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!!
Just got my phone back from the “foneclinic” and it appears to have been repaired with some 2nd hand parts as mine was in 2 pieces (1 of which was bent in half and beyond repair), and the new part has chips and scuffs. Also as i peeled the blue protective cover off it carried the buttons on the front of the phone off with it!
I can’t believe they even stuck a quality check passed sticker on it as if someone was stupid enough to believe its acceptable to send a phone back in such poor condition.
AVOID AVOID AVOID (oh and if you happen to see one of them on fire don’t even p**s on them!)
I have mobile insurance through Citymain and i keep phoning and they say it cant be repaired now it is still waiting to be sent out told me it will be here tomorrow but doubting that if it is i will be back on this blog to apologise but im guessing will be phoning for the third or fourth time tomorrow to Chase
i’m insured through protect your bubble, just got my desire s back from the fone clinic…now the screen seems a little fuzzier than it used to be, also i cant change the brightness anymore, there is a small crack or something deep inside the screen, the colour contrast of the screen is very poor…basically they have used a cheap screen to replace mine. im not impressed. i’ve complained to protect your bubble, and have also informed htc and asked for their advice on an approve htc repair centre i can take it to to get it inspected (so they can back me up against the insurers)
omgosh i wish i had seen these before insuring my fone through natwest with the fone clinic – natwest have been fine and actually helpful. the fone clinic however have not. my phone was dropped accidently in bubble solution. i sent it to fone clinic for repairs and received it the next week on a friday evening, it swithced on ok then the next morning i could not use the navigation button. i called but the office was called, so left it until the following monday and was told ” sorry to hear this send it back to us and we will reimbuse your p&p and get it fixed, as only the screen was fixed before”. so £6.35 p&p sent off the same day and a note sayng i expect a full reimbursement and my phone to be fully fixed or replaced. 1 week and a day later i have not heard anything. i called them this morning and basically they saying there has been further damage to the phone and i would need to make another claim – (a claim is £47 via natwest), and they cannot refund my p&p due to there being further damage to the casing
.oooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaarggggghhh
what a waste of money.
Vanessa I absolutely would not accept this. Speak to Natwest!
To start with – Im not a bot. Nor am I paid by Citymain to post positive comments online;) Im just someone who was rather p**d off when I noticed im paying for mobile phone insurance – i wouldnt have bought it if I spotted it in time while buying my mobile via Buymobillephones.co.uk
But then I dropped my phone and the screen cracked. I had no expectations whatsovever, I was imagining that im not going to see my phone for ages and then Ill get it back even more broken or with cheap parts.
But that was my only chance as I was not paying 130 pound to get the screen repaired elsewhere.
I sent the phone on thursday. I rang on monday to check up on it and it was alsready approved for repairs. As I was going away at the weekend I gave them another call on Wednesday just to say that this was the case and ask that if there was any chance to post it asap (so it didnt sit on someones desk in vain , for example)
And voila
On FRIDAY I had my fixed phone back. Fingers crossed its still working ( a month on)
So good luck to everyone using Citymain. I suppose i was lucky and thanks god for that!
I have recently had to send my Galaxy S2 in for repair with CityMain after the camera stopped working. After a week the phone was returned with the exact same fault, which had not been rectified, but instead they had fitted a new, inferior screen to the phone and also wiped all the data. So not only did my camera still not work, but I also now had a crap screen as well.
After phoning and complaining that the phone was still faulty, I then had to post the handset back to them again, at my cost, for them to hopefully rectify the fault originally reported.
After a week of not hearing anything I called CityMain and was told that my handset was not economically repairable and that they would be sending me a replacement handset. That was on the 18th March, it is now the 25th and still no news, so I shall be chasing them YET AGAIN today!
How are companies like this allowed to continue trading?