Carphone Warehouse unwilling to replace a faulty iPhone after 12 months

t8fisted

marliepanda wrote: »

They haven't played games with wording.

That report says, in fancier terms.

This iPhone is broken. We cannot fix it

It does not saying anything about an inherent fault. It does not say it was present at the time of manufacture. This is THE vital point when it comes to CPW having responsibility.

Of course they cannot now change the report to fit what it needs to say. I am not sure how 'scrutinising' the wording would have made a difference, it would have still been the same.

What did you say when you went to Apple? Did you say 'I need a report which says what the fault is and why it happened?'

To answer your last question - I originally went into the Apple Genius Bar and explained the whole thing. The person I spoke to said that if I had bought it from them direct that they would have replaced it free of charge. I then explained that Carphone Warehouse wanted an Apple engineers reports so I asked him if he could write one so that I could get a replacement from the Carphone Warehouse. He actually showed me the wording and said "is that ok?" and foolishly I said yes - not realising that Carphone Warehouse would not accept this and would fight me on wording.

I suppose what I really want to know is :-

1) Is it worth me taking them to court now based on the "should last for 24 month" argument
or
2) Should I obtain this 'independent engineers report' and if so from who? (The Genius Bar people even said they could not advise me of where I could get this report and suggested I Google it!)

I am tempted to go the independent engineers report route although the challenge is knowing who, how much and if Carphone Warehouse will still refuse to accept "the fault was present at the time it was purchased" which is actually impossible to prove as its a latent defect that occurs over time.

marliepanda

The 'should last 24 months' argument needs back up though. You can't just throw it out there, you could have dunked it in water, dropped it, microwaved it, put it in the freezer etc. That is why you were advised to get the report that says 'yes this should have lasted 24 months plus, but due to manufacturing fault X it has not.' So no, I would advise against court as all you have is a broken phone and a report saying it is broken. You have nothing which requires CPW to act, legally, so court would be a waste of time, money and effort.

The problems is no doubt CPW have a copy of that report now, so any additional reports will be compared to the Apple one. I would have suggested perhaps going to another Apple store if one was close enough to you, I know they are not exactly commonplace though.

I honestly don't know, as any further reports may look 'engineered' to say what you want, as you got one and were told it wasn't acceptable.

mattyprice4004

t8fisted wrote: »

Hi All,

I did go back to the Apple Genius Bar and the first person I spoke to said "yes I am sure we can rewrite the report for you" then he spoke to his manager/team leader and after a while they sheepishly came back to me and said sorry but they could not re-write the wording in the report to say it was an inherant manufacturers fault as they "could not change what they had already said". They suggested I get an independent engineers report!? Who if not Apple is qualified to do that? We are talking about something such as (probably) poor quality solder or a loose connection or faulty WIFI chip that only manifests as a fault a few months after the 12 month warranty expires. How can anyone 'prove' that the fault existed in a microelectronic device if it did not display problems when bought? There is also the fact that to really prove it would require dismantling which of course cannot be done by anyone other than Apple anyway (during the warranty period - dismantling would void the warranty). I still feel hard done by and this is a very well known issue so it MUST be due to a rogue batch of poor quality iPhone 4s devices. I still maintain that as this was sold as part of a 24 month contract that it should have lasted for 24 months - regardless of the 12 month standard warranty. Also please note that Apple in Australia offer 24 months as standard and shops such as John Lewis offer a minimum of 24 months guarantee on all Apple products. Why are mobile phone companies such as the Carphone Warehouse not doing the same and seem happy to upset loyal customers this way when they must clearly know this is a known Apple hardware fault?

So I take it you didn't read my previous post I took the time to write. Go and read it.

t8fisted

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

So I take it you didn't read my previous post I took the time to write. Go and read it.

Yes I did read it. You are the guy who said he worked (past tense?) for the Carphone Warehouse repair team. Thanks for your post. All good stuff and welcome . Its always interesting to hear from the people who actually work in those roles. I am sorry I did not acknowledge your post before.

Your suggestion that the problem with the iPhone (allegedly) might be caused by Apple firmware is an interesting one as well, but Apple customers dont really have a choice do they? (unless they jailbreak the phone or dont accept the upgrade)

Incidentally I popped my iPhone in the freezer for an hour and the wifi now works. Any idea why? (and er..... I also work in IT - although Software not hardware)

t8fisted

marliepanda wrote: »

The 'should last 24 months' argument needs back up though. You can't just throw it out there, you could have dunked it in water, dropped it, microwaved it, put it in the freezer etc. That is why you were advised to get the report that says 'yes this should have lasted 24 months plus, but due to manufacturing fault X it has not.' So no, I would advise against court as all you have is a broken phone and a report saying it is broken. You have nothing which requires CPW to act, legally, so court would be a waste of time, money and effort.

The problems is no doubt CPW have a copy of that report now, so any additional reports will be compared to the Apple one. I would have suggested perhaps going to another Apple store if one was close enough to you, I know they are not exactly commonplace though.

I honestly don't know, as any further reports may look 'engineered' to say what you want, as you got one and were told it wasn't acceptable.

Ok I see your point (I still feel hard done by though )

Right I am logging off - I have work tomorrow at its 01:47 :eek:

SuperHan

Apple won't admit it's inherent, as they'll then have to say that they will replace all phones they have sold with this error, which of course they don't want to do. It would take somebody very high up to make that call, not at store level.

Try an independent engineers report, and submit it with a covering letter to the above. Put in words to the effect that you have been told that Apple will not issue a report saying the fault is inherent. However, others are willing to say this.

You MUST do this before you go to court, otherwise there will be no case for CPW to answer.

(I also can't imagine that you're being serious... But putting it in the freezer will not help your case)

sophieschoice

Two iphone 4s' in this house. Both stopped finding wifi. I believe the wifi chip is overheating. The only thing that has worked is sealing it in a bag and putting it in the freezer for twenty minutes. This is only a temporary fix and it loses the wifi again soon after. Phones were bought from different places at different times so I suppose we were unlucky to have two in the same house from a faulty batch. I'm annoyed that Apple haven't taken responsibility for this. Because the freezer method works I don't think the fault is the ios7 update. BTW, we have lost wifi AND had the button 'greyed out.

[Deleted User]

Sorry if this point has been covered already, but wouldn't a report from an independent engineer be better than one from Apple? They are hardly unbiased and are unlikely to state there is an inherent fault in one of their products, even if they don't need to pay for the replacement!

Bantex_2

Get rid and buy a Samsung.