HELP Contract phone - refusal to repair?!

grumbler

If it can (accidentally) then I'd quote SOG Act and say that the product is not fit for purpose.
I don't think that they accuse the OP of damaging it deliberately.

nomoneytoday

Can an independent store fix the pin for less the cost of a small MCOL claim?

Silk

JJ_Egan wrote: »

I could see one of the pins had bent back... minor repair...


Bent pin how can that not be damaged by the user .

jje

I would be tempted to agree ...however a couple of years ago we had a similar problem with one of our PC's at work with the rs232 multi pin connector thingimybob.
The male part was replaced twice untill it was noticed that it was the female extension we were plugging in that was pushing a pin slightly to one side and when then plugged a perfect adapter from another bit of kit in we were squashing the pin.

Lucky for us the engineer spotted it binned the extension and problems stopped.

So maybe just maybe the charger socket could have caused it.

grumbler

nomoneytoday wrote: »

Can an independent store fix the pin for less the cost of a small MCOL claim?

Pin is only what you see. There may be something else that you don't.

In fact the advice was to go to an independent store to...

Silk wrote: »

...consult for a second opinion

in the first place.

chanz4

take it to a local phone shop, or look on ebay for a motherboard. Phones are not that expensive to buy these days so maybe look for a cheap one until the end of your contract. With sony try and find out the ceo email address

Hammyman

grumbler wrote: »

They are talking rubbish. How is it possible to damage the motherboard without opening the phone and damaging the body?

I repair loads of laptop motherboard power sockets which are broken by hand fisted gimps shoving the lead in and/or putting something up against it when its plugged in so its bent over and putting pressure on the socket.

It is precisely that type of damage the OP has.

grumbler

I am no expert, but IMHO the socket can be fixed directly to a weak motheboard, but it has to be fixed properly, not just soldered to the surface (= glued in fact), and has to be supported by a rigid casing/body of a laptop. In this case you cannot damage the motherboard without damaging the the casing or some other rigid structure. Ideally, such exposed element has to be connected to a delicate motheboard only by flexible wires.

Otherwise it is a poor design = not fit for purpose.

Don't forget, the OP was blamed for damaging the motherboard, not the socket.

maureen_1

Ooh Crikey, ok, so I have been in contact with them AGAIN, to find out when they are going to return to me the faulty handset, so I can get it to an independent repair centre. This is what I told P4U the last time we spoke last week and he said yeah ok fine, but unless it is a sony repair centre or one of P4U recommended repair centres it will make the warranty void... Fair enough.
Trying to find a Sony repair centre is a nightmare, I have had no such luck
So anyway, they said "Oh this doesn't seem to make sense, let me ring you back later on and tell you what's going on"
As expected... No phonecall, I should think I will have to ring them... AGAIN tomorrow, bearing in mind this is all costing me money on 0844 numbers. ERGH!

My father is an electronics engineer and so taught me to be careful with sockets and parts, to be careful not to bend the cables too much etc, as you do, so I'm not too ignorant in this sort of area, certainly not ignorant enough to accept what P4U are telling me! He refuses to open up the phone himself until it does come down to "No, we won't repair it, warranty is void bla bla" As he himself doesn't want to void the warranty. Sony really were not much help, they merely told me it was upto P4U as they were the trader, to either refund me, or provide me with a new phone.
To be honest, after ALL of this, the way it's all been handled, I deserve a new phone!! But don't we all... they are a company at the end of they day. You don't get something for nothing in this world... But you do with MSE

Phew, where do I go from here? Pursue and keep getting stressed, or leave them to it, get a cheapy weapy handset and wait out the rest of the couple of years regretting ever taking part in such an evil contract!!!? Thanks for all of your comments and advice so far guys, I'm taking it all in to make an informed decision... at some point!!

gjchester

grumbler wrote: »

I am no expert, but IMHO the socket can be fixed directly to a weak motheboard, but it has to be fixed properly, not just soldered to the surface (= glued in fact), and has to be supported by a rigid casing/body of a laptop.

Probably more designed to a cost and size than anything. Many laptops I have looked at and fixed have nothing more than simple plastic lugs holding connectors in place, a rapid blow (such as a sharp knock or drop) can cause these to flex, crack and fail, or if they get heated and cooled a lot the plastic can become brittle and snap. Usally it takes years to go brittle but sometimes they go much faster. Could be anything, bubble in the plastic a moulding, bad batch of plastic in the system, even a moulding machine set slightly wrong, but in all cases it would be nigh on impossible unless there is a big batch of failures to say that it's a manufacturing fault over user damage.

maureen_1 wrote: »

Sony really were not much help, they merely told me it was upto P4U as they were the trader, to either refund me, or provide me with a new phone.

Sonys right they were not the retailer, but I'm suprised they took that line, it's not good PR.

Look at it from there point of view, a damaged connector is 99.9% of the time down to user errors or abuse. They do fail from time to time but their experience will say it's a ham fisted user (I don't mean to imply thats you just what's usually the case)

Phones4u_company_representative

Hello Maureen_1, sorry to here you're having problems with your handset and with our repair process.

If you would like to email over your mobile number and postcode to me at the following address: [EMAIL="moneysavingexpert@phones4u.co.uk"]moneysavingexpert@phones4u.co.uk[/EMAIL] we can access your account and see if there is anything we can do to try and resolve this issue for you.

Thank you

Kind regards
Mel.
Phones 4u