Mobile phone 24 month contract termination - help required

Iant1977

Hi all,

I'm after some advice in relation to mobile phone contracts i took out at the end of August this year.

I took 2 contracts out for Samsung Galaxy Note 8 phones, 24 months each, with EE via Fonehouse online. All was well with these phones, my wife's contract was charged more than the actual amount stated in the contract, £43 instead of £36 a month. This took 3 months to sort out, apparently an issue with the discount code they apply not being done properly due to us swapping over our old numbers to our new network, and we have had the overpayment repayed so that is all fine.

My wife's phone developed a fault after performing a software update, causing the rotation sensors, proximity sensors and accelerometer to fail. The phone was returned to Samsung who fixed the fault, a known issue which required the motherboard being replaced. This was done and the phone returned. After a couple of days I realised that the phone was not receiving any network signal - we live in Cornwall and have patchy signal and as we hadn't been out away from our home Wi-Fi I hadn't noticed. Hence i returned the phone again to Samsung to be repaired, only to find that there was no issue with the phone, they had merely returned the software to that which related to the serial number, in this case Vodafone Italy. The phone was working fine it simply wouldnt register with EE, it was looking for Vodafone Italy. I was told this was an issue sometimes with "resellers" as they bought cheaper phones from the eu and rebrand them as uk phones, the issue only surfaces when there is a warranty repair.

I have since been dealing with Fonehouse, who after nearly 3 weeks have finally managed to send me a UK phone to replace the handset I sent back over 8 days ago. On arrival, the box had the samsung seal already torn open and a plastic seal over the box lid. The phone itself had no plastic covers over the front and back, but did have some kind of aftermarket protective film over the sides. Using the Samsung Phone info app from Google play store reveals that the manufacturing date does not match with the serial number of the phone. Essentially i have been sent someone elses phone that appears to have been repaired/refurbished at some point, that they have then sent back.

I am now in a position where I want to reject this phone and cancel the contract entirely. My wife has had the phone for barely 2 months out of the 4 we have been paying for it. I have no confidence in actually getting what we originally ordered, a brand new (Not a reconditioned) UK note 8 on EE for 24 months. When we have given Fonehouse the opportunity to sort the problem, they have after 8 days of her being without her phone sent a reconditioned phone out, which is not what we are paying for.

Can anyone advise me where I stand legally to cancel this and purchase from a different provider please....?

Thanks, Ian

J_B

Not fully read your very long post sorry - maybe post in the Consumer Rights section of the forum?
I'm fairly sure that the airtime and handset parts of the contract are separate.

DCFC79

J_B wrote: »

Not fully read your very long post sorry - maybe post in the Consumer Rights section of the forum?
I'm fairly sure that the airtime and handset parts of the contract are separate.

Your last sentence is correct.

OP maybe you need to read up on your rights as a consumer as Im pretty sure being offered/given a refurb phone is the norm.

pmduk

Iant1977 wrote: »

Can anyone advise me where I stand legally to cancel this and purchase from a different provider please....?

You're free at any time to buy a phone anywhere to use with the airtime contract you have with EE. You have no grounds to cancel that contract.

Iant1977

J_B wrote: »

Not fully read your very long post sorry - maybe post in the Consumer Rights section of the forum?
I'm fairly sure that the airtime and handset parts of the contract are separate.

pmduk wrote: »

You're free at any time to buy a phone anywhere to use with the airtime contract you have with EE. You have no grounds to cancel that contract.

So are you saying that i am to accept that i am paying a lot of money each month for a new Note 8 phone on EE, having been sold a phone that developed a fault due to a software update, necessitating a replacement motherboard, which THEN revealed the phone was in fact not a UK EE locked phone but a European phone locked to Vodafone Italy which no longer functioned on the network it was sold with, THEN to have it eventually replaced with a refurbished phone, all within the first 4 months of my contract (of which I've used the phone for 2 at the most....) and my best option is "to purchase another phone"?

JJ_Egan

Your phone and consumer rights are against the vendor not the network .

mobilejunkie

As has been explained you didn't buy the phone; instead you opted for an expensive airtime contract with a phone thrown in. If you want to avoid it next time, get a one of the new types of type of contract (which will be an even more expensive way of doing things) which splits the phone and the airtime OR get a sim only deal and buy the phone outright (though not sure if you'd be in exactly the same situation then anyway).

You can go round in circles because you don't like the answers (as many before you) or you can accept the replacement phone.

Iant1977

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Your phone and consumer rights are against the vendor not the network .

Thank you, so essentially what you are saying is I need to approach Fonehouse and tackle them over the phone issue? I understand that the EE network side of things is fine so I need to come from the direction of sorting the phone out with them....

pmduk

That's right. Remember, you are now replacing a 4-month-old phone, so they may want to replace it like-for-like.