First, a little bit of a story to set the scene
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I took out a student contract (directly) with Orange in September of last year, for £25 a month, and got a K750i. That phone did what all Sony Ericsson phones with joysticks do, and had a joystick which was very intermittent, so I phoned up and it got replaced the next day for a new one. That was back in December. That replacement lasted until a couple of weeks ago, when the joystick problems returned. I don't mistreat my phones, I had a Nokia 6100 last 2 years before I replaced it, and that same phone has now been my mums for about 9 months, and works perfectly.
I phoned Orange to report this (common) fault and was told that they only cover them for six months, and that I would have to go through Sony Ericsson. Ok, fair enough, and I phoned SE. To get warranty service involves me posting (at my expense) the phone away, and waiting for it to be returned to me. During the time I wouldn't be able to use my contract, Orange were not prepared to refund me anything, so I could be without the phone for two weeks, and Orange would charge me for line rental during that period. Unsurprisingly I don't agree with that policy. On making that clear, I was offered the option to take out insurance at £5 a month and paying an admin fee to get the phone replaced. Since this was nothing to do with insurance, and instead was a fault with the phone, I declined that offer and asked to be transferred to cancellations, where I was given the oppertunity of starting a new contract for 12 months and getting a new phone free, or paying off the rest of my contract and dropping back to PAYG. So to recap my options were:
As you can see, all of these options cost me money. Which is strange, as I'm already paying Orange over £25 a month, and had the handset less than one year. As they gave me the phone, surely any faults are down to them to sort out? I was transferred to one last guy who said that the phones are provided free as a vehicle with which to use the network with, and the £25 covers using the network only - network faults are covered, but not handset faults. When I asked him how I could use the network if the Orange-provided 'vehicle' failed to function properly he gave in and arranged a next-day replacement of my handset.
My question is, are all carriers this appallingly bad? It shouldn't have taken three different people and fifteen minutes of trying to explain that the fact I don't have insurance makes no difference when it comes to handset faults which are covered under warranty. I fear that if I had been less persistent I would have had to spend money on what is really Orange's problem. Either that or just cancelled the direct debit on my contract.
Does anyone use a network where they actually are accountable for the handsets they provide you with?

I took out a student contract (directly) with Orange in September of last year, for £25 a month, and got a K750i. That phone did what all Sony Ericsson phones with joysticks do, and had a joystick which was very intermittent, so I phoned up and it got replaced the next day for a new one. That was back in December. That replacement lasted until a couple of weeks ago, when the joystick problems returned. I don't mistreat my phones, I had a Nokia 6100 last 2 years before I replaced it, and that same phone has now been my mums for about 9 months, and works perfectly.
I phoned Orange to report this (common) fault and was told that they only cover them for six months, and that I would have to go through Sony Ericsson. Ok, fair enough, and I phoned SE. To get warranty service involves me posting (at my expense) the phone away, and waiting for it to be returned to me. During the time I wouldn't be able to use my contract, Orange were not prepared to refund me anything, so I could be without the phone for two weeks, and Orange would charge me for line rental during that period. Unsurprisingly I don't agree with that policy. On making that clear, I was offered the option to take out insurance at £5 a month and paying an admin fee to get the phone replaced. Since this was nothing to do with insurance, and instead was a fault with the phone, I declined that offer and asked to be transferred to cancellations, where I was given the oppertunity of starting a new contract for 12 months and getting a new phone free, or paying off the rest of my contract and dropping back to PAYG. So to recap my options were:
- Spend my time and money arranging to ship the phone back to Sony Ericsson and continue to pay line rental to Orange during the period the phone wasn't with me.
- Add insurance to my tariff and pay an admin fee.
- Restart my contract and get a new phone.
As you can see, all of these options cost me money. Which is strange, as I'm already paying Orange over £25 a month, and had the handset less than one year. As they gave me the phone, surely any faults are down to them to sort out? I was transferred to one last guy who said that the phones are provided free as a vehicle with which to use the network with, and the £25 covers using the network only - network faults are covered, but not handset faults. When I asked him how I could use the network if the Orange-provided 'vehicle' failed to function properly he gave in and arranged a next-day replacement of my handset.
My question is, are all carriers this appallingly bad? It shouldn't have taken three different people and fifteen minutes of trying to explain that the fact I don't have insurance makes no difference when it comes to handset faults which are covered under warranty. I fear that if I had been less persistent I would have had to spend money on what is really Orange's problem. Either that or just cancelled the direct debit on my contract.
Does anyone use a network where they actually are accountable for the handsets they provide you with?