Which repair centre?

waynegalway

So, I have a couple of small issues with my HTC One, and after talking to Three (they insist on using fonemenders) I decide to contact HTC directly for support.

They informed me to send the phone to one of their repair centres in Dublin, and they gave me the choice of two. I guess there may not be much difference really, but which ones have you used and which one would you recommend?

The choice service centres is:

Fonfix or SBE Ireland.

Kimbot

Fonfix done my Galaxy S4 Screen repair and were brilliant TBH. Sent it away and had it back in a couple of days. They do a walk in service.

Del2005

waynegalway wrote: »

So, I have a couple of small issues with my HTC One, and after talking to Three (they insist on using fonemenders) I decide to contact HTC directly for support.

They informed me to send the phone to one of their repair centres in Dublin, and they gave me the choice of two. I guess there may not be much difference really, but which ones have you used and which one would you recommend?

The choice service centres is:

Fonfix or SBE Ireland.

The problem is that you have no contract with HTC so if the company you send it to isn't the one Three told you to use they don't have any connection. So if they can't fix the issue you start at the beginning with Three so they'll still send it out for a repair.

waynegalway

Del2005 wrote: »

The problem is that you have no contract with HTC so if the company you send it to isn't the one Three told you to use they don't have any connection. So if they can't fix the issue you start at the beginning with Three so they'll still send it out for a repair.

The issues are the widely reported ones (purple tint on photos, and main microphone not picking up sound). I'd imagine that either of the two centres listed by HTC can deal with this.

In my previous experience with Three and fonemenders, it took 6 weeks to get a Galaxy S3 back because FM faffed around and in the end weren't qualified to do the repair (replace motherboard....so FM had to send it somewhere else in Dublin). My fear is that if I go through Three and FM, the same thing will happen and I'll be without the phone for ages. That's why I contacted HTC directly to see where they would suggest sending it.

mikeholmes1

Do not use SBE Ireland at all costs!!!!

Recently my Galaxy S4's Screen stopped working so i brought it back into a branch of the store in which i purchased it,The rep dealing with me looked over it and said it had no signs of damage from been dropped ect and was a common fault with the phone called the black screen of death and agreed to have it picked up for repair,
So a courier picked it up and brought it to the repair center which i now know is SBE Ireland,I then received an Email to say that i had to pay E180 as my unit had an unauthorized repair done,this is simply untrue,also on the invoice it had the the phone down as Samsung galaxy s4 white BT UK,my phone was purchased in Australia so was never a Bt Uk phone,
I then rang them up to sort out this mistake and got absolutely nowhere so in the end up they are just sending me back my phone unrepaired at a cost of E15.
Also as the screen just cut out i couldn't log out of my bank/email ect and on the same day they worked on my phone my bank account was hacked and money taking out,i had not used my card/bank in the 2 weeks prior to been hacked.I'm not blaming them but simply putting my thoughts out there as i do find it a coincidence and to be honest was worried about it before handing over the phone.
In my opinion i think this along with the shocking spelling mistakes in the Email i received shows they are not a professional company.

waynegalway

mikeholmes1 wrote: »

Do not use SBE Ireland at all costs!!!!

Recently my Galaxy S4's Screen stopped working so i brought it back into a branch of the store in which i purchased it,The rep dealing with me looked over it and said it had no signs of damage from been dropped ect and was a common fault with the phone called the black screen of death and agreed to have it picked up for repair,
So a courier picked it up and brought it to the repair center which i now know is SBE Ireland,I then received an Email to say that i had to pay E180 as my unit had an unauthorized repair done,this is simply untrue,also on the invoice it had the the phone down as Samsung galaxy s4 white BT UK,my phone was purchased in Australia so was never a Bt Uk phone,
I then rang them up to sort out this mistake and got absolutely nowhere so in the end up they are just sending me back my phone unrepaired at a cost of E15.
Also as the screen just cut out i couldn't log out of my bank/email ect and on the same day they worked on my phone my bank account was hacked and money taking out,i had not used my card/bank in the 2 weeks prior to been hacked.I'm not blaming them but simply putting my thoughts out there as i do find it a coincidence and to be honest was worried about it before handing over the phone.
In my opinion i think this along with the shocking spelling mistakes in the Email i received shows they are not a professional company.

I ended up going with SBE for the repair of my One earlier this year. Reason being, I found out that the other repair centre in Dublin is not qualified to do the type of repair I needed, and so if I sent it to them, they'd send it to SBE anyway. So, I cut out the middle man and went direct to SBE. Turns out that SBE in Dublin also cannot do the level of repair my phone needed, so they sent it to SBE in the UK.

All told, I was reasonably happy with the experience. I found them to be decent enough with their communication......when I called them they kept me well informed, but I felt that I was the one doing all the chasing. Sure, they rang me back a couple of times, but I kind of got the impression that if I hadn't been ringing every couple of days I might not have heard from them (having said that, if they had no particular news for me, is it fair to expect a call from them just to say "no news yet"?)

In my case, my repair would have gone through SBE no matter how I approached it. Had I gone to Three, they would have sent it to FM (3 days wasted), they wouldn't have been able to do the job, so the would have sent it to FF (3 days wasted), they wouldn't have been able to do the job, so they would have sent it to SBE. So I reckon 6 days of faffing around before it got to who I sent it to directly myself. Of course, on the way back to me if I had gone through Three, all parties involved would have insisted on passing it through QC before sending it back down the line to me, so probably another 6 days wasted on it's way back to me.

I'm not getting anything in return for defending them, but I really don't think my particular repair could have gone any smoother. (To be fair, Apple repairs are absolutely second to none in terms of turnaround, but I think my repair was done as quickly as possible by using SBE, and definitely quicker than if I had gone elsewhere first).

Remember, too, that it depends on the brand of phone and the issue in question. In my case, for a new camera and mic to be fitted to a HTC One, SBE was my best and fastest option for the warranty work.

Kenny Logins

mikeholmes1 wrote: »

Do not use SBE Ireland at all costs!!!!

Recently my Galaxy S4's Screen stopped working so i brought it back into a branch of the store in which i purchased it,The rep dealing with me looked over it and said it had no signs of damage from been dropped ect and was a common fault with the phone called the black screen of death and agreed to have it picked up for repair,
So a courier picked it up and brought it to the repair center which i now know is SBE Ireland,I then received an Email to say that i had to pay E180 as my unit had an unauthorized repair done,this is simply untrue,also on the invoice it had the the phone down as Samsung galaxy s4 white BT UK,my phone was purchased in Australia so was never a Bt Uk phone,
I then rang them up to sort out this mistake and got absolutely nowhere so in the end up they are just sending me back my phone unrepaired at a cost of E15.
Also as the screen just cut out i couldn't log out of my bank/email ect and on the same day they worked on my phone my bank account was hacked and money taking out,i had not used my card/bank in the 2 weeks prior to been hacked.I'm not blaming them but simply putting my thoughts out there as i do find it a coincidence and to be honest was worried about it before handing over the phone.
In my opinion i think this along with the shocking spelling mistakes in the Email i received shows they are not a professional company.

You bought it in Australia and brought it back to the branch in Ireland?

mikeholmes1

Yes i bought it in a branch of Harvey Norman,i actually paid more to buy it there because i was assured if there was any problem i could simply bring it into a store here instead of posting it back to an Australian store like i would had to have done if i had of bought it in jb hifi or the likes.

mikeholmes1

Kenny Logins wrote: »

You bought it in Australia and brought it back to the branch in Ireland?

i didn't say the branch i said a branch.

Kenny Logins

mikeholmes1 wrote: »

Yes i bought it in a branch of Harvey Norman,i actually paid more to buy it there because i was assured if there was any problem i could simply bring it into a store here instead of posting it back to an Australian store like i would had to have done if i had of bought it in jb hifi or the likes.

Ah, I see, I just saw Three mentioned in the first post and assumed you bought from them. No idea why... :pac: