My N70's dead

Eurorunner

Someone called me last night and the phone (Nokia N70) just went into vibrate (it was set for ringtone at the time) - and locked up ie. I couldnt answer it. Since then, I've managed to get it working once or twice - but otherwise it wont startup (it hangs with the backlight illuminated and "NOKIA" displayed. It won't start-up at all this morning.

Theres a high pitched buzzing noise imminating from the charger end.


Does this sound familiar to anyone and if so, is it a software or hardware issue?
I bought the phone (not contract) just over 18 months ago. How long do nokia warranties last?

Saruman

Did you buy it here or abroad? If here then forget about warranty. You are covered for up to 6 years by statutory rights... if abroad then its up to warranty.

Im assuming you did try taking out the battery and Sim/mem card and putting them back in?

Eurorunner

Saruman wrote: »

Did you buy it here or abroad?

Yes, I bought it here (via a vodafone shop).

Saruman wrote: »

If here then forget about warranty. You are covered for up to 6 years by statutory rights

So they can't charge for repairs then?

Saruman wrote: »

Im assuming you did try taking out the battery and Sim/mem card and putting them back in?

Yesm I have taken out the battery - tried a different battery. Also taken out the sim a couple of times and the memory card.
Is proving to be totally unpredicatable. I managed to finally get it to start up. Switched it off - it wont work again. Then just now, it starts up again - but if I press the 'menu' key,it wont pull up the menu. I just tried to ring my mobile from landline - the call came up (silent when it should have been ringing). I disconnected the call on the landline handset but the N70 is hanging on the call.
A lot of the time, I was getting this message when it failed to startup - "Phone startup failed. Contact the retailer". On one occasion, I got this - "telephone system error: -15"

Sam Vimes

nokia has a 2 year warranty but i don't think the vodafone shop will take it back after a year so drop it into mprc in sandyford. www.mprc.ie. It should take less than 3 hour and will be free

mobileplaza

Commander Vimes wrote: »

nokia has a 2 year warranty but i don't think the vodafone shop will take it back after a year so drop it into mprc in sandyford. www.mprc.ie. It should take less than 3 hour and will be free

vodafone will take this phone back, although if u can its probably quicker to drop out to mprc. they usually have it back to you within 2-3 hours.

Saruman

The retailer is responsible always i believe, unless you buy direct. In this case you seem to be covered under warranty.
If you go the statutory rights route you would have to threaten to go to the small claims court, which only costs €15 on-line

Eurorunner

Thanks folks. Will drop it back to Vodafone (as i'm not anywhere near dublin). I hope i can find the bloody receipt for it...

Thirdfox

Saruman wrote: »

Did you buy it here or abroad? If here then forget about warranty. You are covered for up to 6 years by statutory rights...

What law gives you "up to" 6 years warranty on goods purchased? SoGSoS Act 1980???

Thought under statutory rights you only had a "reasonable" expectation of use.

auggie2k

Yeah the phone charging point sucks, connect in your charger and see if the bit moves in the phone. It does with my Nokia 6300, I hate the new small head chargers. My phone went into a vibrating fit there recently too and I just accidentely found out that this fixes it.... sorta!?

BostonB

Anyone want to lay odds on "water damage" ?

BostonB

Commander Vimes wrote: »

nokia has a 2 year warranty but i don't think the vodafone shop will take it back after a year so drop it into mprc in sandyford. www.mprc.ie. It should take less than 3 hour and will be free

Is there a way of an ordinary punter seeing how long of the 2yr warranty a Nokia has left?

Sam Vimes

BostonB wrote: »

Is there a way of an ordinary punter seeing how long of the 2yr warranty a Nokia has left?

try *#0000#. that should tell you the day it was manufactured. or if you call mprc they can tell you over the phone. just give them the imei (*#06# on the phone).

Eurorunner wrote: »

Thanks folks. Will drop it back to Vodafone (as i'm not anywhere near dublin). I hope i can find the bloody receipt for it...

you shouldn't need the receipt. they should know by the imei that you bought it there

Eurorunner

Thirdfox wrote: »

What law gives you "up to" 6 years warranty on goods purchased? SoGSoS Act 1980???
Thought under statutory rights you only had a "reasonable" expectation of use.

Yeah - would also be interested to know more on this as wasn't aware of it.

BostonB wrote:

Anyone want to lay odds on "water damage" ?

Don't know all too much about electronics but it does sound like symptoms consistent with water damage - its being completed sporadic - I can kind of get it working from time to time. Having said that, I can't remember it getting wet!

Commander Vimes wrote:

you shouldn't need the receipt. they should know by the imei that you bought it there

Thats a relief.

Saruman

The sale of goods act yes. im not going searching for links. It should be made a sticky as it comes up many times every month.
It goes something along the lines of you are covered for a reasonable lifetime for any product up to 6 years. So the reasonable lifetime of a mobile phone should be more than 18 months.
Look through consumer issues... it comes up all the time there.

Random

Saruman wrote: »

The sale of goods act yes. im not going searching for links. It should be made a sticky as it comes up many times every month.
It goes something along the lines of you are covered for a reasonable lifetime for any product up to 6 years. So the reasonable lifetime of a mobile phone should be more than 18 months.
Look through consumer issues... it comes up all the time there.

And is knocked all the time from my limited memory. Just back up what you've said or shut up!

jimmycrackcorm

Saruman wrote: »

So the reasonable lifetime of a mobile phone should be more than 18 months.

I think you are confusing the amount of time an average person keeps a phone before swapping it with the expected life time of the electronic product.

Thirdfox

Saruman wrote: »

The sale of goods act yes. im not going searching for links. It should be made a sticky as it comes up many times every month.
It goes something along the lines of you are covered for a reasonable lifetime for any product up to 6 years. So the reasonable lifetime of a mobile phone should be more than 18 months.
Look through consumer issues... it comes up all the time there.

I study law you see and I never heard about this 6 year rule. That's why I'm so interested in finding out where the rule comes from.

I think the part you're looking at is this:
12.—(1) In a contract for the sale of goods there is an implied warranty that spare parts and an adequate after sale service will be made available by the seller in such circumstances as are stated in an offer, description or advertisement by the seller on behalf of the manufacturer or on his own behalf and for such period as is so stated or, if no period is so stated, for a reasonable period. (emphasis added).

I do not think there is an actual number of years stated in the Act.

by the way - all Acts (and SIs) of the Oireachtas can be found here
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/home.html

the particular part I quoted is here:
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1980/en/act/pub/0016/sec0012.html#zza16y1980s12

foggy_lad

Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act, 1980.
deals with all the issues of warrantys and goods fit for their purpose

Saruman

I probably am wrong. I know on the Argos website for instance it states that we are covered for 6 years. However they are quoting the 1979 act. It might have changed. The only thing i found about it is in this PDF.
Looks like 6 years was removed from the act? I do not know. Legal stuff hurts my brain when it keeps referring to different subsections and paragraphs.

So if im wrong, thats fine. I just know i had read it quite a few times.
Its very possible though that its the English sale of goods act that clearly states 6 years??? Hence the confusion.
One other thing, it may not be the Irish act but a European wide act? Look at this:
http://www.euroconsumatori.org/16856v18340d18510.html

Thirdfox

It may be that the statute of limitations of product liability is 6 years (as opposed to 1.5 years for many tort actions)...

But that site you cited does state the EC legislation says 6 years... hoped they would have provided a link to it

Eurorunner

Just got it back. Report says they swapped out a fuse...

Eurorunner

Just had N70 back for less than 24 hours and its back to the way it was again. I suppose its back in to vodafone (becoming a bloody inconvenience now). I don't really have any old phone lying around the house that I can use...:mad:

I take it, three strikes and they're out right?? Just wondering should I upgrade as well if it comes to this. I have a problem with the N70 communicating via bluetooth with a gps unit - so might be an opportunity to upgrade to something that didnt have bluetooth issues? Do any of you recommend any of the more recent Nokia models??

<EDIT> I dropped it back in so thats me phoneless for yet another week. They're saying that they're under no obligation to provide a new phone following 3 attempts at fixing it given that the date of purchase is >12months ago. Have I been given the correct info/Is this other peoples experience??
If so, I could be in and out of there for weeks with them trying to patch it up...</EDIT>

Eurorunner

I collected it this afternoon only for them to have a report on it saying that they couldnt find any problem. Once I say that I told them I was going to end up bringing the bloody thing in for a third time. I took it away, booted it up and down a few times and it worked. Brought it home, stuck in the memory card - and then it spassed out from that stage onwards. Now i am having all manner of problems with it.

They need to replace it - and it looks like i have to force them into this. They say they are under no obligation to do this seeing as its over 12 months past purchase. However, if they can't fix it, surely they are legally obliged to do so? Makes it all the harder if they won't admit theres anything wrong with it!!!

Sam Vimes

if the problem existed before the 12 months then the warranty is exteneded until that fault is fixed. they can't, for example, take your phone in for repair, keep it for twelve months, hand it back having done nothing and then tell you to f*ck off.

but the warranty is only extended for that fault. new faults are not covered unless caused by the original one (eg dodgy sceen eventually shorts out a resistor in a different part of the phone)

after 3 repairs you're entitled to a replacement

Eurorunner

Commander Vimes wrote: »

if the problem existed before the 12 months then the warranty is exteneded until that fault is fixed. they can't, for example, take your phone in for repair, keep it for twelve months, hand it back having done nothing and then tell you to f*ck off.

but the warranty is only extended for that fault. new faults are not covered unless caused by the original one (eg dodgy sceen eventually shorts out a resistor in a different part of the phone)

after 3 repairs you're entitled to a replacement

Well, the fault originated 3 weeks ago (at a stage when the phone was 18 months old). I will ring them in the morning. Going away to sharpen an axe.....:mad:

Sam Vimes

nokia has a two year warranty

Eurorunner

Apparently, what they're going to do is replace the guts of the phone - everything apart from the casing. Find this a bit mean spirited - as it really can't make much of a difference to them than leaving me with a new unit and fresh casing.
Just thinking, their motivation must be to avoid having to give me another 2 year warranty...even though its effectively a new phone/new IMEI, etc.??

eqwtegmtykultyk

Who are doing these "repairs" for you?

Eurorunner

eqwtegmtykultyk wrote: »

Who are doing these "repairs" for you?

MPRC in Sandyford. Don't they do all nokia warranty repairs??

eqwtegmtykultyk

Eurorunner wrote: »

MPRC in Sandyford. Don't they do all nokia warranty repairs??

No, I don't think so. I think Sigma also to some too.

Eurorunner

Still not back yet. Approaching 4 full weeks without a bloody phone now.

Eurorunner

Eurorunner wrote: »

Still not back yet. Approaching 4 full weeks without a bloody phone now.

Another week gone. I ramble in to vodafone a full seven days later expecting that it couldnt concieveably come about that my phone is not back from MPRC.


keep making the same mistake...should always expect the impossible..

Eurorunner

They were claiming earlier this week that it was my charger that was at fault and that they could find nothing wrong with the unit itself. Everything but the casing was replaced.
Just got it back yesterday. Everything but the casing was replaced. Its effectively a new phone - but they wouldnt give me a new phone presumably because they would have to give me a new warranty with it. And it really feels like they just wanted me to go away. This could all have been sorted out from the beginning - without me needing to make countless trips into city centre collecting and returning the bloody thing.
As its a new IMEI, are they under any legal obligation to provide a warranty on it?

In any event, if anyone has an address that I can forward complaints on to Nokia Ireland, I'd appreciate it. I think its poor form if they're scared to stand over the products that they're putting on the market.