Phones4U

[Ellie968]

Has anyone else had a bad experience with this bunch of cowboys? I signed a contract with them on 16.08.06 for a new phone. On 16.09.06 (no kidding!) it stopped working. I took the phone back on 18.09.06 and was told that as it waas outside their 28 day replacement policy (by a matter of hours by my reckoning) I would have to send the phone off for repair. So I asked if I could have a replacement handset whilst mine was being repaired - no joy. Ok so I decided to claim on my (expensive) insurance Phones4U had sold me - no - as it was a phone fault they wouldn't pay. The operator I spoke to (not helpfully under the circumstances) explained that had I lost it they would have paid but as it was not my fault, they would not replace the handset (at this point I realised the idiocy of being honest - had I pretended the phone had been lost, stolen or dropped in a vat of hot oil I would have been fine!) Anyway, too late, I had explained that the phone was defective and I knew not why. So now I am told I have to keep paying 02 for the contract phone I do not have and wait to see whether the phone can be repaired. What can I do?

[buzby]

Well - stop and look at what has happened. The phone doesn't work - until it does mitigate your losss and put the SIM an another phone to get you back in contact. It isn't O2's fault that you've a duff handset.

I agree P4u should have used their discretion and helped you, however Phone Insurance is up there with extended warranties - the need for them is to make the punter feel good, and many forget any replacement phone that is ultimately supplied (if the original is lost or stolen) will invariably be refurbished and not new. Cancel your insurance now and save some money. It shouldn;t take more than 10 days to fix a modern phone, so if P4u take longer they're playing games with you.

[julie1961]

I am on the phone to Orange at this very moment. I got a phone 3 weeks ago but it isn't working properly, I have just phoned the company I got it through & they said to send it back & then they will send a replacement but I disagee with that as that will leave me without a phone for a few days & I am paying for a continuous service. I either want Orange to send me another phone to be exchanged at the door or to discount my account for the time I cannot use it.

[buzby]

I disagree. If you pay additional for this 'executive' service then fair enough, but if all you pay is a regular fee to access the network - no way. As mentioned earlier in the thread, their responsibility to you is have the network available for your use. There's no network problem, it's simply a duff phone. If you put the SIM car in a replacmeent you'll be back in business again. Following your line of logic, if your TV's on the blibk, you're due a rebate from the BBC because of your inability to watch! If you want a hot standby phone until your new one is replaced, have one in a drawer somewhere if it's that important to you, and this will be much cheaper than paying an extra £10pm for a same day courier replacement service.

Since the new phone they supplied is not fit for purpose, you'll be entitled to a replacement, and it looks as though you'll be getting one anyway, however I see no problem with you sending the old faulty one back to get the replacmeent - you can always ask for a small amount of compensation, but to demand it is the wrong tack.

[julie1961]

Matbe you are right in one respect but the phone is still well under the 28 day warranty & I cannot see why they could not send me the new phone to be exchanged by the courier at the door as I have done in the past. I have a faulty phone in the past with BT, they sent me a replacement & the courier took the faulty phone away at the same time. It felt safer that way & I didn't have to cover the costs or be with out my phone.

[buzby]

There's no '28 day warranty' this will be for 12 months, the 28-days is based on the Sale of Goods act. What makes this more different from a toaster, is you don't need a contract for one - and if you did, this would bring a few new complications. The Sale of Goods Act is really the responsibility of the retailer (nothing to do with the network directly) so P4u should have been more amenable - perhaps the store manager could be involved?

As to the courier at the door, lots of nice things happened in the past - however phones are now classed as disposable, and most households have a spare old one lying round somewhere so the need for this type of backup is a needless expense.

[julie1961]

Maybe it is a needless expense but when you have been with another company for many years & been promised a better service you expect just that. I don't see why i should have to folk out to send the phone back by recorded delivery when the phone is faulty, they could at least cover the postage. I ordered this phone from a web site with many promises which I have yet to see materialise, I even had to get the phone number from Orange for the company as they only give out an email address for queries. i tried to phone Orange again today, sat for over an hour waiting to get through & fianlly gave up. Beginning to wish i stayed with Vodafone.

[buzby]

Well, one of the downsides of Mail Order is that you lose the 1 to 1 (no pun intended!) you'd normally get, and where a local store would perhaps feel morally bound to resolve your issue, there's less of an urgency with mail order - they can hide behind an email and your contact is electronic only. Of course, the benefit is - supposedly - that you get cheaper prices to make it all worthwhile, but with P4u the prices offered on the web are usually matched by their retail shops.

P4u are the people legally obliged to resolve your problem - Orange's involvement and clearly they want you to be happy with them as a subscriber, but there are limits! If your web purchase doesn't do what it should, escalate it withiin p4u until you are satisified. As for sticking with Vodafone - I fail to see what the difference would be, as if P4u sold you a Vodafone that went faulty, you'd be in exactly the same situation legally.

[julie1961]

I myself didn't get my phone through P4U, when i applied for the phone I was told I would get a £50 cheque as soon as they got ID sent to them I sent the ID & I recieved the phone. I was also told if i recommended someone else I would recieve another cheque for £50 this I did the day after I got mine, I haven't recieved any cheques & I have emailed them & all I get is my comments have been past to customer services. This is one of the reasons I am also reluctant to send my phone back to them without getting one sent first.

[buzby]

These cashback deals are to be avoided, especially as what you described seemed to be commission sharing - you got a kick back if the dealer connected another subscriber. You may not have got the money because the network refused the connection (or the dealer was dishonest). Because the cash back has no relevance to the contract signed, if the dealer fails, the contract still goes on regardless.

[Ellie968]

Okonski I never said it was 02's fault - but nor is it mine - the problem is having two companies involved here - the payment is to 02 and my grip is with Phones 4U - and the relevant act is not the sale of goods act but the supply of goods and services act - because the handset came with the contract. I have tried to mitigate my losses - I have borrowed a handset and sent the phone off for repair - tho a replacement in the meantime would have been reasonable (Vodafone provide this - Julie I agree I rue the day I changed providers). The phone has come back and it still doesn't work. P4U say they will have to send it off another two times before they will replace it - why three times? Why? Either it is repairable or it isn't.

I have found out that I am entitled to compensation from P4U for the contract costs whilst the phone is out of action - no-one at P4u or 02 advised me of this until I asked them when P4u agreed they did have to do this - BUT - they deduct ten days per repair from the compensation. So if it does get sent off three times that's thirty days I won't be recompensed for - and no doubt no recompense for the phonecalls (o870 of course) or the time taken from work to visit the shop with the said duff handset. How on earth do mobile phone companies get away with this? Does anyone know whether Oftel deal with mobile phone companies?

[Ellie968]

ps second line - my gripe not my grip - it is my grip that I am losing trying to sort the damn mess out!

[taff999]

on the subject of insurance i have recently cancelled my o2 gold insurance.

at 5 pound a month times 12 (60) plus a 75 pound excess for any claim for replacement i could probably afford a new phone anyway after saving that money.

[edinburghbeerbucket]

Just wanted to throw in my experience with Orange a while back. I got so angry with them in the end that I went to pre-pay with another network.

Anyway, I bought an Orange phone from the Orange shop, and took out the £5/mo. insurance. The phone broke down in under 12 months, but I thought since I have the insurance I'll just use that because I'll get better service. WRONG! They wanted to charge me a £15 excess and a £20 courier charge. I said no thanks, I'll just claim under the manufacturer's warranty instead. Then they said that because it was outside 6 months old, they had NO RESPONSIBILITY for the phone whatsoever. I argued the point for a bit and got nowhere, so I then said that they still had a responsibility under the Sale of Goods Act. This is when things really fell apart. They had NO understanding of the Sale of Goods Act whatsoever, and said that it only covered the first 6 months after the purchase. I know what part of the SOGA they were confusing it with - within the first 6 months of purchase it is the responsibility of the retailer to prove that the fault did not exist at the time of purchase; outside that time it is the consumer's responsibility to prove the opposite. I explained this to the adviser, who then said "excuse me, sir, but I think I know the sale of goods act better than you!". But in any case they had a new excuse - the Orange shop is not part of the Orange network. They are independantly run.

By this point I was so frustrated that I called Motorola, who said they'd fix it for free and even pay the postage!

The next day, a courier showed up with a new phone from ORANGE, and asked to collect the old one. I refused to sign for it, and let it go back to Orange.

The next month, the excess and the courier charges appeared on my bill, so I wrote to Orange and told them where to shove their contract, and wrote them a cheque for the bill minus those charges.

I'm still angry that I paid them £5 a month for over 2 years and they still screwed me over.

Anyway, something to take away from this is you could still go back to Phones 4U and go with the Sale of Goods Act.

Phewf!

[buzby]

Because mobile phones are not the executive item they once were, insurance isuseful if you could describe youself as 'careless' but with policy exesses, it's getting to the stage that it isn't worth the bother. As for repairs, I cettainly would not accept a phone not being repaired correctly the 1st time - to allow a futher 2 times is not on, and if their quality control is not up to it, why stop at 3? All you'll get is a replacement phone (not new, but a refurb) a £20 handset on your existing network would at least get you back to using your minutes and services until things are sorted out, and the cost of this far cheaper than the constant drip of an insurance policy.

[StoneLaughter]

I had an old Samsung E800 on an O2 contract (a lovely phone - if a bit girly) and it broke down 3 times with the same fault. I took it to the phoney shoppy place I bought it from in our local town, and said that I was no longer happy as they had not even took the phone out of the box when it went for repair (my contacts details were still on it when it came back!!!) and I wanted a replacement there and then from the shop. They agreed and gave me a Samsung E530 (They don't get much girlier than that!!) to last me until month 12 when I was due for a free upgrade. Throughout the process the O2 shop were brilliant - accepting that returning the phone three times for the same fault and the workshop doing nothing was unacceptable, accepting that I needed a phone while mine was away for repair and providing a replacement, and generally being all-round good eggs. This was only last year and I have no reason to believe that things have changed.

I'm pretty much happy with O2 on the basis of that service - and won't be changing to anyone cheaper. I've now got a Samsung D600 and will likely be able to get the D830 next January... so it's a cracking phone too.

[maddyrose1664]

My husband had a very similar experience with Phones4U. Their customer service is appalling. When the fault first occurred, I was 2 months pregnant. The row was still going on after I had given birth and we still got nowhere. Theyu wouldn't replace the phone or let him have a courtesy phone. In the end, we had to give up or I would have hurt someone! DON'T EVER USE PHONES4U!!!