Vodafone, HTC Desire fiasco

So I've had a contract with Vodafone for over 3 months now. I think it was early may that I actually signed up for a contract with them and got my shiny new HTC Desire, I was pleased. Very pleased :-)

But after a day or 2 I found it was broken :-( if you used it for any length of time it would just quit, turn off, then not turn on for a while whilst it cooled down, oh and there was the strange squeeze thing I mentioned in another blog post.

I complained only 2 or 3 days after I received the original, I thought it would be straight forward, new for new, but unfortunately no stock, the desire is very desirable and there were supply problems.

So I waited and waited, I rang back twice a week to check on progress, I was not using my desire at this point as it was unusable, switching itself off randomly. Back to my trusty old nokia (7 years and still going strong)

And I waited.
Finally, finally after ringing twice a week for 2 months i got a replacement phone :-) yay at last, but I was told to keep my batery, sim and memory card from my other phone, strange, oh well, got my new phone now. :-)

But no, still broken, still with exactly the same problems as before.... ARRRRG, it was the battery all this time, i told them i thought it was, dam it.

And wait what's this, there is as small scuff mark on the base of the phone, its brand new isn't it?

So rang Vodafone back and said it still doesn't work, and also is this phone I have new? there is a scuff mark on it? after much a to-do I got the answer that its a reconditioned phone, and we will send you a battery (which they did but I suspect its not a new one as it came in a jiffy bag).

Anyway after some challenging discussions I got agreement that it was an error to send me a reconditioned phone, apparently an error in the system (problems with phones over 1 month into the contract get refurbished replacements), since I was 2 months into my contract I get a reconditioned one... even though id reported the problem on day 3... But the supervisor on the other end was reasonable in the end and agreed I should have had a new phone sent not a reconditioned one, and so I'm waiting, again.

And waiting and waiting, I ring back twice a week again, try to get a date but again they are out of stock, out of stock, out of stock.
Do Vodafone ever sell the HTC Desire? I know its a popular phone, that there are supply problems but in effect its been over 3 months now, you cant tell me you have not had any stock in 3 months? really?

I suspect its far more profitable to sell that new handset to a new customer than to sort out your existing ones?

I'm a bit disappointed really, as you can imagine, cause I've been using Vodafone for all my mobile life, years and years, even whilst abroad, and always had excellent service. I've had friends with orange who had trouble and problems with the provider and I've always said come to Vodafone, they are great, but seams like things change, or just maybe I've just got really unlucky.