PhoPhone told Jane a new Gold Phone 25 would solve coverage issues

The issue

Jane signed up for a mobile service with PhoPhone on a month-to-month contract at $35 using her own three-year-old 4G phone.

After a few weeks Jane noticed she often had only two bars and couldn’t watch videos without them buffering or make calls that didn’t drop out randomly.

She reported the poor coverage at a PhoPhone Shop, where staff told her she needed to upgrade her phone to solve all the coverage problems.

Jane was reluctant at first, but the shop staff showed her their phones and let her watch a video.

It looked great, the resolution was incredible and the colours beautiful.

One of the staff said if she wanted to buy a GoldPhone 25 for $50 per month over 24 months, they could do it right now and transfer all her pics and data quickly. She agreed and signed up.

Jane watched videos half the way home until they started to buffer.

The further away from the shop, the worse the signal.

The next day she went back to the PhoPhone Shop and told them the new phone didn’t fix the coverage problem.

Staff helped her change settings but two days later the coverage was just as bad again.

Back in the shop, Jane said she wanted to return the phone as it didn’t fix the problem. Staff told her they couldn’t do that and gave her our phone number.

Jane wanted PhoPhone to take the phone back because it didn’t fix poor coverage like they said it would.

The investigation

We asked PhoPhone for the interaction notes from the store, Critical Information Summary for Jane’s plan, and an accurate and current coverage map.

We also asked if PhoPhone thinks new phones fix coverage issues and why it did not let Jane return the phone.

PhoPhone said it had no interaction notes from the store and sent us the contract Jane signed.

It also said there was no fault with the phone, so they did not take it back. PhoPhone did not make an offer to Jane.

The outcome

In a Fair and Reasonable Assessment, we recommended PhoPhone release Jane from contract, take back the Gold Phone 25, refund all charges Jane paid, train its staff in product and service knowledge, and pay Jane $300 to reflect the incorrect information it gave her and the inconvenience it caused her.

Jane and PhoPhone accepted the Fair and Reasonable Assessment.

*Names of individuals, organisations and companies have been changed.