What to do if a prize is faulty?

andrew71

I was one of the many people who recently won one of the Skype phones from 3. I've been using the phone for the past couple of weeks but all of a sudden it as stopped working. I noticed that the phone felt very hot around the battery and the screen kept blinking with the back light. Now nothing. I've tried to take battery out for a few hours but still nothing.
Because I didn't purchase the phone I don't have any kind of reciept. The phone was delivered to my house, I didn't have to sign for it and there was no documentation with the phone. Any ideas what I could do? Would I be covered by any kind of guarantee of some kind?

bella165

yep get hold of the company who you won by and they should sort you a replacement out,
my bike broke and they are sending me a new wheel

lydias

Does not always work - we won a signed electric guitar and it came in 2 pieces with the neck snapped, but the promoter said there was nothing they could or would do. My son was gutted.

andrew71

bella165 wrote: »

yep get hold of the company who you won by and they should sort you a replacement out,
my bike broke and they are sending me a new wheel

Thanks Bella. Unfortunately I have no idea who I won the prize from. Like I said no documents etc with the prize so unable to work out who sent it. The only solution is probably to look back over the last couple of month competition closed and contact all those which had a Skype 3 phone as a prize? If I remember correctly there was one or two of them and then possibly contact the company to see if I was a winner?

andrew71

Just thought I'd update this thread incase anyone else is in the same boat next time.

I decided to contact 3 themselves direct. Explained that I had one the phone in a contest and that I had no idea of who had sent it. I asked if they had any record of who had purchased the phone. Anyway after I'd explained that it wasn't working they did some checks and they confirmed the phone was registered recently and that it was still under the warantee. So if next time you have a faulty item won from a competition it may be worthwhile actually contacting the actual manufacturors who may be able to help.

I asked the 3 customer services if I would have to pay to get it repaired which he said no because it was under the warantee.