Carphone Warehouse w**kers

bking

Hi guys. Word of advice, never buy a phone from the Carphone Warehouse. I bought a new Motorola V3 Razr from them about 2 months ago. The weekend of the 9-11th of june, the display stopped working. I dropped it in on monday the 12th to be repaired. The guy behind the counter said "yeah, no problem, it'll be back in 10 working days". I'm thinking "not such a big deal, no phone for 2 weeks, will save a fortune on my bill!". Since then, I've called heaps of times, being told "another 5 days". At this stage, it'll be next wed-fri before i get it back. This means i'll have had no phone for 3 1/2 weeks, and still have to pay my monthly fee for my bill. When I said this to the Customer Service guy today, I was told he'd get me €15 off any accessory as a "goodwill gesture"! Goodwill my ar$e! He told me they don't have to send phones off for repair after a month, it's an extra service they offer. :mad: They told me they've no replacement phones as they have a lot of repairs going on. Thay have a backlog of repairs as they are moving premises. I reckon that's not my problem, get me my fcuking phone back, or give me a new one!:mad: What should I do? Michael Douglas in Falling Down springs to mind!

MiCr0

its possible that the phone is getting fixed by the mobile phone repair company
if you know the imei for your phone you can check the current status here:

http://www.mprc.ie/onlineservices.asp?mode=check_imei
At least you should get a real idea whats going on.

MOH

I'd never trust them, they kept lying to me about the call credit I was entitled to last time I tried to upgrade my Meteor phone with them. When I showed them printouts from the Meteor website proving I was right, they first tried to tell me I was misinterpreting it, then told me Meteor had recently changed their rules and that their website was probably out of date. Mailed meteor and they confirmed that I was right, and that CW should be able to give me the upgrade.

Ended up going into the Meteor shop and getting €80 more credit than I would have with Cr*pphone Wh*rehouse.

godtabh

bking wrote:

Hi guys. Word of advice, never buy a phone from the Carphone Warehouse. I bought a new Motorola V3 Razr from them about 2 months ago. The weekend of the 9-11th of june, the display stopped working. I dropped it in on monday the 12th to be repaired. The guy behind the counter said "yeah, no problem, it'll be back in 10 working days". I'm thinking "not such a big deal, no phone for 2 weeks, will save a fortune on my bill!". Since then, I've called heaps of times, being told "another 5 days". At this stage, it'll be next wed-fri before i get it back. This means i'll have had no phone for 3 1/2 weeks, and still have to pay my monthly fee for my bill. When I said this to the Customer Service guy today, I was told he'd get me €15 off any accessory as a "goodwill gesture"! Goodwill my ar$e! He told me they don't have to send phones off for repair after a month, it's an extra service they offer. :mad: They told me they've no replacement phones as they have a lot of repairs going on. Thay have a backlog of repairs as they are moving premises. I reckon that's not my problem, get me my fcuking phone back, or give me a new one!:mad: What should I do? Michael Douglas in Falling Down springs to mind!

Did you get insurance with your phone? If you didnt why would CPW give you a spare phone? If you buy a computer and it breaks down do you expect the computer maker to give you a spare while its been repaired?

I bought a phone from the CPW. I had insurance so get a replacement phone. Phone took longer than said to repair and I complained but & I got my phone back a week later.

You should look into all the terms and conditions before you buy something so you know what your letting yourself into

Angels

I've dealt with them before and never again will i buy a phone from them. Similar story like yourself Bking, but this went on for 4 months. They kept sending back my phone saying it was repaired (when it wasn't) so i wrote a letter to the customer service manager. I stated im my letter how the service was a disgrace & that i wanted my money back, all of it. I then went on to explain that i work in customer service myself & would never treat a customer like the way i had been treated by them.

I got a letter back within a week from the Customer service manager. He apologised for the service offered me a full replacement (brand new phone). I had no trouble with this Motor rola V550. But in the end i gave the phone to me dad & bought a nokia (the best phone ever made fierce reliable) from a vodafone store (which had good customer service i think).

A guy in vodafone store stated to me when i told him my story 'Guys in Carphone Warehouse are only a bunch of cowboys'.

My advice never do business with a cowboy.

deadl0ck

Same here - took them over 5 weeks to get my SE w800i fixed.
Absolutely useless!

I'll never deal with them again.

dahamsta

bking wrote:

He told me they don't have to send phones off for repair after a month, it's an extra service they offer.

Well, it either had a warranty or it didn't. Did it?

adam

ToxicPaddy

Apparently and according to the Carphone warehouse twat a mate of mine had to deal with, the manufacturers warranty means feck all.

He brought back a Nokia that was powering off by itself, the phone was only a few months old, when they took it off hime to get repaired, they came back claiming the phone had water damage and they wouldnt repair it.

I saw the phone, it didnt have a scratch on it and the water damage claim was complete and utter crap. When he said he wanted a second opinion from another authorised Nokia reseller, he was informed that if anyone else touched that phone, Nokia authorised or otherwise, his warranty was void and they wouldnt touch it. They didnt do anything with it in the first place!!!!!!

Lodged a complaint with Nokia and its still pending..

Complete wasters.

Wouldnt touch them with a bargepole.

Pythia

ToxicPaddy wrote:

I saw the phone, it didnt have a scratch on it and the water damage claim was complete and utter crap.

Oh yeah, how do you know?

Guy:Incognito

Inside phones theres a small whiteish paper bit (probably not paper) that changes colour if any moisture in the phone. When they open them and se a colour change they will close it and send it back water damaged. So if they send it back as water damaged then there is moisture in it.

water can get in lots of ways. If you leave it in a humid car, near a window, touch it with wet hands, use it in even light rain. It wont show straight away and could take weeks/months before parts inside start to rust/corrode. So while you'll think, i havnt dropped it/ had it near water, you may have touched it with wet hands a month or two ago.

Gillo

ToxicPaddy wrote:

He brought back a Nokia that was powering off by itself, the phone was only a few months old, when they took it off hime to get repaired, they came back claiming the phone had water damage and they wouldnt repair it.

I saw the phone, it didnt have a scratch on it and the water damage claim was complete and utter crap. When he said he wanted a second opinion from another authorised Nokia reseller, he was informed that if anyone else touched that phone, Nokia authorised or otherwise, his warranty was void and they wouldnt touch it. They didnt do anything with it in the first place!!!!!!
QUOTE]
Theres a fair few people here who sell phones and they'll all they you the same thing about water damaged phones, customers will deny that the phone ever got wet, , but as soon as you show them where the damage actually is they'll readily admit "that maybe it might of have got a bit wet". I've seen it happen loads of times. It's unforunate that the phone gets wet, but it's not the manufacturers or sellers fault.

Phones (like all electrical goods) don't have to be imersed in water to be water damaged, a build up of condensation will do damage over time. The majority of use do it, leave the phone in a clothes pocket inteh bathroom while having a shower, use it in the rain, pick it up with wet hands etc.

To the OP, get onto their customer service manager, also get onto the network's customer care see if anyone there will put some pressure onto CPW.

Pythia

gillo wrote:

snip

Spot on

Oracle

I came across this thread on the Carphone Warehouse and I have to agree, they are terrible to deal with if anything goes wrong with your phone. I've had a bad experience with them with a faulty phone. They would do nothing, were most unreasonable and couldn't care less. They gave me the number of their "Customer Care Line" at head office, they had the same attitude. They simply say we will do nothing for you and that's the end of it. I referred the case to the small claims court, but got a refund from the network before it went through.

Another friend of mine has had exactly the same experience; except endless repairs were involved. Again he is having to take his case to the smalll claims court. They are beginning to be fair and offer him something but it's a pity it has to take the threat of court action to make them behave reasonably and responsibly.

I'm also wondering about the amount of faulty phones that I've known about that came from the Carphone Warehouse. They do appear to have more than average.

Anyway my advice to anyone considering buying a mobile phone is to avoid the Carphone Warehouse.

Northside Punk

it doesnt void your warranty if nokia repair the phone themselves. unless they have to replace the phone as phones are tracked by their imeis or serial numbers and the new one wouldnt be traceable and the would only be covered by nokia

its not down to cpw if a phone doesnt work, my advice is avoid motorolla flip phones like the plague, dont get a new nokia until its been on the market a while, middle of the range sony ericssons are usually quite reliable (not the walkman phones) and sharp usually are ok

Oracle

It is the responsibliity of the retailer if the product you have purchased does not work. The law says so: http://www.oasis.gov.ie/consumer_affairs/consumer_rights_and_protection/consumers_and_the_law_in_ireland.html
While retailers may try to ignore the law, limit your rights or attempt to shift their obligations on to manufacturers; the fact remains it's they who you have a contract with when you purchase a product. They are responsible if the product is not ""fit for the purpose for which it was sold" , of "merchantable quality" and "as described".

gilroyb

Oracle wrote:

It is the responsibliity of the retailer if the product you have purchased does not work. The law says so: http://www.oasis.gov.ie/consumer_affairs/consumer_rights_and_protection/consumers_and_the_law_in_ireland.html
While retailers may try to ignore the law, limit your rights or attempt to shift their obligations on to manufacturers; the fact remains it's they who you have a contract with when you purchase a product. They are responsible if the product is not ""fit for the purpose for which it was sold" , of "merchantable quality" and "as described".

But if you buy a product and then wreck it yourself, the retailer has no responsibility. They have the right to check that it isn't water damaged, as long as they check it within a reasonable period of time. That thing the salesperson said about the fact that they send it off after a month as a service is just wrong. If the product has broken they will have to repair it as per the consumer law stated.

Gillo

Not withstanding the bad service which the OP has recieved, I think with mobile phones there is a certain amount of "grey area" ie, is it a issue with the physical product sold (the phone) or the subsequent service supplied (the network). Very often customers will see the phone as faulty even when it is not an issue with the phone itself.

I have noticed that carphone warehouse are notorious for sending their customers to O2 (and persumabley Vodafone & Meteor stores) if there is any chance that the issue may be networked related. O2 and I am sure the other networks will try to accomadate you if you are a customer of their networks, they would have sent your phone away for repair and provided a courtsey phone for you once you were on their network and could produce a reciept to verify that the phone was in warranty.

To the OP, you said that you were without a phone for 3 1/2 weeks without a phone yet still paid your bill. Did you contact your network? I don't know what they would of done, maybe they could of dropped you down to a lower tarriff for that month, yes they may well have told you tough, but I am sure that they would have at least tried to accomadate you. They might have noticed that you didn't use your phone much but that could have been for any number of reasons.

Northside Punk

gillo wrote:

Did you contact your network? I don't know what they would of done, maybe they could of dropped you down to a lower tarriff for that month, yes they may well have told you tough, but I am sure that they would have at least tried to accomadate you. They might have noticed that you didn't use your phone much but that could have been for any number of reasons.

They would have said tough for definite and told you to read the small prin t in the contract

Gillo

Northside Punk wrote:

They would have said tough for definite and told you to read the small prin t in the contract

A few years ago, thats what I would have said, and unfortunately you may well still get that same experience, but one of the big area the networks are pushing is service, it may well take a number of calls, but I would be surprised if they didn't take an interest.

Anyone else here working for one of the networks, want to throw their opinions in.

I'm not saying the network will send you out a new phone, but I'd be surprised if they didn't get on to CPW.

bking

They finally got my phone back after nearly a month. Incredibly, after all this time, the phone wasn't repaired because it was not "economically possible" as the phone was.... water damaged! I brought the phone to a meteor store, and the girl said there was no obvious sign of water damage (white papery thing mentioned above?). Brought it back to those shower in the CPW, and he took out an x-ray (x-ray? how the hell does that show water damage?!!). I asked to see a manager, and he told me he was the assistant manager and more or less to like it or lump it. I can honestly say I will never EVER use the CPW again, and if I ever meet that Ed Byrne W**ker off the ads, he's going down! The phone is in the hot press at home, as the Meteor girl said to give it a try. Here's hoping!!!

Gillo

The "white papry thing" only changes colour if that gets wet itself. Never heard of an x-ray, it's be pretty expensive to be takign x-rays all the time. i know alot of companies supply photographs of the damages circut's.

jimmycrackcorm

gillo wrote:

Theres a fair few people here who sell phones and they'll all they you the same thing about water damaged phones, customers will deny that the phone ever got wet, , but as soon as you show them where the damage actually is they'll readily admit "that maybe it might of have got a bit wet". I've seen it happen loads of times. It's unforunate that the phone gets wet, but it's not the manufacturers or sellers fault.

Phones (like all electrical goods) don't have to be imersed in water to be water damaged, a build up of condensation will do damage over time. The majority of use do it, leave the phone in a clothes pocket inteh bathroom while having a shower, use it in the rain, pick it up with wet hands etc.

I once brought my wifes phone in for repair in the O2 shop in dundrum. the problem was that the phone worked ok with the exception that it would not ring. Of course they came back andsaid it was water damaged. I couldn't believe it - I mean that how can water be so discriminating. And in any case how could they prove that it was water damage. I think it is an excuse.

Gillo

I'm not getting into an agrument, it depends on where the water goes, the speaker could easliy be water damaged, if mostuire got in the gap beside the speaker.

The repair company which the company I work for uses, often supply a photo of the inside of the phone and highlight where the moisture damage is.

As for it been an excuse, it's actually the opposite, when the phone goes for repair, it normally doesn't go to the manufacturer, butone of their authorised repair centres who repair the phone and bill the manufacture, they only get paid if they repair the phone so it's not in their interest to send the phone back to the store unrepaired (as they won't get paid for diagnosing the fault).

At the end of the day, phone are electronic devices and electrical devices don't like to get wet, because it's not the manufacturers fault that a device gets wet they don't cover it by warranty.

parsi

Herselfs 6230i paid an unscheduled visit to the loo. I took it apart and dried it but there was damage to the main board - end result is that the speaker buzzes, still takes great pictures, can make and receive calls but no backlighting...what a pain.

Pythia

bking wrote:

I brought the phone to a meteor store, and the girl said there was no obvious sign of water damage

Eh, there's hardly ever an obvious sign of water damage. It's internal.

I know it's annoying, but phones are sensitive and you got it wet. Tough luck.
Maybe buy a case for the new one.

Doctor DooM

Dude, if you rendered the phone BER (Beyond Econimical Repair) by moisture damage, there's actually nothing the repair company can do.

Bear in mind that as far as I know, CPW use another company to repair, who only get paid if they repair units. SO they repair as many as they can.

Why it took so long to get a BER report is another question. In my job its usually under a week.

Buceph

I've had two phones refused to be repaired or replaced due to water damage before. It was because of a concert. As per usual, at a great concert one sweats. And that's what caused it. I eventually got them to replace it, after spending half an hour in the shop, asking them how I would have avoided getting it water damaged. It turns out that no matter what I do, unless I leave my phone, in a box, with the people who sold it to me, my phone could get water damaged through normal use.

The other time, different company same arguement, it was going nowhere. On comes an innocent bystander and problem solved.

Sam Vimes

kearnsr wrote:

Did you get insurance with your phone? If you didnt why would CPW give you a spare phone? If you buy a computer and it breaks down do you expect the computer maker to give you a spare while its been repaired?

having insurance has nothing to do with getting a spare phone. if the shop has spare phones in stock anyone can get one with a deposit

ToxicPaddy wrote:

Apparently and according to the Carphone warehouse twat a mate of mine had to deal with, the manufacturers warranty means feck all.
He brought back a Nokia that was powering off by itself, the phone was only a few months old, when they took it off hime to get repaired, they came back claiming the phone had water damage and they wouldnt repair it.
I saw the phone, it didnt have a scratch on it and the water damage claim was complete and utter crap.

water damage doesn't show on the outside. its not something they're wrong about really. they generally send back a photo of very obvious corrosion on the circuit board.

ToxicPaddy wrote:

When he said he wanted a second opinion from another authorised Nokia reseller, he was informed that if anyone else touched that phone, Nokia authorised or otherwise, his warranty was void and they wouldnt touch it. They didnt do anything with it in the first place!!!!!!
Lodged a complaint with Nokia and its still pending..
Complete wasters.

now that's a load of crap

Oracle wrote:

I'm also wondering about the amount of faulty phones that I've known about that came from the Carphone Warehouse. They do appear to have more than average.

Anyway my advice to anyone considering buying a mobile phone is to avoid the Carphone Warehouse.

carphone warehouse doesn't make the phones, they just sell them like all the other companies so any indication that their phones go faulty more often is purely coincidental. maybe most people you've seen buy motorolas. they do tend to go faulty far more than other phones

gillo wrote:

To the OP, you said that you were without a phone for 3 1/2 weeks without a phone yet still paid your bill. Did you contact your network? I don't know what they would of done, maybe they could of dropped you down to a lower tarriff for that month, yes they may well have told you tough, but I am sure that they would have at least tried to accomadate you. They might have noticed that you didn't use your phone much but that could have been for any number of reasons.

they wouldn't have done a thing guaranteed. people on contract have agreed to pay their monthly commitment x 12 and whether or not they make calls isn't o2's problem

Doctor DooM

Buceph wrote:

It turns out that no matter what I do, unless I leave my phone, in a box, with the people who sold it to me, my phone could get water damaged through normal use.

Or you could get a case for the phone...


People always seem to think using a ohone in the rain is "normal use."

If you are aware that you are going somewhere where there will be alot of moisture, bring an old phone, and if you dont have an old one, dont bring it.

If you moisture damage anything electrical thats it. You wouldn't place your computer in a moist place.

Doctor DooM

Pythia wrote:

Eh, there's hardly ever an obvious sign of water damage. It's internal.

I know it's annoying, but phones are sensitive and you got it wet. Tough luck.
Maybe buy a case for the new one.

Yeah but if they want the OP to come into a meteor store instead of a CPW in future, of course they'd say that

Buceph

SDooM wrote:

Or you could get a case for the phone...


People always seem to think using a ohone in the rain is "normal use."

If you are aware that you are going somewhere where there will be alot of moisture, bring an old phone, and if you dont have an old one, dont bring it.

If you moisture damage anything electrical thats it. You wouldn't place your computer in a moist place.

But that's the very point I make. There are very, very few places that you can safely bring a phone if you want to reasonably avoid water damage.

bking

Commander Vimes wrote:

water damage doesn't show on the outside. its not something they're wrong about really. they generally send back a photo of very obvious corrosion on the circuit board.

Phone back working perfectly after a trip through Bosco's Magic Door (the hot press). If there was corrosion on the circuit board that rendered the phone BER, I doubt this would have worked. Seems like they looked at the indicator (which, I'd imagine shows some signs of moisture in most phones) and used it as a cop-out. Does this mean I shouldn't use my phone if it's a hot, humid day, or an overcast day (in case it rains), or a rainy day? THink that about covers all Irish weather! So I've 2 choices, live in a bubble (hey, it looked cool when Bart did it) or buy a callcard (old skool cool?).

Boggles

I'm sure Car Phone Warehouse are just as good or bad as the rest of the phone companies but they did once come up with one of the worst excuses of all time.

A couple of years ago my sister purchased a brand new phone off them, the phone was completely gimped, every time you went to send a text message the phone would restart.

She brought the phone back in and was informed by the eager and informed 18 year old that she knew exactly what the problem was. Wait for it:

George W. Bush was in Dromoland and his security were using sophisticated jamming devices thus rendering 'some' mobile phones useless.

Get this, after my sister gut laughed for 5 minutes, the girls 19 year old colleague backed her up.

Is there anything people won't blame Bush for!!

Pythia

Buceph wrote:

But that's the very point I make. There are very, very few places that you can safely bring a phone if you want to reasonably avoid water damage.

Inside, and when it's not raining basically.
Normal, day to day activities.

Sam Vimes

bking wrote:

Phone back working perfectly after a trip through Bosco's Magic Door (the hot press). If there was corrosion on the circuit board that rendered the phone BER, I doubt this would have worked. Seems like they looked at the indicator (which, I'd imagine shows some signs of moisture in most phones) and used it as a cop-out.

i wouldn't call it a cop out. once a phone has water damage, only 1 in a 100* will ever work properly again. its not in their interests to try to fix it with a 1 in 100 chance of the repair working.


*that's an estimate. please don't ask for statistics

Garth

Used to work with a guy who fixed phones and in the beginning he would try and fix water damaged ones. No point. Every single one of them would be back in within the week saying it wasn't working.

A few months ago I was in a phone shop and saw this wagon goin off her head at some kid behind the counter saying her child didn't water damage his phone and was he calling her child a liar? The kid was about 7 and obviously terrified of his freaky prostitute mother, of course he'd lie. Jesus some people are stupid.

Zambrotta

Yeah I worked in a phone shop we were always told to send them to be repaired but never offer a refund. We had to be such w$*ker about it. Even if they had been sent to be repaired loads of time we would still not give them a new phone. But that will teach you to by Motorolla, they are crap. I had the same experience with an L6 only the battery was crap.It is like everything else in the country, we get shafted while they get rich. Anyway check out my site
giveoutabout.com and tell people about.

Zambrotta

Gillo

Boggles wrote:

I'm sure Car Phone Warehouse are just as good or bad as the rest of the phone companies but they did once come up with one of the worst excuses of all time.

I've seen Meteor beat that, I was down in one of their stores about two months ago, and customer was there complaining that the battery life was only half what it should be. The ever helpfull guy behind the counter explained that if you turned th ephone off at night, you would double your battery life.

Doctor DooM

Buceph wrote:

But that's the very point I make. There are very, very few places that you can safely bring a phone if you want to reasonably avoid water damage.

Pythia wrote:

Inside, and when it's not raining basically.
Normal, day to day activities.

Also as I pointed out you could just buy a case.

Where did the idea that phones should be invulnerable to moisture arise, anyway?

sambora

Commander Vimes, do you work for CPW. You seem to be defending it a lot.

Stench Blossoms

Just want to say that I think the Carphone Warehouse are very helpful. Bought an 8800 there about a month ago and it broke and I went in and explained and they gave me a new one the next day.

Now o2 on the other hand... ahhhh!!!!

Sam Vimes

sambora wrote:

Commander Vimes, do you work for CPW. You seem to be defending it a lot.

no but i did work in a phone shop and i had to deal with people with moisture damaged phones quite often