Please help! Carphone Warehouse problem - I think they lost my phone it's been 4 week

harasnrubdoow

I have basically been without a phone for 4 weeks because of the incompetence of The Carphone Warehouse. I still haven't got a resolution either.

Bought phone in June. Come end of August I notice the speaker is distorted and clearly broken.
Take phone to shop to see if they can fix it - can but no spare phones. Try ringing about 100 times in 2 weeks to see if there's a spare phone in store (not travelling all that way to not get any further) but they NEVER answer the phone.

Finally go down on 31st October, they send phone off for repair, tell me it could be between days and weeks. Nothing more specific than that. (I know it's up to 28 days from the website).

I get in touch via twitter after 2 weeks because the repair tracker hasn't progressed past receiving the device - not even to diagnostics. A lady on twitter tells me "Hi Sarah, we have had a reply from the repairs team to advise the handset is being exchanged and dispatched as soon as possible." I ask how long they say 2 days. I go down on Friday 18th Nov to pick up the phone; they've sent me a pink one instead with no repair report. As they called the repair a courtesy I really wanted to see this report - I don't believe they even tried to fix my phone I think they might have lost it.

I go straight back in and they tell me in 5 days (didn't specify working days) I can come back to pick up a black one.

Here I am 5 working days later with a pink phone I'm not keeping STILL and about 2 hours of call time to Carphone Warehouse in which the only thing I've learned is that everyone in the repairs team are clueless and rude, the customer services are not from the UK but polite and do try (even though they are once again useless) and apparently if I never asked for the repair report within 30 minutes of walking out of store I simply can't get it (told to me by the rudest repair centre member I've talked to; and I've talked to five so far, but I don't really believe that this is true. Partly because Carphone Warehouse told me on twitter to ring them for the report).

I literally have no idea what to do. This has caused me an unbelievable amount of stress.
They have promised me a £30 cheque and a £20 cheque for the inconvenience at different times but right now I just want a black phone and to know what happened to the one I sent them.

I've been in touch with citizens advice, awaiting response but they have passed info to trading standards, and I've been in touch with watchdog too because I bet I'm not the only person this has happened to. I've also written a letter of complaint using MSE complaint letter tool, and sent that signed for, which was received today.

Jon_01

You haven't said what the phone was? But it is usual to just send an exchange phone out rather than repairing the old one. Admittedly they don't tend to get the colour wrong.

But I'd guess that why you don't have a repair report, although I'm still not certain why you'd want one? As long as you have a working phone? (but I can see why you might not want a pink one!).

harasnrubdoow

The phone was a Sony Xperia Z5 Compact and was brand new in June, shouldn't have broke now as far as I'm concerned and water damage can't possibly be the reason because it's meant to be a little bit waterproof yet it was never near water.

I want the repair report because they considered it a "courtesy" repair, saying that the thing wrong with it (though they didn't say what) was not covered by warranty although according to the repair tracker it never even went through diagnostics. I want to know what's broke a 3 month old phone to the extent that they'd rather send me a new phone even though it's not covered by my warranty; if it was something I'd done with it to break it why would they replace it? I think they've lied to me from start to finish and as it's still not resolved I want as much evidence as I can that they're not doing what they're meant to.

Jon_01 wrote: »

You haven't said what the phone was? But it is usual to just send an exchange phone out rather than repairing the old one. Admittedly they don't tend to get the colour wrong.

But I'd guess that why you don't have a repair report, although I'm still not certain why you'd want one? As long as you have a working phone? (but I can see why you might not want a pink one!).

glentoran99

What exactly do you want from them? For you to escalate you need to know what you are after

harasnrubdoow

I want a black phone. Failing that I'd settle for white. As it is they've just told me I won't be able to get one of those because they don't stock them anymore, to get one elsewhere at the moment (I'm guessing because it's Christmas or something) it will cost me an extra £30 minimum.

I think how they've treated me and what they've done is beyond a joke. I want the repair report which is proving to be near impossible to get hold of because I think that will show me what they've done by way of repair (or rather that they haven't done anything) and I might need this for future, or if these phones have a fault in them and it happens again I'd like proof that it's a recurring problem.

I don't think they should be permitted to do business in this way, it has been truly appalling. They've told me they've raised the money, which sounds to me like a voucher, when I asked him what it meant he said it means I can go to store and buy a new phone, but I can't because they don't sell them anymore so I don't even know what that means.

Is there an ombudsman for this sort of thing? Are there steps I can take that I'm missing here?

glentoran99 wrote: »

What exactly do you want from them? For you to escalate you need to know what you are after

glentoran99

Yes there is communication ombudsman, but you can go to them until either 8 weeks have passed or you have exhausted the complaints procedure, how can they give you something they don't have?






As pointed out its common practice to replace rather than repair the repair report is not really your concern,

harasnrubdoow

I have read from other people getting repairs and in other instances everyone else seems to get a repair report, as previously stated I want to know what was wrong with my phone.
IF it was "water damage" as a man in the shop suggested I want to know because these phones are meant to be waterproof. I think they're lying and I want to prove it.

Not to mention the fact they're classifying this as a courtesy repair; if they wanted to they could have charged me for the repair (if it truly was a courtesy out of warranty one) in which case I would have gotten my black phone back. Which I'd have preferred.

glentoran99 wrote: »

Yes there is communication ombudsman, but you can go to them until either 8 weeks have passed or you have exhausted the complaints procedure, how can they give you something they don't have?






As pointed out its common practice to replace rather than repair the repair report is not really your concern,

harasnrubdoow

They were trying to insist that I take a Samsung phone or a voucher to spend in store; the man I talked to was certain I shouldn't get a refund.

Jon_01

I don't know where you've read about other people getting repair reports for a standard warrantee repair? There might be a small slip of paper that the company use to track the repair, but it's not a report, it's just a log.

You can get a report if you pay for an Independent one because you've have to prove a defect, are you maybe confusing that side of things?

It'll be far too late now, your old phone will have been broken down for any usable spares and the rest binned.

All you're doing now is tilting at windmills. . .

harasnrubdoow

They told me themselves and I've got a screenshot to prove it! They told me when I asked what exactly was apparently wrong with it they said there should have been a repair report in the box detailing it. I've had the same thing from HTC too. It is standard to give brief details of what they've done and why.

The phone had all of my data on it, it should have been a hardware repair / replacement (a new speaker) so there's another good reason to want to know what they're playing at.

From start to finish they've not done a thing without asking me to wait days and ringing other departments, I want to get to the bottom of it and this thread was asking the best way to proceed with that. I've sent a letter I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks for your help.

Jon_01 wrote: »

I don't know where you've read about other people getting repair reports for a standard warrantee repair? There might be a small slip of paper that the company use to track the repair, but it's not a report, it's just a log.

You can get a report if you pay for an Independent one because you've have to prove a defect, are you maybe confusing that side of things?

It'll be far too late now, your old phone will have been broken down for any usable spares and the rest binned.

All you're doing now is tilting at windmills. . .