Smart Platinum 7 cracked back cover repair £96 - alternatives?

[markbloke]

I bought my daughter a Vodafone Smart Platinum 7, which despite being covered by a silicone case has sustained a fractured glass back cover. No other damage to the edge of the phone or other evidence of abuse so I suspect it didn't take much effort but I accept it won't be covered by warranty. I've just gone into my local Vodafone branch and they've quoted me £96 to replace the back cover. This seems just slightly extortionate for a part which will cost at most £10 to be fitted to a phone worth £300 new. The back is literally the first thing you have to take off to repair anything.
I've looked on eBay but there are no spares available there. Being a Vodafone variant of the Alcatel One Touch Idol 4S I hoped that would be compatible but it seems not. Same story with the Blackberry variant.
Surely it's not the case that if you buy a Vodafone "flagship" phone you're actually just ensuring that they've got you over a barrel when it comes to support? Even if I'd bought an iPhone I could take it somewhere more competitive or fix it myself. Nobody is interested in supporting niche products like Vodafone's offerings. 
Has anybody found a source of spare parts for the Platinum 7 or even a third party offering competitive repairs?
I've certainly learned my lesson anyway, I'll never buy a Vodafone handset I can't afford to throw away after a few months.

[Sledgehammy]

Hi there,

I have the same problem and stance regarding future mobile purchases.

My battery has failed and due to the back glass being cracked I am not covered by the warranty.

This leaves me with a dud phone on contract for at least another 14 months or facing a minimun repair bill of £194

I feel really let down by Vodafone as the battery failing is obviosly a warranty reair issue.

Can I ask, did you manage to source a back for the phone? I need to try  to strip and repair myself but can't seem to source a back cover.

Thanks.

[markbloke]

Sorry for the delay in response, this went to my spam folder.
No, I never did find a source. I did find a Platinum 7 with failed sound and fingerprint sensor cheaply on eBay but before I got around to trying to transplant the back the original phone started to glitch, reboot and then fail to boot altogether. As it had a cracked back I couldn't be bothered to get a slap in the face from Vodafone's awful customer service telling me the warranty was now void. Instead I bought my daughter a second hand Galaxy S7 for £200 which still had a year of Samsung's excellent warranty to run (I know because I've used their warranty on previous occasions). I've also cancelled two out of my three Vodaphone contracts (third one will be cancelled in August) and hope never to have the misfortune of dealing with them again. Sorry not to have better news but you live and learn.

[hrym]

The problem is that the build and dismantle processes are broadly the same, regardless of the cost of the device.  The component costs between a flagship model and a budget one aren't that different, either.  The result is that a repair is proportionally higher the cheaper the phone is (in the case of true budget models, sometimes higher than the cost of replacement).

Network-branded models suffer all round from a lack of availability of 3rd party spares and accessories, so buying a broken one for spares and doing the job yourself is often the only option.  Unless you're experienced, you'll probably need a teardown guide and these may be less readily available, too.

In this case, the damage to the back may well have compromised the rigidity of the phone and led to the subsequent failure.

Some domestic insurance policies will cover mobile devices, but the inevitable excess and later premium hike may make a claim not worthwhile.

[markbloke]

The dismantle process for repairing the back is minimal by which I mean literally the minimum which can be done to carry out any kind of  repair. Removing the back takes five minutes with a heat gun. The glass back itself can have no more than a £10 cost from OEM. Charging a customer on contract £96 for such a repair is in my opinion extortionate, especially where Vodafone was pushing this phone as representing the best the company have to offer.
I'm afraid I don't buy the idea that the final failure of the phone was due to loss of structural integrity either. There are multiple instances of this phone falling into a reboot/failure to reboot cycle without evidence of physical trauma (This is rumoured to be repaired by a replacement battery by Vodafone). The phone I bought from eBay a a donor had failed sound and fingerprint sensor with no sign of physical trauma at all and no sign of water damage within.
Vodafone CS are notoriously duplicitous. I always ensure I record calls and request transcripts of online chats. I've had to use these in the past to evidence a promise of a free sure signal device and had to visit stores twice to get this resolved. I actually started trying to negotiate the repair of this device with a call to CS where I was assured of a lower cost (something like a maximum of £56 - possibly £5 either way). Then I went to a shop where I was told it would cost £96 which I refused (on the way out I heard the manager saying "Well how much did he think it was going to cost?"). After raising the matter on social media I received a phonecall offering me something like 20% off as a "Goodwill gesture". At this point I decided I'd had enough of Vodaphone and started removing my custom. I've been using mobile phones for around 25 years and never been treated so badly as this.

[hrym]

I suspect you'll have the same cost issue with an official repair on any device.   However, non-network phones have (as I said) more readily available spares, so you ahve the option of doing the work yourself or going to an independent repairer.   This will invalidate the guarantee, but the saving may make that a worthwile option.