Faulty Samsung SGS2 & Virgin Mobile....Help required

zootfloot

zootfloot

zootfloot

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Skelton in Cleveland
This request is for my Father in Law.

He has a samsungs SGS2 (£30.00 per month contract with VM), and has had it for approximately 7 weeks.

One day last week the status bar kept showing the USB icon, he couldnt charge the phone up and it wouldnt connect to his PC, then it just went off (this all happened between him waking on the morning and about lunch time the same day).

He rang Virgin mobile who arranged to pick it up....fast forward to yesterday when he received a call from VM telling him that there are signs of moisture ingress and that the repair charge will be £170!

He told them that the device had not been near any kind of moisture to the best of his knowledge and that when at home the phone is always on his pc desk docking station, when out and about its always in his trouser pocket.

The lady told him that the evidence says otherwise! and she will be returning the phone to him with Photographic evidence to back up their "engineers report" it is up to him as to whether he should send the phone to Samsung for evaluation/repairs or not as if it is moisture ingress he will be charged full whack for the repair.

So now he does not have a mobile phone, he could potentially have a 2 year contract with VM and he may have to purchase a new phone or pay a hell of a lot out to get the SGS2 repaired.

What do you guys think...any idea where he stands and what his rights are, any advice will be very much appreciated.
 
There are stickers inside the phone that change colour when moisture gets in the phone. Not really a lot you can do if they are saying they can see this evidence. Perhaps it happened by coming in from the cold into a warm house.
 
<Total opinion incoming> The networks don't arse about with stuff like this, there is very likely water damage to the device. There is more than 1 water strip in an SGS2 and more than 1 is usually required to trigger the water reason. Is he being totally honest with you? No chance he dropped it in a puddle or the like?

Considering the symptoms I'm going to say it's either the USB port is shorted/broken or the power circuit chip is damaged. If its the latter then you require a whole new PCB = new phone. £170 isn't all that bad for a refurb to be honest.
 
I would get him to try sending the phone to Samsung direct (arrange RMA via Samsung website) and see what out come you get from that.
 
I also asked all of the questions with regards to puddles, toilet, shower etc etc...he replied with no not at all.

In his defence he is a 67 year old man, he has retired and doesnt get out all that much....although he does like his technology.

Like i said before, when he is at home the phone tends to go onto a dock thing, when out and about its in his pocket.

Would his phone having a protective case have anything to do with it?
 
No to the case. T-mo already said the water strips are contaminated, Samsung are just going to say the same.
 
Ah thats a shame, poor blokes beside himself thinking he's been duped and all kinds of conspiracy theories.

Suppose he will just have to wait and see what Samsung say if he returns it to them.
 
I have seen this before when talking on a phone in heavy rain, only in rare cases though.

Regarding the potential for them to be falsifying the problem, this is just my opinion but I think it is unlikely. My parents have been with Virgin Mobile for some years now and they have always given excellent helpful service and usually replaced the phone for free when it has a problem. They did the same for me when I used to be with them as well. Just my experience but I have no reason to distrust what they say.

£170 is a lot of money but still less than half of the price of a new sgs2.

On a side note, has your father in law thought about getting phone insurance? I cannot remember exactly how much but virgin mobiles own insurance is reasonably cheap.
 
zootfloot said:
Ah thats a shame, poor blokes beside himself thinking he's been duped and all kinds of conspiracy theories.

Suppose he will just have to wait and see what Samsung say if he returns it to them.
Click to expand...
Ultimately they don't gain if he loses the phone as he will now be more unlikely to renew a contract, purchase additional services or believe the brand is true to their morals. There are tons of issues in play when people lose/break their phones and genuinely, networks try a lot to make it go right because it benefits everyone.

The conspiracy theory stuff can be put to rest by checking the IMEI / Serial under the battery if he really cares.

You're going to get the pics anyway so you'll see the damage but honestly your best option here is repair. If you buy a craphone you won't get much out of it, if you buy mid it's going to cost a ton anyway, £70/20 months isn't that much.
 
zootfloot said:
One day last week the status bar kept showing the USB icon, he couldnt charge the phone up and it wouldnt connect to his PC, then it just went off (this all happened between him waking on the morning and about lunch time the same day).
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Click to expand...

I *think* this behaviour has been reported in the main SGS2 thread when the USB socket gets clogged with fluff

//edit// also reported on the XDA forums
 
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few options i can think of

sell the phone on ebay stating the fault. add cash buy new

buy one off ebay with broken screen and put your screen on the broken one (i did it to a sgs1 yesterday) sell remainder as scrap

or pay the 170

when i opened the SGS1 yesterday i noticed about 4 or 5 small blue strips randomly placed inside the phone. going off other comments they must have been the strips to tell if it has water damage
 
There has been another turn of events.

This afternoon his phone has been returned by VM, and its working and powering up but is now exhibiting a different fault (battery overheating).... the father in law is adamant that its a different phone, he put 2 small marks on the internal and external casings and one on the battery before it was sent off.

It has been returned with no engineers report and no photographic evidence, the battery is definitely not his as it clearly shows marks and scratches whereas his had none of those marks on it.
 
i dont know what the mobile section is like but VM are normally good.

did he send it in the original box? check the imei numbers match up

edit: sometimes the receipt has the imei number on it as well. but he may not if got one because its contract
 
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mrgubby said:
I *think* this behaviour has been reported in the main SGS2 thread when the USB socket gets clogged with fluff

//edit// also reported on the XDA forums
Click to expand...

It's what happened to mine, sent it to Samsung and i had the phone back in under a week.
 
zootfloot said:
There has been another turn of events.

This afternoon his phone has been returned by VM, and its working and powering up but is now exhibiting a different fault (battery overheating).... the father in law is adamant that its a different phone, he put 2 small marks on the internal and external casings and one on the battery before it was sent off.

It has been returned with no engineers report and no photographic evidence, the battery is definitely not his as it clearly shows marks and scratches whereas his had none of those marks on it.
Click to expand...

I had the same things happening.

*Battery overheat warning
*phone would'nt turn off
*Phone thinking a USB cable was connected all the time.
 
Update time:

The Father in law received his phone back from Samsung this afternoon.

The engineers report said there was no evidence of moisture damage at all, however it did mention that something had been reset as it was causing usb problems.

He is now drafting an email to VM informing them of their engineers mis-diagnosis of the problem and asking for some kind of compensation on his monthly bill due to time lost.
 
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