unlocked phone-?warranty void

rabialiones · 30 September 2005 at 8:05PM

i bought nokia from virgin about 6 months ago and unlocked it.
now it will not charge the battery, i have to charge it in another phone and then use it in this one.
will virgin not honour its one year guarantee if i return it?
i know its the phone, cos i have tried other chargers and other phone can be charged.

groover_3 · 30 September 2005 at 8:29PM

I don't think they'll bother....

drahcir_2 · 30 September 2005 at 9:04PM

yes you can get it relocked by cable but i wouldnt bother. never had a problem with any nokia service center, and nearly all phones ive taken in have been unlocked

rabialiones · 1 October 2005 at 7:23AM

I unlocked it myself from this site!

rogerramjet · 1 October 2005 at 8:12AM

There will be no problem......sometimes the phones come with no locks on them, a good few months back I bought a new 3510i from an Orange store (£9.99

) took it home and put an O2 sims in and it worked straight away, was very surprised as its the first time I've ever received an unlocked phone from them.

ianonline · 1 October 2005 at 1:41PM

Presumably if a service provider DID refuse to honour a warranty because a phone has been unlocked, then you could go direct to the phone manufacturer (ie Nokia in this example) and they would have to honour the warranty. Obviously Nokia will supply the same type of phones to different service providers so Nokia are not concerned about any service provider lock, and this should have no bearing on the validity of the warranty.

m277 · 1 October 2005 at 3:04PM

It doesn't matter which network it is, once you've unlocked your phone the warranty will be void since the warranty is provided by the network and you're not supposed to use the phone on another network.

ianonline · 1 October 2005 at 4:27PM

I'm no legal expert but I would have thought that the ultimate responsibilty for any defects in a product under the warranty lies with the manufacturer ie Nokia (albeit that most people would usually approach the retailer / dealer in the first instance as this is the easiest course of action - ie Virgin).

If you look in the back of your Nokia instruction booklet it should have a warranty card and also the terms of the MANUFACTURER's warranty which states "During the warranty period Nokia, or it's authorized service company will repair or replace, at Nokia's sole discretion, a defective Product......."

If you therefore bypass the retailer / network provider and go direct to Nokia, I cannot see any reason why they could refuse to honour the warranty.

As unlocking is so common, I'm sure many people would be interested to have the warranty position clarified by someone (unbiased) with a legal knowledge with regard to the obligations and relationships between manufacturer / retailer / network provider.

I know this is something that lots of people may have opinions on, and there are people out there who like to think they are legal experts when they are not, but rather than open a can of worms it would be nice to hear from an authority on the subject if possible (so please state in your reply if you are an authority so we know you're not just trying to be a know-it-all)

rabialiones · 1 October 2005 at 4:48PM

the phone wasn't opened to be unlocked, neither was a cable used., so i cant really say it has been tampered with as such!

ianonline · 1 October 2005 at 5:30PM

gizmoleeds wrote:

I agree - as I understand it most networks includ a provision somewhere in the Terms and Conditions saying "unlocking this phone will void your warranty".

I think it's fair enough for network providers to stipulate in their T&Cs that you must not unlock your phone but I cannot see that they can deny your PRODUCT warranty. If you unlock your phone then you are probably breaking the terms of your SERVICE CONTRACT and they therefore have a right to terminate that contract, but if you are unlocking your phone then you're probably going to switch to another network anyway so that's no big deal.

As I've already said it's the fact that you have a product with a warranty (ie the phone) and a separate service contract with a network provider, and then there's possibly the retailer in between - it's the relationship between the three which causes the confusion in my eyes.

daffynspacegirl · 1 October 2005 at 5:40PM

I bought a nokia pay as u go from orange, unlocked it for my virgin number a few weeks later it wouldnt recive a signal. I took it to Orange shop to simply exchange the unit and was told they send them off to be fixed (odd practice as a tv will simply be exchanged for a new one). I had the same concern about warrenty...Found out it was Nokias responsility NOT orange... in fact Orange send them to mainly Carphone warehouse the same as Nokia. Browntoa sent me to the nokia uk website where u can enter ur postcode and it finds closest repair shop to you. I had no problems when mine was fixed, I was prepared to play ignorent to the unlocked fact

unlocked phone-?warranty void

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