Some more lies from Vodafone (FirstMobile)

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#241215 1-Aug-2009 15:27

Those stickers are crap anyway - they will change if you go from somewhere cold like a coldstore and then to somewhere warm and humid, like say auckland in summer. No water at all, yet the condensation makes them change after a few cycles of that. Let alone that fact that breath is warm and humid so if you take a cold phone and start to use it in a hooded jacket etc they get damp with condensation.

I had a yelling match with a store about "water damage" on a very young phone which needed a software update to make it work properly which they ended up wanting to try to charge me for...

Richard rich.ms

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quickymart

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#241222 1-Aug-2009 16:02

How come the T-Mobile UK SIM card? Just curious.

tardtasticx

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#241226 1-Aug-2009 16:19

richms: Those stickers are crap anyway - they will change if you go from somewhere cold like a coldstore and then to somewhere warm and humid, like say auckland in summer. No water at all, yet the condensation makes them change after a few cycles of that. Let alone that fact that breath is warm and humid so if you take a cold phone and start to use it in a hooded jacket etc they get damp with condensation.

I had a yelling match with a store about "water damage" on a very young phone which needed a software update to make it work properly which they ended up wanting to try to charge me for...

What ended up happening?

quickymart: How come the T-Mobile UK SIM card? Just curious.

I ordered one a while back and it supprisingly arrived and works via roaming on vodafone and telecom xt if your handset is compatable. I just used that sim because my XT sim doesnt work in this phone and I needed to make a test call and stuff and didnt want to use my vodafone SIM.

Go here - http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/free-pay-as-you-go-sim-cards/
where it says "county" enter New Zealand
and for postcode enter NZ10 4PD

Go here - http://freesim.orange.co.uk/
where it says "couny" enter New Zealand
and for postcode enter NZ10 4PD

I know the T-Mobile one works, but I'm not sure about the orange ones because I only ordered them last week, so I'm expecting 2degrees sims, T-Mobile Sims and orange sims some time next week. and with the orange one, you can order 4 at a time i think.

Good luck

richms

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#241232 1-Aug-2009 16:46

Well, they did the software upgrade free after I threatened them with legal action that the stickers are not proof of water and the phone still didnt do MMS so I gave it back for a refund.

Richard rich.ms

tardtasticx

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#241271 1-Aug-2009 19:02

richms: Well, they did the software upgrade free after I threatened them with legal action that the stickers are not proof of water and the phone still didnt do MMS so I gave it back for a refund.

Nice, I'll mention that when I talk to them on monday, ask them first for proof of the water damage also, like pictures maybe. Why do the phone companys stil use this crap if it is obveously flawed majourly? This is so unfair on us customers who actually didnt get it wet, Oh well, they are the giant corp. running all over the world and we are the little thing called the "customer", what ever happend to "the customer is always right"?

richms

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#241279 1-Aug-2009 19:21

because most people will back down and go ok and pay it because most people are spineless.

Richard rich.ms

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#241288 1-Aug-2009 19:37

richms: because most people will back down and go ok and pay it because most people are spineless.

True true. This would be over if the customer laws were changed or something, forcing retailers to give a refund upon request if the product fails to meet requirments. First Mobile has to be the worst shop I have ever dealt with. They dont know the meaning of the word refund. Its so stupid.

quickymart

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#241295 1-Aug-2009 20:02

While you have a point with that idea, I can see some shady people abusing a system like that.

paradoxsm

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#241324 1-Aug-2009 21:50

I had a phone repaired by Telegistics, came back that it was liquid damaged, I was able to go online to http://telegistics.co.nz/tlg/esnsearch and type in the serial number and view the images, the phone was indeed damaged and I was rather impressed with the image taking procedure as it was pure, simple proof and proactive rather than reactive. I cleaned he corrosion off the dc-dc converter and the phone works to this day after my little tinker but was still very impressed. (turns out a friend took it skiing)

The stickers are in no way proof either way, the phone may have been saturated and the sticker still white or has little red lines/crosses across it. The phone may have instead been totally immersed in water and then fully dried out immediately and the sticker is cherry red yet the phone would last forever due to the careful drying procedure..

tardtasticx

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#241334 1-Aug-2009 22:34

hmm. I'll call MFR on monday and ask about this and go from there. If I get pictures I'll be sure to post them on here for you all to see. I doubt they took pictures anyways, anyone ever dealt with MFR and gotten pictures?

Byrned

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#241466 2-Aug-2009 16:37

marmel:

This doesn't make sense to me though.

The repair agent is going to get paid either way by the customer or by the phone manufacturer so unless you are saying they are getting some sought of kickback from the manufacturer why would they lie about the cause of damage?

If you want to be a real conspiracy theorist then I remember someone saying once that their third cousins dog said that the repair companies make more money from a declined quote fee/water damage charge than they do from the mininum service charge that they would get off Sony Ericsson, Nokia etc.

littlescott

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#242072 3-Aug-2009 22:30

Byrned:
marmel:

This doesn't make sense to me though.

The repair agent is going to get paid either way by the customer or by the phone manufacturer so unless you are saying they are getting some sought of kickback from the manufacturer why would they lie about the cause of damage?

If you want to be a real conspiracy theorist then I remember someone saying once that their third cousins dog said that the repair companies make more money from a declined quote fee/water damage charge than they do from the mininum service charge that they would get off Sony Ericsson, Nokia etc.

Funnily enough but I remember hearing this a few years ago as well.

Hand out the tin foil hats.

ArranH

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#242855 5-Aug-2009 09:38

Alasta has the right idea, personally I wouldn't believe that one repairer. Chances are he couldn't find a fault once again so not to look like a complete muppet he just said water damage. The fact they replaced the ear piece doesn't explain how the ear piece was damaged by water damage to the main board.

I'd write to them, give them 14 days to remedy the situation, saying that, as Alasta said, under the CGA they have to repair it within a reasonable amount of time. If they refuse then threaten the disputes tribunal, and if still no action then file against them. Companies use these kind of techniques to scare consumers off, one of the stores (cant remember if it was First or Digital Mobile) tried this with me earlier this year over a faulty Sony Ericcson phone, and even tried to tell me what the law was in regards to contracts, not a good thing to try when you sell phones and the customer is just about to finish a law degree :) Once I made it clear I knew the law they were fantastic and covered everything.

I'd say keep fighting it, even if you lose you'll learn a lot. And if you win then you've done some good for everyone :)

Darkcyric

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#243743 7-Aug-2009 01:34

ArranH: Alasta has the right idea, personally I wouldn't believe that one repairer. Chances are he couldn't find a fault once again so not to look like a complete muppet he just said water damage. The fact they replaced the ear piece doesn't explain how the ear piece was damaged by water damage to the main board.

I'd write to them, give them 14 days to remedy the situation, saying that, as Alasta said, under the CGA they have to repair it within a reasonable amount of time.

This however will have no effect if the phone is legitimatley liquid damaged and the warranty has been voided. At this point, both the retailer and the manufacturer have no responsibility to provide any service on the product.

Having worked for MobilefoneRepair myself, and still working in the mobile industry, i feel obliged to throw in my opinion on a whole heap of misinformation in this thread..

Firstly, the little white stickers dont count for everything. They are merely an indicator, and should only be used as such. Just because it is still white does not mean there is no liquid damage inside the phone, and just because it is red does not mean the warranty is immediatley voided. To void the warranty, the repair agent needs to find evidence of liquid ingress into the phone (The most obvious being corrosion).

At the end of the day, the responsibility is upon the repair agent to provide evidence of the liquid damage, and if you disagree with it, you can ask for a reassesment. There are 2 agents that provide warranty repair service for Sony Ericsson phones, Mobilefone Repair, and Mobile Phone Rescue so you could always request that it be sent to the other one for reassesment. You do run the possibility of being charged a service fee from the other company if they find the same thing. You could always also call SEMC customer care on 0800 100 150 and discuss it with them.

Also, despite having not worked at MfR for a few years, I encountered a total of 1 phone that was EVER quoted to be liquid damaged when it was not, and it was a case of the technician typing in the wrong job number, not some big conspiracy from MfR / Any other repair agent, Yes, its a sad tale, but sometimes human error occurs even at repair agents ;-) (this issue was found out and remedied before the unit was sent back BTW). At the end of the day, if they can repair it under warranty, its quicker and easier to do so and claim the money from the manufacturer, rather than trying to get money from a dealer / customer for a bogus issue, even moreso that nowdays a lot of the repair agents all quite often return warranty voided jobs at no charge anyways.

Of course, none of the above is to say that your phone IS indeed liquid damaged, it may very well not be, but the repair agent should be able to provide evidence of it.

ArranH

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#243773 7-Aug-2009 07:06

Actually it does. It could be shown that the liquid damage can be caused through a design fault of the phone. As he stated the phone never left the house and was in a drawer. For the phone to fall out of warranty the mobile company must show that the phone owner has been negligent with the device or, to use terms probably more inline with what is a contractual issue and not a tortious one, has used the device in a method that it was not intended to be used.

It may come down to who is more believable to whoever is running the tribunal, but with the track record of the phone breaking down constantly and the repairer often not being able to find fault with the phone, I wouldn't be surprised if the mobile company and its agents (the repairer who will be seen as acting on behalf of the mobile company as the customer's contract is with VF) came out second best. Its not as clearcut as pointing to one side saying there is water damage.

I'm not saying its a conspiracy :) Just saying that as people are saying he is capable of incompetence in getting it wet, that the other side is just as capable of being incompetent and misreading the fault. As you said you've only seen it once where a phone was written down as having liquid damage and it didn't, but what if the customer here is right, and the phone was sitting in that drawer all that time. And, in Auckland's extremely humid climate the phone design collected moisture and liquid damage was the result. Any warranty he would have under the CGA would not be voided as he hasn't used the phone in a way that VF never intended him to. Liquid damage isn't what voids the contract, misuse and/or breach of contract is. If he could find a few other occurrences of a humid climate damaging equipment then he would have a fighting chance as VF would need to show misuse.

Hope that makes sense, I only just woke up.

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