Phone 'engineer' broke my phone

nat270786

Hi All

I'm looking for advice. I smashed my phone screen and took it to a third party repair shop to be replaced. The engineer basically broke every aspect of the phone, the speakers, the microphone, the fingerprint recognition, didn't replace heat transfer pads....etc. I had to take it to another engineer to confirm and try and rectify the damage. 
The original eningeer initially offered a refund but is now completely ignoring me. What can I do? 
TIA

Aylesbury_Duck

Letter before action and small claims action if needed.  What value is involved?

JamoLew

Unless it was an official repair then it is done (attempted) at your own risk

They will usually have a disclaimer posted somewhere

Not a lot you can do about it unfortunately

nat270786

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Letter before action and small claims action if needed.  What value is involved?

We paid £130 for the screen. She then informed us we needed to pay another £20 for the speaker which kept 'blowing'. She offered to remove the new screen and give us a £100 refund. As the phone is now useless we agreed but she has since gone silent. 

macman

JamoLew said:

Unless it was an official repair then it is done (attempted) at your own risk

They will usually have a disclaimer posted somewhere

Not a lot you can do about it unfortunately

Posting such a 'catch-all' 'at your own risk' disclaimer does not remove the customer's statutory rights.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

JamoLew said:

Unless it was an official repair then it is done (attempted) at your own risk

They will usually have a disclaimer posted somewhere

Not a lot you can do about it unfortunately

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/49/enacted

Service to be performed with reasonable care and skill

(1)Every contract to supply a service is to be treated as including a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill.

(2)See section 54 for a consumer’s rights if the trader is in breach of a term that this section requires to be treated as included in a contract.


Fortunately you can't just set up a service, be bad at it and then tell the customer tough because I have disclaimer. 

JamoLew

Last time I had a screen replaced I was very much warned that the process was against manufacturers guidance and thus any damage would be at my own risk

If you are warned upfront then the disclaimer is valid is it not ?

I agree that they still have to take reasonable care but screens are not designed to be easily replaced especially not by a 3rd party and stuff can get broken during the process - hence the prior warning which puts the risks on my shoulders


This may not have happened with the OP though

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I don't think it would hold much weight, if the manufacturer can repair a phone without damaging it then anyone can. If they can't then they don't have the skills or equipment. 

I know manufacturers make it as difficult as possible and an exception may be replacing a part that then refuses to link to other parts, I think the latest  iPhone has something like this, but the trader should clearly explain this to the customer. 

Tokmon

JamoLew said:

Last time I had a screen replaced I was very much warned that the process was against manufacturers guidance and thus any damage would be at my own risk

If you are warned upfront then the disclaimer is valid is it not ?

I agree that they still have to take reasonable care but screens are not designed to be easily replaced especially not by a 3rd party and stuff can get broken during the process - hence the prior warning which puts the risks on my shoulders


This may not have happened with the OP though

How would it be "your own risk" when whether or not they break it entirely depends on the skill and knowledge of the task they are carrying it out. Anyone who says that should be avoided because it means they aren't confident in what they are doing because changing a screen is a routine and repeatable task.

It's not like you are asking them to do something that has unknown risk factors such as asking a garage to put excess force to undo a seized bolt. 

JJ_Egan

  JL Poster is known for spurious advice .