Repairer broke my phone

[sofe_au]

We took an iPhone SE 2nd gen (2020) to a phone repair shop to have the battery replaced, hoping this would extend its life. The repairer let us know that they broke the phone and have not been able to fix it. They have offered us a refurbished iPhone X or XS max as compensation. While this is technically a better phone than the SE, it has an older chip and will get to the point where it can no longer be updated a year or two earlier than the SE, meaning we won’t get the benefit of a phone that lasts longer, as planned.
Do we have to accept the offered phone? What other options do we have?

[phb]

@sofe_au

Do we have to accept the offered phone?

It is up to you, however, you can decide not to.

When a something is broken through a repair process, they should make good/provide compensation what has been broken. This means that they provide you with monetary compensation or an equivalent phone with the same specs. similar condition and similar age.

@sofe_au

What other options do we have?

You can ask for an equivalent iPhone SE 2nd gen (2020) as compensation.

Should such a phone is unavailable, it leaves you with two options.

The first is to try and negotiate compensation for the value of the 4 year old phone and then see if you can buy one elsewhere (noting that there is a risk you could be out of pocket for any difference).

Second option is to accept the iPhone X or XS max.

For the second option - If you believe the iPhone X or XS max is a lower standard to your own phone, you may be able to negotiate additional compensation such as monetary compensation for the difference in the second hand value of the phones, a phone warranty, new screen covers and/or case or anything else which may be equal to the difference in phone values.

Good luck in negotiating and let us know how you got on.

[grahroll]

Another possible option is:

If you have insurance that covers damage to goods, you might be able to make a claim against that insurance and have the business pay the excess for you (or pay you the amount of the excess). This may get you a newer phone as an outcome.

[PhilT]

@sofe_au

While this is technically a better phone than the SE, it has an older chip and will get to the point where it can no longer be updated a year or two earlier than the SE, meaning we won’t get the benefit of a phone that lasts longer, as planned.

‘Security’ as applied by some apps fail in phones that are not deemed to be ‘secure’ but ‘the app’ (provider) will not divulge what that test might be. Rather than summarise it again, consider whether one or the other iPhone might have an issue sooner or later than the other, regardless of chipsets.

Vodaphone Mobile Issue

In these days of scamming SMS with embedded links to who knows where that seems to be somewhat less than just a very ordinary approach to 2FA. I deal with a number of companies that once had but no longer allow email 2FA because of ‘security’ not ‘privacy’. ING Bank is as bad or worse. They treat older phones with their app as insecure for certain actions but fine for most. Mine is 2 1/2 years old and became ‘insecure’ about a year ago. ING refuse to divulge what constitutes an ‘insecure…

It is probably related to security update services being ‘active’ or ‘expired’ for the product.

[sofe_au]

Thanks for the suggestions. In the end we accepted the offered phone.

[grahroll]

Thank you for the update. I hope you are reasonably happy with the outcome, and I hope the phone you received will continue to provide good service to you.