Android and stuff
Do not use City Main Administrators or The Fone Clinic
Since purchasing my HTC Desire nearly 18 months’ ago I’ve had insurance through Citymain Administrators. It’s £5.99 a month and covers me for theft and accidents. The service from their call centre has been all in all quite good since I dropped and broke the screen on my phone on September 15th 2011, unfortunately the company they use for repairs has now taken almost three weeks to repair my phone. I was told last Friday that my phone was finally being repaired – after being told this I kind of expected it to arrive Saturday or Monday. That’s a reasonable expectation in a world that expects good customer service, no? Monday 3rd October I was told it was repaired but waiting to be posted to me. Today, Wednesday 5th October I was told that it was still waiting to be posted to me and this should hopefully happen tomorrow. If this holds true – and I have my doubts – then I’ll get my phone back on Friday which makes it three weeks. The worst part is the length of time that I know my phone has been sat idle.
They don’t appear to be a small outfit either, covering units 18 – 20 in the picture below. You’d think someone could post a phone for a customer regularly chasing and specifically requesting it be returned in time for Droidcon tomorrow?
thefoneclinic
From this experience I will soon be cancelling my policy with Citymain Administrators and do not recommend you use either them or The Fone Clinic in Southend-On-Sea.
If anyone can recommend to me a UK phone insurance policy that doesn’t let you down when it comes to needing a repair, please let me know…
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My phone is insured for the same money you’re paying through OrangeCare.
If I break it/lose it, they send someone to my house at a predefined time (usually within 24 hours) with a brand-spanking-new-phone – I’ve never used it myself but a friend has used it no less than 5 times in 18 months and it’s been a perfect service every, single, time…
Repairs-schmepairs…
That sounds amazing. I’m on Orange too, I think I’m going to switch as soon as I get my phone back. (Whenever that will be)
I seem to remember that Citymain was the top choice from MoneySavingExpert 18 months ago when I got the phone. They’re no longer anywhere to be found on that site. Something’s obviously happened between now and then…
Since I posted this I’ve been reading about people receiving their phone back unrepaired… Oh dear.
I’m now having to send my phone back to these cowboys for the 3rd time – i broke the screen on my desire, sent it to them under my insurance (through natwest) they sent it back with a screen that doesnt respond right, goes blank if you make a call and no GPS. they tried to claim it was another problem caused by water damage – which was rubbish it arrived back to me with the problems, after major arguments they after another 2 weeks have sent it back with not only the same faults but theyve done a factory reset and wiped all my data! now i need to pay yet again to post it to them for them no doubt to fob me off with not reparing it yet again….
Wendy, that sounds worse than mine. I hope you get it back fixed soon.
After posting this blog mine was sent out to be hand delivered the next morning… (I wasn’t in of course) so it was posted special delivery and arrived on the Saturday. I also received an email from Citymain letting me know that it had actually only gone two days over their time scales which they apologise were not communicated to me properly. Sorry, what kind of crap customer service thinks three weeks is OK?
Fortunately the phone all appears to be fine so far.
You are lucky you even got your phone fixed at all!! They are money grabbing bastards who will try everything they can to declIne your claim!! The insurance isn’t worth the paper it’s written on!! Don’t ever use them again!!