Finally got rid of troublesome V3!!!!! :)

I thought I ought to share this with you as there are a few key points that are worth knowing.

It all started when the outer lense got cracked though no mishandling at all. I posted my experiences on here and James - 73 kindly sent me a new lense (which I owe him for but do not have his address - James - please PM me asap).

Motorola didn't want to know so I had to go via the insurance route and make a claim. However Motorola did tell me that the IMEI number identified it as being manufactured for the middle eastern market - not UK. The lady said that there could be software issues with the phone as a result.

It was repaired and returned. The screen behind had been damaged and it had to go back again to have that changed.

About 3 days later it cracked again when I opened the phone!

The insurers agreed to have it back one more time as I felt that was not right.

It came back and all was well for a month or so, then the screen cracked again. I felt at this time that the insurance co had been fair and decided to accept James' offer of a new lense.

The lense arrived between Christmas and new year, so I tried to fit it. I carefully removed the old lense only to discover that the surface it was adhered to was badly damaged, and hence would never support a lense properly. This surface IMO should have been replaced

As a result I felt I ought to contact the insurers again, which I did (why I didn't cancel the insurance I don't know but I was glad I didn't on this occasion).

They agreed to ask their repair dept to have another look, so off it went.

After the new year I got a phone call from the repair dept trying to wash their hands of the situation as I had removed the lense. I stated my position that they had completely fouled up the repair and that they had now rendered my property permanently defective by not replacing the surface behind the lense, meaning that each new lense would be likely to crack under normal use. Motorola sent back a report stating that the phone was Beyond Economical Repair when they had seen it a few months before.

They said thy would file their report to the insurers, who contacted me to discuss the matter further.

I politely asserted the following:

1) The repair outfit was not impartial as they have a vested interest in telling the insurers (who pay them to fix phones) that their repair was satisfactory. I accepted that I was not impartial either.

2) They had had IMO three attempts to repair the phone and had failed each time.

3) That the lense could not be expected to withstand normal wear and tear unless all forces acting upon it are equally distributed around its outside edge, in the same way that a bady fitted window pain can be subject to stresses outside its scope under normal use.

After due consideration they agreed to write the phone off and arrange a no cost replacement with Dialaphone - who originally supplied me with the contract. I stated that due to this and other problems I had had with the phone I wanted a different phone. It had started to freeze on me in the middle of calls for no apparent reason.

Today I received a phone call from Dialaphone, who said that they didn't usually send out different phones unless they were out of stock of the type that the customer had had before.

However they agreed to see what phones I could have at no extra cost. I mentioned that I was especially interested in the Nokia 6111 or the Samsung D600.

The lady at Dialaphone then went and checked availability of phones that I could have instead of the V3, then phoned me back. She had done some digging and found that I had complained that my phone box had been opened and resealed when I received it in May.

I mentioned to her that the phone was identified by Motorola as being made for the middle eastern market. She imediately said that if I had mentioned that to Dialaphone in the first instance when I had had the problem with the cracked screen, they would have replaced the phone free of charge for me because the Motorola guarantee is null and void in this country. I mentioned the software issues and that this may have been the cause. I did say that I wish I had known their policy as it would have saved me a lot of grief!

I think that Dialaphone were having trouble meeting demand when I ordered the phone in May, and that they sourced a job lot from a third party, effectively diverting stock destined for another country.

As I had experienced problems with the V3 and it was an import, she agreed to send me out a Nokia 6111 FOC as a replacement!

So, I'll just have to wait and see what the postman brings tomorrow

Point to note:

1) Grey imports can have an effect when flashed with UK network software
2) Grey imports may not have the same guarantee as those made for the UK market.
3) If the phone causes any trouble after a repair or reflash - find out information about it from the manufacturer asap. This could strengthen your case with the supplier.
4) If you believe that the phone has been badly repaired - tell the outfit that organised the repair. The repair co will try their hardest to slope shoulders over a minor repair.
5) If the phone suffers damage, it may be worth getting the view from the manufacturer as to whether it is BER or not. The fact that Motorola said it was BER, when the repair shop tried to fix it is indicative of a repair shop charging top wack and doing the minimum repair the can get away with - rather than carrying out a sufficient repair to maintain the useability of the phone.