Hihi Phone Problems: Broken Screens, Call Drops & System Failures

A Phone System That Doesn't Ring Is Worse Than No Phone System

If you run a business that depends on inbound calls — a tradesperson, a clinic, a shop, a professional services firm — your phone system is your front door. When it stops working, customers cannot reach you. Those customers then try your competitor. Revenue dies in real time.

According to 1-star reviews on uk.trustpilot.com/review/hihi.co.uk, Hihi customers report equipment and system failures that sometimes last for weeks. This article catalogues what reviewers publicly describe, what it means when you are 2-3 years into a 7-year finance lease, and what your options are.

We are Compare The Networks, an independent, OFCOM-regulated comparison service. We are not making direct accusations — we are reporting what customers say, and what anyone considering Hihi deserves to read before signing.

What Hihi Is (And Why This Matters)

Hihi (hihi.co.uk) is a VoIP desk phone system sold primarily by 4Com. The hardware is Android-based, branded, and distinctive. The service sits on a cloud telephony platform. Handsets are typically leased on 7-year finance agreements through Propel or BNP Paribas.

This matters because equipment problems on a Hihi system hit three ways:

The phones stop working. Customers cannot reach you.
You still have to pay the lease. Broken or not, the direct debit goes out.
Replacement is not easy. You signed for specific handsets. Swapping to a third-party phone is not a simple matter on most proprietary-leaning VoIP platforms.

See our Hihi 7-year lease article for the paperwork side.

Category 1: Handset Hardware Failures

According to 1-star Trustpilot reviews, the most common hardware complaints are:

Cracked or Failed Touchscreens

Multiple reviewers describe screens failing "without being dropped" or "under light use". Android-based VoIP handsets use touchscreens for dialling, contacts and admin. When the screen fails, the phone is unusable.

Unresponsive Screens

Touchscreens that stop registering taps, freeze, or require hard resets. For a device that is the front-line customer interface of a business, sporadic non-responsiveness is a daily productivity drain.

Phones That Simply Stop Working

"Powered on, never worked again." "Dead within 18 months." These are the summary phrases that appear in 1-star reviews.

Audio and Call Quality Issues

Reviewers describe muffled audio, dropped calls, one-way audio (you can hear them, they cannot hear you), and latency making conversations awkward.

Category 2: Platform and System Failures

Hardware is one half of a VoIP system. The cloud platform is the other. Complaints here include:

Extended Outages

The most alarming repeated Trustpilot phrase: "phones down for over a month". Whether or not this is the typical experience, the fact that this phrase appears more than once on a single company's Trustpilot page is a yellow flag any prospective buyer should weigh.

Partial Outages

"Some extensions work, some don't." "Outbound fine, inbound dead." Partial outages are often harder to debug — and customers still cannot reach you.

Features Not Working As Sold

Voicemail-to-email, call recording, auto-attendant, hunt groups, CRM integrations. Reviewers describe features that were demoed at sale but did not function as demoed once deployed. See Hihi misselling for the formal route on this.

Mobile App Issues

Many Hihi customers rely on a companion mobile app for when they are away from the desk phone. Reviewers describe the app crashing, notifications failing, and calls landing only on the desk phone despite mobile-app config.

Category 3: Support Failures

Equipment breakages are bad. Support that does not fix them is what escalates "bad" to "crisis". Common 1-star Trustpilot complaints:

Nobody returning calls. Tickets raised, promised callbacks never happen.
Ticket ping-pong. Passed between teams, re-explaining the issue each time.
SLA responses that don't meet the issue. A 4-hour response SLA means nothing if the response is "please try restarting".
Engineer visits not scheduled. For hardware failures requiring replacement, reviewers describe weeks of delay.

The Financial Hit

The part that makes Hihi equipment problems materially worse than a standard VoIP failure:

The Lease Runs Regardless

Your 7-year handset finance lease with Propel / BNP pays for the hardware whether the hardware is working or not. The lease is a separate agreement to the service contract. Even if Hihi is in breach of the service contract, the finance company can still demand the lease payments.

The Service Contract Runs Regardless (Mostly)

Unless you can prove a material breach that justifies termination — and that usually requires going through CISAS — the monthly service charge continues to be owed.

Revenue Loss Is On You

If your phones are down for a month and you lose £50,000 of business, Hihi's contractual liability for consequential losses is typically zero. That is standard in UK B2B telecoms, but it compounds the damage.

What To Do If Your Hihi System Is Failing

Short-Term: Keep Your Business Running

Forward all inbound DDIs to a mobile temporarily (if you can get Hihi support to action it — some competitor providers can do this on an emergency basis)
Publicise an alternative contact number on your website and Google Business listing
Capture and document every outage with timestamps

Medium-Term: Create the Evidence Bundle

Log every ticket, every callback promised, every missed SLA
Save every email
Capture system status screenshots
Quantify business impact (lost calls, lost revenue, staff overtime)

Long-Term: Consider the Formal Route

Written complaint to Hihi — see Hihi complaints and CISAS
After 8 weeks without resolution, escalate to CISAS
Include the finance lease in your claim if the handsets have failed
Consider a switch to an alternative VoIP provider while the complaint runs

Always: Keep It In Writing

Do not accept "we'll get an engineer out, trust me" over the phone. Email them instead. Everything that matters goes in writing.

What to Look For in a Replacement VoIP System

If your Hihi experience matches the 1-star Trustpilot pattern, the next VoIP system should offer:

Published uptime SLA with financial credits — not just response-time SLAs
Handset-agnostic architecture — you should be able to use any SIP handset, not proprietary
24-month contract maximum — no 7-year leases
Separate, optional handset purchase or short finance — not 7 years
UK support with response SLAs, not just response-time SLAs
Published status page with historic incidents
Real references from UK businesses in your sector

See Hihi vs alternatives for features side-by-side.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do Hihi phone screens break?

1-star Trustpilot reviewers describe screens cracking or failing "under light use" or "without being dropped". We are not engineers and cannot diagnose hardware causes. What we can report is that multiple reviewers cite the same problem.

Can I claim a refund if my Hihi system is down?

Potentially yes, via the Hihi service contract's SLA terms and, if unresolved, via CISAS. You will typically need evidence — ticket logs, outage durations, business impact. Refunds do not usually cover consequential losses like lost revenue.

How long can a VoIP outage be before it is a breach of contract?

It depends on the specific SLA in your contract. Some Hihi Trustpilot reviewers describe outages of "over a month" — well beyond any reasonable SLA. Check your specific contract. Material breach is one of the grounds for CISAS ordering a contract cancellation.

Do I still pay the handset lease if the phones don't work?

Typically yes. The handset finance lease (often with Propel or BNP Paribas) is a separate legal agreement to the Hihi service contract. Even if Hihi is in default, the finance company can still demand the lease payments. This is why including the lease in any CISAS claim matters. See Hihi 7-year lease.

Can I use non-Hihi handsets on the Hihi platform?

It depends on the specific platform. Many VoIP platforms support any SIP-compliant handset — but proprietary-leaning platforms may not, or may restrict management features to their own hardware. Worth asking in writing before relying on a third-party replacement.

Replace a Failing Hihi System

Get a free VoIP quote — 24-month terms, portable numbers, handset-agnostic platforms with published SLAs.

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About this article. Claims reported here are attributed to public reviews on Trustpilot and similar platforms. They represent the opinions of the reviewers cited, not statements of fact by Compare The Networks. Brands named may dispute these claims. If you are a brand representative who believes any content requires correction, please contact us.

Hihi Phone Problems: Broken Screens, Call Drops & System Failures (2026)