Anything I can do? Water ingress blamed for killing my S4 when it’s never got wet.

Slackjaw190

Slackjaw190

Slackjaw190

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I’ve had my Samsung S4 for nearly two years. Over the last month or so it’s been getting quite hot when in use and the battery draining quite quickly. I just thought it was getting a bit old and something was running in the background, however I’m due to replace it in May so wasn’t too bothered.

However one day last week I woke up and it was dead. I took it to the local Carphone Warehouse store where I got it and they explained to me that it’s quite a common for S4 batteries to fail and if it’s been getting hot for a while it has probably fried the electrics. As it’s less than two years old it still has a warranty so they posted it off to Samsung to fix.

I just got a phone call from them say it’s been water damaged and they won’t fix it. My phone has never been exposed or dropped in any water that you wouldn’t to encounter in everyday use, such a sweat from hands or a raindrop (not torrential rain) and I’m 100% sure of this. If I had dropped it in some water than fair enough but if a phone can’t survive everyday use it’s not fit for purpose.
It’s my word against theirs and I guess I’ll lose but is there anything I can do? There was definitely a fault with the battery as it was bulged. It’s not the end of the world as I’m due an upgrade in May anyway and I’ll just use an old phone until then.

Shame as I was tempted by the S6 but screw Samsung if they treat their customers like this.

Opps wrong section - please move :)
 
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there are wee pads in the phone which change colour if they are exposed to significant water ingress - if that has been triggered there isn't a lot you can dispute, just get them to send it back you and get it repaired locally.
 
cHk4 said:
I think they have sensors in the phone which change color if water touches them and they gauge water damage on this. I could be mistaken but at least that's what we were told when I worked at p4u.
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Correct.

Most mobiles will have numerous water detectors. These are simply tiny white squares of paper type material that simply go purple (usually) when they've come into contact with water.

Having worked for CPW for many years in the past, they are usually correct. Note this would not have been diagnosed in store, it would have gone back to their repair center.

Once, out of thousands of water damaged phones that people contested did it turn out to be the wrong diagnosis.

But by all means, ask for photographic proof (including serial number in same shot).
 
Challenge it and ask for photo evidence. Did they also say where it had been sent by any chance?

My Samsung handset got sent to Anovo who claimed it had water damage and sent me the wrong handset back. After several months of arguing I eventually won but Samsung were no help what so ever and Anovo are total cowboys.
 
Thanks guys, I'll ask for a photo with the serial number but I doubt I'll get anywhere. Just confused how it happened when I know it hasn't come into contact with any significant water.
 
Thinking back, my S3 was deemed water damaged by one of their repair centres, I challenged it and it wa sent to another centre who found no water damage and replaced it.

Do challenge!
 
Wife had this with an Iphone, she went total Rambo in the shop and they sorted it, it had never seen water or so she said. I never questioned it lol.
 
Slackjaw190 said:
Yeah I'll try it but that goes back to 2010. I would have thought that they would have amended the indicators since that.....

I'll see tomorrow when I go to the shop and kick off.
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Good luck, from the shops through the repair shops to the manufacturers via the networks the mobile phone industry is full of shoddy practices and charlatans imho.
 
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