Tesco mobile repairs

Magandang_Buhay

I hope this is the correct place to post this...

I have a Samsung mobile bought from a Tesco store. A couple of weeks ago the screen developed a fault - by itself, no rough handling, abuse or anything. I sent it off to the Tesco repair place as per their instructions. Today I have a letter stating '...your handset is not covered by the manufacturer's warranty and the cost of repair will be...'
I presume they mean to say that the damage looks self-inflicted rather than a defect.
Does anyone have experience of this kind of thing? How best can I convince Tesco to repair or replace the phone?

DevonWolf

I know its been some time since you posted, but my wife has had a similar experience recently when her Tesco bought Samsung SGH-E250D mobile phone just stopped working suddenly.

She woke up late one morning when the phone's alarm didn't go off. The phone had a blank screen and nothing we did would enduce it to turn on. It had just died.
As she had only had the phone for 6 months we contacted Tesco who explained their procedure and sent an envelope for us to return the phone for examination and return/replace.
When the phone was returned today there was a letter with it from the Tesco Repair Centre saying that "Your phone has been examined by one of our engineers and we have found it has sustained physical damage" and this has "invalidated the manufacturer's warranty". They went on to say that sometimes they can effect a chargeable repair outside this warranty but "the extent of the damage is such that it is not economical in this instance".
So they just returned the phone and thats it.

I telephoned Tesco asking for a copy of the engineers report so we could see what this 'irrepairable' damage is, and take it for independent assessment but they said this wasn't possible, and no reports exist, and he knows this because he'd been through all this before.

We feel completely let down, in fact we feel ripped off, and wondered what would be the best thing to do?

Magandang_Buhay

Hi Devonwolf,

The Tesco Mobile Repair Centre was unhelpful to say the least. They were in no way willing to entertain the idea that Samsung slide phones are prone to sudden failure of this kind.

(Although I could point to the numerous reports on this forum and elsewhere which point strongly to their being an inherent design fault)

Their dismissive, hostile attitude helped me get a refund as someone from Tesco Customer Services was more prepared to consider the facts and instructed the Repair Centre to issue a refund voucher...

Sounds like the Repair Centre is still as helpful as ever! You'll need to go over their heads to get anywhere. Good luck.