Phone Repair Saga - Any Advice?

jArgHA

I have a question relating to mobile phone repair / warranty. My other half has been put through the mill regarding an issue on her Samsung Wave:

She got the phone as part of a signup to a Meteor Billpay plan about 4 months ago. As far back as we can remember there was an issue where she would not receive text messages from certain people, and certain people would not receive text messages from her.

After speaking to Meteor customer care (in-store) she was directed to a 3rd party phone fixing company, who I will refer to here as 'PhoneyFixers' (Cork) who would repair the phone for free (I'm presuming they are contracted to Meteor). So about 3-4 weeks ago the phone was left into PhoneyFixers who after 2-3 weeks deliberation told her that the phone had 'moisture damage' - and this was the sole explanation given as to why text messages could not be received from certain people.

I work in the technology sector and to me this sounded like a total copout. It seemed a bit like saying you don't get emails from certain people because your PC's got some moisture inside?

Anyhow, eventually PhoneyFixers returned the phone - *but* the phone was returned in an unusable state - they had flashed some kind of custom debugging bootloader onto the phone and it just boots to a screen with debugging type info, and some message regarding connecting phone to PC. There is no way to get beyond this screen. So it is totally unusable, whereas at the point it was brought into them in the first place it worked with the exception of not receiving texts from a few select people.

My partner then went back to complain that she could no longer use her phone, it's basically a doorstop at this point. They replied that when the phone is opened and has moisture damage there is no guarantee that it will be returned working. WTF!!? At this stage I'm thinking they should be renamed to PhoneBreakers.

It should be noted that there was no explicit insurance purchased for the phone, but the fact is that before it was brought to the 'fixing company' it was still very usable, now it is bricked and they are taking no responsibility. Since Meteor iniitally directed her to bring her phone to this 3rd party phone fixing company it is my belief that Meteor are ultimately responsible.

In any case I'm wondering if anyone knows what kind of rights (if any) one has in this kind of situation? It looks like we may be forced into the purchase of a new phone now.

elderlemon

Assuming you are correct and there was not moisture damage (texts not getting through to a user is not moisture damage):

1) you are entitled to have the phone returned to you in the state that you sent it. Having a debugging bootloader installed is no in the same state. Plus when you sent it you could use it as a phone and text to other numbers. Again it did not come back in the same condition as it went out.

2) Your contract is with the phone company. write (don't call) and explain what the original fault was, what happened and the current state of the phone.

3) If you don't get any satisfaction write to them again and say you are taking it to the small claims court.

4) if no result the go to the small claims court. take a note of every expense you incur - every call, every stamp, envelope, paper and your time. Submit this in your claim to the court. Make sure you let meteor know that you will be claiming back all expenses.

good luck

drunkmonkey

Where did the moisture damage come into it? Was that on the technicians sheet from phone breakers?

If it was moisture damaged there's nothing you can do.

The problem with texts was more than likely a provisioning error on the network not a phone problem. Your right in that assumption.

kirving

To be honest, I think mobile phone repair companies are looking for anything which could be regarded as moisture damage.

I'm very careful about leaving my phone in the kitchen or bathroom where steam may trip a moisture sticker, and an unlelated problen will be blamed on moisture damage in the future.

Although, spraying water from a Lucozade bottle all over my phone, and putting it a puddle of spilled tea didn't break it!

jArgHA

Thanks for the replies folks, we are taking some of the advice on board and writing a letter to Meteor to explain the situation fully. I'll see how they respond, hopefully something will come of it and we won't have to go down the small claims court route...

antodeco

The problem is, repair companies don't like moisture damage. If its a manufacturing fault, they repair, and then claim back from the respective manufacture. If its moisture damaged, they cannot repair it, so they can't claim from the manufacturer. So, moisture damage costs repair companies (time/labour). Repairable phones cost the same, but this is claimed back.