Carphone Warehouse Bandon

danger_mouse_tm

I left my non starting LG optimus to the carphone warehouse in Bandon on Wednesday for repair under warranty. It took three trips down before they would accept that there was a two year warranty on my phone under EU law (and on the warranty certificate that came with the phone).

I received a call on Friday at 6:10pm (after the shop closed) to say that my phone was repaired and ready for collection. I called down Saturday afternoon and was shown the phone and then told that there was a charge of €120 showing on the system and they would have to get in contact <SNIP> in head office to clear it. After twenty minutes of being on hold, the store assistant told me that it was unfair on other customers that I take so much time. He said that he would chase down the matter. I left expecting him to call me before the close of business.

I heard nothing from him, Saturday, Sunday and this morning I took time off work and went down again. I ws given a lame story that they were still waiting to hear back from someone about the matter and that whoever was dealing with it had taken the day off. I can't for the life of me comprehend the complete lack of customer service that this store exhibits. Thankfully we have a vodafone store, an O2 store and now a 3 mobile store in Bandon because these guys are just going to end up running the carphone warehouse Bandon into the ground.

wmpdd3

Its no excuse but the problem is, carphone warehouse has no system in place for repairs after 1 year. They take these repairs as exceptions and hope no customer trys to enforce their rights and obtain them.

viclemronny

The law states that it must be of merchantable quality and reasonable durability. If they sell it on a 2 year contract, which I imagine they do, then I think a judge in the small claims court would consider 2 years to be the minimum that it should last.

Stick that in a registered letter with the rest of the details and send it to the head office and store manager. If they don't deal with it in ten days, small claims court. They'll probably fold when the get the notice from the SCC.

danger_mouse_tm

Thanks for the replies. I went back to the store on Monday and he wouldn't take in the phone. He said he was going to try and contact someone on the phone but, as usual nobody was available. He said that he would follow it up but I heard nothing yesterday or today. I will begin legal proceedings this afternoon as I am seriously losing business without the phone.

wmpdd3

Yes, I think at this stage you are better off just dealing with the small claims court as it looks like its going to end up there anyway. Gather up any paper evidence you have and file it together.

What did yo pay for the phone in the first place?

foggy_lad

Your next step before the small claims court is a formal letter of complaint to the shop addressed to the manager outlining the problem you have had and what you want done about it, your small claims court case can't proceed without this happening.

danger_mouse_tm

I think I paid €119 for the phone and signed up for an eighteen month contract at €60 a month.
I received a call from Kevin, the carphone warehouse manager from Mahon point yesterday. I had been following my rants online and he called to apologize for the way I was treated and invited me to his store to rectify the problem. He was very professional and a true gent. He gave me a new Nokia lumia in place of my LG and gave me a voucher to use in any store.

Procrastastudy

Just an aside really as the phone comes with a 2 year warranty. The 2 year EU thing is being misinterpreted by many people. The EU directive (at least I think its a directive rather than regulation etc) requires that member states allow for claims for 2 years. Simply put the statute of limitations must be a minimum of 2 years. In Ireland it's six so does not apply. 2 and 6 years are not warranty periods - if you bought a plastic cup for 5c you wouldn't expect it to last for 2 years. Conversely you'd expect longer than 2 years out of a brand new car.

The warranty is simply a reasonable time for the goods to function and / or what is promised by the retailer / manufacturer.

Although your cotract of sale is with the retailer it is possible for a retailer to give 1 year and a manufactuer a further period.