Fido courtesy phone policy is awful. No phone during outbreak.

[DaveL]

Fido make you repair your phone even if you have a new phone on order just so you can get a courtesy phone. If a new phone is coming then environmentally speaking it is completely unethical practice to make people have to get repairs on a phone they are no longer going to use.

I ordered a Samsung S20 Ultra to replace the old phone. For some reason loads of other places have been getting this phone in stock even to pick up on the day having cleared pre orders. Fido still haven't fulfilled their preorders while some people could literally go in stores and buy one straight up.

My old phone broke completely a few days after ordering. I didn't drop my phone or anything. It just started getting an LCD leak which grew quite quickly to covering my whole screen in black. I was told by customer service to go in store to ask about a courtesy phone. The people in store told me they don't do courtesy phones for new orders and only do it for repairs. If a phone is being replaced then why make the person repair their old phone?

To top this off, we have this Covid-19 situation and what if I have a serious emergency over the next few weeks without a phone? Do I really have to just cancel my Fido service and go elsewhere in order to get the new phone now?

[FidoPhilippe]

Hey @DaveL! Welcome to the community.  

I understand your frustration! Being stuck without a phone at times like this is most certainly unpleasant. That said, our courtesy phone program is an integral part of our repair program.This program covers in-warranty and out-of-warranty repairs and complements our Device Protection. This is to provide our clients who need to repair their phone with a substitute if they need one.

As such, you actually need to submit a phone for repair to be eligible for this program, because we only have a limited amount of phones available to cover people who need to make use of it during the repair of their old phone. Have you gotten any updates for your new phone?

You can contact us here or we can send you an PM if you have any questions or concerns. We'll be happy to help.

[DaveL]

I do fully understand the policy. Effectively it means that while I have a new phone on order I still have to get the old phone repaired. So environmentally speaking it is completely unethical and I fully intend to push this  point much further.

As a business, if Fido knows I have a phone on order with them and my phone is clearly very broken when I show it in store then I should be able to get a courtesy phone until the new phone arrives. Ordering a replacement phone should still be within the courtesy phone/repair procedures as it is effectively getting someone from a non functioning phone to a functioning phone. There is zero point in repairing a phone which is going to be replaced so why does Fido's repair policy not include an option to just replace the old phone? I understand there are limited courtesy phones but making me do a repair to get one makes no sense.

As it is, I cancelled my phone with Fido because this isn't acceptable practice to leave a person without a phone for so long. So the business has lost on a few thousand $ there. I've ordered it elsewhere and will have it by Wednesday. It's ridiculous that I could get the same phone without it being preordered before my preorder with Fido. These delays should also have been enough for someone at Fido to work to get one of their customers on that preorder list a functioning phone in the mean time.

[Cawtau · Accepted solution]

Hello DaveL,

  Welcome to the community!

  I understand the frustration being without a device while you wait for your new device. However, as mentioned above, their courtesy phone program complements their Device Protection.

---

@DaveL wrote:...if Fido knows I have a phone on order with them and my phone is clearly very broken when I show it in store then I should be able to get a courtesy phone until the new phone arrives. Ordering a replacement phone should still be within the courtesy phone/repair procedures as it is effectively getting someone from a non functioning phone to a functioning phone...

---

  While you are technically replacing non-functioning phone with a functioning one, the difference is that Device Protection is a paid service. Had you been subscribed for that service? If your old phone was protected, there would have been a repair or replacement fee. In addition, that protection would only cover that device. Even if you did not purchase device protection, the repair fees would include the use of a courtesy phone. Since that device was not being repaired or replaced by device protection, the purchase of your new phone would not be eligible for a courtesy phone.

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers