Vodafone UK Give Every Mobile a Lifetime Warranty and Battery Refresh
Broadband and mobile operator Vodafone UK has today announced that they’ve enhanced their EVO packages, which give customers more flexibility over payments, contract lengths and smartphone upgrades, by ensuring that every mobile phone they supply comes with both ‘Battery Refresh‘ and a ‘Lifetime Warranty‘ at no extra cost.
The EVO plans are designed to give customers of their mobile network service (i.e. those who also bundle a mobile device) the flexibility to decide how much they want to pay upfront for their new device, and over how long they want to pay it off (from 3 to 48 months at 0% APR) via a Monthly Device Plan Credit Agreement. Customers also benefit from a trade-in guarantee and flexible upgrades.
However, the latest change means that all mobile phones bought on Vodafone EVO, including refurbished phones, will now also come with Lifetime Service Promise at no extra cost (i.e. covering device repairs against manufacturer faults for as long as customers have a Pay Monthly Airtime Plan with Vodafone) and Battery Refresh (i.e. battery health checks and free replacements – if needed – for up to three years).
Advertisement
Just to be clear, if customers upgrade to a new device and keep their old one as a back-up, then they’ll both still be covered by the new warranty.
Max Taylor, Vodafone’s UK Chief Commercial Officer, said:
“We know that customers are now keeping phones for up to four years, so we are thrilled to be adding our new market-leading Lifetime Service Promise to Vodafone EVO. It gives our customers that extra peace of mind, knowing their phone is covered for as long as they choose to keep the device.”
Customers who want to avail themselves of Battery Refresh can do so via the My Vodafone app, which will check its status and if it needs to be replaced then you’ll then be able to visit a Vodafone store to have it sent off to be replaced – “free of charge” (except for the monthly rental you’re already paying, of course).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
« nPerf Rank Three UK Top in 2023 Benchmark of Mobile Networks
OneWeb UK Make Progress on Prototype Broadband Satellite »
Latest UK ISP News
- FTTP (5856)
- BT (3605)
- Politics (2656)
- Business (2374)
- Openreach (2373)
- Building Digital UK (2302)
- Mobile Broadband (2088)
- FTTC (2071)
- Statistics (1857)
- 4G (1763)
- Virgin Media (1711)
- Ofcom Regulation (1539)
- Fibre Optic (1444)
- Wireless Internet (1436)
- FTTH (1383)
“Lifetime”, yeah right. Lifetime of the phone, presumably?
That’s what lifetime warranty means…
Lifetime of your Pay Monthly contract with Vodafone, it seems…
Begrudgingly I’m giving praise to voda for this move, the fact the old phone is still covered is pretty unique
Not a fan of voda but this is not bad
Put the praise back into a drawer until we have seen the small print.
Battery replacement is a slow, laborious manual process that’s far more costly in time than in parts. Voda know this, and I expect the criteria for a battery replacement will be sufficiently stringent that there will be a large gulf between a customer thinking that their battery is stuffed, and Voda accepting the fact. Plenty of opportunity to blame the customers (“you’re using the phone too much”) rather than take a £60-70 hit just before the customer cancels the contract and sells the phone on eBay.
Depends on the phone. Apple does it for you in about an hour, and they seem able to charge about £80 for it. In Apple style I’d imagine there’s a fair amount of markup there, and some of it is self inflicted faff (the process of re-marrying the battery serial number to the phone, for example).
Also in the Apple world, it’d be hard for Vodafone to reject a claim when the device is literally telling you to get the battery replaced.
EE have done this for 2+ years so not sure how they claim they’re the first do it. Am I missing something blatant?
Nice to see Vodafone also separating the data plan from the phone plan, this was the biggest PITA when I was with them due to the subsequent relatively high annual increase.
I cannot wait to see the arguments in stores as people try to prove a breakage or an accident as a fault, because that’s what Vodafone of doing they’re only repairing faults, which you already have a manufactures warranty for a year against it anyway.
Most phones will last the distance now, clever marketing but maybe invest in a decent billing system first.
Cheaper to buy direct from Apple / Samsung etc
You can even pay over 24 months and over pay if you wish to clear it quicker
Chuck in a cheap SIM
I even get free mobile insurance for 2 phones on my bank account. My last iPhone lasted 6 years as my personal phone and is still working today as my work phone
I think that headline is giving the wrong impression. Like to anyone who goes into a voda store today and picks up a new handset on PAYG for example.
Yer right after 3 years the phone will not get software update, so you would have to change phone anyway.
Just give us simple user replaceable batteries