Giff Gaff won't honour phone warranty for repair

LM808

Some advice would be appreciated please! I bought an refurbished iphone 6s in May for my daughter from Giff Gaff. It has developed a pretty serious battery fault, whereby the battery drains at different speeds and at random times without any apparent rhyme or reason - in low power mode it drains, or randomly goes from 80% to 20% etc. without warning. It's within its years warranty so I sent it back to GG. They are now saying that because the screen has a (tiny) crack on it, they won't honour the warranty and it will cost £186 to fix - this is £50 more than the whole phone cost! Why are they allowed to do this when the tiny crack has nothing to do with the battery life? They also want to charge me £15 to return it un-repaired - surely this can't be ok? Any advice on whether I have a leg to stand on or have to cut my losses and never use them again would be great.

Browntoa

It's been dropped or damaged , may be motherboard damage causing the battery drain.

Moved to consumer rights forum for better response

sal_III

Most likely the T&C that you agreed to, allows them to do all that. Read them and see if that is the case.

As above, the crack on the screen is considered damage and might be linked to the erratic behaviour of the battery. I also highly doubt that the 1 year warranty includes the battery on a refurbished device in the first place, but would take your word on it.

On a side note, replacement battery costs like £15 on Amazon/e-bay and is perfectly DIY-able on 6s in 10min

shaun_from_Africa

LM808 wrote: »

They are now saying that because the screen has a (tiny) crack on it, they won't honour the warranty and it will cost £186 to fix - this is £50 more than the whole phone cost! Why are they allowed to do this when the tiny crack has nothing to do with the battery life?

The crack itself might not have anything to do with the battery problem but replacing the battery requires the phone to be disassembled and the first part of this means that the screen has to be lifted from the body of the phone:
https://www.imore.com/how-replace-your-iphone-6s-battery (see steps 2 and 3).

If there is even a tiny crack in the display, there is an extremely good chance that the screen will crack further when this removal is carried out which is why they want the screen to be damage free before they carry out warranty work.

DoaM

Beat me to it.

OP still has consumer rights though, where they can ask for a repair, replacement or refund (partial to account for ownership) ... however we are likely now >6 months from purchase/delivery so GG can require the consumer to prove that the fault was inherent and not caused by the consumer.

shaun_from_Africa

Even if the OP is entitled to a replacement battery under consumer rights, I'm sure that Giff Gaff could refuse to replace it until the screen has been replaced as a shattering screen could be classed as a health and safety hazard. (a minor hazard I agree, but health and safety is a major concern for many businesses due to the costs that may be incurred from even a small injury).

mattyprice4004

Sorry but they're right - you've cracked the screen which would likely become much worse once disturbed. This isn't their fault.

You can probably pay to get it fixed locally at a much better price - that kind of price sounds like they'll just be handing the repair over to Apple to complete.

The £15 is also absolutely fine as why should they be out of pocket for the sending in and returning of a phone you have broken? £7.50 each way (assuming they paid postage to them too) is a bargain with courier rates at the moment.

Gycraig

DoaM wrote: »

Beat me to it.

OP still has consumer rights though, where they can ask for a repair, replacement or refund (partial to account for ownership) ... however we are likely now >6 months from purchase/delivery so GG can require the consumer to prove that the fault was inherent and not caused by the consumer.

From experience in the industry, no company I have ever worked for has ever repaired replaced or refunded phones that have been damaged by the consumer.

Including numerous times being shouted and people threatening to sue.

Giffgaff sent out a none cracked iPhone and would receive a cracked iPhone back, even if they refunded minus wear and tear what's the value of a cracked 6s ?.

New battery is about 20-30 quid fitted issue is they are 90 percent likely to crack the screen taking it off which is why gift gaff aren't touching it with barge pole.

I'd take it to a local repairer and pay 80 quid or whatever it is for a new screen and battery

DoaM

I accept what you say, but it still doesn't negate what I posted - it just lowers the likelihood of a CRA claim succeeding/amount of refund.