Carphone warehouse, faulty phone (within 28 days)

cirian75

On the 2nd July I bough for £399.95 a sim free HTC Desire phone.

today, 17 days later its developed the ramdom fault some desire's suffer.

That is after a mild use they start constantly restarting for about 10 minutes, and then resume normal operation.

I phoned the CPW store I bought it from

CPW say take it to them, demo the fault, and provided its undamaged, they'll do a straight swap for a brand new one as its with in 28 days of purchase.

I looked at their website so see if I could get a refund as its faulty, I appears they wont refund according to the website.

Surely if an electronic good goes wrong in the 1st 28 days, a full refund should be an option?

Guys_Dad

It is a slightly grey area. Under sale of Goods, if an article is faulty, you can demand an exchange or repair or even a refund. However, other adc-vice on the web says that the dealer should be given time to effect a repair.

With motor cars, for example, if you bought a new car and its gearbox was faulty, you could not reject the car if the garage offered a full replacement under warranty. However, it seems you have bought one free of contract, so that's a releif and removes the red herring of a "free" phone attached to an airtime contract.

Mobile phones seem to fall into a repair/replace rather that refund area. Shops are reluctant to make full refunds, but you might get lucky. However, prepare for the worst as follows.

What I would do would be to get some written evidence from reputable sources that show that this particular handset is a lemon - a bit like the Iphone 4 and its "grip of death" fault, now seemingly admitted by Apple.

With that, and being reasonable, I would return to the shop, demonstrate that fault, tell the management backed up with your evidence that it is a generic fault with that model of phone and that you do not want a repair or replacement of the same type. Tell them that if they are willing to exchange it for a reliable phone -(do your research first) - then you will do that with any cash adjustment. If not, then under Sale of Goods Act, you are rejecting the phone as not being of merchandisable quality.

Have prepared a letter to that effect with you in case they don't play ball. Put in the letter that you have shown them evidence of the generic fault of that handset, that you have been willing to accept a different make/model and that they have refused. Under these circumstances, you are returning the phone and demanding a full refund. Include that this is a Letter Before Actionand that if you have not received a full refund, you will be starting legal action. Take a rreliable person as a witness, note the name of the manager who has refused your offers and get your witness to take a couple of photos of you returning your handset.

KEEP YOUR COOL. Remember this is business, not personal.

cirian75

xda developers forum

It's a forum famous for HTC owners, it has two big threads on faulty rebooting desires

would this be acceptable evidence of the generic fault?


if you google

xda developers rebooting desire

1st hit is the largest thread.

cirian75

Have been to cpw, no quibble, they gave me a brand new sealed desire

I hope this ones does to do its predecessors reboot fault.

If its does I will push for an alt phone, or a refund.

Guys_Dad

Good result. Keep us posted.