Wifi button is greyed out (iPhone)

Strongbow10

embraer170 wrote: »

It seems a small claims case is the online way forward.

Out of interest, do you have a link to the VF response on their forum?

They responded via PM, I made a thread but received no official response until I actually PM'd them

Mick Murdock

Also having this problem with my 4s. The phone is under contract with Three until April 2014 so almost 2 years old.

In my case the phone worked fine with ios7 for maybe a couple of months so I'm unsure whether it is genuinely related to the update or whether it's just something that just eventually packs in with the phone - in the last two months my battery is pretty much shot (I'm impressed it lasted so well - I used the phone a huge amount) and my headphone jack is also no longer working.

I assumed I could just get it fixed locally until I read this thread. It's a return the phone and pay €200+ to Apple or try the hairdryer/fridge etc. or nothing?

Strongbow10

Mick Murdock wrote: »

Also having this problem with my 4s. The phone is under contract with Three until April 2014 so almost 2 years old.

In my case the phone worked fine with ios7 for maybe a couple of months so I'm unsure whether it is genuinely related to the update or whether it's just something that just eventually packs in with the phone - in the last two months my battery is pretty much shot (I'm impressed it lasted so well - I used the phone a huge amount) and my headphone jack is also no longer working.

I assumed I could just get it fixed locally until I read this thread. It's a return the phone and pay €200+ to Apple or try the hairdryer/fridge etc. or nothing?

My battery is gone to pot aswell, lasts no time at all.

I would certainly hope it doesn't just "pack in", ive only had my phone 15 months and i'd hope something that costs as much as it did would last substantially longer given the fact I know other people with 4s phones who have them way longer than me and have been having no problems.

My phone hasn't been used to the limit either, if anything its been used sparringly in my own time given I use a work phone most of the time.

EU law clearly states the retailer must cover the cost of replacement/repair within 2 years. Apple's warranty only lasts one year. The retailer may fob you off but my understanding is that they have not got good prospects in any small claims court issue, barring you damaged the phone yourself in a way thats likely to have caused the issue.

Basically Vodafone will need to cover this and then take their grievances to apple for providing them with stock that had a few in the batch that were faulty from the off.

Mick Murdock

As I was saying my phone was used probably as much as is humanly possible every day (listened to hours of podcasts/music while texting/calling and browsing for work - I'd say the phone was active for at least 8 hours almost every day) so I wouldn't expect someone who used it sparingly to have the same issues that I've had.

I accept the battery and headphone jack problems as wear and tear - they were probably overused, but it's the cost of repairing this wifi issue I take exception with.

I have absolutely no way of knowing whether the wifi issue was caused by something I've done, like dropping the phone etc.

Nothing in particular happened for the wifi to suddenly stop working but these things can be gradual I'd imagine..

I've also read that it's almost impossible to have one of these phones for any period of time without activating the water damage thing.. Rain, general condensation from keeping it in your pocket etc.

Thanks for the advice, I'll consider it but not sure I have the heart for a long drawn out saga with Three's human robots in India!

Would prefer pay a reasonable amount to have it fixed, but doesn't seem like an option at the mo..

embraer170

Mick: lodge a written (email/claim form) request to Three. Give them a reasonable time to respond. Make sure to mention relevant consumer legislation (Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act & why not Apple's own statement http://www.apple.com/ie/legal/statutory-warranty/). Don't waste too much time but make sure to keep a copy all correspondence. Take that to the Small Claims court if you are not satisfied.

Please post the outcome here and elsewhere to remind others in similar situations of their rights.

There are cases where consumers may be in the wrong (damaged phones, non maintained heating systems, 7 year old TVs, etc.) but it is very very hard for a retailer to argue that a phone was not designed to last the length of the contract it was sold on.

mrsq2b

Also having this problem. Have been around the house with it. My phone was bought in Oct 2012, so out of 1 year warranty. To cut a long story short, after some discussions with apple and searching online I found the piece around EU law and brought that into 3 shop - who agreed that I was correct , and sent me to phonemenders who I called to today. Phonemenders confirmed it was a manufacturing fault (no water/liquid damage etc) and advised me to ring 3 to say that they should cover the replacement/repair cost. 3 flat out have refused to do so, saying that their terms/conditions relate to a one year warranty only. I have spoke to supervisors and salespeople in my local 3 shop, and now awaiting a call from customer service to lodge a complaint. Have told them I will be bringing them to small claims court if they do not agree to cover cost of repair. I'll update soon, but looks like I will have to be persistent and resort to this

Mick Murdock

My wifi has randomly started working again today.. Won't hold my breath but it's been working for 3 hours or so.

Mick Murdock

24 hours + and wifi is still working. It had been greyed out for at least two months. Anybody else experienced this?


Not counting on it lasting and I'm due an upgrade soon anyway, but it seems quite bizarre!!

I'll keep ye updated.

SledgeGalway

Hey, had to set up an account when I came across this thread. Having similar problems at the moment out of warranty since august. Wifi greyed out since december only getting round to trying to sort it now.. Im sure I am probably repeating alot here but just want to ensure I've gotten everything right for advice.

I tried all the online solutions but to no avail. Have contacted vodafone and they told me straight up that this fault was an apple problem. I also went into a local phone repair shop and they didn't even look at it and said it was an apple problem.

After contacting apple, they told be about the EU consumer warranty and told me to contact my point of purchase which is vodafone.

Just wondering if anyone has had success in getting results through this. I really don't want to pay for a repair for something that cost so much money in the first place and for something that wasnt caused by me.

Any advice would be brilliant thanks.

Mick Murdock

Just a follow up to the above for anybody interested..


Wifi worked flawlessly for about a week, then stopped picking up my wifi at home but still no problems elsewhere. As expected it completely packed in again a few days later. Has worked on and off since then, mostly off.


Edit: Just got this response from a phone repair shop - Chinese lads in Dún Laoghaire, have dealt with them numerous times before and they were very good.

"... wifi parts is the big problem, wifi IC on the motherboard is broken, you need to rebuilt the wifi IC on motherboard, it will cost you €90 and take roughly 3-5 working days, if u do both, you will get some discount off the price! Just pop in to any branch and we will do a quick diagnosis and give you price for repair! Cheers"


Any thoughts on this? Would definitely pay €90 if it worked.

Mick Murdock

Sorry for the bump, but does the above sound right to anybody in the know? €90 seems reasonable enough if it worked.

My issue is definitely due to the phone overheating. It's on pretty much 24/7 and it's become very noticeable recently. It gets quite hot after a few mins active use.

Also if I leave the phone off for a while - overnight for example, wifi will generally return for a few hours, sometimes a few days.

SledgeGalway

mrsq2b wrote: »

Also having this problem. Have been around the house with it. My phone was bought in Oct 2012, so out of 1 year warranty. To cut a long story short, after some discussions with apple and searching online I found the piece around EU law and brought that into 3 shop - who agreed that I was correct , and sent me to phonemenders who I called to today. Phonemenders confirmed it was a manufacturing fault (no water/liquid damage etc) and advised me to ring 3 to say that they should cover the replacement/repair cost. 3 flat out have refused to do so, saying that their terms/conditions relate to a one year warranty only. I have spoke to supervisors and salespeople in my local 3 shop, and now awaiting a call from customer service to lodge a complaint. Have told them I will be bringing them to small claims court if they do not agree to cover cost of repair. I'll update soon, but looks like I will have to be persistent and resort to this

Only new on here so not sure if the quote thing will work right.

However, since last posting this is the exact same experience I am having however it is with vodafone. I have written a formal letter of complaint to the vodafone office quoting the National and EU consumer law and have given them 10 working days to reply. Hopefully persistence will pay off cause really a phone should last the length of term of the contract without a fault. Will keep things posted here.

SledgeGalway

Oh also started a thread in the vodafone forum and only got me so far. Since creating the post which included the EU and National law I haven't received a reply unfortunately.

Mick Murdock

Got wifi IC replaced in a shop in Dún Laoghaire for €40 - working perfectly so far.


Btw: wasn't the same place that quoted me in the previous post. Also it took 30 mins not 5 days!!

Seems to be a legit fix..

kaiser31

That's great news! What's the name of the shop? What exactly did they do?

mrsq2b

Have lodged claim in small claims court - will let you know of outcome.

SledgeGalway

When did you lodge it. Any idea on when an expected outcome should be. Was the process difficult

Mick Murdock

kaiser31 wrote: »

That's great news! What's the name of the shop? What exactly did they do?

Stop Press on Georges Street in Dún Laoghaire. There's a lad in there that sells accessories and does repairs. He replaced this in half an hour http://www.ebay.ie/itm/WiFi-IC-339S0091-Integrated-Circuit-for-iPhone-4-4G-/161129798398?pt=UK_MP3_Player_Accessories_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item2584159afe

He said it's one of the most common problems they see with iPhone 4/s. He didn't have to assess the problem, just said he could fix the greyed out issue. Wifi has been working flawlessly for 2 weeks.

CathalDublin

Did they replace or reflow the existing IC do you know?
I'd imagine they just reflowed as the problem with the IC is that the solder joints have detached.

Mick Murdock

To the best of my knowledge he replaced the part in the above Ebay link. He said it was burned out and showed me it before agreeing to fix it.

As I said it was done in 30 mins or less so replaced it seems more likely to me? It sounds like the other place that quoted me was going to rebuild it?

I'm open to correction on all of this though. 3 weeks today and no issues.

Mick Murdock

Me again..

Wifi stopped working again after roughly 2 months.

Makes me wonder whether the 4/4s (or some particular models) is actually capable of running ios7.

Every second person I know has this problem.. I am a heavy user so others may get a better run of it.

CathalDublin

CathalDublin wrote: »

Did they replace or reflow the existing IC do you know?
I'd imagine they just reflowed as the problem with the IC is that the solder joints have detached.

The way to check this would be to compare the MAC addresses. A new chip should have a new MAC.

Vinduer

SledgeGalway wrote: »

When did you lodge it. Any idea on when an expected outcome should be. Was the process difficult

After taking a case in the (Dublin) Small Claims Court against Carphone Warehouse I finally got a result. Today I received a cheque through the SCC for € 199 from CPW which was what I had paid for the phone - with an 18 month contract.

I used the online application process and it wasn't necessary to attend the court.

Strongbow10

Vinduer wrote: »

After taking a case in the (Dublin) Small Claims Court against Carphone Warehouse I finally got a result. Today I received a cheque through the SCC for € 199 from CPW which was what I had paid for the phone - with an 18 month contract.

I used the online application process and it wasn't necessary to attend the court.

Thats great news, fair play to you

Can I ask, how long did it take from you bringing your phone into car phone warehouse initially to taking your claim?

And also how long from taking your claim to receiving your cheque?

Getting no joy from vodafone myself for the very same issue even though its a case of faulty hardware and im still covered by the 2 year retailer warranty

Vinduer

Strongbow10 wrote: »

Thats great news, fair play to you

Can I ask, how long did it take from you bringing your phone into car phone warehouse initially to taking your claim?

And also how long from taking your claim to receiving your cheque?

Getting no joy from vodafone myself for the very same issue even though its a case of faulty hardware and im still covered by the 2 year retailer warranty

After taking the phone into CPW it took them about 2 weeks to get back to me saying necessary repair was not covered by warranty and would cost €218. I then sent them a formal letter citing SGSS Act 1980 to which they replied about a week later repeating their original position. I immediately lodged a small claims court application which due to problems with their website was unattended for about 6 weeks – I wrongly having assumed they were overloaded with claims. After contacting SCC I was asked to re-submit a claim and this process was resolved in about 3 weeks with SCC forwarding me a cheque form CPW for the purchase price of the phone - €200.
Having bought numerous phones from CPW over the years I wouldn’t touch them again…. Or Apple.

Vodafone may have changed their tune - check out their talk-to forum
Thread; Wifi greyed out on Iphone 4s - post #14
Good luck

Ace2007

Sorry for digging up an old thread, but came up on google search.

I am now currently having this problem after update to 7.1.2 when my phone connected iTunes yesterday.

I have tried turning phone off and back on, I have tried the network reset options mentioned online but still have no wifi.

there appear to be 100's of threads on various forums about this issue, but no real solution, can anyone tell me what I can do to get this problem fixed. The phone is 2 years + old and not insured.

Ace2007

Ace2007 wrote: »

Sorry for digging up an old thread, but came up on google search.

I am now currently having this problem after update to 7.1.2 when my phone connected iTunes yesterday.

I have tried turning phone off and back on, I have tried the network reset options mentioned online but still have no wifi.

there appear to be 100's of threads on various forums about this issue, but no real solution, can anyone tell me what I can do to get this problem fixed. The phone is 2 years + old and not insured.

Anyone?

Strongbow10

Ace2007 wrote: »

Anyone?

if your phone is still in warranty (1 yr with Apple, 2 yrs with retailer) then get it back to them to be checked out.

some of these have been shown to be faulty and incapable of handling the various updates.

if your phone is still within warranty and they check it out and deem its a hardware issue then they must repair it free of charge.