On Vodafone Contract - Phone Broken - Refuse To Change - Please Help

ianjamie7

I have been with vodafone over 8 years and on my last upgrade I got a sony ericssonw960i touch screen phone which after 4 months stopped working. Took it to vodafone shop and a week later when I went to collect it they said it could not be repaired. I know for a fact it was not water damaged when I sent it away as I asked around because I had a feeling this is what they would say but there was nothing I could do. I asked them what they suggested as I was not going to pay the rest of my contract without a phone and in the end I had to buy a phone for £70 at a reduced price I was told but it was an older model to the one i had. Anyway I also took out insurance the same time I bought the phone. I didin`t like the new phone much so I kept putting the water damaged phone on the heater for 30 mins at a time and two weeks later it came on again and I have been using it for the last 8-9 months without any problems whatsoever until last week when the touch screen I noticed had a small crack in it and was failing to respond to anything. I took the phone back to the vodafone shop yesterday and basically they told me that I needed to buy another phone as my contract does not run out until next June. I forgot to mention the first time I took it back and bought a new phone, this was only possible if I extended my contract to 18 months which I had no choice to do. I asked the lad if was any deals he could offer me or someone he could phone but he just said no. Ever watched Little Britain `The Computer Says No` well that was him. He said that i would have to buy another new phone which I refused and said obviously loyalty doesn`t count for anything with Vodafone but if I was a new customer then would be offered laptops, nintendo`s etc.
Can anyone tell me if I have any legal rights to a new phone a I am still getting charged £35 a month for a phone that does not work.

If there are any punctuations or spelling mistakes then I apologise as I am doing this in work.

Thanks in advance for any replies. Please help I am desperate.


I forgot to mention the replacement phone I bought I gave to my brother who has lost it.

OneADay

If the original phone you had is the one that is water damaged but came back to life after a while, you used it for a while but not you have a crack on it - well its still water damage that caused the problem. i.e. water damage is deemed to be user caused problem.

Use the replacement phone you got in the first place.

The insurance you took out was persumably for the replacement phone.

loulou123

Firstly you are paying £35 per month for the contract (minutes, texts etc) not the phone (in their eyes if not yours.)

I dont think vodaphone will budge on this to be honest,as in their eyes you have caused the damage to the phone yourself - water damage.

i had a similar problem with 3, my handset broke on numerous occasions and was sent off until i got new phone, then 6 months before the end of my contract the new phone wet wrong again, i asked to upgrade early they said no, so my phone was sent off again but couldnt be repaired, so 3 did upgrade me early. (presumably to save giving me a new phone for 3 months.) But in my case there was a proven fault with the phone that they could not dispute.

I'd say your best bet is too borrow a phone, or buy any old vodaphone PAYG phone and just switch your sim acrossed? Or an unlocked phone on ebay maybe. As you do not need to buy a phone from the vodaphone shop, you can get one anywhere as long as it is unlocked to vodaphone.

4810510

Take Vodafone to the small claims court and argue your case there in front of a judge. The law says that if a problem happens within the first 6 months then the retailer has to prove that the fault wasn't a manufacturing fault. I think you can file a small claims action online. Most likely someone legal begal at Vodafone will consider it cheaper to replace your phone than fight the case in court.

Jon_01

If the phones water damaged (as Voda are saying) then the op's wasting his time and money going to court as that's excluded from any guarantee...

gjchester

4810510 wrote: »

Take Vodafone to the small claims court and argue your case there in front of a judge. The law says that if a problem happens within the first 6 months then the retailer has to prove that the fault wasn't a manufacturing fault. I think you can file a small claims action online. Most likely someone legal begal at Vodafone will consider it cheaper to replace your phone than fight the case in court.

The OP said he had it 4 months, then it went away/ came back. he pout it on the radiator for a while then he used it for 8-9 months. Sounds like it's out of warranty anyway nevermind the water damage.

speedfreek1000

The SE w960i comes with a 2 year manufacturers warranty!

Did you take it to a Vodaphone store or send it to them via post?

I've had 2 screens go (11th and 13th month of contract) on my w960i both times I've just taken it into the local Vodaphone store.

1st was a fault on the screen so free repair

The second one was cracked by me for which they quoted £40 to replace.

Both took around 4 days for me me to get the repaired phone back.

My phone is regularly in my pocket whilst mountain biking is usually damp with sweet after 6 hours and most times the screen is fogged.

cjh22

I took my orange contract out on 13/02/09 im i able to cancel ? .. I never did receive a text message.. thanks

mazza111

My daughter has had the same problem with vodafone. They say it's water damage but the phone has never been near any water. So they now say it can be caused by climate changes, ie: going from a hot house to when it's cold outside. Just made me lol tbh. I mean what is the point of a mobile phone if you can't take it outside. Now going to trading standards.

gjchester

mazza111 wrote: »

. Now going to trading standards.

Good luck but all phone have water sensative strips in them that are usually white then change colour when wet (usually under the battery). As water damage is excluded from the guarantee and they will be able to show the phone has contact with water you may be out of luck.

Sorry

mazza111

errr and the letter from vodafone that states it's due to Climate Change? Surely that makes it a non mobile phone, therefore not fit for the purpose it was bought?

Will get the letter from my daughter to get the exact wording.