Acceptable Mobile Phone Repair Time

CacheHunter on 06/02/2017 - 22:37

Hi, I'm after some advice as to what a reasonable repair time is on a mobile phone under warranty.
Up until 2 weeks ago, I loved everything about my 9 month old Nexus 5X, the pure android experience, the rear fingerprint sensor, decent camera, … That is, until I woke up one morning and discovered that my phone had put itself into bootloop overnight.
Monday last week , I returned it to JB for repair. They advised that as their stock came from Telstra (even though outright & unlocked), they would return it to Telstra and that I'd probably get a replacement brand new phone in about a week, and possibly even by that Friday.
Today I followed up with JBto get an ETA on the repair or replacement. Apparently Telstra and LG have such a massive backlog at the moment that they hadn't even recorded receiving it on their online system (according to JB, they received it on the Tuesday). Also, Telstra and LG are now being evasive on repair times because they have run out of stock of replacements and are having trouble sourcing new motherboards to do repairs. The best that the JB staff could get out of them was 'possibly a couple of weeks'. Meanwhile, I'm without my phone.

I'm hoping that I get some news soon, but what is a reasonable time to wait? I realise that warranty repairs will take time, but also don't want to get stuck waiting for a month without a phone and only then thinking about my next step.

Have others had similar experiences with warranty repairs? If so, how long did you wait? Was there anything you could do to speed the process up? What are my rights if the repair drags on because of the Telstra/LG backlog?

Mobile

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apple2016 on 07/02/2017 - 00:18

+2

You have the right to request refund as well as it is a major failure.
Get the refund and buy a new one.
- CacheHunter on 09/02/2017 - 12:38
  
  I tried thee refund option. JB in the Stands Arcade Sydney are claiming that a bootloop isn't a major fault. As it is more than 3 months since I bought the phone, repair is my only option. Explaining that a phone should be able to turn on and at least make calls to be merchantability quality just seemed to annoy them.
  Looks like I'll be off to fair trading
  - apple2016 on 09/02/2017 - 13:41
    
    JB in the Stands Arcade Sydney are claiming that a bootloop isn't a major fault.
    
    bootloop is major fault as you cannot make a phone call.
    Contact ACCC and they would be able to guide you.
    Also remember you might not get the full cost you paid as refund.
    As you were able to use the mobile for 9 months JBHiFi might be allowed to deduct depreciation.
    ACCC should be able to give you the details.
Gunther on 07/02/2017 - 09:46

My Samsung Galaxy S3 took 7 weeks for repair through Office Works back in the day.
CacheHunter on 10/02/2017 - 21:33

Update: The manager at JB did what he could to find out what was going from Telstra. However Telstra don't seem to have any process for checking where things are up to. The final outcome was that JB eventually agreed to a refund once it became clear that there was no way to know if I'd be waiting days or weeks or months.

In hindsight, it appears that my bad experience was because the phone I bought was sold as a Telstra reseller. Therefore, the lesson I took away was to check with JB who the real seller is. If JB sell on their own account, they handle repairs and can chase things up. Unfortunately, there's no way to check if a phone is a Telstra supplied phone without asking at the time of purchase.

Bottom line was final outcome was good service recovery from a bad situation where they were in the dark and seemed to be getting conflicting messages early on from Telstra.
solomon997 on 14/02/2017 - 12:33

Good on you newdad.

Acceptable Mobile Phone Repair Time

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