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I bought a phone just before xmas as a present for my 12 year old.
He hardly used it, just really for games and such, a few weeks ago the phone just went on fire, it was not on charge and hadn't been for a couple of days, it was just on the kitchen worktop and the missus heard a bang, went in to see and the room was full of smoke, the battery had expanded and the whole rear side melted, no trace of the sim. Luckily my son forgot to take it to school that day.
I took it back to the carphone Warehouse and they said in all their experience they have never seen anything like it, and someone will call me the next day. No one called and I left it about a week and spoke to the same agent in the shop and she said it had been agreed to exchange the phone under the guarantee (no insurance taken out). She said to bring to either 1 of 2 shops to arrange the exchange. So I took it to the city centre who refused to do so, they had the phone 'engineer' look at it and he said it was left on a hot surface or in direct sunlight so no exchange. I disputed this and asked for a copy of the engineers report in writing, firstly I got a printout that said "beyond economical repair" and thats it. So I insisted on a detailed report stating what I had been verbally told, again I got a vague report saying exposed to heat but no way of knowing how or what. It was not exposed to heat, certainly not externally, and at that time of year there was no direct sunlight(not in this country anyway). I spoke to head office to complain and they said the engineers report is final, not even the manager can overrule it. My point is that an employee had already told me that it had been agreed to exchange the phone, she never mentioned it was subject to an engineers report or any other condition, she said it had been agreed and just take it in to the shop. My other point being that this phone was dangerous, the thing blew up, it could have been in my childs hand. I am sure that engineers and phone shop staff see plenty of phones that have been left in direct sunlight and the ensueing damage but I had 8 staff tell me they have never seen anything like it.
Basically I have been told by the head office to put my complaint in writing, I am really suprised at the lack of interest in this as serious damage could have been done. The phne needs to be seen to be believed, it is in pieces and the battery is twice the size it should be. It is more than likely a manufacturer fault but I am no expert.
Does anyone have ay advice on dealing with the Carphone warehouse or the best way to take this forward, I am not going to let it go. I am disgusted by the attitude of the staff at the carphone warehouse including the 2 people i spoke to in head office.
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I would send them a 14 day letter before action letter, then if you still get no joy, off to the small claims court, otherwise they will just mess you about until you give up and go away.
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The retailer. It is them you have a contract with, though I personally would not make it a lba just yet - I'd give a letter giving 14 days and then a LBA, as most of your contact has been with the minions.
I haven't traced any recalls for this phone, but apparently Sony do seem to have a few gremlins with their batteries and chargers.
It is for the seller to prove that the item conforms to the contract, and not for you to prove it didn't. It probably was exposed to heat when it exploded! I don't think they have discharged their duty either from what they have said.
You can get your own report if you want, and it may be worth notifying Trading Standards as they may want to investigate, especially if there have been other complaints. Your TS dept may have a dropin center - contact your local council to ask. Alternatively, pass to Consumer Direct and ask for a TSO to contact you.
What you describe is what happens sometimes to Lithium-Ion batteries. Because they are of such a high power density they are quite unstable and have to be treated with care. The chargers and batteries themselves contain a lot of protection circuitry to prevent them from bursting into flames.
Also physical damage to the battery, to high a current drain (ie shor circuit in the phone) or over charging (from a faulty charger) can all cause them to expand and burn.
Have a look on Youtube for "Lithium battery fire" if you want to see how easy it is to get these things to burn up. I have a radio controlled helicopter and the lithium battery for that gets quite hot after a 10 min flight. It has a fireproof fabric bag that you place it in before charging.
the good news is there's a new battery technology out now that is a lot safer. It's called Lithium Iron Phosphate. Same size and weight, but hold 40% more charge and can be recharged double the amount of times as a Lithium Ion Battery. Also they are very stable and no fire risk. The downside is they are still double the price due to it being a new technology.
---------------------------------------------- Fuzzybobble - 40 DCA's - 0 ---------------------------------------------- These are video links to show how I deal with DCA's
Carphone Warehouse - exploding phone!!
Warehouse and they said in all their experience they have never seen anything like it, and someone will call me the next day. No one called and I left it about a week and spoke to the same agent in the shop and she said it had been agreed to exchange the phone under the guarantee (no insurance taken out). She said to bring to either 1 of 2 shops to arrange the exchange. So I took it to the city centre who refused to do so, they had the phone 'engineer' look at it and he said it was left on a hot surface or in direct sunlight so no exchange. I disputed this and asked for a copy of the engineers report in writing, firstly I got a printout that said "beyond economical repair" and thats it. So I insisted on a detailed report stating what I had been verbally told, again I got a vague report saying exposed to heat but no way of knowing how or what. It was not exposed to heat, certainly not externally, and at that time of year there was no direct sunlight(not in this country anyway). I spoke to head office to complain and they said the engineers report is final, not even the manager can overrule it. My point is that an employee had already told me that it had been agreed to exchange the phone, she never mentioned it was subject to an engineers report or any other condition, she said it had been agreed and just take it in to the shop. My other point being that this phone was dangerous, the thing blew up, it could have been in my childs hand. I am sure that engineers and phone shop staff see plenty of phones that have been left in direct sunlight and the ensueing damage but I had 8 staff tell me they have never seen anything like it.
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Originally Posted by thelightbrigade
