Help THREE mobile have sold my wife a "modified" iPhone 4S and Apple won't fix it

markbarker2000

Thanks for reading. I am looking for some advice. Three mobile sold my wife her iPhone 4s in October 2012. It has recently developed a fault in that it won't charge. My wife took it to Three and they told her she must make a booking to see the technicians at Apple.

She did this and they have told her that it can not be repaired as the warranty is void. The reason being that it has been modified internally. Apple technicians say that it has been professionally modified and have given us a letter saying this so that we can take it up with three (sorry we don't have details of the specific modifications). Apple have no records of any legitimate repairs having been done.

We are very frustrated as the Three manager said that this is not their fault and that, although they do sell reconditioned handsets, it is not possible for them to have mixed this up.

I was there when my wife got the phone. The salesperson fixed it up for my wife and added the SIM card etc so we didn't take it from the box.

We now feel very frustrated that we are paying for a phone (30 quid) on a monthly basis that doesn't even work. I want to cancel the account but know that hey will say we are in breech of our contract etc. We are also frustrated that we have being paying for what we thought to have been a new phone when in fact it has been tampered with.

Has anyone got any advice for us. It will be very much apreciated.

Thank you for reading.

Mark n Katy B

NFH

Forget the warranty, as it's clearly not working for you.

You have a statutory right against Three as the supplier under Section 11N of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982. You should ask for a repair or replacement at no cost to you. You can use the report from Apple to prove that the condition in Section 11M(1)(b) is fulfilled.

ZhugeEX

That can't be right. If you bought it in a store then surely the box would have had packaging around it. All iPhones come with the cellophane wrap around it and so if that wrap was there then there is no way it could have been modified that.

I really doubt that three are at fault here as i don't remember them ever seling reconditioned iphones in store. They've always had an online store for that like vodafone.

Have you asked three to look on their system and see what handset is registered. They should be able to tell you if you have a refurb or not.

Three should repair the phone for you if you send it to them.

markbarker2000

Thank you both for your replies. We have been told by three that they don't repair any apple products. The phone was brought to us as we were in the shop and the sim was inserted etc. we left with the phone working and fully set up for my wife.we didn't see any cellophane wrap being taken off although we do have the correct box etc. hank you NFH for the info on the goods and services act. Ill look into that .

markbarker2000

My wife was told today that the three store do sell refurbished handsets. They told us that it's impossible that they have mixed them up as the iPhones that are new come in from China but the refurbished phones come from uk suppliers. I found that story a but strange but that is what we were told.

ZhugeEX

markbarker2000 wrote: »

My wife was told today that the three store do sell refurbished handsets. They told us that it's impossible that they have mixed them up as the iPhones that are new come in from China but the refurbished phones come from uk suppliers. I found that story a but strange but that is what we were told.

Not iPhones though. And who told you that, the store or the call centre?

Three should repair the iPhone, no idea why they're saying they can't.

markbarker2000

ZhugeEX wrote: »

Not iPhones though. And who told you that, the store or the call centre?

Three should repair the iPhone, no idea why they're saying they can't.

The manager in the three store discussed that refurbished iPhones come from apple in the uk. Brand new ones com from china. Also the refurbished iPhones come in clearly marked packaging. He hold my wife that they had not sold a refurbished iPhone in a while.

NFH

markbarker2000 wrote: »

We have been told by three that they don't repair any apple products.

Then they will have to replace it. They have a statutory obligation either to replace or repair under Section 11N. This has nothing to do with whether they do warranty repairs.

ZhugeEX

markbarker2000 wrote: »

The manager in the three store discussed that refurbished iPhones come from apple in the uk. Brand new ones com from china. Also the refurbished iPhones come in clearly marked packaging. He hold my wife that they had not sold a refurbished iPhone in a while.

Maybe it's changed then? But he's correct that the iPhone refurbished one would come in a plain white box or something. It wouldn't be in the official iphone box with cellophane wrapping.

NFH has the best advice.

d123

NFH wrote: »

Then they will have to replace it. They have a statutory obligation either to replace or repair under Section 11N. This has nothing to do with whether they do warranty repairs.

You keep saying that, but if Three are saying they didn't modify the phone and Apple say the phone is modified it means they are basically saying the OP has had work done on the phone.

The OP will need to be able to prove they have not had work done on the phone before they can take action against Three, and it's fairly difficult to prove a negative.

Phone develops a fault, OP asks for a local repair shop to check the phone, the repairer opens and works on the phone but can't repair it so tells the OP to take the phone to Apple (who now find the unauthorised work). This could be completely false, but an easy defence for the retailer and almost impossible to disprove by the OP.

Any court is going to question what would Three gain by selling modified handsets?

NFH

d123 wrote: »

Any court is going to question what would Three gain by selling modified handsets?

My guess is that another customer returned it to Three (having repaired it possibly following misuse) and Three then resold it as a new iPhone. I know that Vodafone resell pre-used iPhones as new; Three are capable of doing the same.