Used HTC warranty

dangerman7uk

Hi, I was hoping someone here might be able to help me.

I bought an HTC Desire HD in March for £260 from a gentleman from Gumtree. Since the phone was only released a few months prior to my buying it I assumed that the warranty would cover me for a good while.

HTC promise 24 months with all of their phones in the UK.

The problem is, on the 4th of this month the phone screen packed up and is now completely unusable and since it happened I discovered online that HTC only offer the warranty to 'the original purchaser'.

The phone was an unwanted Vodafone upgrade and the bloke wasn't provided with a receipt.

So what do you think? Am I out of the cost of the repair or is there a way to present this to HTC or Vodafone and hope that they will still cover it? I imagine that the repair would be so expensive that it's not worth paying for.

BRSurvivor

Why not just email HTC and see what they say?

ruggedtoast

The bloke would have got a despatch note which serves as the receipt and comes in the packaging it was sent with. HTC arent required to offer a warranty at all as Vodafone is the retailer. But if you have nothing to prove it was purchased through them I am afraid you are likely out of luck.

dangerman7uk

Well I still have an email which contains the original owners Vodafone phone number, his name and also an unlocking code provided by Voda. Would that help?

I want to clarify what my best course of action is before calling anyone or going to the Voda shop.

dangerman7uk

If I email HTC or call they require the phone IMEI before they'll give me any information. Once they know who I am they could bar me once they decide that they're not going to honour the warranty. I'd rather not put all my cards straight onto the table - maybe there is a way of making them believe I am the original purchaser... Do you think there are many white scouse Abdhul Mohammad's around? I think I could pull it off.

ruggedtoast

HTC cant barre your phone, nor would they want to. Only the network can do that which would require the legal owner, or someone acting on their authority (ie an insurance company) to instruct them. Abdul could pretend you stole the phone from him, rather than purchased it, but he has no reason to do that.

I have no idea whether VF will accept your email, you would have to ask them.

What is wrong with the screen anyway?

dangerman7uk

The lower part of the screen, about 60 percent of it, flickers like static and you can't see anything at all really. You can see the facebook and other apps flickering around occasionally. The top 40% of the screen is fine. So at least you can use it as a watch. It just needs a strap.

I managed to send HTC an email by putting a series of 9s in the IMEI code section. Hopefully they'll get back to me about it. I've always had Nokias up until now. They honour the warranty for two years regardless of the owner - it annoys me that HTC would write something in to their agreements that screw over honest people.

ruggedtoast

Its not what you want to hear but HTC are under no obligation to provide you, or the original purchaser with a warranty. The contract is between the purchaser and the store (Vodafone) . I am afraid I have no idea how this relates to second hand goods.

dangerman7uk

Well in that case, if it's Vodafone that offer the warranty, then maybe their terms are different? This could be good news.

And I return to the omniscient google...

dangerman7uk

Can't find anything about it. It just says that Voda will warranty all their phones for 12 months. Looks like that will be my first point of call. At least if I talk to a person in a shop then they're more likely to be reasonable.

dangerman7uk

I found this quote on another forum from a person in the same situation as me.

"I rang up HTC and Vodafone, they said it shouldn't matter whether you originally bought the phone or bought it 2nd hand. It seems they don't check for ID at all (despite what the website says), they just check that the IMEI matches up with their records."

I'll do exactly that. I'll tell them I bought the phone and hopefully they won't bother with anything else.

Thanks for your help you two.