Been sold a blacklisted mobile phone - any advice please?

[Old Frightful]

Hi folks, It's my lad's 14th birthday this coming week and he's been after a Samsung Galaxy S5 phone to replace his Iphone 5 he fell out with. He's on a sim only deal which has some time left to run which is why we didn't want to just get one on a new contract.

 

We saw an advert on Gumtree for one not far from us and bought it for £180. When we put his sim card in, which we couldn't do straight away as we needed an adaptor for it, we discovered it couldn't make or receive calls or texts even though the signal strength was fine. After a bit of internet searching and call making, O2, (the original supplier of the phone), took the IMEI number from the phone, did some checking, and told us it had been reported lost or stolen, was now blacklisted, and is now useless.

 

I reported it to Gumtree who told us they were unable to do anything and advised us to make a claim via the small claims court. I was a bit taken aback by this as I would have thought that somebody committing fraud on their website would make them take some sort of action, a bit like Ebay do if there's a dispute.

 

I have the seller's first name, address and mobile number, but somewhat unsurprisingly, he's not answering his phone as yet.

 

Before I go round to his house to discuss the situation, has anybody been in a similar situation or got any advice for us as to what action's available?

 

Anybody have any good experience of the small claims court and is it worth it for the amount?

 

Needless to say, I'll not be using Gumtree in the near future and won't be trusting anyone selling anything ever again.

 

Thanks in advance for any constructive replies.

 

 

 

 

[Tiny Tim]

Do you have several large friends who could go with you to discuss a refund?

[back to the future]

Do you have several large friends who could go with you to discuss a refund?

Yep take Feka with you.

Small claims court maybe your only other option.

Sorry to hear this maybe speak to the police with it being possibly stolen

[9' oller]

Surely buying in this manner you realised the risk.

Gum tree is less regulated.

Cash is another no no.

[Old Frightful]

Surely buying in this manner you realised the risk.

Gum tree is less regulated.

Cash is another no no.

Gumtree is a major player in selling stuff on the internet, they spend huge amounts advertising their services, I would have thought they would give some sort of guarantee against fraudsters or at least show an interest in contacting the dodgy bleeder, neither of which they've done up to now.

 

After taking advice from EE, it's now in the hands of the Police who, rather surprisingly, seem to have a keen interest in taking the matter up for me.

 

Thanks for the replies folks.

[tonyXIII]

Good luck, mate. Hope you get your money back and your lad gets his new phone.

[ckn]

Gumtree is a major player in selling stuff on the internet, they spend huge amounts advertising their services, I would have thought they would give some sort of guarantee against fraudsters or at least show an interest in contacting the dodgy bleeder, neither of which they've done up to now.

 

After taking advice from EE, it's now in the hands of the Police who, rather surprisingly, seem to have a keen interest in taking the matter up for me.

 

Thanks for the replies folks.

It all depends on local priorities, if the guy is making enough of a nuisance of himself or there have been a few similar things then the police will take a lot of notice, especially if you give them the stolen item and the guy's contact details as it makes for a very easy arrest and conviction.

 

I had a similar one a few years ago, I got a very cheap laptop from Cash Converters for my gran, £200 for a laptop I knew was worth £1500 not a year ago.  A quick check of it at home had it showing as a corporate laptop that had been very hastily overwritten with a new operating system.  I called the company asking if it had legitimately been sold, they said that it was marked as sitting in their asset cupboard, a tech storeman had stolen sold it for some extra money.  I handed it into the police who did their thing.  The police were delighted at the easy arrest and were grateful for me handing it in when I could easily have wiped it properly and no-one would have known differently.  Cash Converters initially refused to refund my money until I threatened to go to the press about them handling stolen goods.  I got a call from the police a while later apologising for the company not being in touch, they said the ungrateful bunch saw it as my public duty to hand it in and didn't feel that they needed to show any gratitude.

[Old Frightful]

Good luck, mate. Hope you get your money back and your lad gets his new phone.

Thanks for your kind words Tony, have to give a statement on Wednesday then hopefully the long arm of the Law will stretch out and bring him in for a word or two in his shell like.

[Old Frightful]

Update time.

 

The Police phoned me on Friday and said they'd visited the address where, a man with the right name, matching the description I gave was living. He said that he'd bought the phone whilst abroad, used it for a while, then sold it on in good faith claiming it worked fine for him. The Police then asked if I'd be willing to attend a meeting with him the following day, chaired by them to see if the matter could be resolved, to which I agreed.

 

In the meantime, I contacted O2, the original supplier of the phone, to see if they could tell me when it had been blacklisted. Surprisingly, they were only too happy to do so. It was reported lost or stolen last year and was blacklisted on the 24th August 2014. I asked if any back street outfits would have been able get it working again to which O2 replied that that would be impossible.

 

Went to the meeting yesterday where this character turned up with his mum. He maintained his story that he'd been using it with no problem over the last few weeks. When it was pointed out by the Police that this was impossible, he picked up the phone and said "I'll put my sim card in and show you it working". Shortly after doing this and, being unable to get the phone working, he began muttering "That's strange, it doesn't work". He then said a shop in Hull centre would get it working and it would only cost US £20. He then said he couldn't repay us the £180 as he was skint, by which time his mother was getting rather embarrassed and offered to pay us the money back herself. She actually said that, although he was her son, she agreed with us and knew we were in the right.

 

So, although I was a bit taken aback by him turning up with his mum, it was a blessing for us as otherwise it would have ended up in court and my lad may not have seen his money ever again.

 

Thanks again for everyone's input into the thread, this experience has given me a little bit of faith in the Police back.

[Gary Coyle]

good result apart from an innocent mother being out of pocket

[tonyXIII]

good result apart from an innocent mother being out of pocket

 

Yes. Perhaps she should have given her son a better set of moral values?

 

Glad you got a result, OF!

[Ullman]

Glad you got a result, OF!

 

Me too

 

And hats off to the local rozzers for actually giving a ######.

[Old Frightful]

Thanks guys.

 

It was a far better result than I could ever have expected and I am indebted to the rather gorgeous blonde female PC who sorted it all for us.