So I took my wife's Nokia 7 Plus phone - which she has been using for less than a week - back to The Warehouse as it has completely lost the will to live. 

Given that it has had two major faults in lass than a week (phone won't charge properly, and the screen is dodgy to the point it has now completely died) I've requested that they replace the phone, rather than try to repair it - but of course they'll probably try the latter. Then they said they needed to charge a bond (I think $60) before they'd send it off for repair; luckily the worker forgot to charge me. 

But my favourite part of the 40 minutes it took to lodge the repair request was when they asked for the 'username' and password for the device. When I said this was inappropriate he called his manager (for the third time!) who said this was compulsory, and the device would not be sent away until this was provided. 

I had been unable to reset the phone (which I would normally have done) as the screen is completely dead, so all my wife's data was still on it. That said, I made it clear I would not have provided the password even if there had been no personal data on the phone, simply on principle. 

Surely the policy could be that if the password is not provided the phone owner simply needs to acknowledge and accept the device is likely to be wiped? In this case, I just noted in the password field 'please call [phone no.] to discuss', but I'm sure there will be many people who feel they have no choice but to provide it.

It would be interesting to know what the Privacy Commissioner would think of this approach... Interested in others' thoughts and experiences with such repairs.