Consumer Rights with faulty iPhone (1 month outside 1 year warranty)

BollaRonJohn

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone could advise me on the likelyhood that I'll get either a free replacement or free repair from O2 for my broken iPhone 7 Plus.

What did you buy? iPhone 7 Plus 256Gb (£960)

When did you buy it? March 2017

Where from? O2 instore

How did you pay? Debit Card

What went wrong?
The device won't charge up anymore. It looks as though the charging cable isn't going all the way into the port. But there doesn't seem to be any obstruction from looking into the port. It's not the cable as my partners iPhone charges on the same cable (Which is an Apple Lightening Cable)

On the day I started getting the problem, I did try numerous times and eventually it did kick in and start to charge. However when that ran out and I tried again it wouldn't charge and this time there was a smell of electrical burning and so I have stopped trying now.

What are the vendors telling you?
It is 1 month outside of the 12 month warranty, so O2 have advised me to send it to their repairs department, but that there will be a cost.

I don't think I should be paying anything to get it repaired and looking at the consumer rights act believe I have grounds based on the following rules:

"All products - whether physical or digital - must meet the following standards:

Satisfactory quality
Goods shouldn't be faulty or damaged when you receive them. You should ask what a reasonable person would consider satisfactory for the goods in question. For example, bargain-bucket products won!!!8217;t be held to as high standards as luxury goods.

Fit for purpose
The goods should be fit for the purpose they are supplied for, as well as any specific purpose you made known to the retailer before you agreed to buy the goods."

To me a device not lasting the 24 month term of the contract = Not fit for purpose
And on Satisfactory Quality. An item costing £960 should last longer than 13 months!

I have advised O2 of this via their LiveChat support and the minute I mentioned the consumer goods act I was told the issue would now be raised to their escalations team and that I'd hear back in 3-5 working days.

I waited a 1 week and heard nothing. Contacted them again and was told "sorry their must have been a technical glitch as the issue was never sent to the escalations team." They offered to do it there and then and it will take another 3-5 working days. (This was yesterday)

This as you can imagine, I was pretty annoyed by this so took to Twitter to advise O2 of their poor service. They moved me to a direct message conversation on Twitter to find out what happened. I re-iterated all of the above and the person manning their twitter account is following the same line as their LiveChat support team, stating that the paid repair route is the only option!

This makes me think that I may not win if I take this all the way?

What solution or remedy are you looking for? (Companies may Repair / Refund / Replace)
Free Repair and if that fails a Free Replacement.


NOTE: I also contacted Apple to see what they would say. They advised any Consumer Rights would need to be taken up with O2. If they did a repair out of warranty it would cost £360!

sheramber

You would need to establish that the phone was faulty. You could have damaged the port rather than it being a manufacturing fault.

TadleyBaggie

sheramber wrote: »

You would need to establish that the phone was faulty.

Note, the fault needs to be inherent not just present.

Browntoa

As above , sounds like the charging port is damaged , you need to prove an inherent fault

bris

It just takes a little bit of lit of fluff to get inside and it stops the cable getting a good connection.


You can find hints and tips on youtube.

Fosterdog

Turn off the phone and use a pin to gently prize out whatever is blocking the port, don't scratch at the sides/pins just at the very back and you will find it is full of "pocket fluff" especially in the black phones it doesn't look like it's blocked until you remove the fluff and realise how bad it is.

BollaRonJohn

@Sheramble - I can't see how I have damaged the port, I wasn't doing anything unusual, the Phone hasn't been dropped or had water on it. From day one it's had an expensive protective case and toughned glass screen protector and so I'm not sure what else I could have done to keep it in good working order.

@TadleyBaggie + @BrownToa - Any ideas on how to prove this is the case?

@Bris - I can't see any lit or fluff at the bottom of the port. When i look into the port, (which to be honest until now I've never actually done) it looks clear, but I would say that the it has a weird looking metallic red colour at the bottom that is not completely covering the back of the port. Looks like it might be some sort of battery fluid leak?
I've searched google for pictures of the inside of a charging port for iPhone 7 plus, but can't find any that look like mine.

Note: I can't post a link due to my MSE account being so new. But there is an image on the Apple site that shows a zoomed up picture of the inside of the port and it looks nice and clear. (Can't tell if it's a real photo or a graphical interpretation) but it certainly doesn't have this metallic red colour.

Oakdene

Do you have to wiggle the charger to get it to charge?

BollaRonJohn

Looking at my partners phone I can see that the cable sits flush against the port when entered fully. But on mine I can see a little bit of metal showing which confirms it's not able to be fully seated in the port.

The wire does wiggle when it is seated as far as it will go, which I know shouldn't do this.
I'm not sure how I got it to charge last time, I just unplugged it and re-plugged it a number of times and eventually it showed that it was charging.

marliepanda

BollaRonJohn wrote: »

Looking at my partners phone I can see that the cable sits flush against the port when entered fully. But on mine I can see a little bit of metal showing which confirms it's not able to be fully seated in the port.

The wire does wiggle when it is seated as far as it will go, which I know shouldn't do this.
I'm not sure how I got it to charge last time, I just unplugged it and re-plugged it a number of times and eventually it showed that it was charging.

So sounds like something is damaged inside the port preventing the cable from entering fully.This is unlikely (not definitely, but unlikely...) to be an inherent fault and more likely to be damaged in some way by yourself. A case and screen protector do not protect the charge port.

BollaRonJohn

Well I've not done anything weird or wonderful to break it. Plugging in a lightening cable is pretty hard to get wrong.

The red metallic issue to me suggests that something has exploded or leaked into this port and perhaps melted or expanded the metal and that's why it now won't seat fully in the port.

But it has absolutely nothing to do with anything that I've done.