October 2023 by Yana S
I had a situation at this store a week ago. A friend of mine bought an iPhone 14 from them, emphasising that it’s a gift for someone in Europe. They confirmed the phone will work in Europe without any problems. He paid $1,050 and left Canada. As he came to Europe, the phone wouldn’t work as it turned out he was locked to Bell, which wasn’t mentioned to him, nor did it say so on the receipt (it literally said “unlocked”). He contacted this store and they said to bring it over… while he’s on a different continent. Okay, so he found someone to bring the phone to Canada and paid $200-300 for that. As I collected the phone and went to the store on his behalf, I was told the phone should have been “activated” but it wasn’t. When I asked why didn’t they activate it upon purchase, they couldn’t answer that. The sales associate did something with the phone, handed it to me and said now it’s activated. Okay, but what are you supposed to do with the phone that was sold to you under false pretences and clearly fraudulently? I don’t know what else to call the situation when a device you buy ends up being locked to a carrier when the seller and the receipt both state it’s unlocked. I repeated to the sales associate that the buyer is in Europe and there’s no way to send the phone to him without paying someone to bring it there for a fee, or for me to pay $2,000 in airfare and hotels, not to mention taking taking days off. The sales associate, Akif, said the phone was “activated” now and this wasn’t his problem. After 20 or so minutes of me pointing out their store committed fraud (again, I have a copy of the receipt saying it’s unlocked and says nothing about activation) and sold an item that wasn’t usable despite the buyer stating he’s leaving Canada and taking it overseas; we didn’t get anywhere. Akif made it clear he wasn’t interested in providing even semi-okay customer service experience and de-escalating the situation; he made it clear no refund would be issued. He then mentioned I have to come in and talk to the manager in 2 days.So I left. Upon discussing this with my friend, the buyer, we figured since a refund was denied and Akif saying it was “not his problem”, we will be screwed over again. So we quickly listed the phone online and sold it at a loss. My friends is out hundreds of dollars now. The funny part was the manager calling me the following week and saying he can provide a refund but there will be a restocking fee of $150 or so. Seriously? You sell a fraudulent/defective product, create this horrible situation, apparently train your sales personnel to deny refunds even when it’s clearly the store’s fault, and then still won’t give a proper refund? My friend who bought this phone is too nice and polite; I suggested we go to the small court and claim loses and damages, but he said there’s no need and karma will get them. Well, I certainly hope so. I didn’t come to the store to argue for a half an hour, be told it’s not their problem, being denied a refund, and then being screwed over again because of a restocking fee.I don’t know where these guys get their products but I suggest you stay away from this store.
