by Two south Londoners have blamed Carphone Warehouse and DPD after claiming they never received the phones they ordered.
Purley’s Pav Ponnoosami says he ordered a brand new iPhone 15 as a Christmas present for his stepdaughter from Carphone Warehouse, so when a parcel from DPD arrived, he saved it to open on Christmas Day.
However, when December 25th came and she opened her gift, she was disappointed to find a phone with iPhone hardware but Android software.
He has said that Christmas was ruined when dealing with the discussion and that he feels “violated” by the lack of communication between the two companies.
Pav said: “I was probably the last person to do online banking and I don’t like online shopping because I trust it.
“It’s just chaos.
“It has put us off shopping online, shame on Carphone Warehouse.”
The phone settings said it was an A46 which is not made for any iPhone.
Pav recently ordered an older iPhone for himself, which meant they could compare the packaging.
Pav Ponnoosami (Image: Pav Ponnoosami)
He said it was “disgusting” and the quality of the pictures on the side was not as good as the one that came to him.
On Boxing Day, Pav jumped straight on the phone to Carphone Warehouse to tell them what had happened and was asked for the phone’s IMEI number.
But, because the IMEI number on the box and phone was different from the one left by Carphone Warehouse, Pav claims he was told he could not return the phone.
Instead, he was directed to DPD to complain.
However, he says the DPD told him that because it was past their 14-day policy, they could not launch an investigation and that if he wanted to continue, it was a civil matter at that point.
He said: “They’ve hung up on us twice. They promised us callbacks from managers and they never did.
“When I was still saying all you have to do is give me the IMEI number of the phone that left the depot so I know if it has been exchanged or not, they wouldn’t give that information me because it was over the 14 days.
“Nowhere in the contract or documentation with Carphone Warehouse does it say we are coming under the DPD policies.
“They could outsource to any courier, I don’t care, I just want the product I paid for.”
Pav could not believe that the 14 day policy continued over the Christmas period for him, it would have made no sense for him to open and check the package that was his gift.
He said: “It’s a Christmas present. Do you want your children to open a present at Christmas? Of course you wouldn’t.”
Pav is furious that Carphone Warehouse has had no apology and no compensation, despite spending annual holidays on the phone to try and sort out the disaster.
He said: “We just want the phone we paid for and I think we deserve some compensation here because Christmas has been completely ruined.
“We spent God knows how many hours on the phone.
“I spent almost every holiday on the phone to Carphone Warehouse or DPD.
“We can’t even look at the phone, it’s hidden in a box somewhere because this is a terrible experience.
“You read about this stuff and you see it on Watchdog but you don’t think it will happen to you.
“We feel victimized.
“We feel that our rights have been taken away from us. We think pochta is a habit compared to these big organizations. It is terrible, we think violated.
“And now, my wife has just two years of damage and we thought we should cancel the sim tariff but we don’t want to be blacklisted as well.
“We feel that we have to pay this money to this organization over two years while someone used our phone and we can’t even use anything. We are lost in every aspect.”
In a separate issue – an Erith resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, had a similar experience.
He ordered a Samsung phone from Carphone Warehouse to be delivered by DPD.
When the package arrived, he says there was a big rip in the packaging and nothing was found – instead there was a portable charger.
Portable charger (Image: Anonymous)
He said: “I can’t believe it and they are so slow to fix it too.
“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 was unable to get help when calling to complain.
He added: “They’re treating me like I’m wrong, but someone has opened the package, taken out the phone and put in a power bank instead.
“I sent them all the evidence, pictures of the bag being opened and the cello closed, pictures of the power bank, pictures of the parcel on its journey – everything.
“It’s very strange because Carphone Warehouse, it says online that they are part of Currys.
“Who am I supposed to talk to?
Rip packaging (Image: Anonymous)
“There are all these companies involved and then DPD delivered it.
“This has never happened to me before.”
Back in 2014, Carphone Warehouse was absorbed by Currys.
In response to this anonymous customer’s complaint, a Currys spokesperson said: “We were sorry to hear about this customer’s situation and are doing everything we can to resolve this as quickly as possible.
“Obviously, our teams have to be extremely thorough when carrying out their investigations, especially since the number of fraud and theft cases has increased 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 into events, which they will update us on shortly.
“In the meantime, we will continue to communicate with Charlie and investigate the situation in depth.”
Currys did not provide a statement based on Pav’s complaints.
DPD did not provide a statement on either complaint.
