Paying for a broken phone!

[Anonymous]

Hi, 

I have had a bit of an issue this past month. I'm on a 24 month contract due to run upgrade this July. I have the Samsung Galaxy S5 and I have had no issues until the past month or so. It began freezing etc, not responding to touch and then it went into bootloop (constantly rebooting without turning on). I sent it into repair, as it was under warranty but then I was told they found a couple of pins moved in the charging port (however it charges perfectly fine) and so they couldn't fix the real issue until I paid £124.99 for that. I had it sent back unfixed as I could of just paid £120 for an early upgrade. I downloaded Kies and did a firmware update, which should have fixed the problem but didn't. I was told by Samsung that there is nothing that can be done and the phone is essentialy dead. 

So I contacted o2 again, but all I was told is that the only options for me is to pay the remaining £120 and upgrade early, get a cheap pay as you go phone or pay £25 for a loan. My issue is, that I have not got £120 spare, so I am now essentially paying for a broken phone as they will not send out a replacement. Quite frankly I think this is unfair as the phone is not broken through any water damage or fault of my own. So I am now left paying monthly for a phone that I cannot use! 

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

The problem you have is that it has been deemed as user damage which isn't covered by warranty.
I'm not sure, but have Samsung actually had the phone to asses it?
If both Samsung and O2 say it's not a warranty issue your best bet is to try a local phone repair shop as it work out much cheaper to repair.

[Curr946]

I disagree @MI5. Under the sale of goods act the item needs to be fit for purpose and last a reasonable length of time.

I would say that charger pins should last at least the length of the warranty period and if they fail, should covered under a warranty repair.

OP should make an official complaint to O2 as they are the retailer. They can then battle this out with Samsung.

[Anonymous]

Send it to Samsung for repair as its still in the warranty, don't use o2 repairers, they don't have a great reputation 

[jonsie]

The charger pins can be damaged easily by the user. Care needs to be taken when charging and taking off charge, we all know how delicate they are. Using a 3rd party charger can also cause issues. I'm not sure why Samsung would deem the phone dead or if they have even inspected it? 

[MI5]

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@Curr946 wrote:
I disagree @MI5. Under the sale of goods act the item needs to be fit for purpose and last a reasonable length of time.

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If you are aware of the extent of the damage or how it was caused you may be right.

I'm not so would find it difficult to argue the point.

[Curr946]

Given the charger still functions the damage must be minor. This was used as an excuse to get out of fixing Ops software fault. Hence why I would argue the sale of good act re the charger pins as clearly they have not been "abused". This would then open the door to have the software issue addressed.

[MI5]

It's not a software fault.....
The charge port is damaged - any local repair shop will fix it for a tenner.

[jonsie]

I'm trying to understand why Samsung say the phone is essentially dead. Sounds far more ominous than charger pins which are cheap enough to replace, certainly not at the price Anovo are quoting. We don't know the extent of the issues here so it's difficult to comment without the full facts. 

[MI5]

Hence why I asked if it was actually Samsung that had assessed the phone as it isn't clear so far.
Anovo would certainly try and charge that amount.