Faulty C905 Phone from known faulty batch, what are my rights?

chriz1000

I bought a the Sony Ericsson C905 in November last year on the day it was released from the Car phone warehouse. I paid £400.
The first phone I had was faulty and they agreed to do a straight swap for this in the shop, as there was a known issue with the phone. This was after 3 weeks.

3 months later the earphone speaker stopped working. I thought no problem its under warrantee I’ll pop it down to Carphone warehouse. They looked at it, agreed it was faulty and sent it off for repair. A couple of weeks later I got a phone call telling me the phone was water damaged and this was the reason it wasn’t working, so wasn’t covered by the warrantee.

I was annoyed as I’m 100% sure the only time the phone got slightly damp was from ether the condensation in the bathroom or one time when I had to make a call in the rain. I did appeal on these grounds, however they weren’t having any of it and refused to repair the phone. I cut my losses bought a new phone and its been gathering dust in my side draw ever since.
Today I lost my phone, remembered I had the C905 and thought I would have a look to see if how much it would cost to replace the earphone piece. I found lots of people who had exactly the same problem and it turns out there’s nothing wrong with the hardware, but the first batch of phones had a fault where the earphone piece stops working after a couple of months! It said I can test to see if my phone was one of the ones affected buy holding down the C button during a call, if it is a faulty one the earphone speaker will work while holding down that button. I did this and sure enough my earphone speaker sprung back into life!

I’m very annoyed as I paid £400 for a phone that lasted 3 months and I was told my warrantee was void when in-fact it was from a faulty batch. I had to fork out for a new phone when I really shouldn’t have had to.

What are my consumer rights? I have the receipt and all the boxing, am I entitled to take it back to Carphone warehouse for some kind of exchange or credit note/refund? I know it’s been quite a while, but originally I took it back to the store after 3 months, but was wrongly informed the fault was due to water damage when it obviously wasn’t. I even have the carphone warehouses technician report.

Any help appreciated.
Chris

Esqui

You'd need to be armed with more than people on the internet. Ask CPW and see what they say, but chances are you will need to provide proof that the fault was not down to water damage

chriz1000

but surely the fact that when I press the "C" button the the keypad as instructed to proves its not corrosion damage but a software glitch?

To be honest now I know this I will take it through the small claims courts if I have to, however if theres a simple way i'd prefer to take it.

Esqui

You would still need to give CPW the opportunity to remedy it before going to court. And if it's software, is there an update that fixes it?

chriz1000

apparently not, its a faulty batch and the unit needs to be exchanged. I'm popping in there now to discuss the matter with them

chriz1000

They said its waterdamaged as the sticker has changed colour and refuse to even look at it. They admitted the problem I described was a known fault and there was a bad batch but because it showed signs of water damage it was out of there hands.
Whats the best course of action next?

4743hudsonj

chriz1000 wrote: »

They said its waterdamaged as the sticker has changed colour and refuse to even look at it. They admitted the problem I described was a known fault and there was a bad batch but because it showed signs of water damage it was out of there hands.
Whats the best course of action next?

Nothing, you admitted to taking it into a steamy room. Im sure if you read the manual it will give guidances for humidity conditions to avoid, and im sure that steamy room went out of these guideline, allowing water to seep into the device, ergo water damage.

This means you have very little recourse, in fact none at all unless you can prove the fault was not caused by water damage which will be extremely hard, nigh on impossible because of the water damage sicker. Anything you provide as evidence will be shot down by this fact in court. Your welcome to keep trying but id cut my losses and avoid taking expensive new items into conditions it wasnt advised for.