Sent phone in for repair, received different model as replacement

salgoud

grumbler wrote: »

Yes, but if they supplied the phone, the OP should have contacted them in the first place, not HTC.

I thought about that.. But back in 2006 I worked as a "customer service adviser" (call centre slave) for Motorola, and customers who were within manufacturer warranty were always told by their networks to contact us directly.

Dreamnine wrote: »

The HTC One Mini 2 goes for £250 to £300 - I don't imagine your old HTC One would be worth this.

No way should they be giving you an One M8.

This is besides the point - I don't care what arbitrary reasoning they might use for determening that the Mini 2 is worth as much as my m7. The parts it was made up of are not, simple as that, and it doesn't have specifications anywhere near as good as the phone I sent them.

Either way, the price difference in real terms is:

HTC One M7, £312-360

HTC One Mini 2, £209-340

HTC One M8, £380-445

(I had pricerunner links for the above, but as a new user am not allowed to include links..)

So the Mini2 is cheaper and worse, the M8 is more expensive and better. Naturally they want to give me the cheaper option, but I wasn't even consulted before they sent the replacement out. Moreover, I have now been without my phone for since the 9th of october! That's one day short of a full month.

During this time, I:

• Waited patiently for two weeks
• Called up immediately after the new phone arrived, and was told my case and been escaleted and I would be called back. They couldn't give me ANY estimate as to how long this might take.
• I called back 4 (working) days later, and was told that the agent would flag my case again AND I was asked to e-mail in as well. I did this.
• Two days later I still had not heard anything, so I called again. The agent informed me that "he was disappointed to see that my last call had not been logged." and that he would "personally talk to the escalation team tomorrow (yesterday) and call me back in the afternoon" - No call received

I find this acceptable on absolutely no level.

Heng_Leng wrote: »

The OP is more concerned with the specification rather than price.

Any replacement should equal or higher in specification unless you agree otherwise. The mini 2 is clearly inferior to the older HTC One.

Precisely!

McKneff

They could just say' well send it back, and we will send your old phone back when we receive the parts for it'


It could be months....

grumbler

salgoud wrote: »

I thought about that.. But back in 2006 I worked as a "customer service adviser" (call centre slave) for Motorola, and customers who were within manufacturer warranty were always told by their networks to contact us directly.

Hardly a surprise that the networks (and all other retailers) do their best to fob the customers off and to avoid fulfilling their obligations under the SoGA.

MSE article: Consumer Rights Armour

McKneff wrote: »

They could just say' well send it back, and we will send your old phone back when we receive the parts for it'


It could be months....

...and the OP can go to the supplier that, unlike the manufacturer, has obligations to repair or replace within 'reasonable' time. However, if the phone was supplied more than 6 months ago, it isn't as simple as the manufacturer's warranty.

salgoud

grumbler wrote: »

Hardly a surprise that the networks (and all other retailers) do their best to fob the customers off and to avoid fulfilling their obligations under the SoGA.

MSE article:
...and the OP can go to the supplier that, unlike the manufacturer, has obligations to repair or replace within 'reasonable' time. However, if the phone was supplied more than 6 months ago, it isn't as simple as the manufacturer's warranty.

Had a look on the Three website, and after a bit of clicking about it says that - given that the phone is under warranty, which it is - I should contact HTC..

EDIT: Just called Three to see what they could do, and the chap informed me that repair/replacement is down to HTC due to my having had the phone for a just over a year. They could, however, offer me an upgrade... At a cost.

McKneff wrote: »

They could just say' well send it back, and we will send your old phone back when we receive the parts for it'


It could be months....

One agent that I spoke to said that the likely outcome in this case was that they would offer to return my old phone. Despite the above I guess I'll give Three a call and see what they could offer in this instance. Ridiculous service, this. This is my 5th HTC phone, was intending to get the next gen One (assuming they'll still call it that) when it drops.. Not so sure now.

grumbler

salgoud wrote: »

Had a look on the Three website, and after a bit of clicking about it says that - given that the phone is under warranty, which it is - I should contact HTC..

EDIT: Just called Three to see what they could do, and the chap informed me that repair/replacement is down to HTC due to my having had the phone for a just over a year.

Told you.
Did you read the article? In fact, their obligations aren't limited by a year, but they are good at fobbing off, and after 6 months the onus lies on you to prove that the fault isn't a result of damage. However, you can claim the cost of the report back from Three.

If you have any correspondence with HTC repair agent, I think you can use it as a proof that it was an inherent fault, not caused by any damage.

They could, however, offer me an upgrade... At a cost.

Again, hardly a surprise.

Kernel_Sanders

The OP was so well written that I am at a loss as to why the word 'errand' was used.

salgoud

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

The OP was so well written that I am at a loss as to why the word 'errand' was used.

Hehe.

So here's an update in case anyone cares in the slightest:

Oct 9th I sent my phone in for repair

Oct 28th I receive a replacement handset (Mini 2 in exchange for my One M7) and call HTC to raise my concerns are outlined in the OP. I am promised a callback from an escalation manager, but the agent could not give me a time estimate for this.

Oct 4th I call back again to ask what has happened with my request. The agent apologises and assures me that he will flag my case for the escalation teams attention. He also asked that I send in an e-mail outlining my issue, which I duly did upon ending the call.

Oct 6th I still have not heard back, so I call up again to check in on my escalation. The agent is confused as my last call, on the 4th, was never logger in the system. As with the previous two calls, the escalation team had gone home for the day and so he promised to talk to them in person the next day and call me back. His shift would start at 2pm, so he would call soon after that.

Oct 8th I still have not heard back, so I call again. The agent is very friendly, and when I ask how long escalations normally take she says mine is "definitely a record," but explains that escalation managers don't work on weekends. She assured me that she would talk to them and call me back on Monday (the 10th).

Oct 10th No call by 6pm, so I phone again. The agent is equally understanding and friendly, and makes the same promise as the others; he will talk to an escalation manager tomorrow and call me back in the afternoon.

Oct 11th I finish work early and decide to go on HTC chat to ask when escalation managers normally finish work. It's usually at 16.30 but never after 17.30. It was 16.00, so since I haven't received my promised callback I phone up again and talk to a chap called Ben. I go through my complaint for the 6th time, telling Ben that I've been waiting for 2 weeks for an escalation manager to make a decision and inform me as to the outcome. I told him that I had been promised 5 callbacks from agents, to which Ben scoffs (yes, scoffs) "5??" implying in his tone that I'm exaggerating. I assume this means other calls have not been logged, either. He talks to a manager who tells him that my only option is either to accept the phone they've sent me, or wait for an unknown amount of time until my can be repaired.

I ask to talk to the escalation manager directly. After that, our conversation goes along the lines of:

"No, I'm afraid that's not possible."
-Why not?
"They are not available right now."
-Have they left?
"No."
-So why cant I talk to one?
"They are busy right now."
-What with?
"Other customers."
-Have these customers also been waiting for two weeks to talk to them?
"Uh, well I d.. They are busy."
-That's fine, just put me in a phone queue to talk to them. I'm happy to wait.
"There is no phone queue for escalation managers."
-Well, then I guess I'll stay on the line and chat with you until one is free. Or you can put me on hold, I don't mind, but transfer me over when one is free please.
"Ok.. I will go see if one is free now."

At this point I had been either talking to the the somewhat obstinate Ben or on hold for 25 minutes. I am on hold for another 5 minutes before being transferred to a manager. Would you look at that? He was available after all!


Finally talking to an escalation manager, he informs me that they don't have central stocks of their phones - unlike apple, they sell to third party distributors and not to customers, so they don't keep stock of their phones, or he would have gladly sent me one - to which I reply that they certainly seemed too have a stock of Mini 2s readily available for shipping.

He tells me that the decision to replace my phone was not made by them, but by the repair centre, and that's at a different location. He also helpfully informed me that the phone I was sent was better than my old one. I told him that it was, in fact, worse in nearly every regard. He asked how so. I told him about the process, ram, screen size/resolution, and chipset differences, as well as the fact that the mini2 doesn't have an IR port (which I use all the time since my dog chewed up my remote!) The only thing that's better is the camera, which I told him I don't use since I have a DSLR. In fact, my phone developed the well known purple-hue issue that One's suffer from months ago, but I never bothered to call up to get this fix because I rarely use the darn thing. I told him that too.

He kept saying that it was "my opinion" that the phone I received was worse and that I was being subjective, whereas they had made the assessment that it was an upgrade to my m7. As a social scientist, I know by subjective from my objective and this rather annoyed me; of the two of us, he was the one who merely stated that the replacement was better as it was newer. I actually had (objective) evidence in terms of hardware specs and performance test scores, where the M7 outperforms the Mini 2 on every measure.

I have tried throughout these two weeks never to lose my temper and to stay friendly and nice, because I've worked for motorola myself and know how much worse you day can be simply from having to deal with a rude customer. Unfortunately I also know that rude customers, the ones who scream and swear, tended to be escalated quicker (never did they spend 30 minutes, let alone 2 weeks, waiting) as well as receive the service they are entitled to - that is, a worthy replacement. I told him this.

In the end, and this is were things stand now, the escalation manager said that in my position he would feel the same (this was after I apologised for interrupting him to go off on a rant about hardware and performance yet again as he refused to accept facts, but I understand this is his job). He will contact the repair centre to see if they can in any way repair my phone, or offer an m7, within a reasonable amount of time, or replace it with an m8. The last bit he sort of half whispered, bless him, but he said it. I also have his name, and he told me to ask to be transferred directly to him next time.

He guaranteed a callback no later than Friday.

I can't wait to see what happens...

PS. He also pointed out that with my new mini 2 I have an extra year's warranty. I said that hardly helps, because if it breaks and I send it in I might end up having it replaced by a slightly worse - if newer - phone yet again. He guaranteed me that this wouldn't happen, but didn't have much of a comeback when I said "but that's exactly why I'm talking to you now?"

diamonds

Always insist your network deal with things as per the Sale of Goods Act if they provided the handset, they should send a bag for you to return it to them or their contractor, 3. remain liable


Given 3 supplied the handset they are liable if are still liable if they directed you to HTC directly - I'd be contacting Trading Standards at your local council, they are blatantly flouting legislation that protects you en masse by not dealing with the manufacturer or their 3rd party repairer on your behalf.


How HTC or any 3rd party run their organisation is nowt to concern yourself with or do with you, SOG Act enforcement via Trading Standards is your only way forward for a like for like replacement.




Your local council TS will then pass this to http://www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/ts_contact_us.htm where 3's Registered Office is.


You could try contact them^ yourself and see if the will take direct action via yourself or you have to go through your own local council TS.


Given 3 are directly on their own website are flouting the SOG Act on a national scale if RBWM refuse to act on direct request from yourself or your local council TS you could follow the corporate complaints procedure against the council for failing to act on a national breach of SOG Act under their geographical control.


http://www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/members_complaints_policy.htm




Note:in my first link, there is no legislation that enforces you use Citizens Advice consumer service to escalate a breach of SOG Act. It is a guidance only service.

tissot

diamonds wrote: »

Always insist your network deal with things as per the Sale of Goods Act if they provided the handset, they should send a bag for you to return it to them or their contractor, 3. remain liable


Given 3 supplied the handset they are liable if are still liable if they directed you to HTC directly.....

.

i had a rubbish refurbished samsung (don't remember the model) with 3. when it became faulty i requested the bag and sent it to 3. they concluded that it was a 'liquid damage' which voids the warranty. But according to 3's t&c sending such a phone to 3 is not free and it costs £15. I had no idea how it became 'liquid damaged' as it had been reasonably used. anyway i had to pay £15 for a crap old phone that in working condition costed about £10-15 on ebay.

There was another option with repairs on 3 - using Carphonewarehouse as they have service centres that don't charge customers if the mobiles turns out to have voided warranty condition. So sending phone to the network provider may not be the best option

diamonds

tissot wrote: »

i had a rubbish refurbished samsung (don't remember the model) with 3. when it became faulty i requested the bag and sent it to 3. they concluded that it was a 'liquid damage' which voids the warranty. But according to 3's t&c sending such a phone to 3 is not free and it costs £15. I had no idea how it became 'liquid damaged' as it had been reasonably used. anyway i had to pay £15 for a crap old phone that in working condition costed about £10-15 on ebay.

There was another option with repairs on 3 - using Carphonewarehouse as they have service centres that don't charge customers if the mobiles turns out to have voided warranty condition. So sending phone to the network provider may not be the best option

Request the opening of your phone is visually recorded If they don't do it, you can argue the evidence of alleged damage is not available when requested and thus you maintain no such damage existed leaving yourself for 'repair'