Orange (UK) to reclassify screen dust problem as a true fault

We, the undersigned, as customers and clients of Orange in the UK, wish to make public and formal complaint regarding a known and repeatedly reported, yet hitherto underplayed or ignored, fault with the Orange SPV C500 phone.

It is widely reported amongst current users of this phone that there is a chronic problem with the dust ingress through the sealing around the LCD screen on the phone. At present, Orange customer services have classified this as a cosmetic problem, despite the fact that as the amount of dust between the outer window and LCD panel increases over time, the screen becomes more and more illegible, hence obscuring parts of the screen thus rendering the smart features of the phone, for which the screen is required, less and less useable.

On several internet fora many users have reported conversations with Orange representatives in which they fruitlessly attempted to have this problem recognised for what it really is, rather than avoided or sidestepped. Whilst we understand that it is essentially a manufacturing fault, our contracts are with Orange and not the handset manufacturer and it is therefore to the supplier, Orange, we turn for action. We are surprised that Orange would supply a device that really should not have been launched with such a glaring fault still present, especially given that no other similar device (to our knowledge) has this kind of fault.

We realise that there have been other reported faults (keypad malfunctions and persistent headset mode being two) but these are classified as faults and phones have been replaced swiftly when requested.

We therefore call upon Orange and its representatives to:

1. Reclassify the dust ingress problem as a true screen fault.

2. Replace all handsets with this screen fault under their warranty agreement whenever requested as they already do with other faults (rather than offer to send the handset back to the manufacturer for repair which then leaves the user with no phone for up to two weeks).

3. Take action with HTC, the handset manufacturer, to have this design fault rectified if it has not already done so.

4. To offer fault-corrected handsets to their existing customers when available.