Frustration as Nokia Lumia acts up

Cape Town - Smartphones can be temperamental when they decide to act up. Fin24 users have shared their nightmare stories of breakdowns and the often poor after sales service that accompanied it.

Shaun van Zyl had serious issues with a Nokia, the brand long considered to have mastered build quality. Response to user Anton Mostert's smartphone nightmare, Van Zyl wrote:

I bought my Nokia Lumia 1020 in December 2013 on contract from Vodacom, and in June 2014 it started giving issues.
 
The phone would randomly reset itself, sometimes while I’m using it or when I’m on a call. This issue got progressively worse and eventually the phone would switch off completely and not be able to come back on, even when charging.
 
I took my phone in to Vodashop in Norwood JHB, they sent it to the Vodacom Repair Shop in Sandton, and from there it went to the repair centre. It was booked in for about 2 weeks.
 
Upon collection, the phone battery was completely drained, so we could not test it in the shop. I took it with me and charged it at the office, but when I tried switching it on, it still did not work as it should. I took it home and charged it there for about 4 hours, it came on but only for a short period (about one hour) and then switched off again (with about 98% battery power left) and I could not switch it on at all.
 
I took the phone back again, where they said that they will send it to the advanced repair centre, and that it would take another 7 to 14 working days. But when the phone came back, it still had the same issue and a report that said "no fault found".
 
I had to book in the phone another two times after that, and every time I got the phone back it had the same issue. In August I received my phone, again with a report stating there was no fault found.

It has not gone off to the point that it won't come on again, but it still restarts randomly and sometimes will charge for hours and as soon as I remove the charger it says the battery is critically low. I mentioned it to the Vodashop staff before, but they keep saying that nothing is wrong. I'm assuming the phone was designed to act this way.
 
I have asked about replacing the phone, and the response was that if they find a fault on the phone, they could then try to motivate for a replacement, although it's not guaranteed.
 
I decided to research the problem on my own, and suspect that the battery or battery sensor is faulty, and currently I'm looking into prices from smaller repair shops on replacing the battery.
 
It's scary that a large company such as Vodacom has technicians that cannot figure out or detect a problem on a phone, and then still have the audacity to say that nothing is wrong. Apparently they had also sent the phone back to the manufacturer, which also could not determine a fault. The fact remains that the phone does not work as it should.
 
The only person from Vodacom that actually understood my dilemma of paying for something I don't have the pleasure of using was a person by the name of Shafiek Wyngaard. He offered that Vodacom would load a credit note on my account for the 2 months that it was being "repaired". I appreciate this effort, but it does not change the fact that I still have to use a phone that might go off at any moment, and possibly even in a moment of need.
 
A simple search on Hellopeter revealed many similar cases, all unanswered, as Vodacom merely does not care about its customers.
 
PS: Try to locate a complaints address or any type of email address for complaints or escalations, I was searching everywhere and if it was not for me insisting on contact information of a manager, I would probably still be waiting to receive a broken phone again.
 
My current status: Phone still not working as it should, and I will probably be trying to fix it myself or at a smaller repair shop, meaning that my warranty will be void (not that it meant anything before that in any case).

Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.