Faulty Orange phone help!

[[ Ry ]]

Hey, in May last year I got the D500 on contract with orange and within 2 months the screen froze and went all white so the phone was un-usable. Orange replaced it on a Sunday morning when I rang on the saturday evening which I was really impressed with. Then however the new phone picked up the same fault about 2 months down the line, screen froze and was un-usable, the replaced it again within hours. I've had this new phone now since then and the fault re-appeared last night and Orange when I rang last night said it was not their problem and I should speak to Samsung whom I have a 12 month warantee with, I contested that when I last rang the gentleman I spoke to said if the same fault is had 3 times on the same phone then they will change the phone, this did not happen when I rang.

What are my rights on them replacing the phone as I'm paying for it and cannot use it! I asked about cancelling and they said it would be £120 to cancel but cannot afford this as I'm a student and really cannot afford to be paying the contract on a phone I can't use the same goes for not being able to use it when I send it off for it to be repaired only for it to happen again (more than likely).

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Gavin]

if the phone is within the years warranty, orange are normally very good at replacing handsets as you have seen.

How ever i havnt heard of this fault with the d500 and it would seem its common if you have had it on 3 handsets?May be they have a rule as to how many handsets they will replace.

Im sure dolph will be along in a moment to help.

 

[Dolph]

It will depend whether you have Orange care (the phone insurance) or not as to whether they will replace the phone.

If you have Orange care, then the phone will be replaced irrespective of how long you've had it and so on, although you may incur an admin fee.

If you don't, things get a little bit more complicated.

If you got the phone direct from Orange (Web/telesales), then Orange will replace it free of charge during the first 6 months of the contract from time of sale (to comply with the sales of goods act where faults are assumed to be inherant from point of sale until 6 months have passed. After that it falls to the customer to prove the fault was inherant, which on a mobile phone is damn near impossible). Outside of that time you'll be referred back to the manufacturer for repair under the manufacturer warranty, or offered emergency care (one off charge of £30 plus an agreement to sign up to Orange care for 12 months) and a replacement arranged.

If you got it from a dealer (including Orange retail stores) and don't have care then you don't get the 6 month replacement period at all, you get 28 days with the store then the store will assist you in getting the phone repaired.

Probably not the news you wanted to hear, but that's the current situation.

 

[[ Ry ]]

So I'm currently paying £x amount a month for the use of a phone that I cannot use at all? Also I'm paying my contract while the phone goes away to be repaired and this could take x amount of days/weeks while I'm still under contract to Orange recieving no service and yet am still paying?! Being a student I can't really afford to pay money for soemthing which I cannot use and cancelling the contract of said item which is unusable will cost the remainding amount on my contract. To be quite frank I think this is quite disgusting that a multi-national company providing a service such as Orange are still charging someone for something which cannot be used due to a fault which i've had 3 times.

 

[Dolph]

The phone is not part of what you are paying for each month, on Orange or any other network (with the possible exception of 3). It specifically states this in the network Terms and conditions. (Section 14 of the T&C's in the back of your handbook)

The part that you're paying the monthly fee for is the network connection and access via the sim card, and that's working fine if you have a working handset.

Again, probably not what you want to hear but it is the bottom line, and what you have agreed to.

There's not really much else that can be suggested, unfortunately. Emergency care would probably be the cheapest option overall. I'm guessing from the buyout cost you're on a fairly low tarriff/monthly spend so upgrading is not likely to be a sensible option

-Dolph

 

[blun]

This is the exact reason why I and the majority of my family and friends have left orange. Their customer care is simply non-existant. The 'emergency care' is the biggest rip off I've ever seen too!

The mobile industry is too competitve for them to get away with such shoddy service.

If I were you I'd get a cheap pay as you go handset (£20ish) and use your orange sim card in it until the contract is used up. Then get a phone from another network

 

[Gavin]

I have to stick up for orange here and say that they have always bent over backwards to help me if ive had any problems.

 

[stoofa]

This is the exact reason why I and the majority of my family and friends have left orange. Their customer care is simply non-existant. The 'emergency care' is the biggest rip off I've ever seen too!

The mobile industry is too competitve for them to get away with such shoddy service.

If I were you I'd get a cheap pay as you go handset (£20ish) and use your orange sim card in it until the contract is used up. Then get a phone from another network

And you are telling me that the terms & conditions on any of the other major networks is different?
Have a read through them - I'm guessing that less than 10% of people on these forums have ever read through these even though they have signed an agreement to say they have.

No I don't work for Orange and I'm in no way associated with them.
However up until about four months ago I was an Orange customer and had been for over ten years.
If a company gives "shoddy" service then funnily enough I'm not going to show any kind of brand loyalty.
The only reason I moved away on this occasion was that Orange couldn't match the £5 for handset and £19 per month for the W800i that O2 could offer.
However I appreeciate O2 were only doing this as part of their take-over deals so I expect I'll be looking around again in 8 months time for the best deals.

I also don't understand how "Emergency Care" can be considered a rip-off.
Do you know how much it would cost to actually replace some of these handsets people take for granted?
Even some one and two year phones would cost hundreds to get replaced.
Orange are giving you the opportunity to get a replacement within a day for a single £30 admin fee and then signing you up for regular Orange Care - something that if you'd taken out at the beginning (at a pretty reasonable cost compared to the other networks) you wouldn't need to do.
Orange don't need to offer this, they could leave you totally on your own yet they don't.

Telco's are here to make money like any other company.
Yes there will be plenty of horror stories about them but to describe them the way you do makes it sound like they are evil compared to any other one out there.
They are certainly no worse and in most cases a damn site better than others.