Samsung refusing to repair phone in warranty

ashaluvvly

They claim water damage though the seals were intact, the problem is the GPS stopped working which when checking google is a very common problem, EVERYTHING else in the phone works and the phone is close to mint condition.

Sent it back pre paid Special Delivery Thursday and got it back yesterday with a small paragraph saying one of their engineers checked it and its water damage and would cost more to replace than the phones value.

Now I know for a fact this is wrong since I have repaired a few phones for friends and the gps aerial is simple to replace and only a few quid and even if it was larger considering the phone retails around the £350 mark it will not be that much to repair!

What rights do I have on disputing this.

Timalay

Well your first point of call is getting an independent report stating it isn't water damage, and in fact the gps problem.

wealdroam

Even with that report mentioned by Timalay, it is unlikely that Samsung will do anything.

OP, get that independent report and present it to whoever sold the phone to you.

Your statutory rights are with the seller.
The manufacturer, unless they are also the seller, is only only bound by the terms of it's warranty, and does not need to pay any attention to any independent report unless their warranty allows for it.

j0nathon2

Samsung's repair is outsourced, and in my experience they're useless.

As above, go to the seller, they'll send to Samsung and probably come up with the same answer; however you can pursue it with the seller whereas you cannot with Samsung.

ashaluvvly

Could not go to seller as its ex contract, got it on contract last year and when the terms changed they let me out which was lucky then but not for this.

Anyway I seemed to have "fixed" it by following the guide online, or what I did was take all screws out and back plate and blow compressed air on the board and lifted the metal connector a little as it needs to make contact to work.

It has now gone from zero signal everywhere to 2-4 indoors and 18 out of 21 outdoors which is good, the guides have mixed luck when it comes to the problem reoccuring but I am hopeful.

So 1 minute taking it apart and a few seconds blowing air and liftting a bit of metal got it working so I wonder what the repair staff really did, I noticed some screws were not in that tight.

wealdroam

ashaluvvly wrote: »

Could not go to seller as its ex contract, got it on contract last year and when the terms changed they let me out which was lucky then but not for this.

Glad to see that you have a resolution, but just because the seller agreed to cancel the contract does not mean that their responsibilities under SoGA for the sale of the phone ended also.

George_Michael

There may well be a problem with trying to get a resolution from the dealer.
A lot of mobile phone contracts are advertised at £XX per month with the phone being free and if this was the case here, if nothing was paid for the phone and it being a freebie, would the SOGA actually apply?

OlliesDad

George_Michael wrote: »

There may well be a problem with trying to get a resolution from the dealer.
A lot of mobile phone contracts are advertised at £XX per month with the phone being free and if this was the case here, if nothing was paid for the phone and it being a freebie, would the SOGA actually apply?

According to the guide on this site the OP would be covered by the Supply of Goods and Services Act. Essentially the same conditions as the Soga