Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
  • Mobile problem – am I being unreasonable?
  • fbk
    Free Member

    Ok, so I get a shiney new SE c905 mobile 3 months ago, just after they came out. All is well – the camera is fantastic & even the phone works well….. until 33 days into my contract when the ear peice stops working (a fairly common problem going by various forums).

    Bought from e2save, it was unfortunately 5 days older than their 28 day instant replacement policy so went off to be repaired. That was 2 months ago and after various excuses, they’re now supposed to be replacing it and sending me a new one… that was 8 days ago and still nothing.

    I know there’s stuff all I can do as I’m at the mercy of the mighty Car Phone Warehouse (via my local store – they own e2save and, as it was older than 28 days e2save don’t want to know!) but, having already thrown a few toys out of the pram, I’m getting seriously p’d off with the overall incompetance of the company. I’ve also got a nice expensive contract to pay off with my old 3 year old phone that can’t use half the bits included in it… and they were also charging me £7.99 insurance a month for a phone I didn’t actually have – cancelled that now!.

    Is it just me being impatient or does this seem completely unreasonable service?

    Sorry, need to rant at someone before visiting the store again!!!!!!

    joemarshall
    Free Member

    2 months? To fix an earpiece!

    I’ve done an earpiece replacement on a nokia, took 10 minutes, most nokia service centres can fix them on the spot (although if you don’t have a receipt, they charge £45, even for a phone that is obviously in warranty due to being newer than the length of the warranty period – hence me doing the fix myself).

    It’s probably the joys of the Sony repair service that you’re living with – I know when we had Sony laptops that broke with a known fault (all of them broke in the same way), it took forever for them to fix it.

    Joe

    fbk
    Free Member

    Hmm. The CPW excuse is that, because the handset was so new, they couldn’t get the parts so had to send it back to SE – bad in itself I know!

    It’s not just the delay though it’s the constant "yes, we guarantee to fix it in 28 days but this is different" and, "we’ve sent it to our escalation team – they’ll contact you in x days" and, "oh, well look on the computer – they are dealing with it. I’m not sure why they haven’t phoned you" and, they tried to phone you on xxxxxxx number….oh, that’s not your number?".

    Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

    skidartist
    Free Member

    Not that its any excuse but….. if something is a common fault there is going to be a lot of demand for those repairs and those parts. I’d be expecting a bit of a rebate though if its taking that long.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    quote the sale of goods act at them and raise an action in small claims court. The law is on your side

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    I find this all the times with mobile companies – they seem to be particularly bad in this respect.

    I think part of the problem is that companies throw so many new products out, they can’t have had time to test them properly.

    With regards to your proble, I think by law they have ‘a reasonable time’ to repair the phone. If you are on a 12mth contract, I think you can fairly say that 2months without your phone is unreasonable and they should replace it with a new handset.
    Give Citizens Advice a call – they are normally very useful with this kind of thing.

    fbk
    Free Member

    Thanks for the advice. I think I may have to go down the CAB route – went into the shop again yesterday to be told that I can only have a replacement phone when one come into the repairs dept (reconditioned I guess). No idea of time scale or anything.

    fbk
    Free Member

    Just in case anyone was wondering and possibly concerned…….

    I still haven’t got a working mobile phone. 11 weeks and counting

    Carphone warehouse really are the pits!!!

    Mr_Krabbs
    Free Member

    stop paying the contract and get a PAYG from another provider. Tell them you want a refund for the months without your phone and you refuse to pay the monthly line rental until you have your phone in full working order.
    BTW when my nokia n81 died after 5 months O2 replaced it with a refurbished n81 the next day. That one just didn’t work so as a goodwill gesture they upgraded it to a brand spanking new N95 8GB and at the time they’d only just come out.
    I really try to avoid buying mobiles through a 3rd party these days as the customer service is generally shitty.

    fbk
    Free Member

    Unfortunately I can’t really do that – contract is with Orange who have nothing to do with the CPW.

    I’ll definitely be buying directly from the network in the future though – I’ve had enough of all crap customer service companies like CPW offer 🙁

    Phone call to Trading Standards tomorrow…

    pk-ripper
    Free Member

    you had the insurance, the phone broke? I am aware in this sort of situation, some people may have ‘lost’ the phone.

    dave_aber
    Free Member

    Just been into CPW to see what the progress was on my SE which is in for repair. They looked it up on the puter, and it has gone from CPW repair people back to SE.

    The switched on member of staff in my local CPW looked at the date I handed it in, and as it was 29 days ago she arranged for a new phone to be sent out (unfortunately none in stock, or she’d have handed one out).

    The CPW store manager kept trying to tell her that there was no 28 day limit etc, but she was clearly a good egg and had been reading the CPW rule book, which she quoted at her manager and at the repair centre bod on the other end of the phone.

    Eventually they all just agreed that she was right, and my replacement is on the way.

    Might be worth scanning the CPW small print (website?) to see if the 28 day thing is published anywhere, then print it out and wave it at them. It went along the lines of the phone will be back from repair within 28 days from handing it to CPW or they have to replace it.

    jimthesaint
    Full Member

    Contract mobile phones are really ambiguous with regards to the Sale of Goods Act.

    I’m not 100% sure but I think that we are the only country that customers expect to get a ‘free’ phone with a mobile phone contract.

    What you have purchased is a service from Orange via CPW to supply you with airtime for a fixed price for a minimum period. I’m pretty sure that no where on your contract will it say that Orange or CPW is obliged to supply you with a phone with which to use your airtime with.

    fbk
    Free Member

    True, but under the sale of goods act, I purchased the phone from CPW (with an orange contract) and, as such, it’s their obligation to repair or replace it within a reasonable length of time. I don’t class 11 weeks (and counting) a reasonable length of time.

    Dave_aber – yes they do have a 28 day repair pledge but they’re claiming that the fact it went off to SE means it’s SE’s fault now! It’s all being sent to Trading Standards as all CPW will say is they’ll supply me with a reconditioned handset when one becomes available – they’ve no idea when that will be though. I sincerely hope you get better service than I’ve received – I’ve been promised a replacement is “on it’s way” so many times I’ve lost count now!

    Grrrrrrrr!!!

    bigyinn
    Free Member

    fbk, this is a relatively common with C905s
    Mine had the same issue a week ago (new November ’08). Took it back to CPW and they replaced the handset within a week.
    Apparently it affects the earlier build models (Mine was a week 43, replaced with a week 41), ones after week 45 aren’t as affected. If you press the C key the sound returns, so its not a speaker issue per se, more of a hardware glitch.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

The topic ‘Mobile problem – am I being unreasonable?’ is closed to new replies.