Broken M600 what are my rights?

[Del Lardo]

I got a Samsung M600 about 6 weeks ago but do to Vodafone’s incompetence I was only able to transfer my number onto Orange on the 4th July. The phone crashed on average once a day until last Sunday (9th July) the phone stopped working (PDA functionality still worked). I called Orange who after some basic trouble shooting told me that I would have to get the phone sent off to be repaired. As I was flying out to Iceland on a business trip on Monday I was not able to make any further progress but in my mind they have supplied me with a phone that is not fit for purpose and as I was not willing to pay £5/month for Orange insurance they will not give me a new handset. Suffice to say that I am rather annoyed, electrical goods come with a 1 year guarantee (at least) and I have been without service for 1 week already.

Can anyone tell me what my rights are? Do I have to send it off to get repaired after less than a week of use and suffer yet more loss of service for a service that I am continuing to pay for?

 

[Dolph]

Where did you get the phone from? Did you purchase it direct from orange (web/telesales) or from a dealer (including Orange retail stores).

If the former, then there should be no problem with getting a replacement direct from Orange.

If the latter, then all your statutory rights are with the dealer, and it is them who are responsible for facilitating repair/replacement under the sales of goods act.

In either situation, the line rental is a separate issue, as the handset itself is separate from the network airtime agreement (which is what you pay your line rental for, the relevant clause is section 14)

One of the major benefits of Orange care is that it avoids this by providing a seperate insurance/warranty agreement that prevents this kind of issue.

 

[Del Lardo]

I bought the phone from a 3rd party company who's name now eludes me. I have the paperwork in the office so can check it when I get in on Monday.

In hindsight the £5/month Orange care would have been a good idea as it would have saved me a lot of hassle but after owning mobile phones for over 10 years and never losing or breaking one I really could not see the point. I guess with modern phones getting more complicated the likelyhood of them breaking is increasing