Water damage???

cheesed-off

Hi. I am new to this site and am not sure if this has previously been discussed but i could really use some advice please.

I have been a loyal customer to O2 for 4 years now and have had no problems with them whatoever. I pay my bill ontime and always end-up paying more than my contracted price but without any argument, so i guess I expected that they would class me as a 'loyal customer'! Oh how wrong I was.

I really wanted a samsung phone in feb 2010 when my contract was due for renewal, but in order to stay on a cheaper tariff they told me i had to pay for half of the handset, which i did.
In November my phone started to turn itself off without warning and so i phoned O2 who advised me it was within warranty and to send it in for repair. It then resolved by itself until early december when it turned off and wouldn't turn back on again.

I sent it in for repair and have just received a phone call to say it is 'beyond repar'. They are claiming there has been water damage and that this makes my warranty null and void. They said that once they notice water damage then they don't look for the problem for which it was sent in for as they put it all down to this alleged water damage.

I have explained that there has been no water damage. I may have once used my phone in a steamy car or held it in a sweaty hand but surely that can't be helped??

I dont know what to do. I still have 8 months left on my contract, I am now without a phone and I only bought that samsung from O2 in february. O2 are saying i can send it to samsung for a 2nd opinion but surely they will have had a deal with O2 and will say the same thing.

Any input would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Wintermute

Just out of interest which phone is it?

The first thing I'd do would be to ask for an engineers report and evidence (such as photos) that the phone has been water damaged. It might be that there's clear evidence of water damage on the circuit board its self, in which case you might be out of luck, if it's just that a liquid damage indicator has been triggered then I'd ask for the phone to be sent back to Samsung for a second opinion (little white sticker on your battery and the inside of the phone that will turn pink or red/purple depending on the amount of moisture it comes in contact with).

If you don't have any luck with Samsung try your luck with customer service, be polite and friendly, you want whoever you're speaking with to be on your side, there's a good chance they're not going to be able to do much for you themselves and you may have to get transfered through to the returns department. Remain polite and friendly throughout the call, but if you get to a point where it's obvious that nobody's going to be able to help you to a level you're happy with then ask to escalate the call. What will most likely happen now is the advisor will have a word with their manager, explain the situation from their side (this is why you need to be polite and friendly, you want them to want to help you), the manager will ask some relevant questions, but take things such as how much you spend, if you pay your bills on time and how long you've been a customer into account, now one of two things will happen, the advisor will be authorised to make you some sort of offer, this could be a replacement phone or simply a credit to cover the cost of repair or they'll be authorised to escalate the call and you'll be asked if it's okay to be transferred to the escalations department who can work out something with you.

Despite what some people will have you believe, customers being rewarded for their loyalty is not completely dead, if you're a loyal and profitable customer it will generally benefit you when you come across problems like this, but how much you spend will be taken into account.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

JJ_Egan

Water damage usually = condensation .

jje

cheesed-off

Thanks for the replies. It is a samsung tocco ultra, so not the best phone on the market but still worth a reasonable amount of money and fairly new.

Ok, so i should ask for the full engineers report and send it to samsung for a second opinion? The thingis, when i sent it to o2 they said it would be samsung who would directly repair my phone, not o2. And then today it seems that is was o2 and not samsung who assessed it. How can they say there's water damage after it having taken 2 weeks to actually reach them? How do i know the so-called damage wasn't inflicted by themselves and not my sweaty palms?

I am seething that they would try to find a way to wriggle out of the terms of their warranty just because it is a problem they are unable to fix and they don't want to replace the handset.

Wintermute

The company your phone will be with just now is call A-novo, they handle repair and replacements for a lot of big companies such as O2, Phones4U and Netgear.

If the phone's taken 2 weeks to reach A-Novo, mention that to them, suggest it is possible that the water damage occurred en-route to the repair centre.

As the handset's not too expensive you might have some luck getting customer services to side with you and getting a replacement, just don't accuse them of trying to wriggle out of the warranty as it's a 3rd party company who handle it and if the phone has been water damaged you'll get the same response from Samsung.