Right to cancel or reject a phone on contract

guygamps

On Nov 23rd I ordered (direct from Vodafone Sales line) an HTC Wildfire S on a 2 year contract. I am having lots of problems with it, here is a selection of isses:

1) it imports your contact list from various sources, e,g, GMail account, Facebook and Skype, great feature, because my Skype contact list contains everyones phone numbers as well as Skype contacts themselves (since over the years I have used Skype Out when on my travels, to call people).

So, all my contacts appear after syncing, great. But every time Skype crashes (which it has done a few times), or everytime the battery goes flat, it loses all those contacts. It doesn't take long to reimport them, but all the speed dials and links do not recover, so you have to manually set them up again each time this happens.

2) When using Skype Out on it, call quality is unusuable, moving to laptop or table running Skype on same network, call quality is perfect

3) Memory is so tiny that I can't even run a few apps, no music is on it, no photos, and there is a low memory wizard to move apps to SD card, but you can't install directly to it to avoid the problem in the first place, nor can you de-install some of the bundled apps from Vodafone or HTC that I will never ever use.

4) battery life is so bad (even with Wifi turned off and use of Task Manager to periodically close un wanted apps) that it wont even last a day.

I took it in to Vodafone store the first time all my speed dials and favourites disappeared, and together we work out the Skype connection, the lost contacts were contacts imported from Skype, and once I signed back in to Skype and re synced, the contacts reappeared and I could re assign them to speeddials.

The store manager told me I could exchange it within 28 days if I found I was having so many problems with it, but told me I had to call Vodafone Telesales line to do that.

Today I called Vodafone, and they are refusing to offer me anything, the exchange policy they say is only 7 days.

what are my rights of cancellation of contract? or at very least for an exchange to another phone.

If these problems are all Android related (this is my first Android phone) can the forum recommend anything that will not give me the above issues (I am not an iPhone fan... sorry).

Guy

grumbler

>>Consumer Rights

DSR say that you have 7 working days to return unused goods and to cancel.

Vodafone returns policy is similar: I've changed my mind and want to return my product, what is ...

Battery life is a problem for all smartphones.
For a bigger memory you should have done some research before buying. There are phones with bigger memory in the same price range.

Jon_01

I would have thought that a Wildfire S wouldn't have the power to run Skype? It is a budget Android phone after all.

As grumbers says, you need to do your research before buying. If Skype was a 'must have'...

The distance selling regs are there to make sure you get the right colour, model, brand ect, they're not there to give you a free trail of the item.

daleski75

I don't think you have a leg to stand on as the contract is for the airtime and data not for the phone itself best bet is to sell the phone and get another better spec phone.

JJ_Egan

You have no right to cancel a contract your phone is not the contract thats just an inducment to buy the network time .

One Skype crashes and lost contacts two battery goes flat and you lose your contacts .


Memory is so tiny that I can't even run a few apps, no music is on it, no photos, and there is a low memory wizard to move apps to SD card, but you can't install directly to it to avoid the problem in the first place,

But thats down to the app developer .

nor can you de-install some of the bundled apps from Vodafone or HTC that I will never ever use.

You can but that requires debranding the firmware .


Smartphones are battery hungry but can be improved .


Fault one Skype not the providers problem .
Fault two phone crashes recommend would be to factory reset and find out what apps are causing the crash .

Tiny memory not providers fault you bought it .

Battery life you would need to prove its abnormal .


Fault two possible grounds for return to provider for repair but unlikely to be replaced .


Best solution
Backup data and factory reset the phone that will at least clear any software/firmware errors .

Alternative try XDA forums debrand the phone remove apps you dont want understand and get better battery life .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=678

jje

sdduk

My daughter as one of them wildfire s and she had nothing but problems with the memory like said on here she couldn't move none of the apps to the memory card even with an app called apps2memory which you can download from android

My son changed the firmware and now it runs like a dream so much different you wouldn't think it was the same phone

I think there's a few android phones that suffer the same problem with the memory

So if you cannot get out of the contract you will need to do the firmware update or you will be stuck with what you have.

guygamps

Thanks for your responses,

general feeling is I am stuck with it, the Skype issue of call quality is a shame but I can live with it, the loss of all any contacts that were imported from Skype and the fact that on restoration, speeddials and favourites are not recovered is the bigger issue,

Happy to stay with Vodafone so cancelling the contract is a "threat", when really I was hoping they would offer me a different handset, even if it cost a tad more per month, but they werent interested in putting any options on the table at all.

Question for SDDUCK, how did your son make a clean firmware installation? would love to be able to do that, and install just the apps I want to run. Any chance you could post a link to some instructions?

guygamps

If I put the Sim in an alternative unlocked handset, (and in doing so commit to continue the payments for duration of contract, whilst not using the phone), can I legally sell the handset on? or during contract can I not sell it even if I don't use it

grumbler

Yes, you can sell it.

However, sometimes contracts get terminated midway because of, say, a dismounted mast near you and lost/poor signal as a result. In this case the network may ask you to return the handset.

Del_Astra

I have one on Orange, battery life has been fine, charging once a week, twice if used mored, so surprised you complain about this. Check out andriodadvices.com they have a whole article on making it faster, work through that and see how it goes.

I'm also a low usage user to be honest, sat nav once in a while, heart rate monitor and running app, and eh that is about it. Lucky if I use 100 mins 250 text and 300MB data a month. So you could be using it much more then me.

I also used an app (can't recall what it was called). I have since uninstalled that would shutdown things if they stayed running, check out the HTC Wildfires forum, I'm sure I read some helpful stuff on that for battery life.

guygamps

My usage is minimal too, reading and answering emails, and occasional phone calls is about it, Bluetooth when driving, Wifi when connecting to home network especially to install any notified updates. Full charge in morning, has gone by 6 O'clock it doesn't even last til bed time

Anyway, could live with that, but losing my phone numbers, favourites and speed dials regularly is not right, once pulled in from my Skype account they should stay there! they do on my HP Touchpad (I was one of the lucky ones, got one for £89) It does similar, assembles a contact list from all your on line sources. but its never lost any!

As for memory, yes I researched it, saw it had a little but then had an SD card slot, but have found that you cannot install directly to that, you can move installed apps to it later.

I should add another problem, often when I take it out of my pocket it is displaying Limited Connectivity and has no mobile phone signal at all, once out of my pocket it will see a signal after a while, but it means I am missing calls when the phone is in my pocket! (this is only when in my house). 2007-2009 I had similar problem with HTCs on 02, they hunted between HSDPA, 3G, Edge and GPRS, and the 3G was very weak in my house, the hunting "algorithm" clung on to the 3G for too long and I would lose signal. I had a Tytn11, and an S740, both did that and had to be set to GPRS only, then I never missed a call. The I switched to Blackberry on 02 and never had that problem, its another reason to reject the phone, its not a lot of use if I am missing calls.