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Hi all,
My Universal (XDA Exec) power connector is on its way out.. started off with intermittently not being able to charge/sync, tried waggling the cable around worked for a while, but now it's to no avail..
Typically it's happened exactly 1 month after the 1 year warranty has run out.
So, can anyone recommend a repair shop in the UK to fix said problem ?
many thanks!
Don't be fobbed off that you only have a 1 year warranty. By UK and EU law, you have at least 2 years and under English law you have a warranty for as long as one should expect such an item to last. Indeed, the law is balanced in the consumer's favour for the first SIX years where the onus is to prove it *wasn't* a fault in the unit. After that, you have to prove it was.
Take a look at open.gov.uk and read up on the Sales of Goods Act.
From a letter I recently wrote to a vendor refusing to honour my statutory rights:
The advertisement clearly states that the item is "New" and that you are a commercial vendor and therefore I have statutory rights to a warranty not less than 2 years, set out not only in Article 2 of the Product Warranty Directive in European law but also in the Sale Of Goods Act 1979, Sale and Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994 and the Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumer Regulations 2002.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not only that, if you bought it mail order, you shouldn't even be out of pocket for the return of the faulty goods. From the Sale of Goods Act:
"the business is not entitled to charge for recovery of the goods if the consumer has a statutory right to cancel the contract under other legislation, (for example because they are defective)"
That said, don't go in all guns blazing. Ask politely and most retailers will take the goods back for repair/replacement. My rule of thumb is ask nicely once, firmly but politely once and read them my rights the third time.
Also, don't be fooled into believing the warranty is with the manufacturer. Your contract is with the company who sold the (new) unit to you and it is their responsibility to honour it. So when they say "you'll have to send it to the manufacturer" you can reply "I'll make it available for collection by you or your agents and how you proceed with a replacement or repair is not of my concern, as long as I'm not without a comparable unit for an unreasonable time."
HTH
Thanks for your reply..
I just got off the phone to o2 and they said..
"It's out of Warranty.. the Warranty lasts as long as your Contract, i.e. 12/18 month contract = 12/18 month Warranty. After that, you can just get a free upgrade to a new phone (or the same phone).."
Mentioning your above facts of being at least 2 years Warranty by law didn't sway him in the slightest, he just re-iterated that I could get an upgrade..
However, It's slightly more complicated in that i've just left o2 and changed to t-mobile for a better data tariff.. so it doesn't appear as though i have a lot of leverage.
Don't let that deter you. When on the telephone, always ask for the name (first and last. If they say "we can't give out last names" ask if they are the only Debbie/Malcom/whatever there and how to be sure of speaking to them next time you call), office and extension number of the person to whom you are speaking, always note it down. If they'll give it, get their email address and follow up the conversation with an email saying "Following on from my call to you at 15:30 this afternoon (8th Nov 2006), this is my understanding of conversation. You stated that the warranty supplied by O2 on telephones is limited only to the period of the contract even if this is against my statutory rights, as laid out in the Sale of Goods act and other relevant laws."
If you don't get satisfaction from the person on the telephone, insist on speaking to their supervisor. If they are no better, go the next step up. Always be firm, polite and stick to your guns. If you get nowhere, ask for the postal address of the highest person you spoke to and the name and address of their manager. Right a letter, sent recorded delivery, to the them both, sent signed-for delivery, similar to the one I posted earlier. Give them a reasonable period to resolve the issue (10 working days / 14 calendar days from the date of receipt of the letter for refund, 20 working days / 28 calendar days for repair is ample). If that doesn't work, your second letter (if possible, going to the next person up the chain too) should state that you'll proceed to take them to court (small claims track) as you are within your statutory rights. State if if go to court, you will also seek expenses including but not limited to time off work to attend court and for meetings with solicitors, any solicitor and court fees that may be incurred, travel to and from solicitors and court, but you are will accept your replacement, repair or refund if the matter is resolved in the next 14 days. Next step is trading standards and CAB. After that, it's court (you'll win).
Don't let people push you around. These are you LEGAL rights. Big companies try it on all the time. So far, I've not had to get past the written letter stage, but I've been up against Virgin Internet, T Mobile, NTL, the AA and other big companies. When they know you won't give up and they know that you're fully aware of your rights, they will resolve the matter.
And on the subject of O2, they have been utterly hopeless.
considering I'm supposed to have 24 business support, it's taken them almost a week to replace my handset (which I've had less than 2 weeks) and then they've sent me out one that's clearly been used (albeit not much: it had 9 seconds of outgoing calls on it. Probably one a salesman has played with/demonstrated).
Success
What can I say, except thank you xiasma!
After a nicely crafted email quoting the statutory rights info you mentioned below to O2 careline, they informed me that O2 actually offer a full 2 year warranty for XDA's. Even though I've since moved to T-Mobile, it matters not, I just had to take the unit to an O2 store along with proof of purchase.
No hassle at all from O2 shop, they just took my details and phone and told me to wait 7-10 days.
2 weeks later (hence no update till now) I am now the proud owner of a new (ok, refurbed) XDA Exec and a further year warranty.
As a bonus for my trouble, they actually gave me a fully boxed unit, so I now have a spare charger, styluses (stylee ?), case, battery, cables, etc..
Power to the people. or something.
By reading this topic im furious, ive had the exact same problem, went to o2 with the battery connector completely loose, they said that it was at my own fault that this occured and its not covered under warranty, now ive tried fixing it myself and probably f****ed it up more and still doesnt work. I dont know what to do now
Sorry to hear my good news has pee'd you off!
The only thing I can think is that the connector on mine wasn't actually loose or anything, just that it wouldn't take power from the connector. Because yours sounds like physical damage, they (O2) could argue that it may have been dropped or abused in some way.
Don't know what you can do really except try emailing O2 Care and see what they can do for you..
mate your email inspired me to write an email of complaint last night, low and behold they gave me a call this morning and said they are sending me a replacement asap. woah!
i have similar prob in UK with t-mob. USB connector fell inside the pda. I was in shop claiming its under warranty(4 months after purchase). After 30days i got it back unrepaired with statement thats beyond repair (price more than L200). I wrote them letter on 11.11.2006 (delivered to shop same day) with complain that in netherlands t-mob offered customer repair, imate offered waranty repair somewhere (dont know country) - no answer. on 18.11.2006 i sent them warning that if they wont repair, replace ... i'll raise action (i gave them 7days to answer) - they didnt (resp. i got answr via email on 25.11-8days after they recieved my letter). I already sent phone for repair to apexlaptops. I already filled the small claims action, and im waiting for quotation from apex to hand it over to sheriffs court.
My miniUSB socket has been a little dodgy for the past week then today i pulled the charger out and the socket came out with it. This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the fact i've updated the firmware to the new QTEC. Is there any way of changing the firmware over bluetooth or infrared?
I'm a bit stuck because the only way to get it fixed is either to go to t-mobile with the correct firmware on or to open it up and try and solder the miniUSB back.
I'm guessing that updating the firmware to a non-tmobile will void it? Even though this problem could never be caused by the change of firmware.
Any ideas would be really helpful (i'm pretty desperate!).
Cheers,
Nick
I would just send it in and hope they don't check/care that you have changed your ROM. BTW, I just had the same problem with the mini USB plug except mine got pushed INTO the phone. Luckily, I had the new Tmobile ROM installed (but I had done all SORTS of warranty-voiding stuff with it in the past) sorry dude.
T-mobile trying it on.
Well got the same problem my 11 month old MDA Vario's (STD T-mobile rom) socket fell into the phone when I plugged it in to recharge in mid December....
Took it into my T-mobile shop and they sent it for repair...
Now back from Christmas holiday just been in to get it and been told that its "out for quotation", phoned t-mobile direct and have been informed that their repair centre is viewing it as damage rather than warrantiable and a quotation is on its way to me....
Totally unacceptable of course, its a design or build problem, was very angry when I came off the phone to T-mobile...
And now I read that T-mobile on both sides of the atlantic are accepting this fault as warrantiable.
Would be interested in the details of anyone who has had this problem and had it repaired by t-mobile (particularly in the UK)...
Will be talking to the Consumer Direct (part of UK Gov's Office of Fair Trading) on Monday and hopefully getting them to investigate....
Any help advise or experiences more than welcomed Thanks...
Oh and sorry for semi shanghaing the thread!!
I have had this issue twice . both were warrantable exchanges . no hassle from tmobile . 1 of the csr reps even told it happened to her twice so she already knew what the situation was and set up the warranty exchange no questions asked. fyi I'm in america nyc to be exact. hopefully I never experience it again. but hey I'm still under warranty and with 3 day shipping I wasn't down more then 1 and a half business days (broke and ordered replacement on a monday night, replacement arrive by ups on wed early afternoon. well worth the $15 shipping charge)
p.s. the 1st one I exchanged I flashed a cooked rom on it and cid and sim unlocked it . I just did a hard reset and hoped they never caught it. lol that was almost a year a go never been charged for it. also the worst that will happen (atleast tmo usa) if tmo determines your damage to be out of warranty is they'll charge you a $100 out of warranty fee. likey 2 phone bills later but you get ya replacement 3-5 days later. well worth taking the "gamble" of warranty exchange
just happened to me...it pretty much fell out. tmo just exchanged it. it had been a warranty exchange phone that the usb fell out on. the one they sent me had a bad speaker, so i got yet another warranty exchange (2 in less than a week)...these are refurbs that they use for warranty exchanges, so test them out pretty well when you first get them. this one from yesterday so far is really nice. the silo is tight, the slider is very tight (both issues with the broken usb one) the sound is great...so i am in the process of making all my rom mods now.
the tmo rep had heard about the usb issue before, so apparently, it is not uncommon!
Thanks for your replies, so it looks like Tmobile US accept its warrantiable and Tmobile UK dont......
Any positive UK responses ????
Thanks again
Simon
T-Mobile not budging
Well have just given T-Mobile UK customer service one last try and got the same response...
"if their engineers say its not warrantiable, its not warrantiable", no need to give a reason why, no reason to take into account the presedence of cases where this very fault has been repaired under warranty.
I have spoken to the UK Governments Consumer Direct team and will be writting a letter to T-mobile giving them notice that I plan to pursue legal action under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982....
As the goods supplied were not of satisfactory quality and have not lasted a satisfactory period of time (the length of the 18 month contract would have been a good start)
Anyway any more experiences of this problem and how T-mobile responded???
SIMONG said:
Well have just given T-Mobile UK customer service one last try and got the same response...
"if their engineers say its not warrantiable, its not warrantiable", no need to give a reason why, no reason to take into account the presedence of cases where this very fault has been repaired under warranty.
I have spoken to the UK Governments Consumer Direct team and will be writting a letter to T-mobile giving them notice that I plan to pursue legal action under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982....
As the goods supplied were not of satisfactory quality and have not lasted a satisfactory period of time (the length of the 18 month contract would have been a good start)
Anyway any more experiences of this problem and how T-mobile responded???
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Good move on this, please keep me updated, I'm a UK T-mobile customer also.
OK so while I wait for T-mobiles response ot my warning of legal action letter, have set up this email addie....
[email protected]
If anyones had the socket breaking problem, could the email me a few details of who they are what their network is and what happened....
pretty sure as an early adopter with the problem, that this may be the tip of the forthcoming iceberg...
obviously no information you give will be used for anything other than my discussion with t-mobile!!!!
thanks
Simon
Success!!!!!!
OK so the long and the short of it, I am now in possession of a nearly new MDA vario replacement unit from T-mobile UK.
Last Friday I had a call from their email customer services department (and then a call today from their letter customer services department more of this later but worth noting that they are different teams apparently working independantly of each other and both far more qualified to help with real problems than the 150 service... infact the email customer services rep todl me to email instead of phone in future....).
After half an hour with the lady repeating the T-mobile party line, which included the fact that having spoken to the engineers and the T-mobile legal team, she could confirm that the UK Supply of goods and services Act 1982 on covered phones for 6 months.... an interesting "fact" completely against the letter of that law and against the understanding of the office of fair trading's understanding..
And having finally moved her onto the more interesting if its damage why does T-mobile US fix it under warranty.....
We concluded with her advising me that the T-mobile engineers wouldnt touch the phone under warranty and that she would talk to my local company store and call me back in 10 minutes.
I assumed thats the last I would hear of her, but give her due respect, 30 minutes later she phoned back and told me she had talked to the shop was more aware of the total situation and.....
Would be sending me out the replacement phone over night by next day recorded delivery!!!!
She also offered me some compensation for my T-rouble (1 months contract fee refunded) which I didnt expect but willingly accepted!!!
Best of all next morning when the phone arrived it was a complete set, so spare battery charger, case, backplate (with rubber still in shock horror!!!) and a couple of styluses!!!!!
So my faith is once more restored int T-mobile, hopefully this was a jink in the generally excellent service I have had from them... (here's hoping!!!)
Anyway today the registered letter must have landed as I had a call from their letter based customer service department (an even more helpful person still!!)... checking to make sure I was happy.. thought it might be a crossed wire but no she knew about the replacement phone!!
This lady listened to my full story again, including mentioning my "new" email address as above and the posts on this site... she advised that she will be looking into the issue further and seemed very interested in the number of responses I had had from my previous post......
Supposedly I will be getting her email address (not got it yet!!) so that I can send her contact details of those UK t-mobile customers with the problem that have contacted me (obviously will be asking your permissions first!!!)...
So not promising anything (cos I cant) but if you are a UK T-mobile customer with this problem let me know on the email address above, guess it cant hurt!!!
Simon
p.s. thanks for all the help and support and stories of success!!!!
Congratulations!
As my phone had taken a bath at one stage and I'd opened it to clean it up, I guessed that I would have no luck with a warranty claim for my broken USB socket. I just got it back this morning from being repaired by a bloke at the market - £35 for a new socket to be soldered on. It charges and ActiveSync worked initially but then disconnected after a few minutes - so I need to decide whether to do without it again for a few days while they have another go, or just use USB to charge, and sync over GPRS.
ok got the email address and apologies to eileen but she sent it before my last post, must have got caught up in gmail somewhere....
will compile any stuff received over the next week or so and send it to her.
cheers simon
hmmm
simon i have been reading the post's and im also in the position you was in. i am at this moment in time having issues with t-mobile on fixing my mda (usb port) i have just got off the phone to HTC europe who make the phones and they are not prepared ton fix the phone if t-mobile dont ppick up the tab HMMMM! im at a loose end here banging my head at a brick wall. can anyone help.
many thanx
mikey
OK OK so I guess I spoke to soon......
6 months on and guess what.........
Unplugged the usb cable from my vario last night and "pop" the socket moved forward with the cable.
Not having the patience to go through all the loops.. I pulled up the last contact details I had from my previous problems and called the internal number given...
This gave me an 0845 number for the customer complaints team as apposed to customer service).
Gave that a call and was picked up by a T-mobile staff member called Carmen... who's surname appears to be "....no my name is just Carmen...." and amongst being told that not having a current case I shouldnt be using the number, I went back through the normal high quality T-mobile hoop.
This being the one that starts at Disdain and cynicism and endeds up at dismissal and a shouting Customer Service Rep (Do they really not train their staff at T-Mobile...). Actually the conversation ended with her tell me she couldnt deal with me anymore and that I had to phone 015!!!!
Anyway long and the short of it.....
My contract is up in three week so the implication was that I was just after a free upgrade... Explained that no I wanted a working phone so that I could continue my contract until the Kaiser came out and then negotiate a new contract with them.
Told that I could have an early upgrade but definitely not a repair or replacement, now at this point just to be clear they have offered me a Vario II at £240..... Obviously not an option.
Also gave me the T-mobile party line that they only supply the Network service not the phone as its a freebie.... As explained before this means it is not covered under the Sale of Goods act.... But unfortunately for T-mo it is definitely irrefutably covered under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.
So here we are valued premium customer or so they tell me, to close to the end of their contract to have their phone repaired or replaced, but only able to "upgrade" at £250 or a significant downgrade.
Consumer rights be damned..
Anyway another letter in to them, threatening small claims court... got a feeling that this time I may just have to get my suit out and dusted down.
Will keep you all updated......
p.s. [email protected] is active again..... if any of you want to add to my little list of affected customers!!!!
i have the same problem. but i am using cingular since the mda came out way b4 the 8125. anyhow how can i get tmobile to fix it?? can i?? my brother have tmobile.
I am looking at the HD2 on T-mobile (with Orange at the moment) Have the phones from MFD got T-Mobile branding and content or are they standard HTC? Are all the programs (sat nav etc) included as with other networks?
Cant decide on T-Mobile or Vodaphone, signal OK on both in my area.
Thanks in advance.
I received my HD2 from mobilephonesdirect on a T-mobile contract and the phone is a standard HTC phone - no T-mobile branding. All the software seems intact - Youtube, facebook, twitter apps are all there - the wireless router works - I tried it, installed myplayer and I can stream BBC iPlayer and ITV etc over 3G. Oh and it comes with the leather case - I think the T-mobile branded version have omitted the case. A lot of people have been whining about Mobile Phones Direct but the service I received was OK - I ordered it on Thursday - expecting it to be dispached the same day but it wasn't. When I phoned them they said they had been inundated with orders - it was a bit annoying that they didn't change the wording on the web site to let people know it might take a couple of days extra. I think I finally received mine on the following Tuesday.
de5perate said:
A lot of people have been whining about Mobile Phones Direct but the service I received was OK - I ordered it on Thursday - expecting it to be dispached the same day but it wasn't. When I phoned them they said they had been inundated with orders - it was a bit annoying that they didn't change the wording on the web site to let people know it might take a couple of days extra. I think I finally received mine on the following Tuesday.
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Click to collapse
Their service is fine up until the point where your phone arrives. Where things go wrong is if your phone is faulty and you want an exchange - your chances of actually getting one are quite slim. The same applies to returning it within 7 days under the distance selling regulations - they will point to a page in their terms and conditions which (illegally) claims that they only accept returns if the box hasn't been opened and refuse to comply.
go here
http://www.mobiles.co.uk/vodafone-htc-touch-hd2.html
I regret not having done my research before buying, there are enough other horror stories out there... lies, poor service, failure to deliver, honour returns, etc. etc. etc. The phone is thankfully fine and untouched. God only knows what pains and expense I'll have to go if I ever have any problems with it.
Now that others are offering it on contract, there's no need to take the risk tbh.
As the saying goes, there's no smoke without fire.
My experience with them was terrible. No communications, blatant lies... I hope my phone never gets a fault.
After the recent shambles, there were a few new threads on here ie "mpd- actually quite good, ordered monday got tues", I ordered ages before and got it thursday. MPD damage limitation team?
Yeah, I got one from MPD. No branding (not even a T-Mobile splash screen), 2GB card and pouch. Can't really fault the service to be honest. Got the dispatch letter on the Friday and it came the next Tuesday. All working well so far *touch wood* and, other than the initial rush for handsets, which I think caused the delays, I would probably recommend them.
Their website is badly designed(dont use IE), their customer service drones cant really do anything but it was on my doorstep within 21hrs of eventually clicking the buy button.
hi ppl,
I am now on my fourth hero through orange UK, having had the previous ones replaced due to.faults with the phone's earpiece.
I am aware that orange's policy to offer a different model replcement after the third replacement, so I am thinking, if my phone breaks again(which I could just make up that it has), what model are they likely to allow me to choose from?
Will it be from the same price range as the hero or will they allow me to choose from something like the desire since its the only other phone that orange offer that runs on HTC sense? (which is why I chose this phone anyway). obviously I wouldn't settle for a tattoo.
any advice from people who have been offered a different model through orange care is much appreciated. also any ideas on what I should say to tie them down to giving me the desire?
thanks a lot
mcall_r
Sent from my Hero using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk
<rant>
Aaah, Orange, who are replacing my Toshiba TG01 for the 3rd time tomorrow. When I called in I got disconnected loads of times, and eventually got through to sales (who were the only people to pick up inside 10 mins), who then put me straight through to a CSR. The CSR was absolutely useless, barely understood English and was trying to follow a script ("my phone doesn't turn on" - 'ok, can you go into the menu and reset it' - "..."), and eventually decided that I didn't own my own account and refused to help me any more. After repeatedly asking for a manager I got put through to a supervisor and got into an argument with him because although my charger and handset were faulty, Orange would only replace one at a time, would only provide refurbished kit (the failed unit was a damaged refurb device) and I would have to call back for the charger replacement. Eventually I gave in, and the replacement was dutifully shipped to the wrong address.
</rant>
So I wrote in an angry email, and a few hours later one of the email support team called me back. She then agreed to provide a brand new handset, charger, case and battery, and mentioned that if you had more than 3 replacements inside the first 6 months of owning the original device then Orange would offer you a replacement model of a different type and equivalent to what you were replacing. However the models they offered were really nowhere near the TG01, so I am taking a new one and selling it.
As for your case, I would suggest you write the email support team a very detailed explanation of the problems, including dates and so forth, mention the sales of goods act, and at the very least get a factory new Hero you can then sell towards the cost of a Desire. It is very unlikely that Orange will replace your 10 month old Hero with its latest shiny new super-phone at no cost. This is like asking BMW to replace a problematic 1 series with a brand new 7 series.
@mcall_r: If you manage to get a Desire out of Orange do let us know, but I don't rate your chances.
My wife had a similar situation with Orange & a Blackberry, replaced at least 3 times. In her case, on possibly the fourth replacement, they couldn't even offer the same model due to lack of stock. She got bounced round between various people & the only thing that came across consistently was that all they'd offer her was inferior old junk. Some of the staff were exceptionally rude, particularly when she got upset at one point. There was more chance of Santa dropping off a replacement phone (& no it wasn't Xmas), than of these people offering her a replacement that was at least as good as her faulty phone.
She wasn't being unreasonable. She'd have even taken an inferior phone but they couldn't offer her one with gps (though a couple did claim certain models had gps - only when I checked & pressed them they changed that to 'well it has gprs...' Can you believe it? I mean, wtf?)
The last person insisted there was nothing they could do if they had no stock; they could only offer her what the system offered & there was no way for them to know when they'd have more stock in of her existing model.
The next day she called into a local Orange shop to complain before calling trading standards. The guy in the shop was very helpful (& she hadn't needed to mention trading standards; think he was just a nice guy). He told her they'd got stock in that morning & essentially that the woman she'd spoken to the previous evening had lied to her, as she would have known stock was due in.
I know some of the employees are decent human beings & others who might be borderline will be under a lot of pressure, but as a whole, I'd not piss on Orange if they were on fire.
Oh dear,
Im sad to hear your stories about orange's poor customer service (in some departments).
Funnily enough I actually work for orange, in an orange shop, and we in retail have little to no contact with what goes on in the call centres which is why i decided to ask on here to see if anyone else has had similar experiences. Also the fact that I do not have the hero on my employee contract, only on the personal one I took out to get it.
I find that through 150 if you go through to the correct options (for instance handset replacement the options are 1,3,1,1) you get through to the nice helpful people in Darlington, North Tyneside or Newcastle, who actually most of the time know what you are talking about.
I cannot say the same about the call centres in India. Their main job is to provide support for accounts, for example adding bundles and changing service plans. They mainly read off a script and have little experience with the mobile phones themselves so do not know the ins and outs of them. Ergo them thinking that GPS and GPRS are the same thing.
So what is the email address for the email support team that I can try and complain to?
Out of curiosity, i am on orange with a 3 month old hero and the earpiece is broken.Is it a common thing? Can i get it replaced for free? Finally i cancelled my insurance and a day later the earpiece failed,did you go via phone insurance? sorry for the questions but i am raging quite a biit that it happened after i cancelled lol
The email is a page on the site, you have to go through the pages and enter some details to it to the right team. Mark it for the attention of Misha, I found her very helpful.
Insurance or not, you are covered by the sales of goods act, so a 3 month old phone should be fit for purpose. Under that you should be able to get a replacement under that.
Both orange and the company i have got the phone from have said they do not provide a replacement without insurance? I have to send the phone to HTC which i have done with my magic many times,this means no phione for me fora few weeks total BS Tbh
I just want to share my sad story with you. I've been on xda for 7-8 years but I didn't want to use my other account. Hope you understand.
Mobicity, The Silence of the Lambs
original article by Mislav Bušić, via mob.hr
Last year, soon after the launch of Nexus 6, I ordered this device from a highly reliable British webshop called mobicity.co.uk.
At the time, they were taking preorders, and due to certain discounts, I managed to buy it at a considerably lower price than in any other store.
I had to wait for almost four months to receive the device I had ordered. To put it mildly,
I was impatient and angry – both at Motorola and at mobicity – mostly because of the lack of information I was getting from them.
However, I had no other choice but to wait patiently.
Finally, I got hold of Nexus and I immediately started a detailed inspection of the device. I ran an out-of-the-ordinary unboxing,
compared it to its main rivals, Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus, and I wrote my review. My dear editor was so pleased with everything that he,
at the very least, wished for his own copy of the device.
In the meantime, we tested various other devices, and I used the Nexus 6 along with my Note 4. At the end of May,
there was a period of three weeks during which I completely stopped using Nexus. Due to circumstances at the time,
I was travelling a lot, so I placed the Nexus back into its original packaging, because Note 4, with its far better camera and battery life,
was simply a better choice when going on a trip.
Since I wasn’t using the Nexus, I decided to pass it along to my editor. Who doesn’t love “the smell of a new smartphone in the morning”?
Since I do backup of all my smartphones almost on a daily basis, I took the box and went straight to the post office.
At the counter, in the post office, I decided to double-check if everything was in place. What followed was utter shock and disbelief.
The battery of Nexus 6 was inflated like a pack of the cheapest crisps. The cover/lid came off and there was no point in sending the device at all.
In the pre-cardiac condition, I called Krešo, my editor, to explain the whole situation. I don’t know who was in a greater state of shock, him or me.
He, because he wasn’t getting his new toy, or I, because I had it and was now left without it.
Since unfortunately, Motorola doesn’t have a representative in Croatia at all, and mobicity offers no European guarantee,
I had no other choice, but to contact more-or-less all domestic service centres in the hope of finding someone who could repair my Nexus.
I decided to log on to mobicity’s webpage to contact their customer service, and I was again confronted with another unpleasant surprise.
My account, which I had used to buy dozens of other devices, had been deleted because it had been a couple of months since my last log-in and/or purchase.
At this point I was furious. I managed to get their customer service email address and I finally managed to explain my problem to them.
What followed was a dozen of emails during the next fortnight in which I tried to explain that the device was kept in a box, in a room, at room temperature,
away from the sunlight, turned off, with no contact to moisture or cosmic dust. In a nutshell, the conditions were more than perfect.
Finally we reached the conclusion that it wasn’t my fault that the battery got inflated.
During the following fortnight we exchanged yet another dozen of emails in which mobicity very politely explained that it would be best if I could find a service centre in Zagreb that would fix my device.
The biggest problem was the non-existence of a telephone contact with the personnel at mobicity so that I could explain the situation more efficiently and quickly.
Unfortunately, their support service is as prompt and effective as the Croatian judiciary system, so you have to wait for a reply sometimes even for a week.
Weeks went by and mobicity kept on insisting on issuing a €50 voucher which would, according to them,
make up for the mental pain and the cost of battery replacement as well as possible broken motherboard or whatever.
No matter how much I insisted on sending my Nexus directly to them to have it serviced, they persistently refused to accept it.
The main excuse was the somewhat strange ban on sending inflated batteries by plane across the European Union.
This sounds logical – the battery might explode and take down the entire plane.
After a few more emails, I came to understand that this ban applies to all types of postal services, not just air mail.
After I had realised that we cannot come to an understanding, I directed mobicity’s customer service to mob.hr, the web portal I work for.
mob.hr actually attracts 200,000 unique visits a month and we cover an area of around 20 million people and, in fact,
we are the highest rated daily blog on mobile telecommunications in ExYu.
Mobicity took this as a threat and almost refused any further cooperation.
Then I politely explained that a threat would mean writing an article in English about their customer treatment and sharing this article on all leading world web portals,
including those in the USA as well as those in the UK, featuring a whole lot of pictures, attached emails and a video in English ready to be uploaded on our YouTube.
Eventually we reached an understanding. They apologized and decided to accept my Nexus 6 and service it if I agree to remove the battery before sending the phone.
That is exactly what happened. I managed to remove the battery (which meant taking the whole device apart), and I sent the device to Great Britain.
I was patiently checking the tracking number and I saw that the package had been delivered on July, 23.
I thought that maybe they would contact me upon receiving the package, and since this didn’t happen, I decided to contact them.
It turns out that if I hadn’t contacted them, my Nexus would remain there for weeks without them knowing about the whole situation.
Didn’t worry about this too much as they assured me that the device would be serviced in a few weeks’ time, so I decided to wait patiently.
Days went by and the only contact I had with the service centre was the “well-organized” customer service. I kept reminding them and sending them emails once or twice a week.
Weeks went by, and so did the first month since they received my device, and mobiycity’s customer service still had absolutely no information about the status of my device – what’s its status,
are they still waiting for parts, did they notice some other misfunctions apart from the missing battery… as if they hadn’t received the device at all.
I kept sending them emails on a weekly basis until they finally responded. Six weeks after they had received my phone,
they replied that the device was being inspected by their technicians – which actually means that they were staring at it wondering where the battery was.
I was furious, but I managed to calm myself down and I contacted the European Consumer Centre (ECC). They informed me that, since the English are involved,
I can do nothing but wait. They were kind enough to offer help and they contacted some of their colleagues in London who might call mobicity and ask them to speed thing up.
In case mobicity turned them down, the story would end here since, legally, there is no time constraint regarding the servicing of the device!
After two weeks I was informed that the battery had been replaced and that the device was being further tested.
In translation, the servicer’s son got hold of it for free for another couple of weeks or even months to play games, and,
in case the battery doesn’t get inflated again after the kid tries all possible games on Android, I will be given my device back.
After 4 (!) months, I received absolutely no news about my Nexus. Dozens of emails, complaints and status requests went by practically unnoticed.
Mobicity sent me generic emails such as “soon”, “we still don’t know”, “we’re waiting for our repair centre to reply” and so on.
At this moment I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to get my device back or if it had been given to someone else as a wonderful Christmas present.
If someone did something like this in Croatia, we would be accused of being backward, uncivilised and incompetent. Since all of this took place in the UK,
the cradle of civilisation, it is perfectly clear that there are plenty of incompetent, uneducated and lazy people outside Croatia. Maybe if I hadn’t been cheap,
and if I had offered that PR person at the other side of the email some £10 bribe, maybe he would have checked where my Nexus was and would have told his colleagues to fix my phone.
At least, that’s how it works in Croatia, where you need bribe even to get your driving licence.
About 3 weeks ago, I threatened mobicity with negative feedback article, and gave them deadline till friday to repair my Nexus. Within 24 hours,
they said my device is repaired and waiting to be shipped. Guess what? They still haven’t manage to ship it!
So, to sum up, having a warranty is a wonderful thing without which you shouldn’t buy a device because you could easily have an accident as I did, no matter how careful you are.
Be careful where you buy your device and what kind of warranty it comes with. Well-known webshops are sometimes considerably cheaper than the local retail,
but they come with certain risks involved which you have to be prepared for. Your device will most likely be taken to be serviced,
but be prepared wait for it for a couple of months or even to lose it altogether. All things considered, we do not recommend buying from the mobicity.
This is the risk you run with all sites like this.
Also Admitting to having more then one account is an easy way to have both accounts banned.
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