Faulty contract mobile phone after 7 months

x-Princess-Vikki-x

Hi,

In January I got a contract through buymobilephones.net for a 24 month Samsung Galaxy W with Three.

The phone has always been a bit slow, but recently it has started being unusable, as it freezes up and does not recover. Also, last night as it was charging on the pillow next to me, I 'burnt' myself on the phone as it was red hot!! I woke up and checked to see what had happened, and the battery was so hot I could barely touch it. It then wouldn't turn on.

Now its cooled down and recharged it's working (slowly) again. I did a hard reset on it yesterday too, to try and help the slowness, which has helped a little. Overall I'm worried it's dangerous, and its also almost unuseable.

What are my rights with buymobilephone? They say I can send it back to them for 'repair' but if they deem it customer damaged they will charge me a fee! I've always been careful with my phone. Also I don't know how long it would take to get my phone back.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some consumer rights that I can quote them for an unfit product? I just want my phone to work properly and safely.

Thanks.

Fosterdog

The overheating is quite common with a lot of samsung smartphones, although it tends to be the processor that gets hot rather than the battery, the heat then transfers to the battery.

I would send it to them for repair if I were you, my OH has had his last four phones from them and two needed repairs (both Samsungs) and they went away and got returned repaired with no issues.

bris

They do have the right to inspect it for customer misuse, or to repair it if faulty. They have a reasonable time to do this (undefined by law) but how long it takes is a lottery. The quicker you send it back the quicker you will get a remedy, one way or the other.

vuvuzela

Consider registering with Samsung on their website and send it back directly, rather than through a middleman. That's what I did when my Note was faulty, much quicker than sending it to someone to send to Samsung and the reverse on the way back.
Of course you could request that buymobilephones sort this if you want to spend time with them...

x-Princess-Vikki-x

I phoned Samsung and they suggested I take it to a Samsung approved repair company 10 miles from me, and they will repair it, the same day, for free!

They also said it has a TWO year warranty, and will have free repairs all that time! :T

I just hope they can actually repair it, not just do a reset, as I've already done. Thanks for the info guys!