I bought a brand new Galaxy S2 in December 2011 and have been enjoying it for a week till I found an Audio jack issue. The issue must have been there right from the moment I unboxed the phone, as I didn't find time to test all features of the phone in a week time. wherein if I remove the ear phones, loud speaker won't work. Later, when I took the phone to service centre, they concluded that the audio jack wasn't triggering the ear-phone removal signal.
Since it was a brand new phone, I demanded a replacement at the service centre. But they refused a replacement, stating some unwritten policy, that phone's life exceeded 15 days from purchase date (since I ordered the phone online, it took me 7 days to get delivered + 7 days of owning it without knowing the issue + weekends). I called up the zonal manager and he too refused for a replacement but promised me to replace the mother board of the phone.
Since I insisted that the repairing work at factory is different from service centres in terms of ESD safety, he promised me that I can be present personally while the service engineer repairs the phone. He also promised that Samsung service centres are at par with the factory standards. Without an option, I had to agree for a repair on a brand new phone for no mistake of mine. When the service engineer was repairing the phone, the front desk people were roaming inside the service area (inside ESD safe zone marked with yellow lines) without ESD safe slippers or bands. I was harassed for quoting that they are not following ESD standards. Having worked in an electronic manufacturing industry for years, I know that moving inside an ESD safe zone may spoil the electronic components in long run. For having said that I was harassed badly by the service manager. When I brought this to zonal manager's notice, he promised me that there won't be any fault in the future. I demanded his promise in a written format but he refused. As any other citizens of this country (with very weak consumer protection), I have been living with the phone happily but not for long
After 5 months, on a Tuesday morning the phone is completely dead and wouldn't boot up while the battery if fully charged. Last known usage was on Monday night when I hooked up the phone to the charger before going to sleep. I still remember that I woke up from my sleep to plug out the phone from wall charger as soon as I heard the charge-full beep. Next day morning, the display wasn't coming up.
Diagnosis from my end:
1. Removed and re-inserted the battery. Doesn't boot.
2. Press and hold the power button for a minute after removing the battery. Doesn't boot.
3. The phone doesn't get into recovery mode.
4. Swapped batteries from my friends phones and still it doesn't boot. But my phone's battery worked in their phone.
I strongly believe it's due to the board replacement undertaken outside factory without following ESD standards or due to the replacement board itself which I suspect to be a re-furbished one. This time I didn't want to give up and demanded a fresh replacement phone but the service manager disagreed again. So, I wrote to the Samsung CEO desk and they are dealing with the case for the past 10 days without much progress.
Kindly give your suggestions if I should continue to live with a faulty phone after paying 30K or get a replacement phone since it's a factory fault. Also, suggest me if I could approach consumer court for all the losses (precious data, loss of peace and all the hardships I'm undergoing).
Thanks in advance.
Deva
Well. Sounds like hardware issue. Could be a lemon, could be a refurbished phone. It should be covered under 1 year warranty anyway, so just take it back and ask them to repair it.
Btw, this should be in the Q&A section.
hmyoo1 said:
Well. Sounds like hardware issue. Could be a lemon, could be a refurbished phone. It should be covered under 1 year warranty anyway, so just take it back and ask them to repair it.
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I have already visited the service and they are ready for a repair. Since the phone has underwent a main board replacement very soon after purchase and again the service centre says a board replacement needs to be done now for the boot issue, is it unfair to ask for a fresh phone instead of repeated repairs? and who knows, after another 5-6 months (post warranty) if the phone comes up with another board fault, I will have to pay the board cost from my pocket. All this for a lemon I've got.
pdydeva said:
I have already visited the service and they are ready for a repair. Since the phone has underwent a main board replacement very soon after purchase and again the service centre says a board replacement needs to be done now for the boot issue, is it unfair to ask for a fresh phone instead of repeated repairs? and who knows, after another 5-6 months (post warranty) if the phone comes up with another board fault, I will have to pay the board cost from my pocket. All this for a lemon I've got.
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Unfortunately there's nothing more you can do. It depends on the shop that you purchased from, but usually if the phone is found to be faulty within a week or two, they will replace with new one. But, obviously for you it's well past that.
After almost 15 days of struggle, I managed to get 3 months of extended warranty for the product.
Related
I'm having a nightmare with Samsung UK repair centre. Could do with some advice...
I'll try to keep this short. Basically my phone has had reboot problems since I bought it back in May. It would reboot itself while sat on a desk or in my pocket (on standby). Every now and then it would get stuck in the boot animation loop and require a factory reset. It went back to Carphone warehouse once for a repair, where they flashed it and replaced the battery, but this did nothing to fix the problem, and after a few months of perseverance with the rebooting ( I couldn't bring myself to wait another 4 weeks repair time...) I had had enough and contacted Samsung direct as their repair turnaround is shorter, and it went back to them for repair. I got the phone back today and they are claiming the fault is water damage and as such the warranty is void. This is bulls##t and the phone has not been exposed to any more moisture than any phone is exposed to in general use.
They could not give any sort of detail on the water damage, but suggested that it may be discolouration on the motherboard. I recall in the first few weeks of owning the phone the phone got very hot (too hot to touch against your shin hot). Could this display similar colouration to water damage?
I seem to be banging my head against a brick wall with the repair centre call centre and Samsung customer support are not offering any resolution options. I'm loathed to write off my warranty and a £500 phone cost. So any advice would be appreciated.
pixate said:
This is bulls##t and the phone has not been exposed to any more moisture than any phone is exposed to in general use.
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what moisture do you expose your phone to in general use?
Humidity in the air (not much of that in the UK...) Kettle boiling in the kitchen. That sort of thing... The point I'm making is that it's not been exposed to moisture beyond that expected in normal use, something the phone should be resistant to.
Its probably the usual condensation fault across all makes of phone its a known warranty reject .
Water damage is shown by on-board indicators .
One Samsung have refused warranty fair enough you can proceed by writing directly to Samsung UK stating your case .Or pay for a specialist phone engineers report and if they find no water damage then go back to Samsung .
jje
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
Do you have a telecommunications ombudsmen in your country?
If so contact them and put your case forward.
I bet after they contact your carrier, retail outlet or Samsung you get a new phone.
I know a mate who got a new phone from both the carrier and the manufacturer.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Thanks, yeah we have Ofcom in the uk, and also a trading standards organisation. I May have to get them involved if I can't work something out with Samsung. The fault I have problems with has been on the phone since I got it out of the box, and certainly isn't water damage. Trouble is if there is some sort of liquid detection inside and it's changed colour, how can I prove that the phone was only subjected to normal use, and not exposed to moisture?
pixate said:
Thanks, yeah we have Ofcom in the uk, and also a trading standards organisation. I May have to get them involved if I can't work something out with Samsung. The fault I have problems with has been on the phone since I got it out of the box, and certainly isn't water damage. Trouble is if there is some sort of liquid detection inside and it's changed colour, how can I prove that the phone was only subjected to normal use, and not exposed to moisture?
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Its not a network problem so OFCOM is no use . The phone is not part of your network contract .
Under UK consumer law your supplier of the phone is liable for warranty .You have since been to Samsung who in law have no responsibility bar their extended warranty .
Samsung have said no its a user fault we are not responsible so its up to you to prove them wrong .
Trading standards will have experience of the water damage issue and may be of help .
jje
Hi all. Managed to drop my phone down the bog mid flush a couple of weeks ago and despite getting it out straight away, removing battery, sim etc before putting into rice to dry out, the phone will no longer power on. Have tried different batteries but all to no avail.
Given the above, I've resigned myself to having to fork out for a repair but was wondering if anyone in the UK (London would be even better) could recommend a decent mobile phone repair service?
I've heard so many horror stories that I'd like to know that the one I'm sending it to has a solid background.
Thanks in advance.
simply take it to the phone dealer, and pay up for the fix, have them inspect every small bit in the phone from head to toes... could be something internal and bad costing u more than a new/used phone.... thats what happened to my old 8910hd with parts going bad after just fixing the phone from a drop in the sink.. ended up paying more than the cost of a used unit
Yeah, have already resigned myself to paying up, was just looking for a reputable repair centre. Phoned Samsung and they gave me another number that wasn't even in service.
i will keep it short and sweet.
my phone suffered from sudden death few weeks back. It wouldn't switch on or charge. It was working 100% fine the night before the morning where phone was dead.
anyways I called Vodafone and they said that's okay Sir we will do an exchange basis. I.e courier comes with a refurbished Samsung galaxy s3 in exchange for my phone and that should be the end of it.
However few days ago i received a letter for a charge of £100 for liquid damage.
Now the thing is phone has never been near water ever as far as I'm aware so I'm baffled
For time being i have paid charge as it was added to my phone bill.
anyways I have uploaded a picture they sent me of the so called water damage. I'm concerned that's its a scam and they have taken picture of another phone or put water on board them self.
I said i would be happy to return exchanged phone for damaged one i sent in but they refused and said Samsung wouldn't honour the warranty anyways as it has water damage.
donovan2123 said:
i will keep it short and sweet.
my phone suffered from sudden death few weeks back. It wouldn't switch on or charge. It was working 100% fine the night before the morning where phone was dead.
anyways I called Vodafone and they said that's okay Sir we will do an exchange basis. I.e courier comes with a refurbished Samsung galaxy s3 in exchange for my phone and that should be the end of it.
However few days ago i received a letter for a charge of £100 for liquid damage.
Now the thing is phone has never been near water ever as far as I'm aware so I'm baffled
For time being i have paid charge as it was added to my phone bill.
anyways I have uploaded a picture they sent me of the so called water damage. I'm concerned that's its a scam and they have taken picture of another phone or put water on board them self.
I said i would be happy to return exchanged phone for damaged one i sent in but they refused and said Samsung wouldn't honour the warranty anyways as it has water damage.
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Click to collapse
One its a question in the wrong forum .
Two Samsung does not cover water damage if the indicators show .
Three water damage not an uncommon problem on any mobile phone .
Four having a repair and then getting a bill later is due to them exchanging the product and finding waranty was void after the exchange presuming it was SDS .
If it had gone back for repair and no exchange you would have been informed of the cost first .
jje
You need yo take this to the vodafone forum, this is a common occurrence wiyh them.
Rthe moisture strips can become 'activated` from many things out of your control and if this happens vodafone will NOT repair under warrenty. This is where (as you will be instructed by many established member on the vodafone forum) that you need to send to samsung approved repair centre, as there are apparently firther water damage markers inside the phone which give a better indication of water damage.
My personal instructions, but you are free to go your own way, contact vodafone, instruct your phone be returned (if they have give you another return that one) and send phone to samsung directly. You will no doubt have a different and better outcome.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
This is why you shouldn't go to your network provider... Just go to Samsung straight away and you won't get any bull****.
Liquid damage can also be triggered by sweat or rain.
Hi there,
My S3 has died (assuming it's the well known motherboard issue) - just wasn't working one morning, no light, no charge - totally dead.
I wondered what people's experience of returning items to Samsung is? I'm in Central London and the two Samsung official dealers get shocking reviews - seem to claim that everything is water damaged and charge £30 without any actual repair/replacement, taking weeks to do it.
How about returning the phone to Samsung? Any good experiences/horror stories? What is their turnaround time?
I have mobile phone insurance with my bank account - for a £50 excess they'll deliver a replacement phone next day, so that seems very tempting if the Samsung service is even slightly difficult.
One of those times I sort of wish I had an iPhone.
Samsung have certified repair centres. Try to find one and take it down.. Apple make you book it in for an appointment anyway so turnaround time is very similar.. I believe samsung service centres could be 1-2 week turnaround usually.. They are usually Ok seen as they may replace your mb or whole unit at a pinch.. Just take photos of your phone to show you have now scratches ect.. If you don't mind the £50 just take the plunge and go with your ins
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
chrisgeller said:
Hi there,
My S3 has died (assuming it's the well known motherboard issue) - just wasn't working one morning, no light, no charge - totally dead.
I wondered what people's experience of returning items to Samsung is? I'm in Central London and the two Samsung official dealers get shocking reviews - seem to claim that everything is water damaged and charge £30 without any actual repair/replacement, taking weeks to do it.
How about returning the phone to Samsung? Any good experiences/horror stories? What is their turnaround time?
I have mobile phone insurance with my bank account - for a £50 excess they'll deliver a replacement phone next day, so that seems very tempting if the Samsung service is even slightly difficult.
One of those times I sort of wish I had an iPhone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you got it on contract your network provider will repair free of charge mine took a week from sending off to getting it back
What's more it came back with 32gb instead of the 16gb storage it originally had
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Hi guys,
Thanks for the replies.
There's two Samsung repair centres close to me, and their reviews are absolutely terrible.
https://plus.google.com/102468586632805363693/about?hl=en
and
http://www.yell.com/b/CrC+(London)+Ltd-Mobile+Phone+Repairs+and+Services-london-E148PX-7342356/
So I'll be avoiding those with a bargepole.
I didn't buy my phone on a contract.
At least with Apple I could turn up to an appointment and be pretty confident I'd leave with a working phone. I loved my S3 but I must say in this case I'm jealous of my smug iPhone owning friends. I don't really have a good option here.
I guess to come back to my original question - has any actually returned their phone to Samsung e.g by post? I've no idea how well that tends to work. If that had good feedback I'd consider that.
I'm hoping all of you could help me with my dilemma.
My phone currently only charges (90% of the time) through USB connecting to the computer. It also transfers data fine between it and the laptop. It's not charging connected to the wall, which is a problem because that means I only get a trickle USB charge.The phone itself still works beautifully. Initially I thought my best option was to get a warranty claim in through Verizon. I also have insurance through Ensquared.
I started googling what Verizon would do if they denied a claim. Would they send your broken phone back no charge? I had thought that if it got denied for warrantyfor whatever reason I could just claim it under insurance. Turns out they won't and if they find anything to void warranty they'll hit you with a $299 charge for the replacement like new device. I was seeing a lot of people online getting denied warranty due to corrosion on the connection in the MicroUSB port.
This got me thinking. It's been SUPER humid where I live lately and we've had a lot of downpours. Maybe some rain trickled into the USB port and corroded one of the contact points? The water indicator under the battery and on the battery itself have not been tripped, however I've read people getting denied warranty even without the indicators tripping and corrosion on the USB port. I know leaving it in a steamy bathroom 1 to many times could corrode the contact points. I'm going to try and take a picture of the connection to see if I see any green, however it may still be hard for me to tell because I don't know 100% what I'm looking for.
A few other notes: Ensquared covers accidental damage due to liquids. They also send out new phones most times. Verizon sends out a certified like new replacement. I also have a backup garbage phone that'll get me by for a few weeks if needed.
So my question. What would all of you do?
1.) Move forward with my warranty claim through Verizon and hope there is no corrosion that causes me to get a denied warranty and a $299 bill. I have the replacement phone right now, but have called and verified I could send it back in the box if I don't want to replace.
2.) Send my phone to Samsung for warranty. Samsung only repairs the phone and they will also repair defects not covered by warranty and bill back to you. I've read online to replace a corroded USB port (assuming that may be the reason for my odd charging) would cost around $80. I will be without my phone for a week min and possibly a few weeks.
3.) Pay the $75 deductible through my insurance and take the safe approach, however a guaranteed amount out of pocket. I'd be without a phone for 2-4 days. Phone likely would be new, but could be refurb.
I'm leaning towards one of these options and want to see if you guys would agree with what I'm thinking of doing.
jonnyc13 said:
I'm hoping all of you could help me with my dilemma.
My phone currently only charges (90% of the time) through USB connecting to the computer. It also transfers data fine between it and the laptop. It's not charging connected to the wall, which is a problem because that means I only get a trickle USB charge.The phone itself still works beautifully. Initially I thought my best option was to get a warranty claim in through Verizon. I also have insurance through Ensquared.
I started googling what Verizon would do if they denied a claim. Would they send your broken phone back no charge? I had thought that if it got denied for warrantyfor whatever reason I could just claim it under insurance. Turns out they won't and if they find anything to void warranty they'll hit you with a $299 charge for the replacement like new device. I was seeing a lot of people online getting denied warranty due to corrosion on the connection in the MicroUSB port.
This got me thinking. It's been SUPER humid where I live lately and we've had a lot of downpours. Maybe some rain trickled into the USB port and corroded one of the contact points? The water indicator under the battery and on the battery itself have not been tripped, however I've read people getting denied warranty even without the indicators tripping and corrosion on the USB port. I know leaving it in a steamy bathroom 1 to many times could corrode the contact points. I'm going to try and take a picture of the connection to see if I see any green, however it may still be hard for me to tell because I don't know 100% what I'm looking for.
A few other notes: Ensquared covers accidental damage due to liquids. They also send out new phones most times. Verizon sends out a certified like new replacement. I also have a backup garbage phone that'll get me by for a few weeks if needed.
So my question. What would all of you do?
1.) Move forward with my warranty claim through Verizon and hope there is no corrosion that causes me to get a denied warranty and a $299 bill. I have the replacement phone right now, but have called and verified I could send it back in the box if I don't want to replace.
2.) Send my phone to Samsung for warranty. Samsung only repairs the phone and they will also repair defects not covered by warranty and bill back to you. I've read online to replace a corroded USB port (assuming that may be the reason for my odd charging) would cost around $80. I will be without my phone for a week min and possibly a few weeks.
3.) Pay the $75 deductible through my insurance and take the safe approach, however a guaranteed amount out of pocket. I'd be without a phone for 2-4 days. Phone likely would be new, but could be refurb.
I'm leaning towards one of these options and want to see if you guys would agree with what I'm thinking of doing.
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Anyone? At this point, I'm thinking of picking up some Deoxit from Radio Shack this afternoon and seeing if that fixes my problem. I'm going to return the CLN phone to Verizon and keep my "broken" one. If the Deoxit doesn't work, then I was leaning on going through insurance to be safe. I'd rather pay $75 and know my final cost, then send my phone back and keep my fingers crossed for a week or more to see if I get slammed with a $300 bill after dishing out $600 for my phone off contract.
jonnyc13 said:
Anyone? At this point, I'm thinking of picking up some Deoxit from Radio Shack this afternoon and seeing if that fixes my problem. I'm going to return the CLN phone to Verizon and keep my "broken" one. If the Deoxit doesn't work, then I was leaning on going through insurance to be safe. I'd rather pay $75 and know my final cost, then send my phone back and keep my fingers crossed for a week or more to see if I get slammed with a $300 bill after dishing out $600 for my phone off contract.
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Click to collapse
Did you look at trying out someone else s battery to see if its just the battery?
brabauer said:
Did you look at trying out someone else s battery to see if its just the battery?
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I don't believe it's the battery because it works fine and it charges fine when connected to USB. When I had it in the CLN device for the few mins while I was reading up on horror stories about Verizon Warranty, it was charging correctly through the wall charger as well (with my old battery in it). I tried deoxit on it last night twice and let it sit overnight, however it's still not perfect. Seems like a few places it wouldn't charge before would charge every now and then, but still nothing out of a wall charger. It's very odd. In any case, I'm returning the CLN device back to Verizon and will just go through my insurance. It's the safest bet of the 3.
I'm a manager at a verizon store. In all honesty just call them and say what it's doing and let them walk you through their trouble shooting steps. After that wall you through they will decide the best option. Most likely they will replace it for free. That's what I would do. Save yourself an insurance claim till you really need one cause you only get 2.
brabauer said:
I'm a manager at a verizon store. In all honesty just call them and say what it's doing and let them walk you through their trouble shooting steps. After that wall you through they will decide the best option. Most likely they will replace it for free. That's what I would do. Save yourself an insurance claim till you really need one cause you only get 2.
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I went to a Verizon store and they looked at it and tried to get it to charge too. Even a manager looked in the USB port to see if there was anything in there with a magnifier with a light. The problem is, they are not technicians and can't tell me if my warranty claim could be denied. They already ordered me a free replacement. I have it here with me, however I'm hesitant to send a phone I spent $680 on to Verizon for a CLN one that I may have to dish out another $299 for if they find anything wrong with it that I'm not aware of. If they would send my phone back if it was denied because I paid for the phone outright, then that'd be a diff story. They used to do that, now they don't. I'd def send it in if it was the old rules, but now it's just a guessing game until you have a few weeks pass with no extra charge.