How long does it take rust to form?

Long story short, The wife has a mobile phone on contract that had an issue with turning itself off, The wife took it into the O2 store who them sent it off for repair, The phone came back a week later and they had done a software update which surprise surprise did not rectify the issue.

The wife then took the phone back to the O2 store who sent it back off for repair, The repair shop contacted her to advise that the unit was beyond economical repair and she will be getting a replacement handset.

The handset arrived on the Friday and after the wife fully charged it she found out that the front screen was not working, She took it back on Saturday morning for the Store to send it back for repair/Replacement, 3 days later she got a call from the repairers stating the the damage on the handset is not covered under warrenty due to liquid damage and she would have to claim off of our insurance.

Now you can probably see the dillema, they would not believe that she did not damage the handset and the O2 store would not budge as they repair report states it has water damage, she only had the handset for less than 24 hours and most of that time it was on charge, Also the repair sheet states that there is evidence of rust on some of the internal components inside the phone.

How long would it take rust to form internally on the phone? surely it would not be evident within such a small time scale, I know what has happened, the repair shop sent her a reconditioned handset that was probably originally damaged by water and then on checking the replacement have found this damage and blamed the wife.

not really sure what we can do as it is there word versus us. any help would be appreciated.

similar thing happened to me i was givin a handset an the speaker didnt work upon arrival which they claimed was 'water damage' i jus kept harassing them an threatening to go to another network unless it was replaced since i had the receipt saying the day i got the new handset, in the end it was t-monbile an they replaced it but took a lot of harassing them.

Depends on the material, but rust can form within minutes on things like untreated steel. I once helped my father move some of his machines to another factory unit, and whilst they were left outside it rained briefly, for perhaps 10 minutes or so. By the time it stopped, the untreated parts of the machine beds had already started to oxidize. If you've ever washed a car with alloy wheels you can see the same thing happening, as just minutes after being hit with water, the brake discs will rust over.

Not sure what material the inside of the phone is, but it's probably plausible that if left damp, they could start to rust and show water damage.

just keep on at them

off topic, but it wasn't a c905 was it?

rust? in a phone? phone's aren't made of steel. someone's fobbing you off big time - ask for documented proof that it's been damaged by water.

Aod said:

rust? in a phone? phone's aren't made of steel. someone's fobbing you off big time - ask for documented proof that it's been damaged by water.

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yes parts of phones (screws etc) will be made ofsteel as it's dirt cheep compared to other metals.

slothmeister said:

off topic, but it wasn't a c905 was it?

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mine that busted was a c905 lol

sounds dodgy as. I'd hound them hard. Have you asked them how come there was no sign of rust damage on the first inspection?

Tefal said:

yes parts of phones (screws etc) will be made ofsteel as it's dirt cheep compared to other metals.

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They will indeed, it's also a good metal for this though even the cheapest screws seem to have zinc plating. However, would mechanical fixtures rusting cause electrical failure?

Random question: can stainless steel ever rust? I have a stainless ruler and it appears to have started rusting after the cat urinated on it

Dr.EM said:

They will indeed, it's also a good metal for this though even the cheapest screws seem to have zinc plating. However, would mechanical fixtures rusting cause electrical failure?

Random question: can stainless steel ever rust? I have a stainless ruler and it appears to have started rusting after the cat urinated on it

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yes it can, but rust on stainless steel is easier to remove

Dr.EM said:

They will indeed, it's also a good metal for this though even the cheapest screws seem to have zinc plating. However, would mechanical fixtures rusting cause electrical failure?

Random question: can stainless steel ever rust? I have a stainless ruler and it appears to have started rusting after the cat urinated on it

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Yes, most people think stainless means completely rust proof. This isn't true; leave a stainless steel knife wet and it will actually corrode. But it is more resistant than bare steel.

whitecrook said:

sounds dodgy as. I'd hound them hard. Have you asked them how come there was no sign of rust damage on the first inspection?

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The phone is a Sony W980i and the first 2 times they inspected and tried to repair the phone it was a different phone altogether, the one that is "water damaged" was the one they sent out as a replacement for the original.

Colbaker said:

The phone is a Sony W980i and the first 2 times they inspected and tried to repair the phone it was a different phone altogether, the one that is "water damaged" was the one they sent out as a replacement for the original.

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sounds like they sent you a dubious refurb as a replacement ?

Conscript said:

Depends on the material, but rust can form within minutes on things like untreated steel. I once helped my father move some of his machines to another factory unit, and whilst they were left outside it rained briefly, for perhaps 10 minutes or so. By the time it stopped, the untreated parts of the machine beds had already started to oxidize. If you've ever washed a car with alloy wheels you can see the same thing happening, as just minutes after being hit with water, the brake discs will rust over.

Not sure what material the inside of the phone is, but it's probably plausible that if left damp, they could start to rust and show water damage.

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Machine beds and brake disks are cast iron, (Or similar, like SG Iron etc). Rust does form within minutes. Takes longer with steel, and its unlikely that any part of the inside of a phone would corrode that quickly, especially with water. It would have to be immersed for quite some time, and also have a contaminant that would help it react.

"andy" said:

sounds like they sent you a dubious refurb as a replacement ?

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i am sure this is why?

A quick extract from the repair center....

"Thanks for sending us your phone to be fixed, one of our senior engineers has had a look at your phone. As you know, unfortunatly we couldn't fix it because it's been damaged by water.

The circuit board in your phone is made up of layers, when liquid or condensation gets inside the phone, the layers start to rust. this type of damage isnt covered by the manafacturers warrenty."

The most frustrating thing is that i know she did not spill anything on it and also that the replacement phone would have already had this damage but how do i prove this?

disk breaks on cars anyone? rust can form instantly on certain types of metals, especially on pcb's

PhillyDee said:

Machine beds and brake disks are cast iron, (Or similar, like SG Iron etc). Rust does form within minutes. Takes longer with steel, and its unlikely that any part of the inside of a phone would corrode that quickly, especially with water. It would have to be immersed for quite some time, and also have a contaminant that would help it react.

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You're right, what a completely stupid mistake on my part, the parts are iron, not steel. Thanks for calling me up on that though.

Im pretty sure the untreated 440C steel bars he stored outside the factory rusted quickly as well, but not sure how fast.