Poor quality phone repair. What to do?

What to do if your phone is repaired poorly

If you send your phone in for repair, you naturally expect that after repair it will work like new again. However, you may find that the phone was repaired poorly, as a result of which other shortcomings or other factors appeared that did not allow it to work in normal mode. What to do in this case? This category of disputes relates to the protection of consumer rights, therefore you, as a consumer who has received a poor-quality service, have the right to demand that the deficiencies be corrected or a refund.

“Every day there are only promises”: what to do if the service takes your broken equipment and does not return it

The editorial office of 66.RU was contacted by a client of the Robot 96 store, who for six months now has not been able to repair a robot vacuum cleaner under warranty. As Evgeny Zavyalov said, he bought a cleaning device in April last year. A few months later the device broke down and he sent it in for warranty repair.

Evgeny Zavyalov, owner of the robot vacuum cleaner:

— After two or three weeks, I was informed that, based on the diagnostic results, it was necessary to replace the main on/off switch of the device and that the part had been ordered for me. After that, I listened to the same thing for two months. They told me that the spare part had been ordered and would arrive soon, but there was no movement, the vacuum cleaner remained in service.

It was possible to move the situation forward only after many negative reviews on various sites. After this, a repaired vacuum cleaner was finally delivered to Evgeniy. Although it did not work for long: it turned out that the fault was never fixed. As a result, the head of the company offered to replace the broken device with a new one (of a different model), but after a month and a half he still did not fulfill his promise.

Judging by the reviews on specialized websites, Evgeniy is not the only one who could not get his equipment out of service for several months. Similar situations periodically occur in other companies. Therefore, 66.RU has compiled instructions for those who cannot repair their equipment under warranty. We tell you what to do, where to go for help and what punishment an unscrupulous seller faces.

Keep track of deadlines

By law, if equipment breaks down during the warranty period, the service has the right to repair it within 45 days. So, it is necessary to keep track of the time during which your device is being repaired. To prevent a store or service center from artificially extending the repair period, you need to make sure that when handing over the equipment, you are given a receipt or an act of acceptance of the goods for repair, which will indicate the date, name and completeness of the goods, a description of its appearance and quality claims.

If the equipment has not been returned to you within a month and a half, it makes sense to contact the seller again. Rospotrebnadzor advises to make a different demand: return the money for the product (within 10 days) or exchange the device for a new one (within 20 days). It is better to write a claim addressed to the head of the company, and draw up the document in two copies. One must be given personally to the manager, secretary or person responsible for receiving correspondence, against signature (indicating the date of delivery and the seal of the organization). Another option is to send one copy of the claim to the organization by registered mail with notification.

The department gives the same advice to Evgeniy, who was returned a vacuum cleaner that was still not working. “You need to write a second complaint to the seller. In the application, indicate that during operation the same defect was revealed again. In this case, you can demand to carry out repairs again or replace the product with a new one,” Rospotrebnadzor explained. A sample application can be found on the department's website.

Go to court

If the seller does not respond to a repeated application, refuses to repair the equipment or holds it hostage, you can go to court. Lawyer of the Sverdlovsk Regional Guild of Lawyers, partner of the Legal Group Dmitry Zagainov advises not to delay filing a claim. You must go to court at your place of residence, but the agreement may change the jurisdiction at the location of the seller.

To prove your case in court, arm yourself with all the documents that you have in your hands, including a receipt for the purchase of the goods (or a copy of it, if the original was picked up at the service center), copies of claims addressed to the seller, and a receipt or certificate of acceptance of the goods at repair.

Be prepared for the fact that the court will require a lot of time and money from you. Thus, it may be necessary to conduct a forensic examination. “Its cost depends on many factors, so there is no clear pricing. As a rule, forensic examination starts from 15 thousand rubles. The most expensive examination cost 140 thousand rubles,” clarifies Dmitry Zagainov.

Dmitry Zagainov, lawyer of the Sverdlovsk Regional Guild of Lawyers:

— The cost of a lawyer’s services will depend on the level of complexity of the case. The price range averages from 30 to 70 thousand rubles. for the first instance. There may be an hourly payment: 5 thousand rubles or more per hour of work of a professional representative.

By law, the trial must last two months. However, in fact, the period may increase, because there may be a need to conduct a forensic examination. You also need to understand that the court decision will not immediately enter into force: the losing party will have a month to file an appeal. Based on the results of consideration of the complaint, the decision comes into force, and the court of first instance issues a writ of execution to enforce the court decision. So, in fact, the consumer can receive a final judicial act after 5–6 months, and only then will it take time for enforcement proceedings.

Call for help

Not only lawyers, but also, for example, public organizations for the protection of consumer rights can help a deceived client. One of them is the Municipal Budgetary Institution “Ekaterinburg Municipal Center for Consumer Protection”. There the victim will be advised and helped to draw up a statement of claim. You can contact specialists at Malysheva, 31a, office 211 or via email [email protected] .

Contact regulatory authorities

In addition to the court, the client can contact the prosecutor’s office and Rospotrebnadzor with a request to conduct an inspection, says Dmitry Zagainov. Also, the victim can file a demand in court to involve Rospotrebnadzor to give an opinion so that experts can express their opinion: whether consumer rights have been violated or not.

An application to the prosecutor's office can be submitted through the department's online reception. In the message you must indicate the prosecutor's office to which you are contacting (select one of the proposed options in the drop-down menu, for example, the Chkalovsky District Prosecutor's Office). Then write your full name, address or email and the essence of the appeal. It is also advisable to attach documents confirming your words.

You can also call Rospotrebnadzor for help through the website. The same must be indicated in the appeal. However, if you want the agency to conduct an unscheduled inspection of your complaint, you will need to undergo authorization in the Unified Identification and Authentication System (USIA).

Wait for justice

The punishment for an unscrupulous seller will depend on the type of violation. For example, according to Article 23 of the “Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights”, if the seller did not manage to fulfill the consumer’s demand for repair or replacement of goods on time, he must pay the client a penalty (penalty) in the amount of 1% of the price of the goods for each day of delay.

If the seller provided the consumer with incomplete or incorrect information about the product and because of this, the client’s property (or health) was damaged, the seller will have to compensate for the losses.

The seller faces a more serious penalty for deceiving the client. If he weighed, measured or shortchanged the consumer, he will have to pay a fine of 20 to 50 thousand rubles. Misleading a client regarding the consumer properties of a product is punishable by a fine of 100–500 thousand rubles. (Article 14.7 of the Administrative Code).

Claim procedure

The main thing is that you have in your hands a contract for the provision of repair services, or a receipt or check for repairs, in general, any document confirming the delivery of the phone for repair.

The procedure is as follows:

you must first write a complaint to the person who performed the poor-quality phone repair,
in which you indicate that the phone still does not work, or other shortcomings have appeared.
And depending on the situation, ask either for a refund or to fix problems with the phone.

There are then two options:

You get your money back or the shortcomings are corrected.
You are denied or do not respond to your complaint.

What to do if your refund is refused

But still, more often than not, the company refuses to satisfy the requirements specified in the letter of claim. In this case, the person whose phone was repaired poorly must start collecting evidence in his favor.

Papers to be collected:

agreement on repair work (household order);
a receipt confirming the fact of payment of money for repairs;
acceptance certificate (it would be good if it indicated all the shortcomings that were discovered after poor-quality repair work);
a claim with a note that it was handed to an employee of the company.

In addition, it is important to organize an examination of the quality of the work performed. This will need to be done by the customer himself. To get a conclusion, the phone owner first needs to contact an expert organization.

Judicial order

If you cannot reach an agreement voluntarily, then you go to court. You are preparing a statement of claim to the court, in which you write that you sent the phone for repair due to the fact that the speaker broke, for example, but after the repair the speaker still does not work.

To confirm your position, you can order an independent examination to determine whether the phone was properly repaired or not. And you attach the expert’s report to the claim.
Also, as an attachment, you attach documents confirming the repair (agreement, checks, acts or receipts). State duty is not paid in such disputes.
As demands, you ask to recover the money spent for repairs, you can also collect a penalty for violation of your requirements in pre-trial order (3% of the contract value multiplied by the number of days of delay), a fine in favor of the consumer and compensation for moral damages.

At the trial, the defendant himself will have to prove the fact that he did his job of repairing the phone efficiently and provide evidence for this.

Court with repair service based on service quality

If the claim is not satisfied, you will need to go to court. Please note that the court will have to present clear facts and evidence of violation of your consumer rights.

Also, do not forget that when going to court, you have the right to additionally demand that the seller pay a penalty under the law on the protection of consumer rights, as well as moral damages. The specified penalty directly depends on the amount of the amount that the court will collect in your favor.

Additionally, it is worth noting that a mobile phone is a complex device, so most likely, in order to resolve the dispute in your favor, it will be necessary to conduct an independent examination, which should identify the breakdown and determine the cause of its occurrence, if the breakdown occurred due to poor-quality operation on your part.

If you have any problems, you should enlist the support of well-proven specialists with extensive experience in the field of interest to you. Then you will be one hundred percent sure of a positive result.

Practice

A client contacted us for a consultation because his iPhone was broken (the sensor didn’t work) and he sent it in for repair. After the repair, he discovered that the screen was broken, the back of the phone was scratched, and the sensor began to work, but very slowly . His claim was refused and they said that the damage was present when the phone was delivered, however, when the phone was handed over, a report was drawn up, which reflected that only the sensor did not work, and the screen and back panel were undamaged.

The statement of claim reflected these circumstances, attached an act and an agreement for repairing the phone, and a receipt for payment.
At the trial, the defendant was unable to object to the claims,
his request to order an examination was rejected, since the court had enough documents confirming the poor quality of the phone repair,
and a positive decision was made to recover the money spent on repairs and for the damage caused.

Where can I go to get a replacement cell phone product?

Of course, if the gadget is still under warranty, we contact only official services for appropriate service. However, they are not always able to accept a broken phone and return the money for it. It is also not offered to exchange a broken device for a new one. However, you have the right to contact not only the service center, but also the seller or manufacturer of the product. You should not forget about this, especially considering that the warranty given by the store for the product may not coincide with the warranty given by the manufacturer.

What are the dangers of broken glass for your phone?

Broken glass is dangerous for several reasons, they are as follows:

the display does not respond to touch, the module stops working and reads finger touches, so you cannot use the phone for its intended purpose;
broken glass particles can damage the internal equipment of the phone; replacing microcircuits and other parts sometimes costs more than the gadget itself;
Moisture gets inside the case, broken glass breaks the seal of the device, due to which it can no longer contain dust and moisture, a short circuit may occur and the phone can no longer be helped.

In any case, even if the damage is minor, it is recommended to immediately take the smartphone for repair. Replacing the glass will allow you to continue to use the functions of the device without worrying about its operation.

Actions in case of non-warranty damage to the screen of Apple equipment

After a problem has occurred, the first thing you need to do is find out whether the warranty period for the Apple device has expired. Of course, the warranty does not cover a broken screen resulting from a fall on asphalt, but this is important because after a fall, almost any component of the device can be damaged, even the processor. For example, after replacing the glass on an iPad in an inexpensive workshop, the warranty will automatically be canceled after such an “invasion.” To maintain the warranty period, you must contact an authorized reseller who has received permission to repair equipment and has original spare parts in its arsenal.

How much can a store demand from me for a damaged replacement fund?

There are 2 options here.

The phone is lost, stolen, hopelessly damaged. When issuing a replacement phone, the store indicates its estimated value in the receipt. In the event that the phone is completely lost or cannot be restored, you will most likely have to reimburse the cost of the replacement phone indicated on the receipt. Do you think it's overpriced? The issue will have to be resolved through an examination and court. The store must prove the adequacy of the phone's valuation and the amount of its losses.
The phone just broke. Let's say you break the screen of a replacement smartphone. In general, it remained working, and the problem is easily solved by replacing the screen. In this case, you can only reimburse the store for the cost of the broken screen and its replacement. By the way, you have every right to repair the replacement phone yourself at your own expense and return the already repaired phone to the store. If the store still insists on refunding the full price of the broken replacement phone, you have the right to take it back for yourself.