Ridiculously Faulty Phone

Lago

I lost my phone towards the end of the summer so about a month and a half ago I went into my local store to buy a new sim card and phone. I was essentially looking for the cheapest smartphone I could get and picked up a Alcatel OneTouch (a make which I've never had any experience with or even heard of) for €50. The problems started right away when I got home.

Firstly, when I went to take the simcard out of that bigger card it comes in, the middle of it just popped straight out. At first I thought I had pushed to hard and broken it but when I realised that the small piece that had popped out was a perfect square in the middle of the sim, I assumed it was designed like that or wasn't made properly.

I managed to stick the sim back together and got the phone working. That's when the real problems started:

• It randomly deletes my contacts. I'll add someone's number to my phone with their name and after a while the phone just deletes them all so I can only see numbers, not their names. When I go into the contacts screen it will just say I have no contacts at all. Then randomly they'll come back after a while. (This problem stopped for a while but came back yesterday.)
• The FM Radio doesn't work at all. No sound and changing the frequency at all takes ages.
• Applications are constantly crashing, even if I'm not using. Facebook, Messager, Browser etc. are constantly closing when I used them. I also get error messages often saying Google Services has crashed.
• Text Messaging is a nightmare, this is by far the worst problem. The phone will just delete texts that people send me so I never see them which obviously hassle. I thought that this happen when people send me texts with more than 160 characters so it becomes two texts so I got people I text often to split up their texts. The phone then developed a new problem where it withholds texts. So say if someone sends me a text in three parts, I'll only get one of those parts but after I reply to it, the other two parts will come through. There's a load of other problems with it that I won't go into.
• I'm fairly sure the phone is constantly using my internet without me doing anything. I keep getting messages from my service provider saying I've almost used my 1GB free monthly allowance. This used to happen with my old phones but only when I was constantly on Youtube, which I haven't been with this phone, and even then it'd be near the end of the month. This seems to be only half way through it. I've got two of those texts already.

I haven't had time to go into the shop yet to return it and as I said it's been about a month and a half since I bought it so I'm worried if I'm entitled to anything especially since it seems that someone threw away the bag and receipt I got with the phone. I still have the box and everything that was in it.


I also don't know if I should tell them about the simcard because while I feel it may be the problem, having been into this shop before with problems and realising the employees don't seem very "tech savy" I don't want to tell them about, have them just blame the sim, give me a new one and just send me on with a still faulty phone. Especially if the fact that I "broke" it means I've to pay for a new one.


I'm not sure how to approach this so I said I'd ask for advice here first.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

First stop would be to to go back to the store - and do so soon. It's had problems since day one and yet it's a month and a half without going in to them!

Riamfada

The sim card was not faulty. Sim cards are now perferated for a full size phones and then again for micro sim handsets. So the sim you were given can be broken down again to fit into a different type of phone. The shop wont charge you for a new sim but this is not causing your problems.

I was using an Alcatel One Touch for a while myself and they are absolutely crap. It was however 49.99 so I was not expecting the version of android to be particularly stable or the apps to be fast or even work (newer apps wont run on this platform and the hardware of the low end smartphones are not upgradable to latest Android OS).

The phone (like all smartphones) will constantly use a live internet connection unless you turn off your mobile data in the phone settings.

Anyway if it is over a month old most likely the shop will offer to send the phone off for repair which will consist of a software flash and give you a loan of device (an Alcatel One Touch).

Hope this has been of some help.

theteal

it's over 28 days so the shop will offer a repair, which meets their obligations. no doubt a crappy phone like that will be faulty again a week later so then you can push for replace/refund

foggy_lad

Just because the phone only cost €50 does not in any way diminish your statutory rights op. It should work and do all it is supposed to do.

Riamfada

foggy_lad wrote: »

Just because the phone only cost €50 does not in any way diminish your statutory rights op. It should work and do all it is supposed to do.

I am not saying that it does not but if you buy a product thats

• cheap
• poor build quality
• outdated software

you will get problems. Im just posting here because I used the same phone.I would argue that its not expected of the phone to have the same functionality from a more expensive handset. The same way a Nokia 100 has "internet" access.

While you can go through the statutory process to get the device replaced or refunded but isnt it a lot more hassle than spending 70 euro on a device that runs more up to date software? Personally I would just get them to swap it out for a better handset and pay the difference.

Lago

Riamfada wrote: »

I am not saying that it does not but if you buy a product thats

• cheap
• poor build quality
• outdated software

you will get problems. Im just posting here because I used the same phone.I would argue that its not expected of the phone to have the same functionality from a more expensive handset. The same way a Nokia 100 has "internet" access.

While you can go through the statutory process to get the device replaced or refunded but isnt it a lot more hassle than spending 70 euro on a device that runs more up to date software? Personally I would just get them to swap it out for a better handset and pay the difference.

Honestly, this is what I am hoping for. My friends told me I should have expected it from a €50 smartphone and I kind of figured it wouldn't be top quality myself. However, I had hoped that the things that didn't work would be the more "luxury" items (Facebook and other big applications) and not the basics like texting and radio.

I realise it's not my fault since this was advertised for the phone but really I don't want the hassle. Getting a repair done just seems like an act and waste of time for everyone when the phone is just clearly of crappy design. Honestly if I could bring it back and get a better phone with the €50 taken off it I'd be thrilled and would have learned my lessons.

So I guess I'll just go back to the shop when I get the chance and push for a refund/trade. Will the lack of a receipt be a huge issue or will the purchase be recorded in the shop?

Riamfada

The shop will be able to reprint the receipt afaik but you may have to argue your case for them to change the handset for a different type. If you were miss sold the product you may have a chance alright. Which network was it?

Lago

It was Meteor. I was looking up their returns policy online and it seems that after 28 days you can only get a repair. That and the lack of a receipt seems to point to me having no chance.

Bepolite

Lago wrote: »

It was Meteor. I was looking up their returns policy online and it seems that after 28 days you can only get a repair. That and the lack of a receipt seems to point to me having no chance.

Lack of a receipt is rarely fatal - do you not have any other proof of purchase? A bank statement, box with Meteor written on it (not definitive because they are also the network). Think outside the box.

Soundman

Personally I would suggest perhaps doing a factory reset of the device yourself first and see if that rules out the issues you are having. A few of them sound like a poorly installed OS. The repair centre are going to do this anyway, so you may as well rule it out yourself.

With regards the radio, I don't mean to offend, but you are trying to get it working with headphones plugged in, yes?

Quixoticelixer

Spending less than €100 on a smartphone is never a good idea. Some would argue that spending less than €200 on a smartphone is never a good idea. The only phone I'd spend less than €100 on is the cheap Nokia's with the ridiculously good battery.

As for the issues you're having? Smartphones will use the internet in the background, unless you disable background services and turn off data services. Use wifi as much as possible and your allowance won't be eaten into.

Applications stopping/freezing? Cheap smart phone, cheap/basic specs, not ideal for multi tasking, if it tries to do a few things at once, it crashes.