Hi, bear with me on this one….

I took out an 18 month contract with 3 in december 08, the phone was an INQ1. This became faulty within 2 weeks so I took it back and after much persuausion I got them to swap it for a samsung S7330 instead. This worked fine for just over 12 months and then developed a fault also. I went back to the shop and was informed (incorrectly as it turns out) that as it is outside the 12 month warranty period it's tough titty basically.

So with 6 months still to run on my contract I just bought a cheap pay as you go phone, the INQ mini 3G. This became faulty within the week so again I went back, kicked off, paid a bit more and got a sony ericsson T715. This then developed several faults within the first month, so off I went again back to the 3 shop and again had to create a bit of a fuss to get them to agree to an exchange rather than waiting an age for them to get it fixed.

Got home all excited that I might finally now have a working phone but no this one is faulty as well – the battery indicator never reaches full when it's on charge, even if left overnight. Therefore, the battery life is less than a day on standby and even less when I actually use the phone.

So what do I do now? Am I within my rights to take it back again and demand either another replacement or refund or am I stuck with it?

Thanks

Yeh you can still (legally) claim a replacement/refund seeing as the new phone is faulty. Forget about the contract for now as that just complicates things, long and short of it is you've bought a phone a couple of months ago, and despite replacements, you are still left with a faulty phone.

The phone shops seem to be very strict on their returns policies for some reason…I bought a phone and was told in no uncertain terms, no refund, no exchange, nothing. He only admitted I could return it if it was faulty when pushed. Another shop sold a friend a mobile phone case, he was concerned it wouldn't fit the his wife's phone (present so couldn't try it beforehand) and it was the same story, no refunds, no exchange. And they quote this to you when you pay, its not just like its written on the back of the receipt. Is it because they are all on commission and lose it if you return the phone/item?!!