Who do I turn to?

merrycon

I have an HTC Wildfire. Last week a message came on the screen saying I could only use the phone for emergencies.
I took it into the phone shop '3' who had a look at it, tested the sim and said the sim was OK and the phone was at fault.
They have offered to send it away to me repaired. My problem is that whilst the contract is with with '3', the phone was bought for me from another supplier.
Does anyone know where I stand with this? Will '3' mend it for me, or will I have to send it to HTC?
I'd be glad of anyones help. Thanks.

[Deleted User]

This sounds like the SIM isn't being recognised by the handset.

To make sure that it isn't the SIM that's faulty, I would suggest that you put in another '3' SIM (from a friend perhaps) that you know is working to check.

If '3' didn't supply the phone then I don't believe that they can be held responsible unless their SIM caused the fault. I suspect that although they have offered to send the phone away you may get charged for the repair. A fairly obvious question would be - who did supply the phone, was it new when supplied and how long ago? What I'm trying to get at is whether it was of 'merchantable quality' or not.

gjchester

merrycon wrote: »

I have an HTC Wildfire. Last week a message came on the screen saying I could only use the phone for emergencies.

This typically means the phone cannot see your network (3 in this case) but can see other networks, or in some cases it cannot see any networks depending on how it's programmed.

merrycon wrote: »

They have offered to send it away to me repaired. My problem is that whilst the contract is with with '3', the phone was bought for me from another supplier.
Does anyone know where I stand with this? Will '3' mend it for me, or will I have to send it to HTC?
I'd be glad of anyones help. Thanks.

You don't say how old the phone is, HTC offer a 24 month warranty on phones so as long as it's not damaged you should get it repaired. 3 seem to be willing to help so they should be fine but it does no harm to ask if there will be a charge.

Alternatly take it back to the shop you got it from or contact HTC direct. In all likelyhood 3 will not mend it they'll send it to HTC or a HTC repair agent anyway

merrycon

Thank you Sleazy and gjchester for your help. I've emailed HTC and will see what they say. The phone is about 18 months old. The young man in the shop said that the sim card couldn't communicate with the phone, but the sim card was OK as it worked in his phone. My phone is undamaged, I hardly ever use it really.
So I'll just have to see what '3' say and then go on from there.
Thank you both once again.

Buzby

Did it work OK before? There are differing SIM profiles that work in some handsets but not others. (Frinstance, I have an Orange mini SIM that works in my Nokia 710 but not in my iPhone 4).

merrycon

Yes Buzby, it worked fine before last week. I'll call into '3' tomorrow if I can. Thank you for your reply.

merrycon

As an update on the saga of my HTC Wildfire. I received a letter from '3' to say that the phone had suffered 'physical damage' and that the repair would cost over £50. I rang '3', spoke to a very helpful young man, and I asked what the 'physical damage' was as I had never dropped the phone or damaged it in any way. He said that the phone had been mended previously by an unauthorised repairer. They could tell this because some sort of seal had been broken. I was really surprised at this, I'd had the phone a reasonably short time, and it had always worked OK. Plus it was still under guarantee (I thought), so I'd no reason to have it mended by someone who was unauthorised, but the unauthorised repair made the guarantee null and void. I cannot criticize '3', they were polite and helpful, but their hands were really tied. So a word of warning...if you buy a mobile from an internet supplier, make sure it has not been tampered with.
'3' have completely replaced the innards of my mobile, and now it works perfectly.

buscape

Who did you buy the phone from originally?

Earthworm

You could alternatively get a second hand wildfire or wildfire s for £50+ via eBay. The latter having slightly nicer features.