iPhone sent to me...

[Anonymous]

If an iPhone were sent to my address, under my name... and I didn't pay for it... what would I do?

This has happened to a friend of mine, and I am enquiring on their behalf. In the meantime, they are investigating card fraud and will be contacting O2 soon.

Wouldn't this property now be theirs as it was an error on O2's part?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Return the phone and contact O2 straight away.

They can and will charge your friend for it.

[Anonymous]

Can they? Will they? It was their error... right?

He'll definitely be contacting them to say he has received something... but I'm pretty sure it is their responsibility to get it back. Also, in my opinion... it's their responsibility to figure out where they have gone wrong and what they sent, if they're that inclined!

[perksie]

I seem to have had a post removed, which I was about to correct.

Under the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971, the following applies:

Unsolicited Goods

Goods sent to a person who has not requested them. The person receiving the goods does not have to pay for them. After 6 months the goods become the property of the person who received them. If the receiving party contacts the sender and asks for the goods to be picked up (and they are not), the receiving party becomes the owner of the goods after 30 days. Before the receiving party becomes the owner they must look after the goods and not dispose of them. (Source The Guardian 29th Sept. 2005).

[Anonymous]

Sorry, perksie... it is because I have posted this thread in different sections as to get a broader opinion, you're just looking a different one!

Thanks so much for this information. VERY useful!

Thanks again!

[perksie]

Yes, I have realised you are posting all over the forum, I now suspect that O2 will hear of this and ask for their phone back.

[Anonymous]

That's why my boyfriend didn't do this and I did... but... either way, they'll call if they figure it out anyway, right?

[Anonymous]

So the phone was sent to your boyfriend's address with his name on it, but he's saying he didn't order it?

Ok, he's definitely doing the right thing contacting o2, because there is a good chance this phone has turned up due to a fraudulent transaction with a pay monthly account. He may find somebody has used his details to open an account which he'd want to get sorted asap.
Apart from fraud it's hard to imagine somebody at o2 ordering up a phone to a wrong address and when it arrives the person that stays there coincidentally has the same name as the person the phone was really meant for...stranger things have happened though.

In any case you'll probably find that sooner or later o2 will place an permanent IMEI bar so that the phone can't be used so you'd be just as well returning it. It's a freepost address anyway:

o2 Returns
Freepost RLZT-ZTYJ-CZRS
Zone B
Normanton
WF6 1TF

[Anonymous]

It's a freepost address anyway:
o2 Returns
Freepost RLZT-ZTYJ-CZRS
Zone B
Normanton
WF6 1TF

Are you sure that's not a PO Box you just set up to get free phones?

SV

[jonsie]

It's a freepost address anyway:
o2 Returns
Freepost RLZT-ZTYJ-CZRS
Zone B
Normanton
WF6 1TF

Are you sure that's not a PO Box you just set up to get free phones?
SV

I like that, very good