SBE Ltd - Terrible service company

I purchased a Motorola RAZR2 V8 in November 2007 from T-Mobile which I later un-locked via subsidy code. After approximately 6 months the key-pad began to mis-behave, inserting phantom characters when pressing the cursor buttons, missing and doubling-up button presses.

In November 2008 I decided to send the phone in for repair, so I contacted Motorola in the UK. I was aware that the phone was out of warranty and that I would need to pay the repair but I was okay with that. I filled in the form on the Motorola web site and a few days later I received a padded envelope to post it back to them. If I had known that it would be serviced by SBE Ltd I would never have sent it to them.

The weeks went on and I heard nothing from Motorola. I eventually decided to chase it up with Motorola and it turned out that SBE had received it, so I contacted them. They claim to have sent out the invoice for the repair, but the postal address was wrong in spite of being typed into the Motorola web site. I might mis-spell on occasion but I think that I know how to spell my address after 10 years living here. Around the same time I received a notification from Motorola that the phone would be disposed of if I didn't authorise the repair or pay for it to be returned.

Anyway, they emailed me a PDF of the quotation and I paid them. A week or so later I received the phone back, and at first it appeared to be fine. There were protective covers on the screens and keypad but when I removed these I realised that not all was well.

• Phone was now locked to T-Mobile rather than being SIM Free. There was no need to flash any firmware on the phone - it already had the latest T-Mobile firmware (actually newer than what's on it now) and was unlocked, and the problem was a hardware fault!
• Keypad had been replaced but doesn't sit flat and is raised by 1-2mm in the bottom-left corner. So the new keypad appears to work now, but for how long? I expected the keypad to be repaired professionally and I could have done it myself better than this.
• There is a scratch on the chassis next to the keypad that wasn't there before. Not a scuff, a scratch down to the bare metal.

I politely contacted SBE stating that I was not satisfied with the quality of repair, but I have received no response at all. I know that I used the correct e-mail address because it's the same address that I'd contacted them on in the past, and they replied when they wanted my money. A week later, no response, so I contacted Motorola. They too, have been silent.

I've given them the opportunity to resolve this but they choose to ignore me, so I'll say this:
I advise anybody to avoid SBE at all costs if you value your mobile phone. I pretty much expected SBE to live up to their reputation of being a bunch of cowboys but I'm disappointed in Motorola too. I now have a useless phone (locked to a network I don't use) that I've paid £40 to be "repaired".

Of course, I'm just one person, and maybe others have received better service from SBE. I'd be interested to hear any positive experiences.

Well I'm about to send my Razr2 V8 to get repaired under warranty (still waiting for the envelope), will it be the same company doing the repair?

in may 2011 i emailed SBE ltd to know if they could repair my mandarina duck mobile phone. They told me to send my phone and they would get the repair done within 5 working days of them receiving it. it sent on 06/07/11 and a week after i didnt get my phone back. i phoned them several times, no one ever answered. they kept putting me in a queue and every time i reached number one i was sent back to the end of that queue. Beginning of september, i finally received a repair quotation for £30.31. On this quotation it said "your product will be sent back to you as soon as we receive your answer" (choice of answer was refuse: destroy unit, refuse: send back unrepaired (for £10!!!) or accept: repair) so i called them and miraculously i managed to get someone on the phone (they must have known i was going to give them my credit card number!) and paid, that was on 09/09/11. A week later, i still not had my phone back so i emailed them, they answered they were missing a part and that they'd get it done by 29/09/11 (if they dont even have the parts when we pay why do they say they'll send it back as soon as payment received?????????). i emailed them again a couple of weeks ago but no answer, i've tried to call them several but no answer, i've emailed again today as it is now over a month since i paid and still haven't got my phone back and no one bothers to let me know what's going on.
i've reported them to BBC watchdog and on canyoutrustthem.com .

All in all, a shocking experience; Sony Ericson and SBE should be ashamed of themselves.

I bought a Sony Ericson Xperia in Jan 2011 it has broken twice, both times refusing to charge. The first time it was repaired by SBE with, in fairness, no problems. Sadly that is not the case with my current and on-going 'repair' experience; which can only be described as a disgrace both the behalf of Sony Ericson and SBE.

I sent my phone to SBE for repair over 4 weeks ago. Despite the claim it would be fixed within 5 working days I didn't hear anything back from SBE. I tried calling to find out what the issue was and I was placed in the automated queuing system which basically meant every time I got to position 1 it simply sent me to the back of the queue. After this happened on two seperate occasions I gave up and contacted Sony directly. I asked why no-one had contacted me they said someone had called me (this is untrue) and I also was sent an email. Again this is untrue.

Anyway it turned out my phone has been categorised as BR - beyond repair. This seems strange as its the same problem I had earlier in the year when it was repaired with no problems. I asked BR meant and they said it was not economically viable to fix the phone. I asked what this meant and what the specific problem was and they simply said we don't have the information but you'll be charged £10 to have it sent back to you. I said this was unacceptable and they said they would elevate the claim to management to look into and someone would definitely call me back within the week. Obviously no-one called me back.

So I rang Sony again and they mentioned this elevation request had never been requested but they would make sure someone contacted me with 3-5 days - I live in hope. I also asked again what the issue was and again they said the phone was deemed BR. I asked how is this determined. They said they don't know but you probably dropped it. I assured them I hadn't dropped it and there was no damage to the phone to indicate that I had. They said, well we can look into it but SBE will just say you did and you'll need to pay £10 to have it sent back. I asked how could I get it fixed, they said they didn't know and it was tough. I pointed out the phone was within its legal 12 month warranty period, they said yeah, SBE will just say you dropped it and therefore it's not covered.

I am currently waiting to hear back from Sony / SBE however in the interim I will also be contacting Watch Dog and relevant government consumer organisations; I am fairly sure this sort of behaviour is illegal, it's certainly highly unethical and I certainly will not purchase another Sony Ericson phone; I'm sure Apple will be delighted.

last monday (17/10) i phoned SBE again, had a go at the woman on the phone, she told me a manager would call me back that same day, obviously no one called. So at 4.30pm i phoned again (SBE closes at 5pm) and asked why the manager had not call me back and i was told he had a busy day and went home!!! so i threatened to report SBE to both watchdog (which i had already done anyway) and trading standards. At 5pm someone called me to tell me the manager couldnt call me to which i replied "i know, i phoned at 4.30pm and was told he went home". I was told they were still waiting for some parts to fix my phone and that they would call me back the following day to keep me updated. Believe it or not, they did call me back the next day and told me my phone was being repaired at the time we were talking. How strange, the day before they didnt have the parts and next day the phone is being repaired... is that because i threatened them with watchdog and trading standards ??? anyway, i finally got my phone back on thursday and it works!! not sure how long it's gonna work for though, needless to say i dont trust them and i expect it to break down again soon.
good luck to you all!