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.


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