Fonemenders

whiterebel

I have had some issues with a 5800 which led me to bring the phone to Fonemenders in Cork on the instruction of Carphonewarehouse.
They advised me that the 5800 was Beyond Economic Repair (BER), as it was water damaged, after sending it on to Fonemenders Dublin. When I went to collect the phone, I saw an employee of Fonemenders with a stack of phones, in jiffy bags, plied high. One fell off the top of the pile and from about 5 feet, smacked off the concrete. She just picked it up and continued on her way. Not my phone, but I started to get an idea of their idea of service........
I got my phone back, despite asking for a full report, photos, why it took so long etc, which they wouldn't provide.
I went back to CPW in Midleton and had a quite reserved rant. I have had phones since about 1995 - a Motorola 088 which had no display and went through 6xAA batteries like Godzilla went through Chicken suppers. It is still perfect in its box. Never had to return a phone for damage I caused, have 4 ipods, laptops etc, etc etc never damaged etc. Despite the temptation to yawn, CPW said that Fonemenders had declared it BER, and there was nothing they could do. I refused to accept this, and after a couple of discussions, the manager phoned the Nokia rep. She offered to get the phone sent to their Nokia Engineer in Waterford who would have a look.
Guess what? NO WATER DAMAGE!!!!!!! He wants the photos and reports now from Fonemenders. The faces in CPW yesterday were a picture.....
I will be writing to CPW, Nokia and Fonemenders, and would suggest that anyone who doesn't believe the "water damage" stories to take it further, as it seems to be their "unprovable" get out clause. Rant over.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

ashleey

Got fed up with fonemenders returning my n78 fixed but with some other problem like buttons inoperable. Ended up sending it to nokia uk and used a friend's uk address. Guess what? It came back fixed

Davy

If they claim its water damaged, they should provide a picure to support the claim, and highlighting the area.

whiterebel

Davy wrote: »

If they claim its water damaged, they should provide a picure to support the claim, and highlighting the area.

They did and they didn't, hence the Nokia engineer doing his nut......

Soundman

Fair play to you for pursuing this. Hopefully CPW will think hard about who they use for repairs, unless of course they rely on Fonemenders claiming water damage when it's not to conduct more business.

whiterebel

Right, this has been rumbling on. The "Engineer" in Waterford returned to CPW. I went in all confident, until the manageress had a sad face, and showed me the covering letter from the "Engineer" which said it WAS water damaged and to look up the photos from MPRC. How he knew it had been to MPRC is beyond me. I asked where the girl who took the call was gone, and was told she was part-time and had gone to another shop. The guy who witnessed what she had said to me "couldn't remember............." I was really getting frustrated by this time, so I was told Nokia would contact me. She did, and she was really nice while I explained the whole shambles. It has really become personal for me now, as I feel they are taking the p*ss and covering each others backs. Nokia rep asked if I would send it one more time to a completely independent repair company. Seeing as I have barely had it it since the first week in July, why not. No mention of previous inspections, nothing, a fresh start. I got the phone back yesterday having been tested by Sigma Telecom in Dublin, in black and white NO FAULT FOUND. The latest update may have sorted the original problem as they couldn't replicate it. Nokia should be organising a replacement for me as we speak. We really shouldn't have to put up with this level of crap after paying out big money for phones. CPW confirmed the phone call from the guy in Waterford DID happen, that he could find no sign of water damage on the phone, yt he filled out a report the following day, saying there was. I am going to hang him by his liathrodi...........

whiterebel

Davy wrote: »

If they claim its water damaged, they should provide a picure to support the claim, and highlighting the area.

There is a picture up on their website now, which they hadn't advised me of before. Seeing as I'm not an engineer, I couldn't tell you if its water damaged or not, and they don't use the indicator in these to say if its been exposed to liquid.

drunkmonkey

water damage is pretty obvious, you can usually see a burn somewhere on the main board should be easy enough to spot from a photo.
So sigma fixed the phone with a software update?

whiterebel

drunkmonkey wrote: »

water damage is pretty obvious, you can usually see a burn somewhere on the main board should be easy enough to spot from a photo.
So sigma fixed the phone with a software update?

Can't replicate the fault anyway. Always semed like a S/W bug to me anyway. I'm past caring TBH, hate the phone and Nokias now.......

whiterebel

Just to finish off, despite Nokia telling me they would replace the phone if it came back NFF, they have reneged and have gone back to MPRCs story that it is liquid damaged, despite Sigma saying it isn't.
And there was me expecting them to admit they were lying......:rolleyes:
So thats my last Nokia, have an iPhone and won't use a Nokia again. Costly lesson for Nokia as my missus buys their company mobiles, and she has been very interested to see how Nokia have treated me.:eek:

whiterebel

Just to finish off the story, I sent the phone to Envirofone.com, who tested it thoroughly before sending me a payment of €115. They obviously thought it BER....:mad:

I wrote to Nokia and CPW - needless to say, never heard a word back.

Cork Chef

Captain Morgan wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

They dont just say its waterdamaged for the fun of it, i had my phone in FM before it was water damaged but b.e.r as they have to because nokia dont cover repairs, plus if a phone is waterdamaged it can still work away but saying that you could leave the shop and it would go dead, so i wouldnt calls them liars they do and repair stuff as manufacturer says

Cork Chef

Davy wrote: »

If they claim its water damaged, they should provide a picure to support the claim, and highlighting the area.

They do and if they dont all you do is ask them

MunsterCycling

Cork Chef wrote: »

They do and if they dont all you do is ask them

Hi FoneMender employee.

:rolleyes:

Cork Chef

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Hi FoneMender employee.

:rolleyes:

Haha Nope got it wrong i dont work for them

Davy

Cork Chef wrote: »

Haha Nope got it wrong i dont work for them

You posted in a 5 month old thread though, which is kind of strange

whiterebel

Cork Chef wrote: »

Haha Nope got it wrong i dont work for them

Without reading any of the the thread, especially the bit where Fonemenders/MPRC were proved to be lying:rolleyes:

Cork Chef

Davy wrote: »

You posted in a 5 month old thread though, which is kind of strange

So what if i put a comment on it, It has nothin to do with you,

Tom Dunne

Cork Chef wrote: »

So what if i put a comment on it, It has nothin to do with you,

But it has something to do with me.

It is generally bad etiquette to dig up threads that are old, especially in the technology forums. People who typically do that tend to be spammers or people connected to the company and want to dig a thread up to advertise, or shill.

peadair

3mobile and fonemenders are terrible - I've been a 3 customer for 3 years now but ending contract in November: The following is my experience for the past 6 months - 5 lunchtime trips to fonemenders with no joy and hours of calls to 3 "support" in India.....
" In the past year I have had problems with my Sony Ericsson w705.
Problems:
1) The phone regularly would switch off;
2) The screen would go blank;
3) The SIM card would not be recognized;
4) The jack for the earphones would not work;

I got the phone in January and the problems arose in Jan/Feb.
I left my phone with fonemenders for a couple of days – when I got the phone home all the problems were still present;
I took it back again and complained that they did not test it – they apologized and said they only do a software reset for this;
The second time I got it back they said they made some hardware fix but it still did not work ( again both the sound and the other issues were still present);
After a third visit that didn’t work, on the fourth visit the swap out was offered. I was expecting that I would’ve got a new replacement phone – instead I got the internals swapped out.
Surprise surprise – the sound jack was still not working. They obviously don't test the handsets after fixing them and they should not just simply do a reset. I had to wrestle with them to send me the reports by fax, they kept saying they sent it but didn't. Then I asked them to mail them - it took another week before I got them - the manager in the Anne Street branch was so unhelpful and did not know the proper three procedure.

Most of the rest is the **** I went through with three - read on if interested...

+++++++++
I went back to my three branch and they told me that I should’ve been given a completely new phone after a third failure but now I would have to get it tested again in order to get a new swap – this would take three weeks as it had to be sent to Poland to a specialist.
I was not happy so I called customer support where they agreed the phone should have been swapped out for a new phone after so many attempts. They told me they would phone me back to make arrangements. I received a call the next day to tell me that they made a mistake and that they could only swap out the internals. I pleaded with them and they agreed to replace the phone with a new one. However they told me that that model was not in stock. They couldn’t tell me when the item would be in stock and they also couldn’t tell me when it was last in stock – they asked me to call back again.
I called back a few days later – no news. A few days after that – again no news. I was offered a different phone – a different brand – a Nokia or a Samsung of similar value – if I did not want to wait. I needed a Sony Ericsson as I have accessories for it. I pleaded to be put through to a manager. Eventually I got put through to a manager who told me that they have a warehouse but they have no-one to answer the phone. I asked him if there is some other way to contact them – say e-mail. He agreed to send off an e-mail - at last!!
I waited a few days before calling back and was told that the manager was not in but would call me @ 5.00 that day. I awaited the call – no call. I called back @ 9.00 and was told that the model was being discontinued and that I could only choose another phone!!!
After finally threatening them with a solictors letter and ending my contract they decided to give me an Xperia x10 mini. Not realy that happy with it and certainly not happy with the experience.
I am moving to Vodafone next - might be more expensive but the coverage is better, certainly don't think I'd have this rediculous grief and I'm going to get 25% off the rates through work!

Walkman

AFAIK the procedure would be the same for any network. O2 definitely use Fonemenders too not to sure about Vodafone or Meteor. It's standard only to have the insides of the phone replaced, it's a new phone cause the IMEI will be different. All networks discontinue phones after a certain length of time to add new phones to the range.

peadair

@ walkman....Both the three [EMAIL="staff@Henry"]staff@Henry[/EMAIL] Street and the Indian call centre said that was untrue - they should have swapped for a new item after the third visit - perhaps during the 1st to 3rd they may do a swap out but if you have a customer returning 4 times to a company that doesn't do simple tests - how difficult is it to test the sound coming through to a headphone? - then you certainly shouldn't have any quibbles about replacing the phone.

I was given the run around by fonemenders staff, their manager (@ both Anne Street and GPO).

I have print outs of the calls - I visited them 5 times with the same issue. I made about 10 calls to them in attempting to get those print outs because I refused to call around again. They said they received an e-mail from 3 saying that I should bring the issue up with 3 but when I asked for the e-mail they said it had mysteriously disappeared. I eventually got a posted set of 3 printouts of the record of my visits.

How can a company operate with such a terrible customer care ethos? They are a joke - 3, vodafone and O2 are using them just like they are using cheap callcentres in India to wear down their customers and put them off.

My advice to anyone is - after the second visit - threaten them with a solicitor's letter and cancelling your direct debit. As soon as I said that I got a result...

Also, get them to refer you to the policy if they are holding fast to that (fonemenders or otherwise).

BArra

fonemenders in cork, i would stay well clear

they take little to no care of the fones, jiffy bags for expensive smartfones? you're fone will come back with scratchs and dents all over it

i made the mistake to go in there to get a high end nokia fixed, the volume rocker didnt work.

it was sent off, took 3 or 4 days, came back and the camera didnt work suddenly?

sent away again by fonmenders, and when it came back the screen was damaged, the backlight would flux in power, getting slightly brighter and dimmer

i got sick of them so just took away the fone swearing never again

Thor

I always got directly to MPRC to get my phones repaired, I went there with an n95 8gb once and for some reason they couldn't repair the fault.

THe first time they said they replaced the mainboard and camera. Brought the phone home and the problem was still there(Recording video the camera would freeze after 7 seconds). It was a known fault with the n95 8gb.

Anyway the second time they couldn't find the fault and to my surprise it was still there.

The third time i brought it back i told them if they didn't find/fix the issue i wanted a replacement as the policy with vodafone is that if they can't fix it after three times they have to replace it.

Anyway the couldn't fix it so replaced it. So when i got the replacement phone, First thing i do is slide the keyboard upand WHAM There is no keyboard on the thing.

I walked into vodafone this time as after the second time dealing with MPRC i decieded to deal with them instead(Takes longer). He says he is going to have to send the phone back. I'm standing there goine 'Whatever' At this point i have been using a v3 razor so couldn't care less as it was taking to long.

Anyway a week goes by and i get the phone back and the problem is NO LONGER THERE.

I really do get fed up with the issue on getting phones repaired.

Most of the time now i just repair the phone myself.

evil.monkey84

FONE MENDERS ARE USELESS :mad:!! MY IPHONE VOLUME BOTTOM NEEDED TO BE REPLACED THEY SAID IT WOULD TAKE LESS THE ONE HOUR! AN HOUR LATER THEY CLAIM THE COVER IS BROKEN AND IT WOULD TAKE 200EURO TO REPLACE WITH FACKE COVER! I DID NOT TRUST THEM SO I WENT TO COLLECT MY PHONE TO BRING IT TO GSM SOLUTION!

GUESS WHAT? THE VOLUME BOTTOM REPLACED AND NOTHING WRONG WITH COVER BUT NOW THEY BROKE MY HEADPHONE JACK WHICH COST ME 85 EURO TO REPAIR AND THEY REFUSE TO PAY FOR IT!


DO NOT TRUST THEM! USELESS SERVICE! :mad::mad:

Lunabu

I had several less than satisfactory experiences with Fonemenders. On 2 occasions, phones were replaced instead of repaired and the phones I got as replacements were faulty. I handed in a brand-new Nokia phone with a fault and got back a phone that was older and had obviously been repaired. The exchange had a software fault.
If I can help it, I'll never use Fonemenders again as I think there's something fishy going on and maybe money is being made out of these exchanges...

evolutionqy7

wow you actually would get an idea that fonemenders are bloody useless at everything!!

how d feck are they still open?

valdigre

They are absolute rubbish.

I had a problem with my Samsung Wave, wrong flashing and boot was damaged.
I gave it to them in Dublin and after 5 days they told me, that they need to send it to some "higher tech level" team or something...

In two days I was going for holidays to Poland, so I took the phone from them (not repaired) and took it on my holidays. I gave it to some Polish repair service in Warsaw (certified one by Samsung) and I had it repaired in 1 hour, ONE hour...

Not sure if Fonemenders is the only "good" recommended repair service but if yes, then ouch...

Abelloid

I was considering dropping my HTC Desire in to them recently, after reading this thread I'm glad I didn't.

MFluder

I used Fonemenders after I smashed the screen on my iphone4. Friendly service and they fixed my screen but it was obvious from a quick look at the outside of the phone that they had not put it back together properly - two main screws at bottom of phone and earpiece grille left out of phone entirely and wi-fi did not work after I got the phone back from them. The wi-fi had worked after I smashed the screen but before I brought it to them for the repair. The replacement screen cost €150 and it was 3 days without the phone. I brought it back to fonemenders and they took the phone for another half day to replace the screws and put in a dented earpiece grille. They said they would have to send phone off for another three days to get the new wi-fi problem sorted out but at that stage I was travelling to London so I said I may bring it back when I returned. In London I brought it to the Apple store on Regent Street and the Genius Bar (in-house Apple repair section) said a "substandard repair" had been carried on the iphone4. I would not go back to fonemenders with my iphone 4 as they did not put the phone back together properly and broke the wi-fi on the phone.