Carphone Warehouse and DPD slammed over faulty phones

Pav Ponnoosami from Purley says he ordered a brand new iPhone 15 as a Christmas present for his step-daughter from Carphone Warehouse, and so when a parcel delivered by DPD arrived from them he saved it for her to open on Christmas Day.

However, when December 25 came and she opened her gift, she was dismayed to find a phone with iPhone hardware but Android software.

He has said that dealing with the debacle ruined his Christmas and that he feels “violated” by the lack of communication from both companies.

Pav said: “I was probably the last person to do online banking and I don’t like online shopping because I’m all about trust.

“It’s just shocking.

“It’s put us off online shopping, we’re disgusted with Carphone Warehouse."

The phone settings said it was an A46 which is not the make of any iPhone.

Pav had recently ordered an older iPhone for himself, which meant they could compare the packaging.

Pav Ponnoosami (Image: Pav Ponnoosami)

He said it was “duller” and that the quality of the pictures on the side was not as good as the one that had arrived for him.

On Boxing Day, Pav jumped straight on the phone to Carphone Warehouse to tell them what happened and he was asked for the IMEI number of the phone.

But, because the IMEI number on the box and in the phone were both different to the one that had left Carphone Warehouse, Pav claims he was told he could not return the phone.

Instead, he was directed to DPD to lodge a complaint.

However, he says he was told by DPD that as it had been over their 14 day policy, they could not launch an investigation and that if he wanted to follow it up, at that point it had become a civil matter.

He added: “They have hung up on us twice. They have promised us calls back from managers and they never did.

“When I kept saying all you need to do is give me the IMEI number of the phone that left the depot so I know if it was swapped or not, they wouldn’t give me that information because it was over the 14 days.

“Nowhere in the contract or documentation with Carphone Warehouse does it say we’re coming under the DPD policies.

“They could outsource to any courier, it doesn’t matter to me, I just want the product I paid for.”

Pav could not believe that the 14 day policy continued over the Christmas period as to him, it would make no sense for him to have opened and checked the package that was a present.

He added: “It’s a Christmas present. Would you want your kids to have an opened present on Christmas? Of course you wouldn’t.”

Pav is outraged that there has been no apology from Carphone Warehouse and no compensation, despite spending days of his festive annual leave on the phone to try and fix the mishap.

He said: “All we want is the phone that we paid for and I think we deserve some compensation here because it’s ruined out Christmas completely.

“We spent God knows how many hours on the phone.

“I spent three days of leave pretty much on the phone constantly to Carphone Warehouse or DPD.

“We can’t even look at the phone, it’s hiding in a box somewhere because this has just been an awful experience.

“You read about this stuff and you see it on Watchdog but you don’t think it will happen to you.

“We really feel victimised.

“We feel like our rights have been taken away from us. We feel like pittance compared to these big organisations. It’s awful, we feel violated.

“And now, my wife has got a two year direct debit and we thought we should cancel the sim tariff but what we don’t want is to be blacklisted as well.

“We feel like we have to pay this money to this organisation over two years while someone has nicked our phone and we can’t even use anything. We’ve lost on every front.”

In a separate issue - an Erith resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, had a similar experience.

He ordered a Samsung phone from Carphone Warehouse which was delivered by DPD.

When the parcel arrived, he says there was a big rip in the packaging and there was no found to be found – instead there was a portable charger.

Portable charge (Image: Anonymous)

He said: “I just can’t believe it, and they’ve been so slow to sort it out as well.

“I’m just stuck with this power bank and I can’t get the phone.”

Without the IMEI number of the correct phone, this customer also failed to get help when phoning to complain.

He added: “They are treating me like I’m in the wrong, but someone has literally opened the package, taken the phone out and put a power bank in instead.

“I’ve sent them all the evidence, pictures of the bag being open and cello taped shut, pictures of the power bank, pictures of the parcel on its journey – everything.

“It’s really weird because Carphone Warehouse, it says online they are part of Currys.

“Who am I meant to speak to?

Ripped packaging (Image: Anonymous)

“There’s all these companies involved and then DPD delivered it.

“I have never had anything like this happen to me before.”

Back in 2014, Carphone Warehouse was absorbed by Currys.

In response to this anonymous customer’s complaints, a Currys Spokesperson said: “We were sorry to hear of this customer’s case and are doing everything we can to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

“Understandably, our teams have to be extremely thorough when completing their investigations, especially as we have been seeing increasing instances of fraud and theft recently.

“We want to get to the bottom of this and make sure we resolve the issue for this customer.

“As part of this, we have raised a case with our delivery partner who are currently conducting a full investigation of events, which they will update us on imminently.

“In the meantime, we will continue to communicate with this customer and investigate the case in-depth.”

Currys did not provide a statement based on Pav's complaints.

DPD did not provide a statement on either complaint.