A bit of an issue

[AWA Training]

Hi All,

Hope all is well, i wonder if i might be able to get a bit of steer on a trading standards issue.

June just past, i knoow this because i believe we have a credit card transaction from the shop we are entering into dispute with. We took our sons mobile phone to a local repair shop. My son was having problems turning the phone on and off. Something he fixed for us. Had it an hour while he played. No charge! We thought, thats nice of him, defo use him again.

All went swimingly for a while, then my son had issues where he was unable to charge his phone now. It was taking ages to charge. So, yup, you guessed it, we returned with the phone.
It was decided after he kept it a while that a new batter was needed. We paid for that and when home content after we saw his phone seemed happy again.

Then problems started to occure again with charging, it wasnt taking charge, taking ages to charge. We were getting puzzed here as it was a new battery.
So yup, you guessed it, back we went.
Again, we left the phone with him, he realised the charging port might be the issue, but agreed this was on him. He kept the phone a coupld of days, then called us back.

Once again, the phone seemed fine, so offer went.
Then again, problems, the phone now wasnt easily powering up and as for charging, it was hit and miss, strange for a new port?

So, i ventured back for him to ask me to leave him for 15 mins to see how it went. As i expected he told me, it was charging find. I asked which charger he was using, maybe i needed one of those. He showed me, so i asked if he had one? no was the reply.
I found on on Amazon, but he was adamment, it wasnt said charger, so i left it.
He then ventured to explain it was an old phone and not up to what my son was doing with it.
He has an S20. and using it for gaming and chatting to his friends, so quite a lot of use. So he suggested another phone, which we could no way afford to spend at the time.

So, we moved on, not really sure what to do.

Anyhow, we decided to seek a second opinion, we visited another well known repairer who moved out of town (hence we did not initally bother him). But this time we decided to take a trip out.

Cutting a long story short, the other guy was fuming he advised the mobille has essentially been, sabotaged. All the wrong parts put in the mobile. Even a sticker to hinder the phone starting up. It sounded like a horror story.
This isnt what i wanted to believe, but its taken some work, new parts and another £60 bill to repaire whatt he other company did.

Needless to say i am very keen to take said company to a small claims court, but sandly, i did not ask for an invoice (it was a personal thing not business). But i do seem to have transactions on the credit card.

So question, if i ask the other guy to write a detailed report on what he found, could i reasonably take the other party to a small claims court?

I hope all that makes sense and thanks in advance.

 

[Newchodge]

Yes. Although you could also consider trading standards or the police as what was done appears criminal.

Your new expert would nedd not only to wrote a report but be willing to support it in court as a witness.

 

[IanSuth]

He would likely charge you for that report and it would then come down to whose evidence was believed - having been down this route with daughters Huawei and their own nominated repair service (who lost the phone for 2 weeks then said it was water damaged when it actually went in for an iffy screen) I would say - do your sums.

You can probably get a 2nd hand S20 for not a lot over £100 - what is the case going to cost you to get to a judgement (even if it goes your way and including your time spent) and what will you get back. I have decided that unless a phone is £500+ or under 2 years old I am now treating them as disposable electronics, most of the manufacturers use the same couple of "official repairers" for warranty claims which you have to use if under 2 years old and they are terrible, the local repair shops are a bit better but have no accreditation so you won't get back up from the manufacturer.

 

[AWA Training]

Thanks Guys, i have since spoken to the other guy who did repair the phone, he said two terminals were bent over to ensure the phone would not turn on and a sticker to prevent the button interacting with the motherboard, but as predicted, hes not willing to write a report as thats his time.
So its going to cost more time (and money) to persue this than the phone is worth and what we have to challenge. I will just settle for leaving bad reviews all over the place for him and never using him again.

 

[IanSuth]

Thanks Guys, i have since spoken to the other guy who did repair the phone, he said two terminals were bent over to ensure the phone would not turn on and a sticker to prevent the button interacting with the motherboard, but as predicted, hes not willing to write a report as thats his time.
So its going to cost more time (and money) to persue this than the phone is worth and what we have to challenge. I will just settle for leaving bad reviews all over the place for him and never using him again.

I suspected that would be outcome from my experience - in ours it was highly likely my daughters phone was left in a postoffice cage sat out in the weather on a loading dock for a fortnight during summer storms which is when damage occurred but as it was impossible to prove the damage occurred after they had it (how do you prove a broken phone was only damaged a certain way before the inspection to see how it was damaged )

 

[AWA Training]

Sadly its that burdon of proof thing all over isnt it?
We originally got the phone from CeX who in themselves have a dreadful reputation when it comes to dealing in phones and tablets etc.
Added to this guy, who seemed to be pushing us towards buying a new phone.
Since the other guy did the work, and i did speak to him today to ask. He advised that terminals on the motherboard were bent back to prevent the phone powering on.

He suggested i meet the bloke in the shop and ask him to speak to him. But i can tell how that would end up.
At the end of the day, bad reviews across social media and never use the bloody shop again for ANYTHING.
Sadly, the law always seems to favour the dishonest

 

[Porky]

Sounds like a lot of fuss over a mobile phone. The first guy may have genuinely tried to do his best, not convinced there was intent but clearly you think otherwise but even if it is the case is it worth the hassle - i don't really see an end game here if I'm totally honest, is it just a principle of it or a fight to recover £60?

I tend to find once something starts going on a mobile phone its the slippery slope frankly and just replace, I'm on the same page as @IanSuth and treat mobiles as a disposable electronic devices. You can get a decent Galaxy mobile for sub £100 all in, keep it three years before its starts playing up and replace it cheap as chips but i guess a lot of kids these days, like your son will want the latest high tech device for anything other than making calls which was the phones original intended purpose and you as parent end up paying silly money for it- that's life i guess.

Good luck to you anyhow but i would be more tempted to write a poor review, never go back and put it down to a poor experience.