broken iphone4, charged £119 to repair

Tom83

Hi there,
I upgraded to the new iphone4 in june last year on o2 on a 24 month contract, after being with them for nearly 10 years (back when they were BT Cellnet). 2 weeks ago my microphone started to stop working intermittantly and last week stop working completely. I cant even use the headphone microphone that comes with it as they dont work either. O2 said that as it was outside apple's 12 month warranty, o2 will pick it up, repair ir and return it with in 3 days. 3 days later I get an email telling me it will cost me £119 to get it repaired. I phoned them up and was told that my only other option was to have a 3 week earky upgrade (I am a platinum customer and can normally upgarde 6 months early, so this would be 3 weeks prior to that date) to a new Iphone4s on a 12 month contract at a cost to me of £160. They said this was because my apple 12 month warranty was up. I explained to them that under trading standards a product must last a resonable amount of time regardless of the warranty, and that the responsibilty lies with them to fix it as i bought it from tham, and not for me to go chasing apple. All I want is my phone to be of a satisfactory quality and i will carry on the rest of my 24 month contract and not give them 30 days notice of cancelation. Am I correct, and what are my options now? Any help would be much appreciated

clarencepete

if it is out of warranty then you cannot claim it. What is the problem with the phone.

Chimpofdoom

Ok, so firstly the bad news is that your phone is out of the standard 1 year warranty that apple offer. There's apple care which you can purchase which will give you an extra 2 years, but that has to be done within the first 12 months.

£119 I believe is Apple's default charge to fix the phone, you could get that done at an apple store!

I explained to them that under trading standards a product must last a resonable amount of time regardless of the warranty, and that the responsibilty lies with them to fix it as i bought it from tham, and not for me to go chasing apple. All I want is my phone to be of a satisfactory quality and i will carry on the rest of my 24 month contract and not give them 30 days notice of cancelation. Am I correct, and what are my options now? Any help would be much appreciated

I think you need to re-read the SOGA.

A product is expected to last a reasonable amount of time, however in the first 6 months the onus is on the retailer to prove it's not an inherent fault. In months 6-12 the onus is on you to prove the fault was inherent!

Also, your contract states that you'll pay x amount for 24 months and the phone ISN'T part of the contract, think of it as a gift.

So currently your options are:

Repair the phone at £119 (personally, take it to apple, they'll prob swap it with a refurb).

Replace the phone: with new iphone 4s/4/3gs/something else

Do nothing??

grumbler

Chimpofdoom wrote: »

I think you need to re-read the SOGA.

There is Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 as well. The consensus on this board is that it doesn't apply to mobile phone contracts, but Trading Standards and some professional lawyers have a different opinion.

Dead phone with T-mobile for two months - with a link to another thread inside.

Chimpofdoom

grumbler wrote: »

There is Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 as well. The consensus on this board is that it doesn't apply to mobile phone contracts, but Trading Standards and some professional lawyers have a different opinion.

Dead phone with T-mobile for two months - with a link to another thread inside.

Ah a new act to learn about

He did quote the SOGA in his OP, but I'll go read up about this, although arguably there will be a limited time and again he's over the year mark..

movilogo

Visit an Apple shop directly, they might offer you a goodwill repair for free.

timberflake

You're not going to get anywhere with this, it's outside of the standard 12 month warranty and you're going to struggle to prove that it's an inherant fault.

I used http://www.i-phone-repairs.co.uk/ to have my phone repaired recently and they were pretty good. Had my phone back within 7 days.

Earpiece and headphone repair would cost £60.

Tom83

clarencepete wrote: »

if it is out of warranty then you cannot claim it. What is the problem with the phone.

When i am on the phone, people on the other end cant hear me. This is also the case when i use speaker phone or the headphones that come with it. I can still record voice memos and auto dial etc as normal.

JJ_Egan

You can get a professional engineers report on the phone and its damage in regard to when the fault may have arisen .
Based upon that you may be able to make a claim against the retailer .
But as has been said with mobile phone on contract the actual phone is a free gift/inducement to buy .

You have not taken out a two year contract on both phone and network .Most users do not understand that bit .

Your contract is due payment until June 2012 irrespective of the condition of the phone .Subject of course to the contacts early upgrade etc .

New contact pay for phone repair and sell it is one option .

Me i would try the Apple Clinic first see what they offer if you explain nicely what's happened .

jje

NFH

grumbler wrote: »

There is Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 as well. The consensus on this board is that it doesn't apply to mobile phone contracts, but Trading Standards and some professional lawyers have a different opinion.

Consensus by whom? See Section 1(3) for an explanation of the irrelevance of whether the contract for service is provided under the same contract.

Chimpofdoom wrote: »

Also, your contract states that you'll pay x amount for 24 months and the phone ISN'T part of the contract, think of it as a gift.

The phone is transferred to the consumer as an implied and advertised condition of the contract for service; it is not a gift. It is not a sale of goods but a transfer of goods, governed by the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

Guys_Dad

NFH wrote: »

Consensus by whom? See Section 1(3) for an explanation of the irrelevance of whether the contract for service is provided under the same contract.


The phone is transferred to the consumer as an implied and advertised condition of the contract for service; it is not a gift. It is not a sale of goods but a transfer of goods, governed by the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

But failure of the handset doesn't mean that the airtime contract is affected. That continues even if the handset is completely knackered.

The problem with all UK legislation on electrical items is that there is no definition of a "reasonable time". OP is not competent (in law) to determine whether the handset had an inherent fault or if it failed because of user-induced damage.

Apple can determine this but are unlikely to be 100% impartial.

Regrettably, I think you will need to swallow the repair cost and then read up the internet to see the failure rates of your handset model. That may help you decide what to get next time.