do next would of course be massively appreciated.

 

~ Rob

Edited October 1, 2014 by TescoHudl

[Guest andybarker]

I think this is a tough one.  I would call Tesco and tell them you will send them the phone back once they have sent the promised refund.  Do you have any recording of the calls that made the commitment to you about the cheque?

 

Try your best not to get angry with anyone on the phone, but do be firm and "reasonable" (in the circumstances).  Ask if they can confirm the cheque option was real, and why they changed their minds. Record any calls you make if possible.  Once you get more information, perhaps small claims court is an option.

[Guest TescoHudl]

I think this is a tough one.  I would call Tesco and tell them you will send them the phone back once they have sent the promised refund.  Do you have any recording of the calls that made the commitment to you about the cheque?

 

Try your best not to get angry with anyone on the phone, but do be firm and "reasonable" (in the circumstances).  Ask if they can confirm the cheque option was real, and why they changed their minds. Record any calls you make if possible.  Once you get more information, perhaps small claims court is an option.

 

Hi Andy, 

 

Thanks for your response. Yes i think i will phone Tesco's once again tomorrow and see what they have to say about it, now that the cheque has failed to arrive. Unfortunately i don't have any recordings of the calls which took place, however i should be able to record any future calls i have with Tesco's. 

 

And yes, i agree that i should definitely try to keep calm over the phone, after all it probably won't be one of the same people who answer the phone as the last three times. Luckily i am usually able to keep my cool over the phone anyway, despite being absolutely furious with them!

 

I'll see how the call goes tomorrow, if they don't want to cooperate then i will perhaps try sending a written letter instead. I can just use may last post as a template for the letter, then i will just need to direct it towards Tesco instead and also make it sound a bit more polite!

 

Cheers

 

~ Rob

[Guest dt_matthews]

I would just write a letter (or email if you dont feel inclined to incur the time and cost of postage but in my experience letters often get more attention) to the Head of Customer Services at Tesco.

 

Just keep it very calm, concise, and back it up with as much detail as you can. When I have done this I have usually had a favourable outcome (I had the same problem with an EE repair that was reneged on because of water damage out after setting out my case I was eventually offered a new phone.

 

Best of luck.

[Guest Maximus9]

Though by unlocking the bootloader you lost any warranties.

So in a way they offered a good service by not making a fuss about that.

[Guest TescoHudl]

I would just write a letter (or email if you dont feel inclined to incur the time and cost of postage but in my experience letters often get more attention) to the Head of Customer Services at Tesco.

 

Just keep it very calm, concise, and back it up with as much detail as you can. When I have done this I have usually had a favourable outcome (I had the same problem with an EE repair that was reneged on because of water damage out after setting out my case I was eventually offered a new phone.

 

Best of luck.

 

Sorry about the late response, i have genuinely been really busy recently and completely forgot about this thread! I have taken both your and Andy's advice and i went ahead and wrote a letter to Tesco's explaining the situation. I didn't bother making the phone call to Tesco's, instead i phoned Trading Standards and asked them for additional advice (They also suggested writing a letter). I used my original post as a rough template for the letter but then modified it so that it was a lot more calm and polite! Just need to wait until Saturday and then i will be able to post it. 

 

When i receive a response i'll return here and post up what the outcome is! :)

Edited October 9, 2014 by TescoHudl

[Guest cryptoncore]

This really does suck, it's odd though, we have had a total of THREE hudl's with the screen issue (which they claim to be fixed, it isn't...no surprise there?) but I must give credit where it's due, they have replaced them. 

 

Possible to take the phone to a different store? I don't know if that's allowed or not.