Mobile phone query

colm_mcm

Bought a mobile from a large retailer on a bill contract, phone started giving trouble a few weeks ago.

I use the phone for work etc, and can't be without it. had problems with the display, phone freezing, switching off, alarm not working, you name it!

returned phone to retailer, had to pay €35 (refundable) for a prehistoric loan phone with no bluetooth (can't connect to car phone ) anyhoo, 15 days later got the phone back, supposedly fixed, got a huge list of components replaced from the retailer. one day later, most of the buttons don't work, and 2 of them on the side of the phone don't even move when you press them, like they're jammed in place.

my query is; given that the phone was faulty, should I have to put up with a repair twice. I have no confidence in the phone itself, or this company's ability to fix it properly. Given that they repaired the phone free under the 12 month warranty (of which 4 months remains) the phone was obviously at fault, and the defects were not caused by my use of the phone.

Am I entitled to a replacement, and do I have to keep giving them my phone for 2 week periods till they get it right?

Davy

If its different faults they wont see it from your point of view. Normally it will be 3 repairs before anything happens. If that buttons are jammed, it could be a simple fix just to reassemble could be slightly out of place. Send it back, record the details and make sure to tell them you wont be accepting another repair, or at lease after a third.

foggy_lad

the question is what is reasonable. is it reasonable for your phone to be repaired up to three times taking up to ten days each time? is it reasonable that a repair appears to have done more damage than it fixed?

imo because of the original long list of issues and the botched repair you should now be entitled to a replacement but if the repair was only for something very minor which just recurred then another repair would probably be reasonable!

Doctor DooM

The phone comanies tend to stick rather rigidly to 3 repairs before they replace.

I can see your problem though!

I would suggest contacting the phone companies head office, no one in store will have the authority to give an exchange on the second fault.

daingeanrob

replacement is reasonable, i had same problem on a phone i paid alot of money for, they sent it back to be repaired and charged me a deposit for an ancient brick to use for my trouble, when i got it back the speaker wasn't working and they tried to tell me that i'd have to send it off again, small claims court didn't see it that way and i got a full refund, i was also allowed out of my contract and promptly left that provider.:mad:

jor el

SDooM wrote: »

The phone comanies tend to stick rather rigidly to 3 repairs before they replace.

They certainly do, and it has to be the same fault. i.e. if you get the phone repaired for 3 different faults, they won't replace it. Also, each time it's sent for repair (on a particular fault), they have to find a problem. If they find nothing wrong with it (an intermittent fault) then it doesn't count either.

daingeanrob wrote: »

replacement is reasonable, i had same problem on a phone i paid alot of money for, they sent it back to be repaired and charged me a deposit for an ancient brick to use for my trouble, when i got it back the speaker wasn't working and they tried to tell me that i'd have to send it off again, small claims court didn't see it that way and i got a full refund, i was also allowed out of my contract and promptly left that provider.:mad:

Wish I'd done that now. 150euro out of pocket for the worlds most useless phone.

Pythia

Bring it to the repair centre yourself. Much quicker!

colm_mcm

not when the phone shop is 5 minutes from me!

dropped it in for repair again. got a similarly crappy replacement phone.

Davy

A lot of phone shops only send phones off one or twice a week, so maybe thats what Pythia was referring too

pookie82

I've had this happen to me, though with a pre pay phone. It started giving trouble a month after I bought it - a whole assortment of unrelated problems which led me to believe that it was just a s*it phone. Brought it back, was without it for two weeks, when it came back it was ok for about ten days, then started playing up again - old problems PLUS some new ones! So I carted it back in again with some serious words and they attached a "stern note" to it telling the fixer upper that it'd only just come back from them. Waited two weeks, got it back, lo and nehold it lasted a couple of weeks and back to square one.

I marched back in with a very angry attitude and refused to accept another repair. I'd only gotten the phone a few months previous and had spent more time without it than with at this stage. I told them that I was wasting their time and mine coming in and out with a phone which was obviously beyond repair. The girl eventually called someone to ask permission to give me a replacement phone. Thankfully they'd stoppped making the crap model I'd gotten so I went for a new one.

But I was told in the shop that Nokia would happily continue to send the phone back again and again and again before replacing it. Seems they're hesitant to give a new phone at all costs.

My advice would be to threaten small claims court and kick up a storm in the outlet. It's not nice to have to do but I got a new phone out of it. You'll prob have to agree to send it back twice but a third time I would definitely draw the line at.

Pythia

pookie82 wrote: »

My advice would be to threaten small claims court and kick up a storm in the outlet. It's not nice to have to do but I got a new phone out of it. You'll prob have to agree to send it back twice but a third time I would definitely draw the line at.

This doesn't work often. I used to work in a phone shop and if people did this we were even less likely to want to help them. Be firm but polite.

Yes, I was referring to the fact that even though the phone shop may be very near, if you bring it to a repair centre, you can often pick it up the same day, rather than waiting up to a month for the shop to leave it hanging around, send it, have it sit in a truck, go to the factory, etc...

foggy_lad

surely if you have spent several hundred euro on a phone the shop should send it for repair on the day they receive it? and most busy shops would possibly be getting a few phones for repair every day so saying they wait till they have a few to send shouldn't cause any delay unless the staff just didn't like you and threw your phone in the back of a drawer for a week.

and for the not so busy shops if they sent phones off when they got them it improves the customers view of the shop when they get their phone back promptly and improves business for the shop generated through word of mouth.

Doctor DooM

foggy_lad wrote: »

surely if you have spent several hundred euro on a phone the shop should send it for repair on the day they receive it? and most busy shops would possibly be getting a few phones for repair every day so saying they wait till they have a few to send shouldn't cause any delay unless the staff just didn't like you and threw your phone in the back of a drawer for a week.

and for the not so busy shops if they sent phones off when they got them it improves the customers view of the shop when they get their phone back promptly and improves business for the shop generated through word of mouth.

It depends on the shop. there is no proceedure set in stone. For example I know one company where the proceedure was a courier went around to al its branches twice a week and picked up the repairs. I know another where they were sent to repair by gegistered post.

Sam Vimes

pookie82 wrote: »

My advice would be to threaten small claims court and kick up a storm in the outlet. It's not nice to have to do but I got a new phone out of it. You'll prob have to agree to send it back twice but a third time I would definitely draw the line at.

do not under any circumstances do this. I worked in several mobile phone shops and i can tell you this attitude does not help. If the store policy allowed me to give someone a new phone, i would delight in getting a brand new one out of the box and handing it to them. I didn't want to be the pr!ck telling you your phone has to go away three times

shouting at me and threatening me with the small claims court does not somehow make me allowed to give you a new phone and the threat has no bearing on me because i don't own the company and couldn't give a **** if you take them to court. The only way that i can possibly come off badly in that situation is if i give you a phone that i'm not allowed to, because then i'll get sacked

if you must make threats that every member of staff has heard 20 times that day and think that YOUR threat is somehow different, ask for the number of someone higher than the store manager and shout at them. After all, they're the ones making the policies and they're the ones making enough money to put up with moody customers

Pythia

foggy_lad wrote: »

surely if you have spent several hundred euro on a phone the shop should send it for repair on the day they receive it? and most busy shops would possibly be getting a few phones for repair every day so saying they wait till they have a few to send shouldn't cause any delay unless the staff just didn't like you and threw your phone in the back of a drawer for a week.

and for the not so busy shops if they sent phones off when they got them it improves the customers view of the shop when they get their phone back promptly and improves business for the shop generated through word of mouth.

Well it just doesn't happen, however you might try and rationalise it. They can often sit in the shop for a week.