CPW say mobile under guarantee is not repairable, other shop says it can be repaired.

Jazzy_B

My daughter was given an LG Cookie for her birthday 4 months ago, costing just over £100. She put the charger in the wrong way once, and the phone would no longer charge. I took it into CPW. and they sent it for repair.They say it is not repairable, and it is not covered under warranty, because of user damage. I took it to an independent repair shop, and they say it can be repaired for £45.
Can anyone in the know tell me if I should go back to CPW, or should I get the repair done, and try to claim the money back from CPW. Does anyone have any experience of CPW trying to avoid repair costs?
I live in Scotland.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Bob_the_Saver

If it was damaged by a user it won't be covered by the guarantee in any way unless perhaps no reasonable person could tell which way around to plug in the charger and that caused the damage. Then it could perhaps faulty by bad design but that seems unlikely.

Jazzy_B

Thanks Bob. I've just reread their documentation , and it confirms what you say. I can't believe they can get away with this, as putting in the charger the wrong way seems such an easy mistake to make. I watched her do it, and I would never have believed it would render it unusable.I won't be buying LG again.

Littlemiss27

To be fair to LG, no mobile phone manufacturer's warranty covers damage that has been caused by the user.

Might be worth your while getting a quote for repair from a few different places, then go with the cheapest. It will be cheaper to have it repaired than to buy a new handset.

Snakeeyes21

If its a phone with a mini usb type end to the charger it would take alot of force to push the charger in the wrong way.
ive just tried it with mine and it doesnt even fit in when you try fitting the charger upside down, no matter how hard you push.
youve either got a strong daughter (the next shotputt world champion) or she used a hammer to try and make it fit

Littlemiss27

LG Cookies use this type of charger http://www.memorybits.co.uk/shop/mobile-phone-chargers/genuine-lg-original-mains-charger-for-ku990-viewty-stap51us/10905

And from experience they are difficult to put in the wrong way. It would take a fair amount of force to do so, but not so much as trying to put a mini USB in the wrong way.

Jazzy_B

I watched her do it, and as soon as she realised she stopped.It only took a second or so .She didn't managed to push it home, and there was no force involved. She was uploading photos at the time, and she put it in the right way and it worked. It was only when she tried charging it a few days later she had the problem.
We only realised that must have caused the damage when we saw the engineer's report.
I've been googling this afternoon and it seems to be a fairly common problem with LG phones.

before_hollywood

personally speaking i would sell it to a phone recycling site as broken, you will get about 20 for it

then a similar new phone will cost 80 instead of 50+ to fix it

fiish

I believe Jazzy_B has some valid points. A good electrical connector which is intended to fit one way should not easily break if a user attempts to insert it the wrong way round without the aid of a hammer. Although in this case it was the daughter's fault for causing the damage, the fact that it can occur so easily points to problems with the design.