SALLY SORTS IT: I can not get my a reimbursement on a incorrect wig for my most cancers

In September last year, I ordered a blonde curly wig from website Wigsell for £66 plus postage as I had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and following treatment my hair was starting to fall out.

Things went wrong from the start as the company initially put my delivery address as Aberdeen and I had to contact them to correct it to my home in Enfield. 

Eventually the wig arrived but it was not blonde – it was ginger. I contacted them and sent a photo. I was told I would have to return the wig to China and pay £50. I refused and they offered me just 10pc of the original cost instead, which I also rejected. 

I returned the wig to a UK address I found on the original packaging only to be told when I chased that it was not the correct address and they had not received the parcel. I sent dozens of emails trying to resolve this. Please help.

R.B., Enfield.

Sally Hamilton replies: You have been trying to soldier on as best you can after a series of operations failed to eradicate your cancer, which has sadly spread.

Purchasing a wig was designed to help you restore some self-confidence after such a terrible blow – but I can only imagine your dismay on unwrapping a ginger wig when you had ordered blonde and the unwanted stress you faced in trying to return it.

When I read about the large sum you would have to pay to return the wig to China – or the alternative of keeping it and receiving a refund of just £6 – well, that just made my own hair curl.

I did some online research on Wigsell, and didn’t like what I saw. Almost all the reviews on customer feedback website Trustpilot offered a damning one star. There were comments such as: ‘Substandard merchandise’; ‘arrived after eight weeks wrong colour, wrong style, ordered short blonde got long red’; ‘It looked like a court judge wig’; ‘My mother who is undergoing chemotherapy paid £160 for a human hair wig and was sent an absolutely disgusting cheap nylon wig’.

Getting Wigsell customer service to resolve their issues appeared to be fruitless in most cases. This goes counter to what Wigsell boasts on its website where its states: ‘We want to ensure that you are 100pc happy with your purchase’ and when they’re not satisfied ‘we want to make things right’.

With this in mind, I tried to contact the firm to discuss your case and its customer service. I am still waiting to hear back.

Meanwhile, I took a separate tack, that others who have had the misfortune to receive similarly dodgy wigs that do not match their order, should also consider. Since you had paid with a credit card, this afforded you protection via the chargeback process. This is where customers who do not get satisfaction over a disputed purchase, can have the transaction reversed by their bank, which then demands the money from the retailer’s bank. I asked your card provider M&S to apply this in your case. It did this swiftly and I am happy to say within a short time refunded you a total of £68.80 – and sent you a bunch of flowers. An M&S Bank spokesman says: ‘We were very sorry to hear about the challenges the customer faced trying to obtain a refund from the retailer, particularly at this difficult time. We were pleased that, on this occasion, we were able quickly arrange for a refund to be applied to their account and we wish her all the best.’ I also wish you well. 

Last December, the mobile phone number that I have had for 20 years stopped working. I got in touch with my phone provider O2. 

It turned out that my number had been moved over to the Vodafone network, which is why I could no longer use it. But O2 did not know why this had happened and at first could not help me get it back. 

Happily, the number was transferred back to O2 a few days later, so I can make calls using it, but the number is still not recognised when friends and family call me on it. What can I do?

R.T., Redhill, Surrey.

Sally Hamilton replies: NOT being able to make or receive calls on your own phone is bad enough. But you also told me it meant you were unable to access your emails.

This is because you suffer from memory problems, and from time to time you forget your email password and need to reset it. Your email provider requires you to use your mobile phone number to reset the password.

This also meant you had to write to me using your friend’s email to ask for my help when you got nowhere with O2.

I contacted O2 on your behalf. Within a few days it managed to contact you (via your friend’s number) and have its tech experts arrange the reconnection of your phone number. It apologised for the inconvenience and sent you £150 as a goodwill gesture.

I suspected there was something more sinister behind these events and asked O2 to investigate whether you had been a victim of a SIM swap fraud.

This is when crooks trick a mobile provider into activating a SIM card in their own device using another person’s number. The scam means they are able to use a phone account for free (with the bills sent to the victim). They can also potentially gain access to the person’s bank accounts. That is because banks often send one-time passcodes to customers by text message as part of the online banking login process. By intercepting texts, the scammers have access to these all important one-time passcodes.

O2 delved further into your case and the conclusion was you had indeed been a victim of a SIM swap scam. Fortunately, you had not suffered any financial losses as a result.

O2 told me a scammer had somehow been able to pass security on your O2 account, and then asked for the Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) code. This is the code customers need to request from their current network if they want to switch to another network but want to keep their mobile number.

Using the PAC code the scammer was able to transfer your number over to Vodafone. It is not clear how the scammer managed to breach the first level of security to access your email or O2 account but it is probable your personal information had been gleaned by other means, perhaps via phishing emails or while completing forms on websites, or maybe your data was purchased on the ‘dark web’ following a data breach. We can’t know for sure.

To avoid falling for a SIM swap fraud, phone users should look out for the warning signs. The most obvious is when the mobile owner is suddenly unable to call or text with their phone, as happened to you.

But other clues include receiving notifications that the number has been activated on other devices, or suddenly that sign-in details aren’t recognised when logging on to a bank or other account online.

O2 has since contacted you to recommend you change your online passwords and click ‘log out of all devices’ on your various accounts.

An O2 spokesman says: ‘Unfortunately R.T. was the victim of fraud, with a scammer able to access her email account or MyO2 account to request and access a PAC code. We have restored her number and she is happy this is now resolved. We always advise customers to contact us as soon as possible if they receive any communications from us that they don’t immediately recognise, and to choose strong and unique passwords to help guard against this type of fraud.’