I bought a Sony ericsson P1i in Dubai Duty Free late September 07. A month later, in Kuwait where I work, the phone turned itself off. When I turned the unit back on it went in a loop of turning on, showing the SE logo, displaying the progress bar as if to complete the boot, and then turning itself off - it has been like that since.

I contacted the service center(Fono) in Dubai that was on the warranty. I was told that they cannot honor the warranty and that I should contact the place where I bought the unit.

I contacted the SE service center in Kuwait (Barrak) where they looked at it for a couple of hours then told me "to bring it back to dubai."

I went back to Dubai in December, 07 and contacted the Customer Service of the Dubai Airport Duty Free Shop - where I bought the unit. I showed the person at the counter the problem (booting on and off) - I was told that they will arrange for the unit to be sent to their service center. I went back to Kuwait.

In January, 2008, the Duty Free emailed to inform me that they couldn't do anything with the unit and attached to the email was a report from the service center saying that the motherboard of the unit is bent; and that the unit has been misused - and that I should collect the unit.

How could I have misused a brand new phone for its motherboard to bend? So I wrote back in protest.

They said that the SE service center in Kuwait might be responsible - and that I should have contacted the Duty Free first. But the warranty said that I shoud contact Fono - which I did. Who contacts the retailer for repair anyway?

A lot of pages of email later, I went back to Dubai in March and collected the unit.

So now, I have a Sony Ericsson P1i that's been used for only a month, that boots on and off and still under warranty (until Sept.2008). I have long since bought a Motorola Z6.

Lessons learned:

Do not buy a phone in Dubai Duty Free Shop. If I had gone home to Australia, it meant that I had to go back to Dubai to have it repaired. Also, what is the sense of issuing me a warranty card that was inaccurate? I will never shop there again.

Sony Ericsson's customer care service is appalling. The service centers in the Gulf are incompetent. I have two service centers pointing fingers at each other. By the way, I bought my first Sony ericsson phone in 2003, a T610. The same thing happened (booting on and off) but there was no problem fixing it in Australia. But because of this bad P1i experience, I will not buy another Sony ericsson phone again.

I am thinking of hiring a lawyer to actually sue. What do you think? If there's anyone who could help please contact me.