A furious mother says she was refused a refund for her £1,500 phone – after it was switched with three tins of fish instead.
Alina Damian-Cretu bought a Samsung S25 Ultra for her husband’s birthday in February – trading in his old phone for a new device at a discounted price of £800.
But after ordering it, the 33-year-old realised there was a new offer to claim a free pair of Samsung Galaxy buds worth £219, so decided to return the device once it arrived to place a new order and take advantage of the offer.
A week later Ms Damian-Cretu contacted Samsung to check the status of her return and was informed the tech giant hadn’t received the phone – but a box filled with three tins of sardines instead.
Shocked, she insisted she had sent the correct phone and immediately filed a complaint with Samsung and DPD and even reported it to Cambridgeshire Police.
The stunned mother, who says she rarely eats fish, claims Samsung are accusing her of theft and are refusing to refund the product after ‘finding no evidence of tampering’.
Ms Damian-Cretu from Ely, Cambridgeshire, said: ‘I hadn’t opened the phone itself, just the outer box. I left everything in the same box with the paperwork on top of it and sealed it with brown sellotape.’
Alina told Samsung it was ‘not possible’ for them to have received the fish and asked to speak to a manager.
‘They never gave me the impression that they believed me, I was gobsmacked.
‘They’re bluntly accusing me of theft. I don’t even eat that much fish, my daughter hates it so it’s not even in the house.
‘This is a £1,500 phone without the trade-in. You can’t be accusing a customer of this, especially when you can see I placed another order for the same phone the next day.’
‘Everyone was shocked, I raised a complaint on that day.’
She added that Samsung asked for proof that she packaged the phone but she didn’t take any photos of the boxed device.
After filing with DPD and Samsung, the mother claimed the tech company refused to process her refund until she ‘returns the device’
She said: ‘Samsung told me they’ve done a full investigation with DPD and their warehouse and no evidence of tampering has been discovered.
‘They told me my claim was rejected and my refund would not be processed and asked me to return the Samsung S25 Ultra for us to process the refund.
‘To me that’s accusing me of something I haven’t done. I already did send it.
‘Why would I report this to police if I’d done this myself? You don’t treat customers like this.
‘I just want my money back. This has added so much stress to my personal life and wasted so much time.
‘It’s so unprofessional. My whole life I’ve had Samsung and I just want to turn to Apple now.’
DPD said they are focusing on finding the parcel.
A Samsung spokesman said: ‘We are still investigating to determine the full facts of this issue with our third-party delivery partner, and will take the appropriate action once this investigation is completed to ensure this does not happen again.
‘We are in direct contact with the customer to offer her a full refund on her order.’
A Cambridgeshire Police spokesman said: ‘I can confirm that we have raised a crime for theft.
‘The investigation has been filed pending any new evidence coming to light.
‘Anyone with information is asked to contact police quoting reference 35/13852/25.’