Had a mobile phone for 3 months. Last few times i've tried to charge it, it's stopped at 85% and come up "Charging Error! Stop Charging!" on the screen.

The shop wants to send it off for 'inspection and repair if viable'. I want a refund or replacement as I don't want to be without a phone. They also cannot even give me a timeframe for doing this. 👿

Do I have to accept what they say or can I demand a refund/replacement? I've taken printed photos of the error so they have evidence that it's broken.

cheers

Have a search on here – we had this whole debate just a few days ago.

IIRC the relevant thing is that you can demand a refund if you return a faulty purchase within reasonable time – what is reasonable is not defined and depends on circumstances.

Or google "sale of goods act" – up comes the government guidance on it.

Retailers normally try to wriggle out of their obligations as their obligations are onerous and expensive

CHeers TJ, I did read that thread first, and also the BIS website.

To quote the Consumer Direct site:

#
If the fault is only minor and can easily be put right, it is reasonable to accept a repair. This won’t stop you claiming a replacement or refund if the repair turns out to be unsatisfactory.
#
If you have had the phone longer than a few weeks or have had a reasonable opportunity to check it, you are probably still entitled to a repair or replacement. A repair should be carried out within a reasonable period of time and without causing you significant inconvenience. Any repair should restore it to a satisfactory condition. If this does not happen, you are entitled to a replacement or compensation. This could be a sum of money or the cost of having somebody else repair the phone.

Do I have to give them the opportunity to send it off? It sounds like it 🙁

If there is a problem, contact the trader straight away and report the problem, a trader may wish obtain a written opinion from an independent expert to establish whether a returned item is indeed faulty or not, to ensure that the apropriate offer of redress is made to the consumer – it shall however, not be legally binding unless both parties agree to it

I recently stood my ground & demanded a refund or a new replacement in the Orange shop in similar circumstances with my daughters phone.
In the end they rang their head office & lied to them [they told them it had failed 3 times] before they got authorisation to let her have a new [different model] phone – they just wanted rid of me

Saturday mid-morning is a good time to take their time up 🙂

Hehe nice one sounds like a plan

The key point to me seems to be this one

A repair should be carried out within a reasonable period of time and without causing you significant inconvenience.

(my bold)

Let them send it away by all means but insist on a replacement to use while it's away

Also you should not be inconvenienced. Do not accept a repair demand a new one. I fell over on this the other month with a pram, I foolishly accepted a repair and boy did I regret it!!! I should have argued for a replacement which was my right.

My father in law done a good one to a major electrical retailer. He bought a hi-fi system and when he got it home and unpacked it it was damaged, he took it back to the shop and was being fobbed off by the manager, In the end the father in law stood by the entrance and every time a customer walked in he just told them not to buy anything from there because if it faulty or damaged they won't change it. They gave him a new one just to get shot of him after a number of customers turned on their heels and walked off.

Thanks to all who posted

Went back to the shop. 'Discussed' it for about 20 minutes before I reached boiling point.

They said the average wait was 3 weeks for inspection and they wouldn't loan me a replacement in the meantime! I reached the point where you can't even express your anger in words. Apparently I looked something like this:

Luckily I had wifey with me and she was able to continue from where I left off. After about another 5 mins of ruckus the manager simply said 'replace it'.

They came out with some seriously annoying bollocks as well. 'We'll have to send back your sim card and we can't transfer the credit'. 'We can't replace it after 30 days only repair at the discretion of the manufacturer',

i nearly wet myself when she said this: 'the government don't consider mobile phones to be essential items'
me: what do they then?
manageress: 'kettles'