Current Events > Getting a new phone in the UK is an absolute fucking nightmare. (rant)

(+) Yeah! (+)

So after many years I finally embraced my inner teenage girl and smashed my phone screen. The phone seemed to work okay but it's hard to tell for sure and was getting old anyway, plus the screen was a nightmare to use with the cracks. Especially typing.

So I thought "No problem, I'll get it repaired. I'm insured."

What a fool be I

Took it to the place, had to spend ages talking to the dude about what happened and confirming my indentity, the phone, my account number, my security code etc. Then had to spend ages again doing the exact same thing on the phone with the insurance guys.

Then they said there's a 20 excess charge. Which pretty much fucking defeats the point of having insurance and I'm pretty sure any backdoor "We unlock phones - no questions asked." phone shop could fix that for less.

But whatever, sunk cost fallacy I just wanted the ordeal over and my phone back.

Then they say "DPD will come tomorrow and pick up your phone. They could up any point all day so you can't leave the house. It'll take 5 days to fix, then we'll send it back." so I lose my phone for a week. "Also you need to factory reset your phone and take out the sim/memory card or they won't take it."

Which is a pain in the ass but okay. I agree to it, the guy says once I agree it can't be canceled. I say okay. Then after all that the clerk in the shop (who has been staring at me while looking at my details for over an hour straight while we discuss it) THEN goes "BTW you're due a free upgrade so why not just get that instead of bothering to fix this one?"

And it's like "Well it's too fucking late now, why didn't you say that the moment you looked at my details?" but whatever. So I go home, book the next day off work to wait for the dude and with a broken screen back everything up, take out the bits, factory reset it. Whatever it's done.

Next day waiting, waiting waiting. No one turns up. I check out the details on the tracking information they gave me and it says "Oh the phone wasn't ready so we couldn't collect it." even though it was ready and no fucker turned up. (This is indisputable, I have to buzz you in to get into my complex. It is literally impossible that someone turned up and I wasn't there. I even buzzed in an unrelated courier)

They give me the runaround and won't even say if they're gonna come back another day or what.

So I say fuck it, go back to the shop. get the free 'upgrade' I don't even want (which is an extra 6.50($10) a month for nothing I even want) whatever, I need a damn phone.

Then I need to get my data back from the previous phone. Which I can't do because it requires a two step verification that sends a code by text to your phone but since it's a new phone with a new sim (and the number is transfered from the old sim) it can't accept messages until I finish the installation or it won't accept the old number on the new sim and I can't finish the installation until I pass the two step code for security purposes.

A problem from the forums they seem to have been aware of for years but doesn't care.

Luckily I'm incredibly smart so when I backed up my data, I didn't just back it up to the Cloud I backed it up physically too. Then I use that (which still lost my data on apps that block copying)

So finally got that sorted but I still couldn't recieve texts so I had to get that sorted and get my phone back to the way I wanted. Which took days.

Insurance guys say they canceled the repair but will still charge the excess even though they never turned up. So now I gotta give up on that 20 or spend more time fighting them as they are as unhelpful as humanly possible.

I'm behind a day at work, Now down 6.50 every month. I spent several days without a phone or at least with half a phone. And wasted enormous amounts of time faffing about.

Insurance is a fucking con man. Every single step of this has been a joke.

And just to add icing onto the cake, when I got my phone upgraded the clerk was throwing shade like "Maybe try and see that hopefully this one lasts longer hmm?" and it's like "Motherfucker the previous phone lasted many years and the problem was a smashed screen, wtf kind of attitude is that? You're talking like I dipped it in custard and threw it at a cat on day 3"

So much for loyalty man. In retrospect I regret not canceling everything and just going new with someone else.

Charlie Cutter was right man

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You still pretending to live in the UK? @UnfairRepresent

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I had a very similar experience with buying a new phone. So after many years I finally embraced my inner teenage girl and smashed my phone screen. The phone seemed to work okay but it's hard to tell for sure and was getting old anyway, plus the screen was a nightmare to use with the cracks. Especially typing.

So I thought "No problem, I'll get it repaired. I'm insured."

What a fool be I

Took it to the place, had to spend ages talking to the dude about what happened and confirming my indentity, the phone, my account number, my security code etc. Then had to spend ages again doing the exact same thing on the phone with the insurance guys.

Then they said there's a 20 excess charge. Which pretty much fucking defeats the point of having insurance and I'm pretty sure any backdoor "We unlock phones - no questions asked." phone shop could fix that for less.

But whatever, sunk cost fallacy I just wanted the ordeal over and my phone back.

Then they say "DPD will come tomorrow and pick up your phone. They could up any point all day so you can't leave the house. It'll take 5 days to fix, then we'll send it back." so I lose my phone for a week. "Also you need to factory reset your phone and take out the sim/memory card or they won't take it."

Which is a pain in the ass but okay. I agree to it, the guy says once I agree it can't be canceled. I say okay. Then after all that the clerk in the shop (who has been staring at me while looking at my details for over an hour straight while we discuss it) THEN goes "BTW you're due a free upgrade so why not just get that instead of bothering to fix this one?"

And it's like "Well it's too fucking late now, why didn't you say that the moment you looked at my details?" but whatever. So I go home, book the next day off work to wait for the dude and with a broken screen back everything up, take out the bits, factory reset it. Whatever it's done.

Next day waiting, waiting waiting. No one turns up. I check out the details on the tracking information they gave me and it says "Oh the phone wasn't ready so we couldn't collect it." even though it was ready and no fucker turned up. (This is indisputable, I have to buzz you in to get into my complex. It is literally impossible that someone turned up and I wasn't there. I even buzzed in an unrelated courier)

They give me the runaround and won't even say if they're gonna come back another day or what.

So I say fuck it, go back to the shop. get the free 'upgrade' I don't even want (which is an extra 6.50($10) a month for nothing I even want) whatever, I need a damn phone.

Then I need to get my data back from the previous phone. Which I can't do because it requires a two step verification that sends a code by text to your phone but since it's a new phone with a new sim (and the number is transfered from the old sim) it can't accept messages until I finish the installation or it won't accept the old number on the new sim and I can't finish the installation until I pass the two step code for security purposes.

A problem from the forums they seem to have been aware of for years but doesn't care.

Luckily I'm incredibly smart so when I backed up my data, I didn't just back it up to the Cloud I backed it up physically too. Then I use that (which still lost my data on apps that block copying)

So finally got that sorted but I still couldn't recieve texts so I had to get that sorted and get my phone back to the way I wanted. Which took days.

Insurance guys say they canceled the repair but will still charge the excess even though they never turned up. So now I gotta give up on that 20 or spend more time fighting them as they are as unhelpful as humanly possible.

I'm behind a day at work, Now down 6.50 every month. I spent several days without a phone or at least with half a phone. And wasted enormous amounts of time faffing about.

Insurance is a fucking con man. Every single step of this has been a joke.

And just to add icing onto the cake, when I got my phone upgraded the clerk was throwing shade like "Maybe try and see that hopefully this one lasts longer hmm?" and it's like "Motherfucker the previous phone lasted many years and the problem was a smashed screen, wtf kind of attitude is that? You're talking like I dipped it in custard and threw it at a cat on day 3"

So much for loyalty man. In retrospect I regret not canceling everything and just going new with someone else.

Charlie Cutter was right man


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"I dipped it in custard and threw it at a cat"
Is a great line. Good luck with the new phone. What did you end up getting?

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The_Hat posted...

"I dipped it in custard and threw it at a cat"
Is a great line. Good luck with the new phone. What did you end up getting?

Samsung S22.

It was the cheapest upgrade they had to my previous phone. Which was fine. I didn't want to upgrade. Everything else was like 50+ a month.

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UnfairRepresent posted...

Samsung S22.

It was the cheapest upgrade they had to my previous phone. Which was fine. I didn't want to upgrade. Everything else was like 50+ a month.

Nice enjoy it, I used to use Galaxy but I switched over to Pixel. I'm sure you'll have your Galaxy for many years.

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nobody read your post.

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How is it a "free upgrade" when you are still paying for the phone?

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sutree posted...

How is it a "free upgrade" when you are still paying for the phone?

Usually they charge you an upfront cost when you start a new contract.

If it's a free upgrade due to customer loyalty then they don't.

IT's a way to keep you with them when your contract expires. You can just switch to a new phone and only pay the monlthy installments.

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TheVipaGTS posted...

nobody read your post.

I did!


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UnfairRepresent posted...

Usually they charge you an upfront cost when you start a new contract.

If it's a free upgrade due to customer loyalty then they don't.

IT's a way to keep you with them when your contract expires. You can just switch to a new phone and only pay the monlthy installments.

Why use a contract? Both insurance and contracts seem like scams. Just buy your phone.

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sutree posted...

Why use a contract? Both insurance and contracts seem like scams. Just buy your phone.

Yeah that's what Charlie Cutter says

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