Your Scam Is Cracked

(I work in a repair centre where we repair phones under the warranty, or charge for repairs if the phone is damaged, e.g. dropped and the screen is cracked, and our out-of-warranty repairs have a 30 day guarantee.)

Customer: “A while ago I paid you a lot of money to fix my phone screen, then it came back, and the screen was still cracked. I now need you to sort this out as you have not done the service I paid for.”

Me: “I’m sorry that has happened. Could you please provide me with the repair reference so I can look into this for you?”

Customer: “Sure. it is [number].”

Me: *sees the repair is from 11 months ago* “I’m just going to check for any other repairs. The reference you gave me was for 11 months ago.”

(That was the only repair.)

Me: “Miss, that repair was 11 months ago, and we did not receive any calls advising us that you received it back with the screen still cracked. This is the first we have been told about it.”

Customer: “I am telling you now, and the other faults are still on there, so I need it to be fixed.”

Me: “You are welcome to book it in for repair again, but I must advise you that if you do, we are going to have to charge again for the screen as this is the first we have heard of it and it was almost a year ago.”

Customer: “What do you mean? I paid you to repair the screen, and you sent it back unrepaired; I am not paying again!”

Me: “I am sorry, but due to the length of time we are unable to do anything. If you had notified us within a month that the phone had been received back with the screen still cracked, we could have rectified it for you. But because you received the phone back so long ago, we have to assume that you have been using it problem free up until now.”

Customer: “You seriously expect me to have been able to call you about this within a month? That is ridiculous; I have never received such awful service. We have not been able to use anything on the phone at all, not even turn it on. We should have been notified in writing that if there are any issues that we need to contact you within 30 days?!”

(Then her mother came on and said that they would be lodging a complaint. As there were engineer notes stating it had been repaired, we suspected this had been damaged in transit, and with most couriers you only get 14 days to report any additional damage. The worst part is, during her long ranting she told me that this was a £40 a month contract, so (including the cost of the original repair and contract they were unable to use for 11 months) have spent close to £600 for a phone they have been unable to use at all and was presumably lying in a drawer somewhere.)