Kathryn bought a mobile phone from her prepay phone provider’s store. She had no issues with the phone for over a year until she removed the phone from its protective casing and noticed there was a visible bend in the phone. Kathryn called her provider who offered to send it away for assessment by their authorised technicians, however, when she went to the store to hand it over was advised that it was doubtful that the phone would be replaced as Kathryn could not prove that the phone had not been damaged by an impact. Kathryn retained her phone and submitted a complaint to TDR.
During the initial steps of contact with TDR, Kathryn agreed to send her phone to the authorised phone technicians as neither her provider nor TDR staff have the technical skills to assess a damaged phone. A report was provided which claimed the damage caused to the phone was not manufacture related, and the phone had suffered impact damage.
Kathryn disputed that she had dropped her phone and did not accept the technicians report. The complaint was deadlocked and a TDR Resolution Practitioner was assigned.
The Resolution Practitioner discussed the complaint with both parties. They received further clarification regarding this model’s manufacture issues from the provider and clarified the provider’s obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act to Kathryn. Through these discussions both parties were able to reach an agreement on how to proceed and the matter was settled.