Phone broken after 4 months - what can I do??

Kitsi

Hi,

I purchased a Galaxy S3 mini on a two year contract with vodafone about 4 months ago. Recently one of the buttons has jammed. It is jammed down and means that I can't get back to my home screen after I open an app and it also means my screen is constantly on so it drains the battery really fast. I contacted vodafone today and they said they will need to send it off to have it looked at. They said they would charge £100 for repairing it. £100 for a jammed button?? They explained that my warrenty doesn't cover physical damage. Ok, I can understand if I'd dropped it and smashed it but this is a fault with the phone. It is nothing to do with me!

I can't afford £100 and I'm not paying them to fix it after just a few months of having the phone. Maybe it would be different if I'd had it a year or something but its still new!

What can I do? Please help

macman

I think you misunderstood the message. They will charge you for repairing it if the damage was user-inflicted.
If it's failed of it's own volition then it's covered under the manufacturer's warranty.
It was simply a warning-they can't possibly say what the cause is without inspecting it. They can't diagnose it over the phone.
If it does turn out to be user-inflicted then all you can do is pay up or buy another (cheaper) handset to use instead for the duration of your minimum term.

powerful_Rogue

Exactly as posted above.

Failing that, give Samsung a call. They offer 24 months warranty on all their phones. They will send you out a pre paid special delivery envelope next day.

Again though, if its user error, you will be billed.

Kitsi

He said physical damage is not covered. I asked him what was covered and he said problems with the software and things like that.

macman

But it isn't confirmed as 'physical damage'. One of the buttons has stuck. The cause of that could be user-inflicted, or it could be device failure. Only a bench inspection can determine that-not an agent over the phone.
You've either mis-described the problem or the agent has failed to understand you. The warranty covers both hardware and software failure, but not damage caused by the user.
As above, if you don't want to deal with Voda, send it direct to Samsung. You've not really got any option here, as you'll still be in contract whether you have a working handset or not.

VanyaHargreeves

Don't worry - you'll probably be fine. If Vodafone won't do it, try Samsung, as suggested before. When my Samsung laptop trackpad stopped working, I had it sent away to them. When I sent it away, they warned me that if they deemed the issue to be user-inflicted, I would have to pay for the repair. But they decided it wasn't my fault, so they fixed it - and replaced the motherboard, the keyboard, the screen and the dvd drive as well! So they're pretty lenient with things like that, I would say, so don't worry!

Vodafone

Hi Kitsi,

I’m sorry to see you’re having problems with your phone.

You’ve had some great advice above regarding what the warranty covers.

If you’d like us to help get a repair sorted, please email me with your details via the link in our profile here.

All you need to do is copy and paste the link into your web browser and it'll take you to the Contact us form on our website. To make sure it reaches me could you also quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line?

Once sent you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Could you update the thread with this and I'll get back to you as soon as possible?

Thanks,

Jenny
Web Relations team
Vodafone UK

Kitsi

Thank you for the advice everyone. I haven't managed to get to a Vodafone store yet as ther isn't one close to me but I took the phone to a repair shop and he said it was hardware damage so should be covered :-).

Buzby

??? Hardware damage = physical damage. From your description it sounds as though the button has been pressed (or repeatedly) with great pressure (causing it to fail). This would be classed as abuse and not covered.

NFH

Buzby wrote: »

??? Hardware damage = physical damage. From your description it sounds as though the button has been pressed (or repeatedly) with great pressure (causing it to fail). This would be classed as abuse and not covered.

How did you draw this conclusion? How can you be so sure that the button was not simply defective and was not durable at the time of manufacture? Some manufacturing defects don't manifest themselves until a period of use has elapsed.

Kitsi

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Kitsi,

I’m sorry to see you’re having problems with your phone.

You’ve had some great advice above regarding what the warranty covers.

If you’d like us to help get a repair sorted, please email me with your details via the link in our profile here.

All you need to do is copy and paste the link into your web browser and it'll take you to the Contact us form on our website. To make sure it reaches me could you also quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line?

Once sent you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Could you update the thread with this and I'll get back to you as soon as possible?

Thanks,

Jenny
Web Relations team
Vodafone UK

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. I have done as you suggested and the reference number is #11711749

Thanks again