db
#chaplife
o2 shop in the guildhall - well cuffy!
ms. dirtybobby bought a new PAYG phone (sony ericsson S500i) from the o2 store in february, which she was dead chuffed with.. unfortunately, all the keys started splitting, and then just before the weekend her 2 key fell off altogether.. after a quick look round the internet, it become obvious that this was a widely experienced manufacturing fault..
so we took the phone back to the o2 shop, with the intention of swapping it for a different, more expensive model.. i explained the situation to the first girl we saw, who said all they could do was send it off to sony.. this would take 7 - 10 days, and in the mean time we would be stuck without a phone - unless we plonked down £25 deposit for some cuffy "loan phone".. i said this wasn't really an acceptable solution, and we wanted to swap it for a more expensive model and pay the difference.. but, she stood her ground, and said the only option was the repair..
this is fair enough - she was just doing her job by repeating o2 policy verbatim, and i wouldn't really expect her to have the authority to deviate from this.. i explained to her that if a product goes wrong within 6 months of purchase, the shop has to accept that the product was faulty at the point of purchase (see here) and offer a repair or replacement.. the important caveat to this, however, is:
i explained the above situation to this chap, who barely looked at me whilst replying that he couldn't help - the only option was to send the phone for repair.. i explained that he has a legal obligation to either replace the goods, or repair them within an acceptable time frame, but he was of the opinion that o2 policy supercedes the law, and all he could offer was the repair..
amazingly, i was still calm at this point - the poor chap only works in an o2 store, so in fairness i couldn't expect him to be fully versed in the Sale of Goods Act 1979.. he then pointed to one of the young girls serving a customer next to him and said she was a "trained lawyer," and that he was definitely right.. she looked horrified, and said she was only a "law student," and under no circumstances was she allowed to offer legal advice.. in fact, doing so could jeopardise her future law career, and she clearly wasn't impressed that the bumbling idiot she was forced to call Boss was trying to use her as leverage!
i then played what i thought was my trump card.. i explained that, regardless of the legalities of the situation, i'd appreciate his help getting this sorted, as in addition to getting a new phone for my missus i was intending to sign up for a new o2 contract myself.. my current Orange contract runs out at the end of August, and i was intending to move to o2 so me & ms. dirtybobby could phone each other for free.. obviously, i would be reluctant to make this move if i thought i was going to have this sort of trouble every time i run into a spot of bother! i assumed this new information would change his tune, as i know mobile phone companies drop their pants at the thought of luring customers away from their competitors.. alas, this was not the case!
it was obvious by this point that we were not going to get anywhere.. he had that look on his face that poor customer service managers have when they are convinced they are right and steadfastly refuse to listen to reason.. even though we wanted to give him more money for a more expensive PAYG handset for ms. dirtybobby, and even though i wanted to switch from orange and sign up to an expensive o2 contract on the spot, he wasn't willing to budge.. he asked if i wanted him to call a senior manager, quickly adding that he would only "confirm what i am telling you".. if that is the case, what is the point of his role if he is just going to unilaterally agree with everything this bell end says, without considering the specifics of the situation??
this post is far longer than i intended, and i'm boring myself now so i'll stop.. suffice to say, the only thing we left the store with is the broken phone we walked in with, and the name of the manager in question, which will be going in a letter to o2 with recommendations that he receives some kind of training in basic customer handling..
tl;dr = don't shop in the stafford o2 store.. all their staff want to do is sell you an iphone, and the manager honestly believes that o2 policy supercedes consumer law..
ms. dirtybobby bought a new PAYG phone (sony ericsson S500i) from the o2 store in february, which she was dead chuffed with.. unfortunately, all the keys started splitting, and then just before the weekend her 2 key fell off altogether.. after a quick look round the internet, it become obvious that this was a widely experienced manufacturing fault..
so we took the phone back to the o2 shop, with the intention of swapping it for a different, more expensive model.. i explained the situation to the first girl we saw, who said all they could do was send it off to sony.. this would take 7 - 10 days, and in the mean time we would be stuck without a phone - unless we plonked down £25 deposit for some cuffy "loan phone".. i said this wasn't really an acceptable solution, and we wanted to swap it for a more expensive model and pay the difference.. but, she stood her ground, and said the only option was the repair..
this is fair enough - she was just doing her job by repeating o2 policy verbatim, and i wouldn't really expect her to have the authority to deviate from this.. i explained to her that if a product goes wrong within 6 months of purchase, the shop has to accept that the product was faulty at the point of purchase (see here) and offer a repair or replacement.. the important caveat to this, however, is:
for a device such as a phone, which one uses every single day, i would consider a 10 day wait plus a £25 deposit to be "significant inconvenience".. she agreed, and went to get the manager, a pock-faced jobsworth by the name of Keir Bellamy..Citizen's Advice Bureau said:If the trader agrees to carry out a repair or provide a replacement, they must do this within a reasonable period of time, and without causing you any significant inconvenience.
i explained the above situation to this chap, who barely looked at me whilst replying that he couldn't help - the only option was to send the phone for repair.. i explained that he has a legal obligation to either replace the goods, or repair them within an acceptable time frame, but he was of the opinion that o2 policy supercedes the law, and all he could offer was the repair..
amazingly, i was still calm at this point - the poor chap only works in an o2 store, so in fairness i couldn't expect him to be fully versed in the Sale of Goods Act 1979.. he then pointed to one of the young girls serving a customer next to him and said she was a "trained lawyer," and that he was definitely right.. she looked horrified, and said she was only a "law student," and under no circumstances was she allowed to offer legal advice.. in fact, doing so could jeopardise her future law career, and she clearly wasn't impressed that the bumbling idiot she was forced to call Boss was trying to use her as leverage!
i then played what i thought was my trump card.. i explained that, regardless of the legalities of the situation, i'd appreciate his help getting this sorted, as in addition to getting a new phone for my missus i was intending to sign up for a new o2 contract myself.. my current Orange contract runs out at the end of August, and i was intending to move to o2 so me & ms. dirtybobby could phone each other for free.. obviously, i would be reluctant to make this move if i thought i was going to have this sort of trouble every time i run into a spot of bother! i assumed this new information would change his tune, as i know mobile phone companies drop their pants at the thought of luring customers away from their competitors.. alas, this was not the case!
it was obvious by this point that we were not going to get anywhere.. he had that look on his face that poor customer service managers have when they are convinced they are right and steadfastly refuse to listen to reason.. even though we wanted to give him more money for a more expensive PAYG handset for ms. dirtybobby, and even though i wanted to switch from orange and sign up to an expensive o2 contract on the spot, he wasn't willing to budge.. he asked if i wanted him to call a senior manager, quickly adding that he would only "confirm what i am telling you".. if that is the case, what is the point of his role if he is just going to unilaterally agree with everything this bell end says, without considering the specifics of the situation??
this post is far longer than i intended, and i'm boring myself now so i'll stop.. suffice to say, the only thing we left the store with is the broken phone we walked in with, and the name of the manager in question, which will be going in a letter to o2 with recommendations that he receives some kind of training in basic customer handling..
tl;dr = don't shop in the stafford o2 store.. all their staff want to do is sell you an iphone, and the manager honestly believes that o2 policy supercedes consumer law..