Dodgy Nexus 6P. Accept a free repair or push for a refund at VCAT?

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Mobileciti

• 

  poboy on 09/03/2018 - 09:08

  This is a common approach taken by grey importers. They ignore fair trading - and fair trading have no power. If you were to pay your money and go to VCAT, I wouldn't trust that they admit fault when examining the unit, in which case you would have to go and get an independent assessment and try and recoup the costs. All a nightmare. I don't trust grey importers for phones.

  • 

    ashanrath on 09/03/2018 - 09:37

    +1

    I should add here, that Huawei has already performed the assessment and confirmed it was a faulty motherboard. They quoted $350 to repair.

    And while MobileCiti may not listen to Fair Trading, they are an Australian business and would have to comply with any VCAT ruling.

• 

  angelkulit025 on 09/03/2018 - 09:11

  the best course of action is to accept repair and sell.

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  NotAnAudiophile on 09/03/2018 - 09:12

  No way in hell a 6P is worth $200 used. A new Axon 7, local stock from Officeworks went for $299 recently.

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  JimmyF on 09/03/2018 - 09:47

  -1

  Mobileciti, so its a grey import.

  You have your repair, you won't get a full refund on a 14 month old device. Accept the repair, keep it as a spare phone or sell it.

  • 

    z10cvbnm on 09/03/2018 - 11:14

    +3

    Thought Mobileciti does not sell grey import.

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  picklewizard on 09/03/2018 - 10:45

  +2

  You're only entitled to a repair. Take it and be happy.

  • 

    ashanrath on 09/03/2018 - 11:19

    +1

    I'm actually surprised to read this one. Under ACL consumers are entitled to a refund where a major fault has occurred, within a reasonable period. Are you disagreeing with 13 months being a reasonable period for the handset?

    • 

      picklewizard on 09/03/2018 - 11:21

      +1

      Oh, definitely well outside. I would have said a month, maybe 2, is a reasonable period. The item is well and truly used after 13 months.

      The word 'reasonable' is massively open to interpretation but this isn't even slightly grey :)

      • 

        ashanrath on 09/03/2018 - 11:25

        +1

        Er, I'm not sure you're correct on this one. It's not being about used, but about being of reasonable quality. That's why HP got some massive fines last year for not accepting warranty claims after 12 months. They had to put advertising on their website specifically for Australian warranties. Generally speaking, ACL warranty extends beyond manufacturer limitation.

        From the ACCC:

        Your rights under the consumer guarantees do not have a specific expiry date and can apply even after any warranties you’ve got from a business have expired.

      • 

        whooah1979 on 09/03/2018 - 11:37

        @ashanrath:

        Reasonable should be based on the price. A $600 item should have a consumer guarantee of half of a $1200 item, with 12-months being the minimum.

      • 

        picklewizard on 09/03/2018 - 11:51

        @ashanrath: Yes a warranty - absolutely - but not a refund.

        You must be seriously kidding yourself if you think you can get a full refund on something 13 months after purchase where a repair has been offered.

      • 

        JimmyF on 09/03/2018 - 11:58

        @ashanrath: yeah nah…. This isn't a major fault. Its a fault that the OEM is willing to fix and the phone will be working as it was before hand.

      • 

        ashanrath on 09/03/2018 - 12:00

        @picklewizard: Full refund, sure I'd like but don't expect. They refused to consider any refund whatsoever. Would have been more than happy to accept 50%.

      • 

        ashanrath on 09/03/2018 - 12:01

        @whooah1979: Which is where it gets interesting. The cheaper model (32GB) was sold with a 24 month warranty. Go figure?

      • 

        whooah1979 on 09/03/2018 - 12:04

        @ashanrath:

        Is the 32gb grey import or local stock?

      • 

        ashanrath on 09/03/2018 - 12:05

        @whooah1979: AFAIK, these are all local stock, as Fair Trading has been dealing with Huawei Australia. All sold with local warranty advertised.

      • 

        ashanrath on 09/03/2018 - 12:08

        @JimmyF:

        Cherry picking from the ACCC:

        A product or good has a major problem when:
        it has a problem that would have stopped someone from buying it if they’d known about it

        This is the same fault that Huawei is currently facing a class action lawsuit for in the states. The 6P runs a big.little SOC. The big cores are pretty much a ticking time bomb. Common theory at the moment is either bad SoC design or bad soldering.

        I'm worried that if I go for the repair option, it could die again within a month. Then what?

      • 

        JimmyF on 09/03/2018 - 12:22

        @ashanrath: Oh yes you are cherry picking indeed.

        That ACCC quote can be used for ANY fault for ANY product if you think about it.

        The fact is, this fault with the unit can be fixed without much fanfare, so it isn't a 'major' fault in the eyes of the ACCC, and the OEM is willing to fix it.

        My Nexus 5x died with the SAME fault, I sent it for repair, they received it, fixed it and sent it out that day. It was gone for about 4 days from when I posted it, to when it was returned to me.

        Continue to bang your drum, but it doesn't make it true.

      • 

        picklewizard on 09/03/2018 - 12:39

        @ashanrath: Repairs are usually warrantied for a period of time.

      • 

        wordplay on 09/03/2018 - 19:47

        how long should my $200 smart phone last then, 2 days a week?

      • 

        whooah1979 on 09/03/2018 - 22:13

        @wordplay:

        The manufacturer or retailer should have this information on their website or it can be found in the manual.

• 

  Raaman on 09/03/2018 - 12:59

  Well the 32Gb phone basically came on contract with the telecom guys like Optus and Vodafone that's why it was on a 24 month warranty. I had so many issues with my Nexus 6P (in warranty) neither optus, nor Google nor Hauwei took responsibility for fixing my device, at one point Optus asked me to cancel the contract and pay $177 for retaining the phone, or give them the phone back and go empty-handed, As an international student I was left with no choice other than to take the phone n pay them, it was a rip off. I called up Google and they were like we can't do anything on this contact Hauwei. When I called Hauwei they asked me to send the phone and pay $200 for replacing my battery, whose original cost is only $10-18. I feel all off them ripped me off my time and money completely. I still face problems with this phone the battery is terrible.

  • 

    ashanrath on 09/03/2018 - 13:11

    +1

    It's such a shame too, other than the battery and bootloop issues it's an amazing phone. I would have been quite happy to keep using it for a few more years.

• 

  whoisjimmy on 09/03/2018 - 13:12

  +1

  I signed up just so I could post my 2 cents.

  I had the exact same thing happen to me last year. Nexus 6P was much closer to 24 months, around 21 months I think. I bought it outright from Virgin for $749 immediately upon release in late 2015.

  I took it in, Virgin sent it off to be reviewed. I concurrently contacted Huawei as their website offers 24 month overage when you supply IEM and you can check the warranty status with them.

  Meanwhile Virgin declined any repairs as the back casing had a small dent in it and they claimed it was the cause of the boot loop. Huawei suggested I take my issue up with my point of sale first. So I pushed further.

  I subsequently bombarded Virgin with material on the following arguments (errr not in this order, typing on mobile):
  * HUAWEI are facing the class action lawsuit (mentioned by other posts) and the reported issue falls under the same branch of issues - faulty SoC. It is a known issue and as such a refund through my POS is reasonable. It is up to them to chase their money with Huawei over a poor product (loved the phone, but SoC issue is fatal)
  * When the phone was first made for sale by Virgin (and other retailers) it was made available on up to 24 and 36 month plans. This suggests ALL retailers (including Virgin) were happy and felt it reasonable to offer the device over a period of contract and subsequently provide the warranty for it. Hence my standard 12 month protection can be reasonably assumed to be extended to what they themselves were offering. I purchased at a time when this was what they were offering and can reasonably expect that it would apply to me.
  * I requested categorical proof that the small dent in the rear casing had caused the issue and had voided the warranty. I didn't send, but had lined up all the information from teardowns identifying which hardware lay behind the affected part of the panel (not the SoC) and how the dent couldn't affect the boot process.
  * All the links to ACCC about "reasonable periods" etc etc to further reiterate that the phone should last a decent amount of time as long as it hasn't been tampered or mistreated. (no cracks or major cosmetic issues with the rest of the phone - was in a wear and tear condition to be reasonably expected from a used phone which has been well looked after)

  TLDR - Virgin offered me a like-for-like replacement of current phones ($500-600 Oppos and things) or a full refund (I took the refund and bought an LG V30). Received a cheque in the mail a few weeks later and it all cleared.

  $749 for a physical item that doesn't have moving pieces should reasonably be expected to last a few years. The guy above arguing a 2 week phone is done and dusted under warranty is talking nonsense.

• 

  OzFrugie on 09/03/2018 - 22:23

  When you guys said bootloop, do you mean that the phone cannot go pass boot process hence not functional?
  Does that always happen or random (sometimes works sometimes doesnt)?

  I have the same phone but never had bootloop issue (touchwood) but suffered premature sudden shutdown at around 20-40% battery capacity randomly.
  Changed the battery helps a lot but not 100% as it seems it sometimes still happens during hdr+ photo processing after i take photos.
  Rare but happens..

  • 

    ashanrath on 10/03/2018 - 07:07

    Nah, I've definitely got the SoC issue. Happens on mains power too. Confirmed SoC issue by service centre.

    • 

      whoisjimmy on 10/03/2018 - 14:35

      There's a lot of posts online about it, just look up on Reddit or Google search it. The SoC design on a host of products including the Nexus 5X, 6P and I think the LG G6 to name a handful (mostly LG manufactured I think?) all had similar multi core designs and suffered bootloop issues.

      Bootloop is literally phone turned off and never boots back into Android. Screen turns on and vibrates or whatever but then powers off again. Nexus 6P did have known battery issues too.

• 

  witsa on 10/03/2018 - 13:01

  I went though the same thing. Bought a nexus 6p from mobileciti. Within the warranty, battery started dying. This was a known issue with the 6p.

  Mobileciti isn't grey import but they might as well be. I was happy with a repair as long as it was within a reasonable time. But Huawei was so slow. Think it took about 2.5 months and the whole time mobileciti refused to give me a refund.

  I even contacted fair trading. They acknowledged two months is definitely too long to wait for a repair but also admitted they couldn't actually do anything. Best they could do is mediate to come up with a solution.
  Turns out all these consumer protection laws really don't mean crap.

  In the end, Huawei couldn't repair it. They ended up giving me a mate 9. Heaps better than the 6p in my opinion. Not worth waiting 2 months though.

  They won't be able to fix your 6p. There's an underlying flaw and they don't make new ones. So you'll likely get a mate 9 or 10 depending on whether what they're still making.