Mobile advice pls - not working and going to cost £400 to fix :( 6 December 2022 at 7:36PM in Consumer rights 10 replies 599 views

Onourwayup

Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice. Have a new mobile contract with Sky - an Iphone 11, took it out in August 2022. 

In October it stopped working and sent it back to Sky and they have said the water damage indicator has been activated and so said I am not covered and it will cost £405 to fix. 

I rang my house insurance but the excess is £350.

It is my daughter's phone and she said she didn't get it wet but I don't know what else I can do. 

Any advice as to what my options are?

Thank you so much
X

Aylesbury_Duck

Unless you can get someone independent to examine it and rule out water damage, I'm afraid that you're either going to have to pay to fix it, or consider replacing it with a cheaper handset to at least get some value from the contract.  

macman

You can get a perfectly serviceable Android smartphone for around £100, so that is your cheapest option if you don't want to pay for the repair.
If you buy an expensive handset that you can't afford to replace, then it's always worth taking out insurance that will cover accidental damage.

MikeJXE

You can buy a refurbished iPhone 11 for less than £400

Gycraig

Send it to apple for a warranty claim ? Would at least give you a second opinion. 

They should be pretty hard to water damage i would imagine 

Aylesbury_Duck

Gycraig said:

Send it to apple for a warranty claim ? Would at least give you a second opinion. 

They should be pretty hard to water damage i would imagine 

From posts on here, I bet Apple will say it's damaged but that if OP had bought it from them directly they would fix or replace it.

MikeJXE

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Gycraig said:

Send it to apple for a warranty claim ? Would at least give you a second opinion. 

They should be pretty hard to water damage i would imagine 

From posts on here, I bet Apple will say it's damaged but that if OP had bought it from them directly they would fix or replace it.

I always buy my phone direct from Apple, they are good but not that good. The iPhone 11 is out of warranty, even so I have had a new replacement well out of warranty if there is an issue but,  to repair water damage Apple would replace the phone at a higher cost than £400. 

Appliance_engineer

Phone contracts are a rip off. People think they are getting a 'free phone' or something. I always buy a £80-£120 unlocked mobile phone from Argos (current one is a Moto G7 Play I think) was around £90 if I remember correctly, then a cheap Giffgaff pay as you go at £6 or £8 per month. No tie-in, no contract, and saving a fortune.

ThumbRemote

Appliance_engineer said:

Phone contracts are a rip off. People think they are getting a 'free phone' or something. I always buy a £80-£120 unlocked mobile phone from Argos (current one is a Moto G7 Play I think) was around £90 if I remember correctly, then a cheap Giffgaff pay as you go at £6 or £8 per month. No tie-in, no contract, and saving a fortune.

It's often cheaper to get a phone on contract than it is to get the same phone and a SIM-only contract. 

You may find the phone you got perfectly serviceable but others wouldn't. I've had a Moto phone before and found it appallingly slow. You're not comparing like-for-like with a basic Android phone from Argos. 

Appliance_engineer

My phones do everything I need them to do. I don't know what you mean by "slow". Okay, it might take a fraction of a millisecond longer to open up a webpage than the latest phones. So what?

macman

There's a tipping point. A budget £100 Android phone is likely to lack storage capacity, and have a slower processor. Spend £200-£300 and the quality and specs will be much better. But you don't need to spend a grand or more on the latest iPhone to get a functional, usable phone. Once you go above maybe £400, you are paying for the badge, be it Apple or Samsung.