Stores warned over selling tech items to older people
Age Concern is advising retailers to ensure older people can understand technology purchases after a man was sold a $1700 phone he could not work.
Jeffery Thorne, 66, was sold a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 at the Spark Masterton store, after taking his $109 Alcatel phone into the store to see if it could be fixed.
Thorne paid the $1700 but didn’t realise that he needed an internet connection for all the phone’s functions to work.
Spark Masterton refused to refund Thorne’s money, after he took the phone back.
However, it changed its mind on Tuesday after Thorne’s Hawke’s Baybased daughter intervened.
Thorne lives alone without internet and said he was not told that he would need the internet to use the “speech-to-text function” that he purchased the phone for.
“I didn’t know it was connected to the internet, I don’t know anything about that. I thought that was just what the phone does.”
Thorne’s daughter Nealie Curd said she was passing through Masterton from Hawke’s Bay and called in to see her father, who could not get the phone to work.
“As soon as I saw the box my heart sank. Nothing worked when he got home and he didn’t understand why. Or what ‘no network connection found’ meant.”
She said the phone’s functions had been appealing to her father because of difficulties he had with texting.
“He has a severe reading and writing disorder, and finds it difficult to type text messages, as it takes him a long time to spell out the words.”
Thorne said when they returned to the store the salesperson admitted they assumed he had internet, but the manager had stood firm it was against Spark policy to accept the return.
A Spark spokesperson told Hawke’s Bay Today on Tuesday they had reconsidered their decision and decided to give a refund.
“After looking into this particular situation, we agree that offering this customer a refund is the right thing to do.
“Our team has been in touch with the customer directly to process this”.
They said they will provide extra training for staff to help customers purchasing devices understand if additional services such as data or internet connectivity will be required for the device to function.
“We provide training that focuses on understanding our customers’ individual situations prior to making recommendations on a device or a plan.”
Registered social worker at Age Concern Hawke’s Bay Andrea Rust said stores need to ensure older people can fully understand their purchases, and any documents they were signing.
She said it was helpful for a family member or advocate, who was good with technology, to be present when they purchased “tech” or signed up to contracts.
“Though understandably some are independent and may not want this, ensuring they need the services being offered and fully understand what they are agreeing to will mean less confusion and perhaps upset.”
Consumer NZ communications adviser Raksha Nand said businesses were not obligated to return a product for a change of mind and return policies may differ from store to store.
“Some would accept a product if it were in a saleable condition, another could set a term that a return would only be acceptable if the product was returned in its original condition with packaging unopened.”
She said customers do have rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act for a replacement or refund if the product is found to be faulty regardless of whether the product packaging was opened or not.