Orange under warranty question, help required

Smithmeister

Hi Folks,

Before i blow my top at Orange CS tomorrow, looking for advice. I currently have a Nokia 6700 Classic which is is just over 6 months old(contract taken out 16/8/09).

The keypad has developed a fault where 3,6,9 on the keypad have 'sunk' in.

Phoned Orange tonight and was told that as the phone is over 6 months old i have to get in contact with Nokia Service to have it repaired free or Orange will do it but charge me!

Now i thought that my contract was with Orange not Nokia. So where would i go from here?
I was going to contact my local Trading Standards office tomorrow but thought i'd ask on here first as no doubt i'm not the only one to have had run ins with Orange!!

Advice greatly received.

P.s How long are Nokia's warrantys? 1 year or 2?

Smithmeister

gjchester

Your contract is with who you bought it from. If it was Orange online / phone or via an Orange shop then yes it's orange.

If it is it's down to Orange to fix it, under the sale of goods act. They may make a reasonable charge if it has to be sent to them, but if you can get it back to the point of purchase they should not be able to charge for any work involved.

If you bougt it else where (say caphone warehouse) you need to take it back to cpw to repair as they were the seller.

drbesty

Under the sale of goods act you would have to prove that the handset was either not fit for purpose, not of satisfactory quality or inherently faulty at the time of sale.

Orange cover the handset for 6 months, this is deemed to be a 'reasonable time' for any faults to show, after that the warranty transfers to the manufacturer (in this case 2 years)

gjchester

drbesty wrote: »

Under the sale of goods act you would have to prove that the handset was either not fit for purpose, not of satisfactory quality or inherently faulty at the time of sale.

Orange cover the handset for 6 months, this is deemed to be a 'reasonable time' for any faults to show, after that the warranty transfers to the manufacturer (in this case 2 years)

Nope. Your warranty is *always* with the vendor. They may want you to send it to the maker but or they may have to send it away, but your warranty is with the seller.

You have no warranty in law with Nokia (in this case) as you don't have a contractual agreement with them.

Within the first six months the onus in on the seller to prove a fault was NOT present at manufacture , after that the responsibility flips to you proving it WAS there at manufacture. Either way the responsiblity for repair or replacment is with the person or organisation who sold it to you not the manufacturer (unless you bought it direct obviously)

GT60

Just watch out because orange are bloody good at riggling out of warrentys i had trading standards involed and in the end i just took the phone to my local Nokia service centre

Jon_01

The equation here is simple.

If you argue and get Orange to fix it, they A: may charge you a small handling fee, and B: you'll be without your phone for a while. Orange don't fix them, they send them to the manufacture to fix them. So you send it to Orange, Orange send it off, they get it back and send it to you.

Or you send it to the manufacture, they fix it for free because they have 2 years warranty and send it back to you.

Yes, by rights Orange should get it fixed. But if the manufacture will do it any way, what's the problem ?

Smithmeister

Thanks for the replies folks.

Well it's been a drag and drawn out process. Orange refused to budge over the repair. They say that the 6 month warranty cover they offer is a 'goodwill' offer(Bear in mind that my phone is 2 weeks out of this 6 month period). I argued the point last night that my contract is with orange and not Nokia, it fell on deaf ears.
The Managers analogy was that if your tv broke down would you contact the BBC?
He says that it is in their T&C's that they only cover the sim and the mast, not the phone, that is the manufacturers problem.

My Trading Standards office tend to disagree, but, until they see the T&C's they cant confirm what the manager says is true or not(perhaps they have a loophole?)

It was suggested that i take it to my local CPW as they are Nokia service agents. I did this but they wanted proof of purchase, which i don't have as i did the contract over the phone. This means i can't have it repaired until i have that.

Finally i found that Nokia online cover the repair. They have checked that my phone is under warranty and will organise for UPS to come and pick up my phone for it to be sent back to them for repair.

Jon 01, here's my problem,customer service. I have a contract with Vodafone. My Sony Ericsson phone went faulty about 14 months old. I phoned Vodafone told them my problem. The CS operator told me to take it in to my local store and they would organise for it to be sent back for repair and inform me when the phone was repaired. It was a simple as that. No need to be !!!!!! about.


It's amazing what good customer service does for a company. this experience with Orange has left a bad taste in my mouth and when the contract is up i shall be looking to move my business elsewhere.

Smithmeister

gjchester

Smithmeister wrote: »

My Trading Standards office tend to disagree, but, until they see the T&C's they cant confirm what the manager says is true or not(perhaps they have a loophole?)

!!!!!!?

Trading standards should know better. Your contract is always with the seller, NEVER the manufacturer (unless they are the same). It's basic Sale of Goods act they should know that backwards.

Glad it worked out but Orange are the seller and they are the first port of call for the warraty. All you legal rights are with (or against depending on how you view it) them no one else.

Smithmeister

gjchester wrote: »

!!!!!!?

Trading standards should know better. Your contract is always with the seller, NEVER the manufacturer (unless they are the same). It's basic Sale of Goods act they should know that backwards.

Glad it worked out but Orange are the seller and they are the first port of call for the warraty. All you legal rights are with (or against depending on how you view it) them no one else.

You picked me up wrong mate. TS disagree with what Orange say NOT what i say! They agree with me but until they see the T&C's from Orange they can't advise further as Orange may possibly have a loophole.

gjchester

Smithmeister wrote: »

You picked me up wrong mate. TS disagree with what Orange say NOT what i say! They agree with me but until they see the T&C's from Orange they can't advise further as Orange may possibly have a loophole.

Thats kinda proving my point, TS should know Orange cannot put anything in a contract that overrides your statutary rights.