FAKE IPHONE 15

Hey @Sophie31,

Sorry to hear your brother has had issues with his delivery. Unfortunately as it was purchased Carphone Warehouse, you’ll have to continue conversations with them, rather than iD Mobile.

Thanks.

Hi Sophie

This seems like what may have happened to me as well:

I recently took out a contract on a Google Pixel 8.  DPD attempted delivery but no one answered the door (my wife was in but didn’t hear them knock).  I then knew that no one would be in during delivery hours for the next week, so tried to alter delivery.  DPD said they couldn’t alter delivery, and ID mobile said the same.  They then tried to deliver the phone every day for a week, at a time I knew, and told them, I wouldn’t be in.

They finally managed it a week after the order was made - but delivered the wrong phone.  An iPhone 15, in a package with my details and address on the front.

I contacted IDmobile on text chat - they told me that DPD would collect the phone from me, and I should wait for instructions on this.  I waited, and nothing came through.

I phoned the complaints line.  They told me that they would never organise collection through DPD.  I was told to return the phone myself, via Royal Mail Special delivery, and that I would be reimbursed for the delivery.  I did so.

Today, I got an email saying that they couldn’t organise delivery of the Google Pixel 8, because I had returned the wrong phone - not a Pixel 8 but an iPhone.

I called the complaint line again, who told me I should email them pictures of the iPhone so the complaint could be escalated to ‘Head Office’.  I was told I should wait for ‘Head Office’ to contact me with the next steps of the complaint.

While everyone I have spoken to has been polite and professional, this has honestly been the worst consumer experience I’ve had for a long time.  I’m currently paying for a phone I don’t have.

Always recommended ID to others before - this definitely won’t be the case now.

Hey ​@Richdavey , sounds like unfortunately you’ve been targeted by the same scam. 

For us, this has only recently been resolved and it took raising a case with the Small Claims Court before ‘Head Office’ took us seriously. I sent them numerous emails explaining what had happened, sent evidence of the tampered packaging and the email we had received from DPD Head of Security who stated in writing they had let a staff member go over ‘compliance issues’. 

‘Head Office’ in so many words accused us of swapping the device ourselves, which is ludicrous, why would we go to the extent of emailing and calling constantly and visiting the stores if we had received what was ordered?! 

After a very stressful and frustrating ordeal, they did finally agree to cancel the contract and refund the initial upfront cost - but this wasn’t until the Small Claims Court Case had been reviewed. This seems to put you into direct contact with their Legal Team who seem to be able to get things done.

Although, no compensation has been offered for the months with no device, threats of repossession and awful customer service. 

Good luck and I hope you have a better experience than we did! 

Oh man, that's awful - sorry that happened for you as well.  Does seem like I'm probably heading the same direction, so let's see what happens.

I recently took out a contract for an Iphone 16 pro max on the 29/11/24. 

What was delivered to me was a fake iphone 15 pro max ( even though the packaging said it was a 16 pro max 1tb). Anyway I raised it with ID mobile and got a complaint number etc etc. They contacted DPD to investigate and after 6 Working days, were told by DPD that they delivered what was given to them from ID mobile. ID mobile then had to look through their CCTV to confirm that packed the right device of whcih their warehouse claims to have done. Now after all this I have been told that I am unable to cancel because I do not have the correct handset to return to them. 

They have then told me that I now have to dispute this with DPD. Now this problem is not their problem it has become my problem. The amount of stress this has given me is unbelievable because I have done nothing wrong. None of this is because of me. I did not place my faith into DPD. DPD have not stolen my phone they have stolen ID mobiles phone. 

The consumer rights law about delivered goods states the following. 

Delivery of purchases is covered under the Consumer Rights Act. This means the retailer is liable for getting the product safely to you, not the courier they employ.

I will be taking this to the press and Ofcom because I am not going to take lightly. 

Hello ​@gbahia313 

Thank you for posting to us here on the community. 

We are very sorry to hear this has happened. 

When an order dispute is raised, it is correct that we check CCTV in the packing area to confirm that the correct order is packed. 

If this is confirmed, a case would be raised to DPD to investigate further. 

If DPD do no accept liability, you can them seek independent third party adjudication. Did the complaint team advise if DPD has accepted liability?

Thanks, 

Nat 

Hi Nat

I can't speak for Sophie, but in my case DPD haven't accepted responsibility.  I've been with ID for several years of several long-term contracts.  ID have said that we are therefore at deadlock, because they packed the right phone and DPD say nothing has gone wrong.

My question for ID would be - I can point you in the direction of dozens of online cases of DPD doing the same thing.  For a range of other companies - sending a fake iPhone 15, taking no responsibility, and leaving customers with a heavy bill and no phone.

There is clearly something going on at DPD - and I would encourage ID to firstly not use them, but secondly to not take their investigation at face value, and use the power you have as a powerful client to stop this from happening to anyone else.

We, as individual customers, are having little joy with following their complaints procedure.

Thank you for your reply ​@Richdavey 

We appreciate this is frustrating and again, apologise for this happening. 

As the case has gone to deadlock, I am afraid we would not be able to offer anything in addition to the investigation that has already taken place.

Information on the next steps and independent adjudication can be found here. 

Thanks, 

Nat 

 Hi Nat, 

Thank you so much for getting back to me. I appreciate you taking the time to provide this information, even though I have encountered similar advice before.
I find it quite absurd that I am being told I cannot cancel my contract without incurring a termination fee simply because I am unable to return the handset—which, ironically, amounts to the total cost I would pay over the 24-month contract period. It’s important to note that the phone was not lost or misplaced by me; it was stolen by DPD. There are numerous reports online highlighting similar incidents, which suggests a pattern of issues with their service.
I have already consulted with Trading Standards and will be sending a formal letter asserting my rights to cancel within the 30-day period. Additionally, I plan to reach out to the press about this situation. It is utterly unfair that customers who are not at fault are being held financially responsible.
There are countless community forums filled with complaints about this very issue, yet it seems that neither ID Mobile nor DPD has taken the necessary steps to consider that perhaps their customers are not at fault. The common thread in these complaints appears to be DPD’s handling of deliveries.
This situation deserves public attention, and I believe delivery companies should implement more robust systems to address such issues rather than hiding behind statements like “We delivered the product as it was shipped to us.” This response is wholly inadequate and dismissive of genuine customer concerns.

Hi ​@gbahia313,

I can completely understand your frustration.

You can take this further if you wish to do so however this would now be a civil matter with DPD.

Kash

Hi Kash

I appreciate this is DPD's position - but again, the question here is why.  We, as customers, haven't employed DPD.  ID have employed them.  There is clearly an issue with their deliveries, which is leading to your customers being massively out of pocket.

Why is it therefore the customer's responsibility to enforce a complaint for a service you are supposed have provided?

Incidentally, having raised the issue with DPD, that's exactly what they have said - as we are not the clients, but ID are, we can't instigate a complaints procedure with them - only ID can.

Could you give me an official position on why ID are choosing not to do this?

Hi ​@Richdavey 

Once a complaint reaches deadlock, we would would not continue with the investigation as the deadlock is the final outcome. 

With this being the case, we have exhausted our complaints procedure and would advise seeking independent adjudication. 

Nat 

Hi Nat

Thanks for your response.  So, in a case where it hadn't reached deadlock, as discussed here, why are ID not pursuing DPD and asking customers to do so?

Hi ​@Richdavey 

Thanks for your reply. 

As part of the investigation, our team work with our warehouse and DPD to establish an outcome. 

In some cases, DPD will accept liability for a lost package if fault has been found.

If, after an investigation, DPD have not accepted liability, a case would need to be raised against them by yourself as the customer. 

We appreciate this is not the outcome you were hoping for and apologise for any inconvenience caused. 

Thanks, 

Nat 

I did write a long and detailed reply, but changed my mind. It was aimed at iD as the business not an individual.

Anyway, just to help my fellow customers. Could iD collate the postcodes and the dates and times of these deliveries and pass this information on to DPD as one file. Maybe DPD can establish whom is doing this - as in is this one delivery driver. This GDPR stuff wouldn’t kinda matter as DPD already have your customers details.

Just saying.

Hi ​@Daz_S,

When a customer raises the issue with DPD they’ll be able to check for any patterns of any specific driver it is occurring with on their end.

Unfortunately we can’t collate postcodes etc. When DPD confirm a loss/claim they’ll deal with the investigation on their side.

When we send out a replacement or refund for a lost DPD handset we would blacklist the handset.

Kash

Thanks for that ​@Kash 👍

(the following isn’t aimed at you or anybody else for that matter, just airing an opinion)

I know certain things happen ‘behind closed doors’ when the EU claims they didn’t receive the right phone, or fake phone, or no phone. I was merely saying if iD did pass one file over this may persuade DPD to find the guilty person sooner or as an amendment to the above to act in a more prompt manner. Days waiting here, days waiting there all add the stress on your customers (unfairly) and also then limits the time a customer has to cancel the contract within the 14 or 30 days C-O-P. Unless you stop the clock, after you know something was delivered which is then disputed, and until the right phone is with the customer….

IMHO a customer reporting within a few minutes* of delivery that the phone isn’t correct or missing could assist DPD in locating these bad employees ‘with their bag full of swag’. If these drivers are doing this in the van (with battery powered heat guns) then surely there would be a bag/box full of phones that were never out for delivery or indeed your customers phone could be sitting in the glovebox, who knows maybe even a hot air gun. These phones are going somewhere**… Shenzhen perhaps.

*lets face it, most of us would open the packaging whilst the courier is still walking back to his/her van.

**blocking the IMEI after days/weeks might not stop the phone from being used in the future. Blocking the IMEI as soon as it’s reported missing might give the impression of a slightly better outcome, then again maybe not. Tracking the IMEI might present a better outcome if the phone is switched on before being reconfigured. But that’s just my opinion.

At the end of the day theft is theft. I know that if I popped into Currys and waltzed over to an advisor, asked to see a new phone, he hands me a box, I then take that phone out and put my old one in the box before leaving the store wouldn’t go down too well and Currys would be rightly annoyed. But that’s exactly whats happening to your customers.

Or as I’ve suggested elsewhere, the service PIN grants the customer the right to open the packaging in front of the driver (adding 30 seconds to the delivery time) and then if it transpires the phone has been replaced or missing DPD HAVE to return it back to their warehouse. Surely this would ruffle a few feathers as you, your customer and DPD would know its DPD.

anyway not here to cause hassle, but this stuff bugs the heck outta me. And yes I’ve been caught out too, learned from them and do my upmost to prevent these things from happening to me in the future.

I am another victim of this DPD "scam".  I ordered a Samsung S24 & received a fake iPhone 16 Pro Max in November.  I submitted a complaint case to the Communications Ombudsmen.  They agreed with ID Mobile because their CCTV proved the correct device was packaged.  They agreed that the parcel delivered looked tampered with, but because I can't prove it was tampered with during packaging by ID Mobile, there's no remedy for ID mobile to implement.  I'm sending them the letter before action for the small claims court & I hope I'm also successful.   ​@Sophie31 did you submit the small claim case clerically or online?  Because I'm paying on a monthly contract since November, I'm not sure how much I should submit my claim for?  The online claim is for a specific amount because I'm paying in installments & is not paid in full?  

Hi ​@jul77e and ​@Richdavey , sorry to see that you’re both struggling with this scam

In the end, we submitted the case to the Small Claims Court online, we claimed for the entire phone value plus upfront cost as to pay the ‘cancellation fee’ to ID to get out of the contact, it would have costed the same amount. The response from Carphone Warehouse’s Legal Team was that my claim was unfounded and that the full amount was not payable by them to us. Although, they did agree that the matter could be settled outside of court.

We used this YouTube video for guidance on how to arrange the claim, it might be a little out of date systems wise but the information is still useful: 

How to Use Small Claims Court UK - Step by Step Guide

We were then in direct contact with the Legal Team who agreed that if we returned the counterfeit handset, they would refund the upfront cost and agree to cancel the contract - both of which have now taken place.

Also, when the situation first arose, we contacted the bank who advised due to fraudulent activity that the Direct Debit for monthly payments should be cancelled. Now, this does trigger ID Mobile to send you some scary letters regarding repossession/debt collection whilst the ‘investigations’ and court proceedings take place, but if you contact their Customer Services Team they often can suspend the payment due date for you.   

It seems that DPD have a nationwide scam taking place under their noses, and they are not willing to do anything about it. 

I have written to Watchdog and even Martin Lewis and local newspapers to try and spread some awareness, but the media don’t seem to be interested either. 

I now just tell my friends and family to open their high value parcels in front of their delivery driver - if they’re innocent then they should be happy to wait the minute or so it takes to open the plastic bag (inadequate packaging IMO)

Perhaps ID Mobile/Carphone Warehouse/Currys should offer the choice of courier at checkout? Then it would be the customers responsibility to take up any issues directly as we would have chosen the courier ourselves. 

Good luck and feel free to @ me if you have any more questions! 

Hey - sorry to hear this.  I was sent to Communications Ombudsman, but they said they wouldn't deal with it because it was specifically about a device, so have sent me to the Financial Ombudsman.  Currently waiting for them to assign me a caseworker, which could take a month, then another month while they try and resolve it.

Good luck with small claims - let us know the outcome when you get one.

Hi ​@jul77e and ​@Richdavey , sorry to see you’re both struggling with this 

We submitted a claim with the Small Claims Court online, and we claimed for the full value of the handset that went missing, plus interest, as to leave the contact the ‘cancellation fee’ equated to roughly the handset value. Once this was submitted, Carphone Warehouse’s Legal Team told us that the value of the claim was unfounded, but the matter could be settled outside of court.

This put us into direct contact with the Legal Team who agreed that if we returned the counterfeit handset, they would refund the upfront cost and cancel the contact - all of this has now been done. 

 I found this YouTube video really helpful, even though the systems shown are a little out of date the information is still good: 

(16) How to Use Small Claims Court UK - Step by Step Guide - YouTube

Regarding monthly payments, we contacted the bank straight away who advised that because there had been fraudulent activity, the Direct Debit should be cancelled. This leads to ID Mobile sending scary letters threatening repossession/debt collection, but if you contact their Customer Services Team directly they can often postpone the payment due date whilst the ‘investigations’ and court proceedings take place. 

It seems that DPD have a nationwide issue that they are not prepared to even acknowledge. 

I have written to Watchdog, Martin Lewis and other media outlets but it seems nobody is interested in exposing this issue. The only thing I do now is make my friends and family aware, and advise them that if they are expecting a high value order that the open the parcel in front of the delivery driver - they should be fine to wait the 1 minute it takes to open the frankly inadequate plastic bag the devices are shipped in. 

I’m not sure why ID Mobile don’t offer the option of selecting your courier at checkout. At least this way, when things go wrong as the customer we have chosen the delivery service which gives us more weight with complaints.

Good luck with your cases and feel free to @ me if you have any more questions or updates 

​@Sophie31 FANTASTIC!!  When my ombudsman appeal outcome is issued, I will carefully watch the video & follow your advice.  Thank you so much for the prompt reply. You are a diamond 💎   

Hi ​@Richdavey ​@Sophie31,

I’m very sorry that you have experienced the issues with your handsets.

If this has been raised with a Third Party and they will take this further.

Our Claims Team on our end will take the steps on our end.

Kash

This is so helpful - thank you for taking the time.  I agree with all said at the end here - really frustrating that we're having to take this sort of action to sort this out.  I'll let you know how I get on.

We apologise for any frustration caused ​@Richdavey 

Please do let us know if you have any questions.

Nat