Furious with Vodafone - how can I take this further?

Wally75

Hi All

The short version is:

My Sony Ericsson K850i touchscreen stopped working and it was sent back to Vodafone for repair. They returned the phone and said it was water damaged and, therefore, would do nothing with it.

My point is that this phone has not been immersed in water or subject to humidity. It has just been traeted like my other phones in the past. So, therefore, it has stopped working during normal usage and should be covered by the Sale of Goods Act.

Vodafone are being incredibly unhelpful and refusing to review their decison. I'm not disputing that it is water damaged, just that it has occured through normal use! Vodafone have even admitted that water damage can occur through being in your pocket - if that isn't normal usage, I don't know what is!

I don't have insurance, I have 10 months left on my contract and my annual bills are between £700 and £1,000.

Any ideas where I can take this one? It seems from the Ofcom website that they wouldn't be interested.

Many Thanks

Wally

Belnahua

Try their forum, they seem to have helpful staff on there who will really try and help you, not like their call centre!

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk

Wally75

That's what I thought, but as you can see from my thread:

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=4162&hl=k850i&st=0

they are taking the same stance!

Belnahua

Sorry to hear that; That is a real pity. There's also a Vodafone member of staff on here called "Hopefullyuseful1", maybe they might pick on this thread?

baldelectrician

I would send the phone to the manufacturer with a cover letter stating you dispute the findings of Vodafone (best to be open and honest- they may punch the imei into their system and have the info on file already.

I have had major issues in my 6 months with Vodafone mainly with faulty phones and poor service and will be leaving them at the earliest opportunity.

If you get no joy you could try a small calim at the court for the price of a new phone (<£50) and the sheriff / judge etc decides.
If they don't turn up you will win.

Cavey

You need to be careful with what you say. That you say "I'm not disputing that it is water damaged, just that it has occured through normal use!" would surely relieve Vodafone of all their responsibilities as you admit it is water damaged and this is not covered by warranty. Even if this damage is within your normal usage, it will no doubt be outside the specified operating environment and therefore not covered under warranty.

It would therefore be better to argue that the error caused is NOT an effect of water damage and that the water test paper has changed due to other factors (perhaps environmental, a persistent humidity of 30%, general diffusion of the dye etc...).

However, this path requires that you either show that the damage preventing the phone from operating is not water related (so you'd need an expert to look at it, establish the fault and show this is not caused by water damage) OR find out what the test paper is, how it works and point out the flaws in the system that result in false positives.

Either way, it will probably be a bit of a fight that might end up with you having to resort to legal action (ie small claims court, as baldelectrician mentioned, although I thought small claims handled claims up to £5000).

Oh, and I found this article interesting. Quotes WikiHow as saying

Place a piece of satin finish scotch tape over your water damage sticker before you drop your cell phone in the water to prevent the water damage sticker from voiding your warranty… Remove the tape if you ever have to return your phone for repairs or warranty.