Help with phone contract, please

[HollowTalk]

My daughter bought a Huawei phone on a contract. A few months into her contract it got stuck in a boot loop so wouldn't turn on past the welcome screen, then it stopped turning on altogether. So it broke completely due to manufacture error. They sent her packaging so that she could return it for repair as it was under warranty. She packaged it up and when they received it they said there was a tiny scratch on the screen. They wanted £237 to fix as they only do full repair, not part repair. She is adamant that the scratch wasn't there when she sent it off - she couldn't take a photo of it before sending because the only camera she had was on her phone.

They've now returned the phone (with scratch) unrepaired and she's left without a phone she can use.

They are referring her to the Ombudsman but she thinks that'll take a long time.

She's borrowed someone's old phone and is still paying the contract. However what she'd like to do is not pay the contract so that she can start again with a different company.

Can anyone give any legal advice as to what she should do?

Hopeful bump.

Who sent the phone off? This would normally be dealt with by the company who she has the contract with. The part repair thing is absolute nonsense. They have to repair or replace a faulty item when the fault develops within 6 months of purchase. No one was asking them to replace a screen. Plenty of people have scratched screens, it doesn't affect anything. It sounds like this is a good lesson for your daughter in consumer rights and fighting for them.

She spoke to the call centre about the fault (the boot loop) and they sent her packaging so that she could return the phone for repair. She was astonished when they told her the screen was scratched and is sure it wasn't scratched before she sent it.

I'm not sure whether it's within 6 months - I think it was 8 or 10 months after she bought it.

I agree with you about consumer rights but it's hard for her to be without a good phone and tackling them on the phone.

Call centre for what company? Huawei or her contract provider? The scratch is irrelevant, whether it was there or not, they still have a duty to repair it under warranty. They aren't repairing the screen and neither do they need to.

They are referring her to the Ombudsman but she thinks that'll take a long time

The ombudsman aims to resolve issues in 10 working days provided the company is willing to work with them. I would go for that. A phone which fails before the contract is over is arguably not fit for purpose, meaning that the phone company must repair or replace it free of charge.

Note that your daughter doesn't lose any rights just because the phone was more than 6 months old when it went wrong. It simply means that she may have to prove that the fault was inherent, not caused by something she did. She may need a report from an independent expert if the phone company want to argue that the fact it won't turn on is not a manufacturing defect.

They have accepted the fault was a manufacturing fault but have said unless she pays the money (for fixing the screen) they won't fix anything at all. I know she's in the right, and she knows it too. It's just so frustrating as they keep saying they won't fix the fault without also fixing the screen.

I didn't realise that about the Ombudsman - thanks for that.

The contact centre is for Huawei.

Her contract isn't with Huawei, it is with her phone provider i.e. EE, Vodafone. That is who she needs to be dealing with.

Agree with delilahbucket. She needs to be talking to her mobile network, not Huawei. She has no rights against Huawei at all.

Thanks very much - I'll speak to her tomorrow so will tell her that.

Yes you need to deal with whoever the contract is with. Obviously it is important that you tell them that Huawei have admitted to a manufacturing fault in case they get tricky re trying to blame the user. The scratch in this case is irrelevant given there's no link between it and the fault on the phone.