4 Repairs To A Faulty Phone. What Now?

Barkley2

Hi

I have a decision to make on Friday and could do with some advice please.

I have been with my current mobile provider 3 for a very long time and have three contracts with them (Son, wife and mine). On my latest renewal back in August, I opted for the very nice Huawei P2 as it was hailed as 4G, NFC, 13MP camera,16gb storage blah blah blah and for 4 month it worked fine and I was happy. One day the GPS decided not to work and I went to my local 3 store who advised me to send it for repairs to Huawei's service centre. Because it was Christmas, I waited until January due to the Christmas postal times and the risk of it getting lost.

On return of my "fixed" phone, a letter stated that "the reported fault has been identified, repaired and the latest manufactures software has been installed". To cut a long story short, the phone went back a further 3 times with the same fault with the same letter accompanying my phones return.

Note. On the second time the phone was sent back to Huawei, I contacted 3 so that they had a record of all future happenings with the phone.

When the phone went back on the 3rd occasion, 3 kindly gave me a basic (and I mean basic Nokia C2) phone so I can still make calls for all the times I wont be with my phone. On the 4th time,they have credited my account with £15 as a gesture of good will.

I contacted Citizens Advice to see where I stood and they said that basically, if the phone breaks within 6 month, it is up to 3 to prove that the phone wasn't shipped with an inherent fault after 6 month it is down to me to prove the phone was shipped with an inherent fault (3 said that the phone didn't have an an inherent fault because I have used it for 5 months without fault). They also mentioned that a replacement needs to be LIKE for LIKE. I was prepared to have a replacement P2, but they no longer have them in stock and no longer stock Huawei phones. I am not a greedy person and asking threm for an Apple 5s or the latest Samsung S5. I have made it known that I would accept a refurbished phone with the same spec (or as close as)

This has been going on now for about a month and I have been offered the HTC 500, Sony Xperia M and L and the Samsung Galaxy Ace 3. None of the phones mentioned are anywhere near the spec that the Huawei is and I have refused them on this basis. They have offered me now a Samsung S4 mini but this will cost me £100. £50 upfront and £50 spread over the remainder of the contract. I cant see why I should be out of pocket for a phone that has an intermittent fault.

What should I do? Accept the offer? Take it to the ombudsman or something else??

Thanks for any help offered

p.s On the 4th return, the phone failed to work out of the box and took three factory resets to work. This lasted 3 days. I am back to having a phone with no GPS

bris

The phone doesn't have to be like for like because a lot of the time this is not possible as is the case here, but it should be similar spec or better.

You should have a look at current phones they do have and see if ant fit the bill and present that to them.

If they keep refusing then all you have left is the small claims court who would find in you favour for the cost of the phone but is it worth the hassle.

The fact they are offering an exchange is all the proof you need for liability so you can either work out a deal or go straight to court.

I would hassle them a bit more for a deal but that would be because I couldn't be doing with the hassle of the courts and the time it would take, would you?