Intro
I have created this blog to warn others of the service that I received from Carphone Warehouse after my phone broke after 5 months. It should have been a simple repair by the manufacturer, instead I was told that it isnt covered under warranty due to water damage/water ingress.
Details
I purchased my Samsung Galaxy G2 from E2Save and after 5 months the phone wouldnt charge or switch on. E2Save told me to take it to Carphone Warehouse for repair.
On their advise I took it to Carphone Warehouse Middlebrook Bolton (as they have a repair centre). I thought that they should be able to repair it on site. After a week it, according to their repair tracker, it was sent to the manufacturer as they couldnt repair it. 2 weeks later it was returned saying it was beyond repair due to water moisture/ingress. Accompanying this was a blurry picture of my USB port from outside. To note, I have taken very good care of this phone (as you would with a £500 piece of equipment) and never had it near any water/moisture.
When I picked it up, it was clear that carphone warehouse were not going to help, the person I spoke to was sympathetic but was clear carphone warehouse were not going to help any further.
After getting it back, I asked a colleague to charge my battery thinking it could just be a dead battery. They did and it still didnt work. But then I remembered when it first stopped working, I noticed that it was still recognised by the USB port on my PC with a USB driver not found message when I plugged the phone in. Now its completely dead and isnt recognised by the same pc. I checked my Google Web Search Logs and made a note of the USB message I got when I first realised it had broken - "sec s5pc110 test b d not found". Now I get nothing when I plug it in. I can only assume it has been further broken when sent in for repair.
I then thought I would send it to Samsung for a second opinion. Looking for Samsung repair centres near me, it lists CPW Middlebrook Bolton as the closest repair centre. Yes, like I will take it to them again.
I have sent an complaint to Samsung to try to understand exactly who is liable for this faulty repair. The consumer law says Carphone Warehouse, but Im not sure whether it was further broken when with Carphone Warehouse or with Samsung. I am waiting for a phonecall from Samsung customer service.
After reading up about Consumer law, it states that the shop that the item was purchased is liable (as its less than 6 months old). It seems to me that Carphone Warehouse have a convenient excuse to get them out of this liability with water ingress.
My concern is why is it not in same state as when it was sent in, and why did carphone warehouse send the phone off after a week to their central repair centre. Surely they could have determined water damage without sending it off - in their onsite repair centre.
Below is the repair note from carphone warehouse. Note the blurry picture of the phones usb port.
(BTW - these pictures were taken with my phone that was later fixed by Samsung - under warranty)
Woah, Their advice now is to claim on insurance or I can have a 10% discount on a new phone.
Email to Samsung
Here is my email to Samsung:
I am not sure who the best person to contanct with this but I hope you can forward it on to the relevant person.
I have had my Samsung Galaxy S2 for just under 6 months. I was charging my phone in my PC through the day and noticed a windows driver alert saying sec s5pc110 test b d. My phone was plugged in but wouldnt switch on. I took it home and plugged the mains charger in. It still wouldnt switch on, so I plugged it into my pc at home and the same usb driver not found message appeared.
I have since taken it into car phone warehouse to get it repaired under warranty. After 3 weeks I have my phone back saying it isnt covered as it is water ingress. I have not had it anywhere near any water, and the picture they give me to so call prove this was a blurred picture of the USB port. I am not happy with this, and also now when I plug it into my PC i no longer get the driver not found message. So I can only assume since going in for repair it has been broken more.
I feel that Car Phone warehouse has let me down and I am going to take this case to trading standards. I was thinking of sending the phone back to Samsung but it turns out that you use car phone warehouse as the repair centre. So does this mean that it is Samsung who have decided this (and further broke my phone). I have attached a screenshot of my google search the day my phone broke. I can get further proof from the event log of my pc to prove that it was at least recognised by my pc before I sent it off for repair. I feel that carphone warehouse have shirked their responsibility and dont know where else to turn.
Regards
Paul Diggle
Samsung was very quick to respond with this reply:
Dear Paul
Thank you for contacting Samsung and I have pleasure in providing the
following assistance.
It is true we use carphone warehouse service centres but this is for walk in software issues that can be
repaired on sight. For more serious issues like this we have our own team. There have been previous cases
where independant repair centres have not diagnosed an issue sufficiently so please send your phone into
us for a full diagnosis and more accurate assessment of the issue. Please reply with your IMEI and S/N, both
found under the battery on your phone and reconfirm your address and we can set this repair up for you.
If you require any further assistance, please contact Samsung again and
we will be more than happy to help.
Kind regards
Gareth
Online Support Team
SAMSUNG Customer Support Centre
A few unanswered issues here: Samsung see Carphone Warehouse as a centre for fixing software issues, not hardware issues.But on the main Samsung site if you search for a service centre, CPW Middlebrook is shown.
The main thing though is that Samsung where very helpful and made arrangements to have a look at my phone. Another email from Samsung confirmed the delivery address I needed to send my phone to:
Front of Envelope -
‘REGENERSIS PLC
EXPRESS REPAIR AREA
32 FOUNTAIN DRIVE
INCHINNAN BUSINESS PARK
RENFREWSHIRE
PA4 9RF’
I then packaged up my phone and sent it to the address using Special Delivery. This cost me £5.90.
Samsung have fixed my phone - under warranty
On the 20th December I got a parcel from Samsung. It was my phone and it was working like new. Fantastic, I was over the moon. Unfortunately it didnt have a repair note. I then sent Regenersis an email to find out what went wrong. I got this repy:
Good afternoon,
Due to an intermittent display fault the whole front of the handset was replaced.
Thank you
Jennifer
Interesting, no mention of water damage. What are Carphone Warehouse playing at?
I found your blog after having the same problem, although nothing to do with CPW, mine is also an S2 but with orange. My phone has been with a repair center for little under a week, then yesterday they decided to call and see if a quote of £55 for repair was acceptable, after the 'water ingress' meant it couldnt be repaired under warranty! Its not been anywhere near water!!
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, just a day after we called to report the phone asking for a repair an envelope came in the post to send it away, but then shortly after that a parcel arrived that I had to sign for via special delivery.. I opened this up to find a womans smashed up S2 inside, complete with full credit card details! How pleased would she be to know someone had their hands on her credit card details, right down to the 3 digit security number.. although I strongly suspect she will never know I had it in my possession! Luckily for her Im an honest person though. But the fault was the same with hers - water ingress, and after some quick searching it appears we arent the only one getting ripped off like this!
Im so so angry theyre trying to say Ive damaged it by getting it wet.. Some issues were fixed with the recommended software update, but it still remained hit and miss as to whether it would charge. Had I got it wet Id have held my hands up and claimed on the insurance. And seeing your photo above about changes in temperature, what a joke! So my S2 needed a blanket to keep it warm when I when I got in the car with air con.. What a joke!
Sorry to hear about your problems Nikki. If its under a year old I would deal direct with Samsung. They didnt even mention water damage on mine. Their service was brilliant and they fixed it without any problems/questions. I think some of these phone companies are using the water ingress story to get out of their responsibilities. I was fuming. In the end I got a £40 cheque from Carphone Warehouse to cover a months line rental and the cost to post my phone to a proper repair centre.
DeleteInteresting story. I'm reading up about CPW repairs as I suspect they're going to be awkward with me too.
ReplyDeleteI have a Galaxy Note 2 where the screen froze and then phone restarted itself - now whenever you try to start it gets stuck at the samsung logo. Having researched on the web I've found it to be SDS - sudden death syndrome - that samsung acknowledged it S3s but it turns out Note 2s use the same hardware.
The problem is that the fault can show the phone to be 'rooted' even if it hasn't been - which mine hasn't - I've only just found out what rooted means and my phone's showing rooted.
CPW policy is to reject repairs on 'rooted' phones.
The man at the shop said it wouldn't be an issue but we'll see.
In the meantime I've found out that under EU law manufacturers have to give a TWO year warranty and that it doesn't matter if the phone's rooted. Although CPW aren't the manufacturers they do send the phones back to manufacturer on customer's behalf if they can't fix it - so CPW policy of not fixing rooted phone's is unlawful.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1998801
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31999L0044:EN:NOT
My phone's been at the CPW shop two days now and according to the repair tracker and it's not even been sent to the repair centre - which is about four miles away apparently - if I'd have know that I could've taken it myself.
We'll see what happens but I'm expecting them to try and fob me off...
Well they fixed my phone - but - although it was in a pristine condition when I took it in, it came back with a mis-fitting screen seal and damage to the battery cover. Thankfully I sent it in with a screen protector on - it came back scratched to pieces - could've been the screen...
DeleteThey've agreed to replace the device but it will be a refurbed unit - the one I took in I had from new so I'm a bit pissed off that I'm expected to accept a device that is essentially second hand but as long as it's in A1 condition I don't suppose there's much I can say...
Should've sent it to Samsung, not CPW.
I am very confused! I have a blackberry smartphone which i have had for about 18 months. i actually went to CPW thinking about buying a new phone as the track pad on mine is defective (well you can manage a text if you are in a dark room and cover the track pad with your thumb!). I was informed that it was under warranty and that they have a repair center who would fix it. my phone was sent away........ two weeks later i have received an email telling me that my phone is operating 'within manufacturer standards'. i have since looked on the blackberry website and am unable to find any contact details to inform them of my problem????? website says 'contact shop where bought' any ideas what i should do? i was willing to throw the phone in the bin and buy a new one however after finding out it has a warranty i feel i should exercise my rights.
ReplyDeleteWish I had found this tale of woe before I sent a Motorola back via Carphone warehouse in Cambridge...
ReplyDeleteThis time not water ingress but a broken screen...
The story goes,
The phone was less 3 months old.
CPWH do not have a licence to fix Motorola's but under a month old will replace on site. It is still in warranty clearly, so under my insistence they sent it to their repair centre by royal mail (as a favour to a disgruntled customer !) they insured it.
The repair centre eventually replied saying that the screen was broken on arrival, so would not investigate the phones fault unless first someone paid for the screen repair. Luckily the store confirmed it wasn't broken when sent, so claimed on the Post office insurance which they have eventually agreed to pay, but they are paying the insurance cheque to a member of staff at CPWH, he is them paying for the screen repair, then the repair centre will look at the original issue, and see if it can be repaired and hopefully send the phone back !
This has taken 7 weeks so far.
I am in dispute with everyone although the store are trying to be as helpful as their corporate guidance allows them to be !
Clearly my advice is DO NOT BUY a Motorola from CPWH, as they will not honour the warranty properly, which is shoddy consumer practice if not illegal under consumer rights legislation...
Needless to say I am taking this further, but just a warning...
Mobile Phone Repairs Glasgow
ReplyDeleteWow nice post this is. If any of your gadgets needs any type of repairing then simply go and contact Samsung Repair Centre Glasgow.
ReplyDelete