Samsung U600, contract with orange, having problems

SpectralCanary

Basic info:

18 month contract with orange (via phones4u). It's the dolphin package. £35 a month, 500 mins, unlimited txts. Samsung U600 handset. £150 bacs payment. Groovy.

Now onto the problem:

My brother got the same deal above a week before I did. Approx 15th Oct last year.

3 weeks into my contract, the phone switched itself off. When I switched it back on, all my ringtones etc had returned to default, because all my user files (pics and music) had been deleted.

Phones4u were OK(ish) about it. I got a new U600. All is well in the world.

Until my brothers does exactly the same thing about 2 weeks later. Because he is outside the 28 day period, he has to send his away, for 2 weeks.

He get's it back, and again, all is well in the world.

Until his phone does it again. So it gets sent away again, for 2 weeks. It's worth mentioning that even though my brother was still liable for the line rental phones4u refused on both ocassions to provide/loan him a handset.

He got his back, fixed. Again, all is well with the world.

Until tuesday 12th of May 2008. My handset does it, again.

I spoke to an independant repair firm. The chap I spoke to says that the U600 does this often, due to the fragility of the ribbon between the LCD and the motherboard. If repaired, he claims the handset is quite likely to do it again.

I also spoke to trading standards, they said that I have a legal right to expect any product I pay for to do what it is supposed to. The U600 obviously doesn't fufill this obligation. 3 different handsets have suffered the exact same problem 4 times now. Samsung 'are not currently investigating any issues with the U600'.

I want phones4u to replace my U600 with a different phone (preferably an Erricson, I like them) of equal(ish) value, or give me a discount when I buy a new handset. They refused. Their customer service advisor was so arrogant, I almost hung up on her. They have to send the handset away for repairs at least 3 times (no guarantee can be given that it will be 3 times though). Each time they send it away, I have to continue paying. It can take 1 to 3 weeks for me to get it back.

Orange, although much friendlier than phones4u, are unable/unwilling to do anything either because they 'did not originally supply the handset'.

So what can I do? I still have 12 months of this contract to go. Phones4u can seemingly mess me around for as long as they please.

Is there any way at all that I can either...

Cancel the contract safely?

Force phones4u or orange to give me a different handset?

Thank you for any and all help you can offer me. Also, any stories about how rubbish orange/phones4u are will cheer me up greatly.