Very shocked at what has happened.
DH sent his pristine, 11 month old iPhone4s in to Tesco Mobile recycling a couple of weeks ago to sell. He is neurotic about keeping his gadgets in good order and has always kept it in a case with a screen guard. The phone was in perfect order and he was initially told he would get 220 pounds for it. After a few days, having heard nothing from them he phoned and was told that they could no longer offer this as the sim gate was damaged. He could have 88 pounds for it. He said that the phone was in perfect order when he sent it and he wanted them to return it to him immediately with the engineers report.
He was told the phone would be returned by courier in two to three days time.
After three missed return dates DH phoned again to chase it up and added that he wanted a technicians report. At this point he was told that the phone also had a second fault that meant it would have been labelled as non-working related to charging (this hadn't been mentioned until this point). DH pointed out that the phone had arrived with them fully charged and in perfect order.
A few days after this the phone arrived home. The sim gate was (unsurprisingly) fine but the connections on the charge port were mangled, rendering the phone useless.
The charging port looks like it's been poked hard with a screwdriver or something.
We're wondering whether someone has a scam going there, telling people phones are damaged before selling them on as perfect.
DH is spitting nails, because he has no way of proving the phone was perfect when it was sent in. Which of course is always going to be the case for anyone sending a phone in for recycling. And he's left with a vandalised phone which is now worth nothing unless he pays to get it fixed. ]
Infuriating. 
AIBU?
In thinking there may be something VERY dodgy going on at Tesco Mobile recycling?
Shagmundfreud · 20/10/2012 23:59
Send them a letter, recorded delivery, that says that you have checked your own security coding on the handset, and can now prove that they have swapped the sim card from your handset to a different one, and tell them you are now taking legal advice, but will give them 14 days to investigate and rectify the situation.
See what happens 
Yes - he's making a formal complaint and will probably take them to the small claims court.
He just trusted them to give him what the phone was worth because, well, it's Tesco!
Honestly the phone was completely immaculate when he sent it off. It could have passed for brand new. No scratches on the case. No scratches on the screen.
Mine's not. Mine looks like it's been sat on by a hippo. 
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