Vodafone screw up and I'm paying for it

mrnorm

Hello everyone!

I've recently changed my contracts over from Tesco Mobile to Vodafone, after a great deal was presented to me from their 'web relations team'. I was offered a Desire HD, 600mins, unlimited texts and 500mb interwebs for £25 a month.

The great thing about the Desire HD I received at first, was that it was SIM free and absolutely vanilla Android inside and out, as it should be! It was wonderfully fast and was snappy and responsive to everything I threw at it, as any flagship phone should be.

After 2-3 weeks, my phone started to play up. It stopped connecting to any wireless networks or bluetooth devices. The 'volume up' button didn't work either!

Vodafone originally told me my phone was supposed to go in for a repair, but after a bit of banter we managed to sort out an exchange instead, grrrreat! A date is sorted.

A few days later and my exchange turns up.. But there's a problem. My new Desire HD is no longer SIM free and has been infected by Vodafones horde of pointless and useless applications. The device is now impossible to use because it has been slowed down by all of the affiliated marketing tat, such as:

- 360 My Web
- 360 Shop
- 360 Updates
- BBRevol2 Trial
- Guitar Hero 5 Trial
- Music Shop
- Texas Hold'Em
- Tower Bloxx NY Trial
- UNO Trial
- WWTBAM 2010 Trial

The phone is nothing like the SIM free version and to be honest, I probably would have sent it back in the 7 day period if I was given it in the first place. It is sluggish and horrible to use. Today, I had to wait 10-13 or so seconds for each photo in my gallery to load, its ridiculous.

I get back to the web relations team, who now tell me that they don't have any more SIM free Desire HDs and won't be getting any more in, ever. I state to them (in a conversation in which each reply from them takes at least 2-4 days) that they have not given me an adequate replacement and that the phone is not what I purchased originally. After a week of 'investigating', they've just given me the following options.

As discussed, I'm able to arrange for your HTC Desire HD to be exchanged for a HTC Desire and discount your monthly line rental by £5.00 (inc. VAT) for the duration of your minimum contractual commitment up to 06/11/2012 as a goodwill gesture.

Naturally, should there be a different phone which you'd prefer please let me know by return and we'll review what we can do in regard to your choice.

Alternatively, I'm able to change your price plan to one of our SIM Only packages at £15.00 (inc. VAT) per month including 900 minutes, Unlimited Text Messages, Vodafone Passport and 500MB of data for a minimum twelve month period.

In regard to cancellation I can confirm that your early cancellation fee currently totals £472.35 (VAT Exempt) less a 2% discount.

#1 - I don't want a Desire. It is now old and the Desire HD was a replacement for it. I don't care how much discount you put on it. I wanted the flagship phone.

#2 - The Vodafone signal in my area is terrible. The only reason I carried on was because a Desire HD made the deal sweeter. I'm not paying £470 of my own money for a Desire HD and THEN putting up with a rubbish service too.

#3 - Not a lot to say about the cancellation. They took my polite request to leave with no hassle and laughed at it, sending me an absolutely ridiculous resolution with it.

The first reason for the creation of this thread was to make everyone aware that Desire HDs are now filled with marketing bull and should be avoided at all costs.

The second reason is advice. Has anyone got an idea on how I can deal with this situation? I'm currently in talks with Consumer Direct about complaining about how poor Vodafone have handled this, as well as my legal options on getting out of this contract. I understand court may be my only option, but I'm heavily considering it.

Thanks everyone,
MrNorm

Orrin

Their response doesn't seem that bad to me, but I think it's reasonable for you to expect a like for like replacement when exchanging the handset. If they no longer have stock of the unbranded phones though there's not a lot you can do about that.

If the contract specifically stated it was unbranded then fair enough, but I think it's reasonable when you purchase a handset to expect it to have network branding on the software. If it comes without then that's a bonus. However, if you go the court route you'll need proper legal advice, not forum speculation

If you think the HD is inherently flawed then get it changed for another model as quick as you can. In my experience the longer these things drag on the harder it is to get them to replace it.

It's also possible to remove the Vodafone branded software or completely replace the operating system yourself. There's a large Android modding community and plenty of people are using handsets with non operator approved software. This may invalidate your warranty and does require a bit of tech savvy, but in your shoes it's probably what I'd do. Check out sites like modaco or xda-developers for more info on this.

gjchester

Orrin wrote: »

This may invalidate your warranty and does require a bit of tech savvy, but in your shoes it's probably what I'd do.

No if or maybe about it.

Change the firmware and you blow the warranty. I had a Sony Erricson Xperia X1 that I flashed to stock firmware as I got annoyed by the branding. It later had a hardware fault and Vodafone refused to service it as I'd altered the firmware even though that was not related to the error.

To the OP the only screw up was supplying a sim free phone, you would be hard pushed to justify why Vodafone should supply sim free, the handset is subsidised by them as part of the contract. If they had not given you a unbranded one you'd have never know the difference and I suspect no court would be interested in the difference you have the same hardware device.

Remember under the sale of goods act you have the right to a repir or a replacment but thats the retailers choice. The retailer has replaced the phone and you may find that as part of that the firmware was revised up a minor point level or two to fix issues and now has branding.

The only guaranteed way to get and maintain SIM FREE is to buy sim free.

Good luck OP but I don't think you have a good chance of getting anywhere, however the ohnly place you'll get that validated is in court.

mrnorm

Hmm.. You two are right. Nothing in the contract states I should get a SIM free version, so I'm basically a little stuffed on this one.

I would like to keep the Desire HD, as it is (well, was) a fabulous phone. I did flash many a ROM on my HTC Hero and it had a new lease of life! I might just have to bite the bullet, flash the Desire HD and keep a backup of the recovery image incase anything goes wrong.

Thanks for all your advice on this. I think I just needed a little bit of clarity on this before I went to the courts about this. Seemed a little overkill in my head.

Best regards and Merry Christmas!

MrNorm

gjchester

mrnorm wrote: »

flash the Desire HD and keep a backup of the recovery image incase anything goes wrong.

Sorry to be negative but I did that and Vodafone knew.

Good luck with the flashing...

ruggedtoast

For Vodafone that offer isnt half bad really. They've cheerfully dumped dreadful branded firmware onto multitudes of their customers previously unbranded handsets, and then stuck two fingers up at people when they've complained. Even ignoring terms in their own contracts stating that 360 should be opt-outable (Vodafone have now changed our contracts again to remove this option apparently).

I am quite surprised they've offered you anything apart from like our branding or lump it.

I would personally go for option 3. Sim free for £15 a month for 12 months. Thats not bad at all as I assume you are on an 18 or 24 month contract.

You can then just sell the Desire and put it towards another handset (some excellent looking Android devices coming out in the New Year, LG's new one for example), or flash the rom (at your own risk), and have a decent phone for a year. You wont have a warranty but you could always get insurance and drive over it a few times if it does break down with the illegal firmware.

The Desire HD isnt a particularly big upgrade from the Desire, apart from in terms of size. Must be like walking around with a casserole dish in your pocket but each to their own.

£15 a month for a year and then freedom from Vodafone isnt an offer I would turn down.

gjchester

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I would personally go for option 3. Sim free for £15 a month for 12 months. Thats not bad at all as I assume you are on an 18 or 24 month contract.

Option three was pay the Early termination fee. Option two is keep the branded phone at the £15PCM cost

ruggedtoast wrote: »

You wont have a warranty but you could always get insurance and drive over it a few times if it does break down with the illegal firmware.

Fraud is not really something to seriously consider. The saving of a few hundred pounds against a criminal record and the potential future issues with insurance companies are really not worth the benefit.

Money saving should be legal.

Orrin

gjchester wrote: »

Option three was pay the Early termination fee. Option two is keep the branded phone at the £15PCM cost

I read that as him having to return the phone to get the SIM only deal. If not then it's an absolute steal!

Guys_Dad

gjchester wrote: »

To the OP the only screw up was supplying a sim free phone, you would be hard pushed to justify why Vodafone should supply sim free, the handset is subsidised by them as part of the contract. If they had not given you a unbranded one you'd have never know the difference and I suspect no court would be interested in the difference you have the same hardware device.

Remember under the sale of goods act you have the right to a repir or a replacment but thats the retailers choice.

I think the OP may have a valid claim. Vodafone supplied him with a handset and, under DSR plus Vodafone's no quibble 14 day test period, OP tested out and accepted the handset.

When it went kaput, OP returned hand set, but was not supplied with a like-for-like replacement. Under SOG, goods have to be of serviceable quality and duration and the original one was not. To replace the handset with a different software revison that would not have been accepted under the 14 day trial is not reasonable under SOG and this is the stance that OP should take with Vodafone.

Of course, this is a commercial choice by OP. Can he get what he wants - an unbranded handset - connected to a network for the right price?

I think that he has every chance of winning any case as the article he wanted and tested failed and Voda are unable to supply him with the same handset/software.

gjchester

Guys_Dad wrote: »

I think the OP may have a valid claim. Vodafone supplied him with a handset and, under DSR plus Vodafone's no quibble 14 day test period, OP tested out and accepted the handset..

OP said

After 2-3 weeks, my phone started to play up.

unfortunatly he's outside the quibble period

Guys_Dad wrote: »

When it went kaput, OP returned hand set, but was not supplied with a like-for-like replacement. Under SOG, goods have to be of serviceable quality and duration and the original one was not. To replace the handset with a different software revison that would not have been accepted under the 14 day trial is not reasonable under SOG and this is the stance that OP should take with Vodafone.

In my repair experience we've rarely had like for like swaps, most manufactureres upgrade firmware during the life of the device, (anything from motherboards, to DVD drives) and if you get issues the first step is usually flash to the latest revision of the firmware. Now in IT hardware it's different as thats not branded to the retailer (usually) but it's standard procedure to update the firmware as a first step. It's also usually the case once an upgrade is done you can't easily step backwards in firmware revisions, and why would you you'd potentially be re-introducing bugs that have been rectified)

Lets say OP's was version 2.1.0.1 and the replacement was 2.1.1.1 the OP would be hard pushed not to accept it as it's a firmware upgrade. Lets simply applying this upgrade had solved the OP's issues, then he's hardly going to turn it down, but the price of this is that Vodafone only have engineered a branded version. Again the OP can't really turn it down.

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Of course, this is a commercial choice by OP. Can he get what he wants - an unbranded handset - connected to a network for the right price?

I think that he has every chance of winning any case as the article he wanted and tested failed and Voda are unable to supply him with the same handset/software.

We'll have to disagree, the phone was replaced under warranty with a version with most likely the latest firmware revision. I would think it really hard that any court would see the different, most people don't really know the difference between sim free and contract, most think it's the ability to put any sim card in, which is a subset, but not truly sim free.

The OP has the same hardware, that was replaced under warranty from a non functinoing one to a functional one.

Would it have been like this is it had been sent to HTC? Who knows? The would have looked it up and if when they realsied it was a Vodafone handset may have flashed it to the latest Vodafone revision, or may have put the latest HTC revision on it.

However it went to Vodafone who replaced it with something with the latest version of firmware they had.

WelshPaul

Hardware wise they have to replace like for like, you do not own or have any rights to the software so you don't really get a say in that!

Just debrand it and get on with your life!