A furious mum says Samsung ‘accused her of theft’ and refused to refund her £1,500 phone – after she says they claimed she returned three tins of fish instead. Alina Damian-Cretu says she 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 she said that after ordering it, the 33-year-old realised there was a new offer to claim a free pair of Samsung Galaxy buds. To take advantage of the buds, which cost £219, the business development manager said she decided to return the device once it arrived and place a new order.
The mum-of-two says she only opened the outer box of the new Samsung product before returning the item at a DPD drop-off point. A week later Alina contacted Samsung to check the status of her return and says she was informed the tech giant hadn’t received the phone, but a box containing three tins of sardines instead.
Shocked, Alina insisted she had sent the correct phone and promptly filed a complaint with Samsung and DPD and reported it to Cambridgeshire Police. The stunned mum, who says she rarely even eats fish, claims Samsung are accusing her of theft and are refusing to refund the product after ‘finding no evidence of tampering’.
After being contacted by journalists, Samsung said they are investigating the matter and are in contact with the customer to offer a full refund. DPD say they’re focusing on finding the parcel.
Alina, from Ely, Cambridgeshire, said: “It was my husband’s birthday in February so I thought I’d get him a new phone because he got me one for Christmas. I placed the order on January 28th but then I saw the offer that you could get a phone with free Galaxy buds.
“I contacted Samsung and they said ‘we can’t make any changes, but once you receive the order, just return it and then place a new order’. [When it arrived] 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.”
After she said she returned the item via a DPD drop-off point, Alina says she got back in touch with Samsung a week later to check the status of the delivery. But three days later, Alina claims Samsung told her they hadn’t received the £1,500 phone – but three tins of fish instead.
Alina said: “I said ‘no, that’s not possible.’ I asked to speak to the manager and they passed me onto them and I explained the situation. Everyone was shocked. I raised a complaint on that day.
“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.” Alina says 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, Alina claims Samsung refused to process her refund until she ‘returns the device’. Alina 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.” A Samsung spokesman said: “We pride ourselves on a high standard of customer experience.
“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.”