New mobile faulty - shop will not give a refund or replacement

Hi,

My wife bought me a phone on 23rd of december sony ericsons experia play in a mobile phone store in portlaoise(not sure i can name the shop), however on 28th of December i had problems with the phone, could not receive incoming calls the phone went straight into voice messaging with no log of the call, so i ran vodafone, they fixed the problem, low and behold two hours later the same problem occured so i rang them back again and they fixed it again. It worked for another couple of hours and then the problem reoccured. This went on for a week when finally after 20 calls the support team vodafone gave up and said you may bring back the phone and get a new one.

Went back to the store and they could not reproduce the problem, walked outside the door and asked my wife to ring and the problem reoccured from landline and mobile, showed them in the store to three different members of staff. They agreed their was a problem, i requested a new phone as the phone was at most 14 days old and the problem occured from pratically day one of buying the phone. They said their company policy is they cannot issue refund or replace phone until they send their phone back to fonua (who by the way where very arogant and told me that consumer rights in ireland do not supercede their waranties and that they have the rights not to accept returns) , anyway a week later i get the phone back no error or problem and must be a user error, however i argued this how could it be a user error, vodafone have said its handset issue and also the staff in the shop agreed.

Anywas the saga continues i agreed to send the phone back a second time to this fonua for analysis but i doubt it will come back with any awnser, the shop have said to me it could be better signal in dublin etc.

Anyway in conclusiong they wont offer me my money back, or a phone replacement, i have quoted all the consumer rights stuff buyers rights etc. Phone is brand new but i dont want back a phone that i know is faulty so i thought a replacement would be ok, but they wont do this under any circumstances they say they have to verify fault with third party company and cannot issue a refund without this verification.


anyway nobody wants to listen to anything about consumer rights, they all say that consumer rights does not apply in this instance, but its a new phone bought in the last 30 days

What do i do, i have said i will take them to the small claims court but they seem to accept this, howver this will consume time from my life, if you ask me consumers have no rights anymore, who enforces this.

I am tired arguing what can i do, i have marched into the shop but area manager has said his hand are tied.

Any ideas much appreciated.

Kind Regards
Fred.

If the phone is obviously faulty and the fault can be reproduced then you are entitled to a refund, replacement or repair. If you can reproduce the fault but they claim that they cannot and refuse to do anything then I think that the Small Claims Court may be your only option.

thanks clubman, I can see the fault, the people in the shop can see the fault but the company they send their phones for repair too cannot see the faul and thus their policy if repair company cannot see the fault then their is no refund / replacement.

I hate the thoughts of going down the root of small claims, terrifies me. Kinda thinking of walking away and taking the hit of 170 euro even though this was brand new product.

Makes you kind of wonder why you support your local shops if they cant stand over consumer rights, seems to be no real difference in buying from abroad on the net than buying local anymore.

Kindest Regards
Fred.

fred123456 said:

but the company they send their phones for repair too cannot see the fault

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That seems very odd. And if this company claimed that statutory consumer rights do not apply then they are talking rubbish. Your contract is with the retailer so forget about the other crowd and just insist with the shop manager that you want a refund, replacement or repair. Their dealings with Fonua (?) are irrelevant to you in my opinion. This is like a shoe retailer telling you that they cannot replace a faulty pair because their wholesaler says there's nothing wrong with them. Irrelevant.

Can you go back to Vodafone and get them to confirm what action they took to fix it? I mean when you called them, they did something and it worked.
If you have the details of that, it might give you a stronger case with Fonua.

E.g. if they have to reset your location on their network every time, that means the phone might be preventing you automatically doing this showing a real fault.

I would stop dealing with Fonua on the phone and get letter writing. Start quoting your consumer rights and the ombudsman.

They are hoping you will go away so start being uber annoying.

Unit 2
77 Furze Road

Try the managing director -

Group Managing Director - Fergus deBurca

I agree that your issue is with the retailer - you shouldn't be dealing with "Fonua" directly.

If you are going back into the shop, then write a complaint letter in advance of calling in, detailing exactly the problems you have had since the phone was purchased & everything that you have done (dates, times, people you talked to in that shop, Vodafone, Fonua). State that you expect a refund or replacement (ignore the repair as that doesn't seem possible from your dealings with them) & give them x days to get back to you (7 working days perhaps?). Include a photocopy of your receipt also.

Then when you talk to the "manager" in the phone retail shop & if you can't get anything from him, hand him the letter. Get his name, write it down in front of him, with the date, time of that discussion & details of what you discussed and walk out. Keep the high moral ground - don't get abusive, upset, take it personally.

Consumer.ie has some templates for letters... I might have one somewhere on my harddrive for something similar if you want me to dig that out...

Good luck with it...

fred123456 said:

I hate the thoughts of going down the route of small claims, terrifies me. Kinda thinking of walking away and taking the hit of 170 euro even though this was brand new product.

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Hi,

It would be in your best interest to familiarise yourself with your rights by speaking to www.consumerconnect.ie

Don't be intimidated by the Small Claims Court procedure. It is very straightforward and easy to access and not time consuming at all. I've used it in the past and found it quite easy to do. In these recessionary times €170 is too much to lose out on.

Hi all,

thanks for your replies, the phone has gone back to fonua for second testing, i will wait and see their response this time. In the meantime i will contact consumerconnect.ie and also print out the templates. I see already the following

If the fault is major, for example if you buy a mobile phone and it stops working shortly after you start using it due to a major fault with the phone, you have the option to reject the goods and rescind (end) the contract

The thing is i have quoted a lot of this stuff to this shop and they say that their is nothing they can do, they are really playing hard ball, nobody can believe that this type of thing can go on, my wife, friends, parents etc I think it create bad will for the shop in the long term, they probably dont care.

I have told them their waranties cannot supercede consumer rights laws but they said that is not case and they are within their rights to get the phone checked.

anyway i will push on and see what they come back with even though it is really upsetting me. Thanks you all for your help..

Kind Regards
Fred

Play hard ball Fred, the law is on your side. As Sue Ellen says, the Small Claims procedure is very straight forward.

Contact the shop and give them a deadline within which to resolve the issue, explain what resolution you want based on the material from consumerconnect.ie, and tell them that you will be pursuing the Small Claims option if they do not comply.
Leo