Warranty Issues - Advice needed!

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comp80

15 posts

Geek

#180676 17-Sep-2015 16:21

I purchased a new Moto G 2 from Warehouse Stationary as a spare phone earlier in the year, and it pretty much sat in my drawer unused for a few months.
I decided to gift this to my mother (mid 60's) and a few months after working like a Boss, the internal headset speaker stopped working.

Took it back to Warehouse Stationary and they sent away for repair.

Now it gets messy.

Repair declined for the following reasons
* Phone has been opened, and motherboard removed
* Flex cable to screen wasn't fastened correctly and was loose
* Edge of LCD broken
* Seals/tape removed
* Remnants of glue on the motherboard.

And that's before even looking at the original issue.

Fonebiz have said it was one of the worst repairs they have ever seen.

Obviously I have never opened it, let alone done all that dodgy stuff do it.

So...

Warehouse Stationary are saying they would never sell me a repaired phone, and think I was the one who damaged it
Fonebiz have said it's $356 to repair my phone or $40 to get it back.
Motorola's phone number (given to me by Fonebiz) is disconnected.

What to do? Feelin' like there's a rock to my left and a 'hard place' to my right!

Would Warehouse Stationary have been sold repaired phones? I bought it on sale ($249), so perhaps they got a dodgy bunch.

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5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1389181 17-Sep-2015 16:46

tell WS this is their problem and you will take them to the disputes tribunal unless they fulfill their obligations under the CGA/FTA

comp80

15 posts

Geek

#1389185 17-Sep-2015 17:03

Thanks Nathan, I was afraid someone might say that! :)

I'm very conscious though, that it will consume far too much of my time if I go down that track, but may be the only option.

I generally like to try and sort these types of things out before its gets to that point.... not that it's really happened before. I'll give WS a ring again tomorrow.

dolsen

1476 posts

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Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1389186 17-Sep-2015 17:04

Your Mother needs to upskill on her phone repair skills obviously...

comp80

15 posts

Geek

#1389206 17-Sep-2015 17:33

Haha, yes of course! I must have a word to her.

comp80

15 posts

Geek

#1389207 17-Sep-2015 17:34

To throbb, You PM'd me, but I can't reply back as you are not able to receive messages.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1389222 17-Sep-2015 18:14

Was it in a brand new sealed box when you got it? It is somewhat difficult, as it is your word against theirs. But the retailer must sort it out, they can't fob you off to their repair agent. If it wasn't a sealed box, then it is possible that it was a repaired unit that was resold, but it would probably wouldn't be allowed to be sold as a new phone. People do make mistakes. So many different issues to look at. What do you think it likely to have happened? Maybe someone previously purchased it, and switched it with a refurbished phone, and returned it, and i was resold to you. Based on my own experiences with a retailer, this happens, because I returned a product that was defective (it was rusting), and I noticed that the retailer stuck it back on the shelf afterwards, for some other poor customer to discover

nzgeek

618 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1389235 17-Sep-2015 18:33

Sorry, but I do have to ask... Is there any chance that your mother has damaged the phone and taken it somewhere for repair, and not told you about it?

I ask because it's highly unlikely that Warehouse Stationery would sell a used phone. Anything repairable would be referred to Fonebiz to be fixed, and anything DOA would be sent back to the supplier for replacement.

A far more likely explanation is that she's dropped the phone and cracked the glass, and was too embarrassed to tell you. The damage done to the phone could certainly arise from a bad glass replacement job.

If she did get the glass replaced, it's write possible that she doesn't know it could be related. After all, the glass is on the outside of the phone. If you didn't know otherwise, you could reasonably assume that the replacement could be done without needing to take the whole phone apart.

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JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#1389246 17-Sep-2015 19:05

mattwnz: Was it in a brand new sealed box when you got it? It is somewhat difficult, as it is your word against theirs. But the retailer must sort it out, they can't fob you off to their repair agent. If it wasn't a sealed box, then it is possible that it was a repaired unit that was resold, but it would probably wouldn't be allowed to be sold as a new phone. People do make mistakes. So many different issues to look at. What do you think it likely to have happened? Maybe someone previously purchased it, and switched it with a refurbished phone, and returned it, and i was resold to you. Based on my own experiences with a retailer, this happens, because I returned a product that was defective (it was rusting), and I noticed that the retailer stuck it back on the shelf afterwards, for some other poor customer to discover

Which retailer?

I would like to avoid retailers that do that sort of thing.

comp80

15 posts

Geek

#1389250 17-Sep-2015 19:20

mattwnz: Was it in a brand new sealed box when you got it?

Yeah, as far as I remember, but 7 months ago is pretty hard to recollect. This was the first thing the WS guy asked me too.

comp80

15 posts

Geek

#1389252 17-Sep-2015 19:25

nzgeek: Sorry, but I do have to ask... Is there any chance that your mother has damaged the phone and taken it somewhere for repair, and not told you about it?

Fair question, but I would say more than 99% not likely. It's had a tempered glass screen on it ever since I gave it to her, so it would have to have cracked the main screen and not the glass cover screen. She is also the person to refer all (a genuine 100%) of her technical queries to me, from texting to taking pictures.

nzgeek

618 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1389267 17-Sep-2015 19:45

comp80:
nzgeek: Sorry, but I do have to ask... Is there any chance that your mother has damaged the phone and taken it somewhere for repair, and not told you about it?

Fair question, but I would say more than 99% not likely. It's had a tempered glass screen on it ever since I gave it to her, so it would have to have cracked the main screen and not the glass cover screen. She is also the person to refer all (a genuine 100%) of her technical queries to me, from texting to taking pictures.

It's not impossible to crack the main glass without affecting the protector. For example, a drop on a back corner could compress/bend the phone enough to crack the screen glass, but because the protector isn't attached to the frame there's nothing to stress and break it.

And even if your mother is the type to ask you all technical questions, she may have seen this as something she could take care of herself. There are a heap of places around that do phone glass replacement, and it may have been quicker and easier to go to one of those places than to bug you.

It's certainly worth asking her, just to be safe. Either way, it'll help to narrow down the cause of the issue.

comp80

15 posts

Geek

#1389289 17-Sep-2015 20:22

nzgeek: And even if your mother is the type to ask you all technical questions, she may have seen this as something she could take care of herself.

This give me a quiet chuckle :) But I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt here, for so many reasons... and yes I did ask her. It's also been in a rubber+plastic ma-hoosive case since she's had it.

nzgeek

618 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1389321 17-Sep-2015 21:29

comp80:
nzgeek: And even if your mother is the type to ask you all technical questions, she may have seen this as something she could take care of herself.

This give me a quiet chuckle :) But I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt here, for so many reasons... and yes I did ask her. It's also been in a rubber+plastic ma-hoosive case since she's had it.

Haha fair enough. At least you (and the rest of us) know that she's got nothing to do with the problem. But how the phone got in that state is still a mystery.

I find it unlikely that you bought a used phone. I bought a Moto G2 as a Christmas gift last year, and you can't open the box without breaking some pretty obvious stickers. (I remember trying, as I wanted to update the firmware before the recipient got it.) If the phone was used, you would have noticed the box being open.

There are a couple of possibilities I can think of.

The one you can check the easiest is whether Fonefix are actually looking at the phone you bought. Do you have a copy of the IMEI our serial no anywhere? It's on stickers on the box, and it should be on the WS receipt. One call to Fonefix should be enough to verify if there's been any sort of mix-up.

A less likely option is that yes, you were sold a bad phone. It could be that the salesperson grabbed the only box they could find, not seeing that the phone was a return. Our it could be that the box was opened very cleanly, and nobody noticed that it was a return. Unfortunately, I can't think of any way to verify this theory.

surfisup1000

5288 posts

Uber Geek

#1389350 17-Sep-2015 21:57

comp80: Thanks Nathan, I was afraid someone might say that! :)

I'm very conscious though, that it will consume far too much of my time if I go down that track, but may be the only option.

I generally like to try and sort these types of things out before its gets to that point.... not that it's really happened before. I'll give WS a ring again tomorrow.

It does not take that much time and you can lodge everything online and pay.

Even if it does go that far, they may not wish to bother about this anyway. It will cost them more than the phone is worth to defend the case.

gzt

17104 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#1389372 17-Sep-2015 23:16

Assuming it is genuine then it is clearly a stuff up. It is not impossible that a returned product ended up in the supply chain every retailer sees it occur sometime.

I would have another chat with WS get some kind of manager person and explain the situation. The manager can work with the supplier to investigate and figure out if the phone is in sequence with the rest and maybe if it was first used elsewhere prior to purchase.

Sometimes a snail mail is a better way to get to where it needs to go.

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