Refund for phone bought from MTN?

Annegret

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My mother bought a phone from MTN today, out of contract. They did not have the phone in store, so she still needs to go pick it up. She has, however, already paid.

She also signed a 24-month data contract with them.

She thought by buying the phone once-off, she would be paying less. The problem is, it works out to almost R2000 more buying the phone once-off than it would have if she paid it off with the data contract instalments. She should really have done the math herself, but I also feel they should have informed her of this. The phone is already insanely overpriced, and she really does not need a Samsung. I know ethics is optional in business, but, jeez. They're exploiting an old lady.

I called to ask for a refund, but of course they said it's impossible. From a Google search it seems like I can't use a cooling-off period to enforce a refund. The only way we will be able to return the phone is if something is wrong with it.

But since she does not have the product yet, is there anything I can do?

I feel awful; she was (badly) following my advice. I told her to not buy the phone on contract, because she can get it for much cheaper somewhere else (anywhere else, really). I never imagined she would buy the phone from the data company, anyway. Sigh.

Please help if you can.
 
That sounds promising! You think she has reasonable grounds for a refund?

She knew what phone she was getting from the in-store catalogue (well, she would have known if she knew anything about phones).

Can you suggest a reason that she can give? I think "this same phone is almost half the price on Takealot" to be pretty reasonable, but what will convince the manager? Since they already have the money, it's easy for them to just say "no". We're obviously not going to court over this, but I guess I can threaten with a sternly worded complaint on Hello Peter, maybe Google.

I hate when life forces one to act the Karen.
 
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