Phones4U Cooling Off Period

tazerdave

Hi,

First thread on here so please be gentle!

I purchased a new mobile phone contract from phones 4 u on 16th October and by the 19th I'd noticed a problem with the handset. No big deal, I returned to the store where I purchased it who contacted customer services and advised a software upgrade was available. Again, no big deal. I returned home and tried to upgrade the software but was told by the software that I had the latest version. I thought hey no harm so I backed up the phone and reinstalled the software.

The same problems arose, mainly the Bluetooth not connecting to my car kit which had worked perfectly with my previous phone. I then returned to the store two days later to advise them of this, they were more than happy to replace the faulty handset but had none in stock and I was asked to return the next day as they were expecting a delivery.

I did this and the salesman brough out a new phone and phoned up the customer services for an authorisation code. It turns out that my phone was a GSM and the phones they now had in stock were Orange "branded" models of the same phone. I was told I could only receive another GSM model as they were different models even though I am on the Orange network. I then said to the salesman to cancel my contract and give me a new one on the "branded" phone but he informed me that this was no longer available as Phones4U had cancelled their "cooling-off" period.

Are they legally allowed to do this? I'm just wanting to know what my rights are on this matter.

With regards to the replacement handset they have offered to replace it with a GSM but since they had none in stock I have to wait for them to courier it from another branch then go and collect it.

As a softener, they have offered a £15 cheque for my inconvenience but I would much rather have left the store with the brnaded handset and save all this hassle.

Apologies for the long winded story but thought it best to give all details.

Thanks,

Dave

hoot08

whats the diff between branded and not? accept the replacement and the money, i know i would!

tazerdave

The branded phone has additional Orange software as well as a lovely little orange badge on the bottom of the handset. Apart from that it is the same phone

hoot08

lol why would u want that? i dnt like it when the provider prints its logo on the phone. ok fair enough abt the software, cos ive got a sim free phone and it wont let me send MMS from it coz i dnt have the networks settings and firmware

tazerdave

I agree that the network-free phones are helpful when trying to sell in the future but right now I'd rather have the extra software on the phone since I think this may be the "updated" software their techy guys were talking about. Apart from that the £15 cheque is a nice gesture but I'd rather have left the store with a working phone

hoot08

oh ok, ur having problems with bluetooth ect, so yeh maybe you would want a working phone rather than 15 odd squids lol

tazerdave

Its probably my own fault. Here I am willing to give them £35 a month and all I'm asking for in return is what they said they'd give me. The contract with the calls and texts included as well as a fully functional mobile phone. Silly me! :rolleyes:

hoot08

u poor thing lol

robt_2

The first thing I do when I get a branded phone is get rid of the branding of the software! It genereally serves no purpose at all other than to cripple aspects of the handset and provide short-cuts to the phone networks mobile Internet services.

You will find, certainly for Nokia at least, that non-branded handsets get software updates long before the branded network versions. I don't know about other phone makers.