ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Man Tries To Get Refund On Phone And Gets Sent 10 New Ones Worth $10,000

Man Tries To Get Refund On Phone And Gets Sent 10 New Ones Worth $10,000

The customer said he would send the phones back as soon as he received a refund

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Ever hear the one about the guy who sent back his Google Pixel 3, asking for his money to be returned - but instead of a $900 (£650) refund, he received 10 brand new phones worth around $10,000 (£7,200) in total?

It's not a joke. This happened.

OK, the first bit is relatable. Operating at a pace that makes 'glacial' seem like a land speed record attempt? Refusing to acknowledge a single bar of signal? Unusable due to a cracked screen? Whatever the symptoms of your broken phone, you know the truth: it's knackered.

And you know what you've got to do next, right? You've got to go through the awful rigmarole of contacting the manufacturer for a replacement or a refund. And that's where this guy's story gets weird.

Sharing his bizarre story to Reddit, the man going by the username u/Cheetohz sent a picture of the nine brand new smartphones, with the caption: "Google, I have your phones. You have my money. Let's sort this out."

Explaining what happened, the unnamed man said he didn't want to criticise the company but claimed he had no other option.

The disgruntled customer said he'd give the phones back once he received a refund.
Reddit

He continued: "Second to last resort to get the support I need. Resorting to bad PR. Hate that it had to come to this.

"I recently returned a defective white pixel 3, so that I could re-purchase a not pink model. Problem is, I was only refunded $80 (tax) I'm still owed $900 by Google.

"With the shipping is my not pink model, Google screwed up and shipped me 10... At $1000ea, that's $10k of product I now legally have in my possession. In all, I'm actually in the positive by $8k.

"Well, I want to do the right thing and return them. But I'm not willing to do so until my refund is processed properly. If I don't get the proper support here, I'll going to attempt to return the extra 9 phones via $1000 COD."

Laying down an ultimatum to the firm, u/Cheetohz added: "If the shipment is rejected, I'll be selling them to recoup my money that wasn't refunded. Again, not the right thing to do but I've run out of patience and options."

Some Reddit users praised the unhappy customer for his post, with one person writing: "I'm dirt poor, but if I had the money to buy one from google and this happened to me I'd sure as hell try to be like you and do the right thing. Selling them is VERY tempting... Kudos! Karma and upvotes!"

Luckily, there was a happy ending. After the post went up, Google responded to the complaint via its official Reddit account, asking the customer to get in touch so the alleged mix-up could be resolved.

Google responded to the customer and asked for his contact details to fix the mix-up.
PA

A representative of the company wrote: "Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I'll send you a private message to get some personal details from you so we can look into this for you."

Later, u/Cheetohz added a follow-up detailing the story's resolution, writing: "24 hours after I made the post, u/pixelcommunity reached out and I gave them the support ID.

"About 12 hours later I received an email that the credit was in my account. This morning, I checked and confirmed.

"I've applied this credit towards the balance due on the phone I purchased which will go through at the end of billing cycle (tomorrow) at which point if there's no problems, the devices will be in The mail to Google.

"Yeah, it would be nice if I was a bit more in the positive from this due to the effort required by me, but as long as I'm made whole, there's not much to complain about. Thanks to the kind souls who guilded the previous thread, that means a lot to me.

"I hope Google had learned a good takeaway from this and can work to better service the entire community. Probably not, but we can always dream."

LADbible has contacted Google for comment.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Phones and Gadgets, Reddit