The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is alleging that JB Hi-Fi sold a used phone as new to the same customer on two separate occasions in June last year.According to the ACCC’s website a customer bought a phone that was thought to be a new Nokia mobile phone from a JB Hi-Fi store at Westfield Kotara, NSW, when in fact on each occasion the phone was a returned used product.

A complaint was made to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission after the consumer found contacts and video clips created by the phones’ previous owners.

“When buying a mobile phone consumers are entitled to expect it is new and hasn’t previously been used or returned as faulty. Supplying a used product by mistake or otherwise is deceptive,” ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel said.

To address its concerns, the ACCC has accepted court enforceable undertakings from JB Hi-Fi Group Pty Ltd that it engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct in breach of sections 52 and 53(b) of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

The undertakings relate to the sale of returned mobile phones at its Kotara Westfield store in NSW from 1 January 2008 to 28 August 2008. JB Hi-Fi has undertaken that it will:  not make any representation to the effect that the mobile phones it supplies are new when this is not the case  publish corrective notices in the Newcastle Post newspaper and in the Kotara Westfield store for eight weeks, and  extend its existing trade practices compliance to cover mobile phones. 

As part of the undertakings, JB Hi-Fi has also agreed to provide either a refund or a replacement to those customers who purchased a new mobile phone at the Kotara Westfield store during the period from 1 January 2008 to 28 August 2008, and later found it was not new.

The ACCC said JB Hi-Fi had been very cooperative in resolving this matter. In this incident, JB Hi Fi claims a procedural error meant returned mobile phones were accidentally mixed with existing stock when they should have been returned to the supplier.