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AIBU?

To think she should refund me?

50 replies

DisneySenior · 22/02/2017 00:57

I bought an iPhone off a Facebook sales page yesterday. Put my sim in the phone and seen it working so I paid for it. I bought it off a friend of a friend and asked her if it was fully working she said yes and she was selling due to an upgrade.

The phone is fucked, it's had a new screen and it's been poorly fitted so the touchscreen jumps all the time and doesn't recognise the keypad so I'm struggling to text or call.

It's also holding charge for a couple of hours max.

I had a message from our mutual friend earlier tonight telling me that she was moaning about the phone and she was going to sell it.


Aibu to ask for my money back or is this an expensive lesson?

OP posts:
SundialShadow · 22/02/2017 01:02

Did you pay via PayPal? If so, you should start a returns process via them.

If not, you will have to rely on the goodwill of the seller.

DisneySenior · 22/02/2017 01:12

I paid cash, she came to my house and I've been stupid and trusted her.

I will message her tomorrow and hope she has a conscience - she knows I'm a recent single mum

OP posts:
DisneySenior · 22/02/2017 01:13

Posted too soon - I'm on a very low income but desperately needed a phone. I saved for 3 weeks and paid £100. Not mega bucks but a lot to me.

OP posts:
ElvishArchdruid · 22/02/2017 01:18

I think she's in her rights to say sold as seen. If something seems too good to be true it usually is. So don't be shocked if she refuses. Always buy from reputable sources, like CEX etc, where I'd imagine if there was an issue they're obliged to deal with it.

ElvishArchdruid · 22/02/2017 01:20

I know we'd hope that people wouldn't do such things against us. Your circumstances mean little to her, she could be struggling for various reasons. I don't think being in a certain group affords you special treatment.

This isn't me being nasty but realistic.

kali110 · 22/02/2017 01:25

You'll probably be out of luck, but what a con artist. Can only hope karma gets her.

lottieandmia · 22/02/2017 02:50

iPhones are one of those things you should never buy second hand imo.

Elvish, what the fuck? Are you saying that being honest is special treatment?

lottieandmia · 22/02/2017 02:51

It's a shame your mutual 'friend' didn't tell you this before...

KoalaDownUnder · 22/02/2017 03:18

She's full of it. A broken touchscreen and not charging doesn't count as 'fully working'.

Elvish, it's irrelevant whether the seller is 'struggling'. Doesn't make it okay to lie about the condition of what you're selling. Hmm

Gallavich · 22/02/2017 03:23

Never buy things like that from local selling pages. eBay is ok, as you have buyer protection. I bought an iPhone from eBay sold as unlocked when it wasn't - got refunded plus return postage. Clearly she knew the phone was shit and didn't care that she would be ripping off the buyer so I think you're out of luck.

Mummyoflittledragon · 22/02/2017 03:36

If she intended on refunding the buyer, she wouldn't have got rid of a dodgy phone in the first place. She would have scrapped it as if doesn't work properly. Not protection is buyer beware. I bought a car off my brother once. He'd replaced the engine and we paid maybe £2k for it 20 years ago so I was mid 20's. The engine blew up 3 months later. It cost us £1.5k to fix and I had to change jobs from one I loved to one I hated to pay for it. Sometimes in life lessons are hard. Looking back, he should have at least paid half. His attitude to not even offer was pretty shit. He would have had no qualms at selling the phone. Lesson learnt. Move on.

lottieandmia · 22/02/2017 03:43

Shock Mummy - lovely brother you have - who needs enemies, eh?!

Mummyoflittledragon · 22/02/2017 03:50

Lottie

Yeh. I never really thought about it at the time. I did buy him a piggie bank with 'miser' on it for Christmas when I was about 8. We never had a good relationship. That's another thread in itself. His wife pushed to buy our dds pushchair she'd grown out of because hers had broken and they didn't want to buy an new one so I sold it for £50 for the sake of peace - wouldn't do it today but I was very ill and bullied by them so it was an appeasement offer. (Dd loved playing with it in the garden and was very upset). She told me it broke a few months later. I had to stop myself from offering a refund. She also tried to get my dds car seat and I refused. Dd was over 135cm but still fitted in it and we were using it at the time. My brother earns 100k and the same in bonuses. Going to net almost a million when he sells one of his houses etc.

ElvishArchdruid · 22/02/2017 04:14

No I'm saying that the phone was sold as seen. So you would or possibly it's just myself, spent 10 minutes messing about with it to make sure it does what it's meant to.

If you merely put a SIM card in and think ah proof of working phone, it's likely you could be in for a disappointment as OP has found out. Thus she should have gone to try and text and do other functions that come as standard, then you'd discover the issues with the screen.

You effectively more or less had a contract when you came, put your sim in the phone, assumed all was ok, saying wonderful or something along them lines and passing over the money.

I don't believe the seller has to issue a refund, you'd hope they would, but there's no obligation, in which case it is an expensive lesson for the OP.

What network are you on OP? Might be able to help as a RAK if she doesn't refund you.

Bubbinsmakesthree · 22/02/2017 04:40

I would be asking for my money back.

Given she obviously knew it wasn't working and was prepared to sell it to you anyway, she's not likely to be very willing.

Given she is a friend of a friend is there any way you can apply a bit of peer pressure? For instance do you ever see her in public/a social situation where you could ask her in front of other people? Could your mutual friend step in?

ElvishArchdruid · 22/02/2017 04:43

Koala Maybe it's old age and experience, but if something appears to be pretty good, there usually has to be a catch. The 'mutual' friend was even bloody aware the phone had issues, so to me she isn't that good a friend.

My example is, many of us are marginalised into different groups by need. I fear the seller of the phone has little interest in whether she's a newly made single Mum. She just hoped she could get away with selling the phone.

I'm sure you've heard of scams, although I think this was a few years back, where people would try and flog electrical stuff on the street. Or back in my day you had the Sunday markets & car boots with Del Boys promising you the deal of the century. If you bought into it you would find you had bought something that didn't work, wasn't as specified and quite often was a hazard. A bit like the same markets / car boots that would sell knock off designer goods.

I remember there being a big thing at work when I was younger as i had gone to a high end shop and bought an actual Louis Vuitton bag. There was a woman at work who lorded it about like she was a fashion princess. She was telling others she had a genuine LV bag, Gucci bags, you name it she had it. I bought mine in and said nope, this is a genuine one. (Only because the girl was so far up her own arse and her designer stuff was far from designer!)

I remember there being an argument that in fact it was my bag that was the fake, she bought nothing but the best from insiders in the business. So I went as far as bringing in the receipt, the cloth bag it came in and even the LV shopping bag.

I didn't dress up to work as if I was on a catwalk, so the lads were inclined to suck up to her. It went to show how daft some people can be. Not related to this post, but an example of when fake stuff was peddled quite a bit. The imitation was no where near.

I think those that got suckered into buying phones off people in the street or car park, which obviously screams legitimate trader, they ended up being scammed.

So such an occurrence isn't repeated, please put the SIM card in, go to the text to try the keyboard as its a big standard keyboard for all the apps. The same with making a phone call, go into the phone section and test it out, can you dial the number you want.

As I've said if the OP has no luck, with a refund as a RAK, I have a 4S I think it is that I haven't used since my upgrade. I'll find it out & check it works if it's the same carrier as she uses. I don't believe unlocking phones is a good idea so this is specific to a certain network. We have spares, I'm due an upgrade on this so won't need my old one gathering dust. Anything to help a person in need.

But let this please be a lesson, I think if you fell on hard times, you're liable to sell your granny for a few quid if it takes you out of poverty. Not literally of course but I'm sure you understand the sentiment.

user1487738189 · 22/02/2017 05:05

Hey! Next time when you buy something online, make sure the site is genuine.

user1477282676 · 22/02/2017 06:23

User what do you mean? Of course Facebook is genuine. Hmm

Miserylovescompany2 · 22/02/2017 06:53

Never hand over cash for a phone. Use PayPal. Because when the sale goes tits up you haven't got a leg to stand on. Lets hope the friend of your friend has a conscience otherwise you are £100 down and still in dire need of a phone.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 22/02/2017 07:03

Elvish, why don't you think unlocking phones is a good idea? My current one was bought unlocked but I've always had others unlocked by the network.

londonrach · 22/02/2017 07:14

Fb selling is sold as seen so you cant ask for your money back sadly. An expensive lesson. Try and not buy electrical items off fb.

atheistmantis · 22/02/2017 07:20

She's ripped you off big time, I never buy second hand phones for that reason as you can't trust people, I buy a cheap new phone for around £20.

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Kerberos · 22/02/2017 07:23

Have you asked for your money back op?

OpalFruitsMarathonsandSpira · 22/02/2017 07:35

@Mummyoflittledragon I don't think your brother was responsible for your car and I don't think you were responsible for their pram. I'm really intrigued about your feelings on that. I would always have gone on the sold as seen ethos. Neither broke the same day.

I also think his income is irrelevant. It seems like a relationship issue more than an ethics issue.

luckylucky24 · 22/02/2017 07:35

NEVER buy technology of Facebook. You cannot guarantee anything as you now know. You have no consumer rights here so unless she is a good person you are screwed.

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