Mobile phone warranties - best to buy handset directly or on contract?

[Freaki Li Cuatre]

3 are great. Until you need to talk to customer service

Yes, they are completely and utterly diabolical.

Last time I rang them ( my Christian name is James) I was treated to a little Indian humour.

"Can I call you Bond, sir? Mr James Bond?"

[The Spartan]

I bought my Nexus 4 direct from Google, a few weeks ago the volume rocker stopped working so I rang their Customer Service line and got through first time no waiting the guy on the other end of the phone was extremely knowledgeable about the handset and within 5 minutes issued a replacement. I cannot speakly highly enough of how good their customer service is.

[minestrone]

I am now of the opinion that it is better to hold a one month rolling contract and if you get any issue that requires more than 20 minutes speaking to customer services it is probably easier just to move networks.

[TheFaQQer]

There is no way I would get into a 2 year contract for a phone these days. The signal at our house went bad at Christmas and me and the woman still have problems, Orange have done fook all and I have moved to 3 this week, missus is stuck with 18 months left on her contract.

Sim only and buy direct works out cheaper I think.

3 are great. Until you need to talk to customer service

[scooterscot]

I've had a phone fail a couple of times. I rang T-Mobile and they had a replacement out to me the next working day.

You won't get that service if you buy it yourself -

Well I've had an iphone 4 fail on me with the power button getting sticky. Known issue. PAYG. They replaced it the same day walking into the store. Inside one year from purchase.

[minestrone]

There is no way I would get into a 2 year contract for a phone these days. The signal at our house went bad at Christmas and me and the woman still have problems, Orange have done fook all and I have moved to 3 this week, missus is stuck with 18 months left on her contract.

Sim only and buy direct works out cheaper I think.

[TheFaQQer]

I've had a phone fail a couple of times. I rang T-Mobile and they had a replacement out to me the next working day.

You won't get that service if you buy it yourself - one of the failures was a known fault that I had at the same time as norrahe. IIRC, she wasn't happy at having to wait while the vendor replaced it, whereas mine was ready to go the next day.

Second failure, the phone had stopped production, so T-Mobile asked if it was OK for them to send out the new model instead as a replacement.

I don't know how T-Mobile compares with any other provider in terms of customer service, though.

I'm currently on a SIM-only deal, having bought the phone direct from Google, and hoping that if it fails they will do a quick replacement.

[d000hg]

Doesn't insurance only cover it against theft and dropping... I'm thinking more about a failure which would surely come under warranty rather than insurance?
Do phone insurance policies promise instant replacement, or require you to send it away to be replaced/repaired after inspection - it seems to me any failure where you have to live without your phone for a week is pretty unacceptable.

Also - how come a phone isn't covered by household insurance?

[SaltyLevels]

Insure it from the get go.

[d000hg]

I'm looking to get a new mobile phone and the costs work out about the same to keep my SIM-only contract and buy a handset, or get a new contract which includes the phone.

However what are the differences in warranty? My wife's iPhone broke after 18 months and nobody was really sure who was at fault... the provider said it was Apple's problem but Apple said the provider sold the phone not them (which seems correct to me).


1)So it seems buying a phone directly makes it simpler in case of a fault - but does getting a phone on contract tend to offer additional/better cover?

2)If the seller is responsible for the warranty, does this mean you'd be better buying directly from Amazon (or another company with good customer service) than from the manufacturer directly?