Broken mobile phone - what to replace it with?

[Bobupndown]

Did the mobile contract come with a phone, or did you have to supply your own? In the past, mobile phone providers would send a new phone, just to keep the custom. You're more likely to be successful if the contract is not one of the cheapie ones. See what the small print says on the matter.

The phone came with the contract. Its a mid range phone, £500 ish to replace. I'm now on with a 'real' person on their help chat. Will see how this goes!

 

[ajlelectronics]

The above all seems sensible advice. Its on O2, bought online. I went on this morning to try to have a conversation with someone about sending it to them. Only managed to get speaking to a 'bot' who wasnt any use. I wonder would I be better going into an O2 store and asking there?

I appreciate that is difficult, deliberately so. Yes I would try that route, otherwise keep on trying to get to speak to customer service.

My concern is that I took it to a generic mobile phone repair place to have a look. They have opened it up, deemed it unrepairable and put it back together. If I now send it to o2 will they be able to see that its been taken apart and say, "Not our problem"?

Maybe, maybe not but all you need to do is to get a report from them showing that it has an inherent defect. After six months of ownership, that is something that the CRA requires you to do anyway. The cost of that inspection and report is also refunded by your supplier.

Tried all this, its not powering on at all.

I would pick up a cheap substitute secondhand, to tide you over and then pursue the customer services department. Have a good read of the Act before you go into battle, so that you are properly armed and cannot be fobbed off. Remember the key fact that their terms and conditions DO NOT OVERRIDE THE LAW, despite the likes of Currys and Ebuyer claiming that they do!

If you want any help, feel free to PM me if you wish.

 

[ajlelectronics]

See what the small print says on the matter.

It is of no relevance, the law says what the liability is.

 

[Bobupndown]

I appreciate that is difficult, deliberately so. Yes I would try that route, otherwise keep on trying to get to speak to customer service.




Maybe, maybe not but all you need to do is to get a report from them showing that it has an inherent defect. After six months of ownership, that is something that the CRA requires you to do anyway. The cost of that inspection and report is also refunded by your supplier.




I would pick up a cheap substitute secondhand, to tide you over and then pursue the customer services department. Have a good read of the Act before you go into battle, so that you are properly armed and cannot be fobbed off. Remember the key fact that their terms and conditions DO NOT OVERRIDE THE LAW, despite the likes of Currys and Ebuyer claiming that they do!

If you want any help, feel free to PM me if you wish.

Thanks I appreciate that.
I was going to go today and buy a replacement cheaper phone, £150 ish, to get me back up and running again but then thinking about it, why should I?
I haven't dropped it, smashed it, got it wet etc. If I had then I could accept that and replace at my own expense. But I'd be paying for another phone of less quality than my own while still paying the contract for it which would be frustrating.

I have a work mobile so at least got an alternative contact number to use while this is sorted. (Will have to see how to reimburse HM Government for a few calls and texts!)
I'll see how I get on with O2, I'm sure it will be a saga

 

[ajlelectronics]

I have a work mobile so at least got an alternative contact number to use while this is sorted. (Will have to see how to reimburse HM Government for a few calls and texts!)

Put your SIM into another (work 'phone?) temporarily and set up "Divert on unavailable" before swapping back. That way you will get any incoming calls from the broken 'phone SIM number.

 

[ajlelectronics]

I was going to go today and buy a replacement cheaper phone

Pick up something from FB Marketplace that you could resell.

 

[Kayos]

It is of no relevance, the law says what the liability is.

That's what they did with me, kept referring to the contract, which I repeatedly said did not supercede or over rule the law

 

[Bobupndown]

Put your SIM into another (work 'phone?) temporarily and set up "Divert on unavailable" before swapping back. That way you will get any incoming calls from the broken 'phone SIM number.

Not really too bothered about calls, I don't receive or make too many outside of work. I'll just pass my work number on to those who may need to, or care enough to contact me.

 

[MattF]

or care enough to contact me.

Basically then, you won't notice your phone isn't working?

 

[Ruffian]

Samsung a14 5g.
£140 from argos.
Cheap enough to get 2 years out of it and then upgrade and keep as a spare.

 

[Bobupndown]

Samsung a14 5g.
£140 from argos.
Cheap enough to get 2 years out of it and then upgrade and keep as a spare.

Where are you seeing that? The 4g version appears to be £179 and the 5g £219.

 

[Ruffian]

Where are you seeing that? The 4g version appears to be £179 and the 5g £219.

I may have gotten lucky then or only have the 4g one then but was start of year and wasn't expensive.

 

[Bobupndown]

Well went into O2 store and after a sales assistant tried to fob me off I spoke to one of the managers who agreed a 16 month old phone shouldn't just pack up. Agreed to send it to Samsung and confirmed there wouldn't be any charge. Fingers crossed then. Only issue is it's gonna take 10 days so I bought the cheapest Motorola smart phone I could find at £79.99 as a standby until then. You can definitely see the difference in spec between a mid range and a cheapy phone but although it's a bit slow and clunky it does the job. Here's hoping mine is fixed, or better still replaced!

 

[dobbslc]

Took about 2 hours on the phone, speaking to allegedly more and more senior people. A new phone arrived the next day

You have to stick with it and keep complaining

Good advice ^
I unfortunately had to deal with Samsung earlier this year after a fraud attack involving one of their new phones and they were absolutely completely useless.
Hopefully it looks like @Bobupndown has circumnavigated Samsung's "customer service" department here and will have no problems.
I now have a Pixel phone that seems to be pretty good.

 

[prepman]

Good advice ^
I unfortunately had to deal with Samsung earlier this year after a fraud attack involving one of their new phones and they were absolutely completely useless.
Hopefully it looks like @Bobupndown has circumnavigated Samsung's "customer service" department here and will have no problems.
I now have a Pixel phone that seems to be pretty good.

I think all customer services are either that bad or aspiring to BE that bad. Finding a human sounding voice is difficult these days. It'd be a bit upsetting finding out you've poured your heart out to an AI bot

 

[dobbslc]

Yeah I know what they're like but Samsung are on another level of complete incompetence.
We had to deal with three different departments that refused to communicate with each other
They didn't take any notice of us telling them they had a security breach in their warehouse for over two weeks!
Suddenly after talking to a really nice Irish man that went off and actually took some action they were all guns blazing.
Full refund, compensation etc etc, F knows what happened in that warehouse!

 

[Keith 66]

I went up from a cheap ten quid nokia to a motorola G10, not a bad phone as it happens. Does all i want & takes good photos.
Big plus is they have a big battery that lasts ages, i usually charge it once a week & thats it.

 

[Bobupndown]

Well pleased to update that O2 / Samsung have repaired and returned my handset free of charge. Annoyingly its been wiped and I didn't have my music backed up apparently so several thousand tracks to download at some stage but glad to have it back. Its definitely a far superior handset to the £80 ,Motorola. Positive outcome