Dead pixels apparently caused by physical damage?!

[Haggisman]

My GF's Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge developed a fault last weekend, in that it has no network connection at all, and also appears to have some dead pixels/pixel clusters on the display.

Sent it off (to Anovo ) as it is still under warranty, however I've just had an email back saying they want £206.92 to fix it, due to physical damage (from a quick Google, it seems funny how every repair has the same price...).

Just spoke to them on the phone and apparently dead pixels are caused by physical damage, and so out of warranty - struggling to see how this is possible? They are perfect little circles on the display (looking at the picture, there's one on the far right edge parallel to the 9 on the battery %, one on the lower edge about 2mm from the left, an obvious one on the left side and about 1cm diagonally up and right from that one there is a single pixel) - yes I'm aware of the screen burn :



Currently on hold to the Samsung escalations team to take it further as I'm not going to accept that response, I have plenty of high res images and video showing the phone in pristine physical condition, and it has been in a case (one of those wallet type which cover the screen as well), along with having a screen protector on since day 1.

Also, am I right in thinking the fact there is apparently minor physical damage to the display should have no bearing on them repairing the network fault. It would be like me taking my car to get repaired under warranty because the engine blew up, and them refusing because the door has a scratch...

Edit: update, Samsung have told me to take it into the nearest Samsung store (30 miles away >_<) to get it looked at by one of their in-house technicians, failing that it's escalation to their complaints department.

 

[Haggisman]

I will happily take them to court if they refuse to fix it...

 

[Haggisman]

Blimey ! Plays bingo a lot does she ??

No comment

 

[Haggisman]

Well I'll be going to the Samsung store after work, shortly before closing time, I may take a sleeping bag with me...

What's amusing is that the dead pixels were part of the original repair request, and I even included a print out of the picture above, with them circled in red. The "evidence" they've provided of the physical damage is a grainy close up of the dead pixels...

 

[Haggisman]

difficult to see how that patch of dead pixels in the OPs photo was caused by drop damage as its not near the edge of the glass however, so i dont know. That's some horrific screen burn as well, wow. In fact if i was to guess i'd say that she's cooked the screen and it's starting to break the oleds down.

I could be talking balls though.

There's not just one patch, there are 4, 3 near the bottom of the phone and one at the top, so can't see how that would be from an impact.

Regarding the screen burn "cooking" the screen, is that even a thing? I know it's bad, but she insists on having it set to maximum brightness, and sits on there for a couple of hours a day on the train to work. Regardless, surely that still has no relationship to the loss of network... The screen burn she can live with, the fact her phone is no longer a phone she can't

 

[Haggisman]

Is the burn not just the breakdown of the organic compounds in the individual pixels rather than damage to the display? In which case I can understand individual pixels failing completely, but would expect them to loosely follow the pattern of the burned image rather than a couple of random areas (guessing here rather than any kind of knowledge on the subject)

 

[Haggisman]

So... an update to this whole disaster:

Received the phone back last Monday, took it straight to the Samsung "Experience Centre", where they couldn't really do much as there were no engineers on site, but they did spot an imperfection under the screen, sort of like a crease in the LCD - only visible from a certain angle in certain light.

Can't get a clear picture of it, but if you do a Google image search for "galaxy s6 edge ripple under screen", it looks like the first result.

They told me to bring it back on Saturday when there would be someone in who could take a look at it, so I did (another 60 mile/2 hour round trip ). Over a period of about 4 hours sat in/wandering around a shopping mall, they eventually established that the phone has lost it's IMEI somehow. They tried reflashing it, but it wouldn't work, and I would need to pay £190 for the screen replacement and £220 for a new board.

After much arguing, they agreed to replace the board under warranty, but I'd still have to pay the £200 for a new screen...

At this point I decided to leave, because quite frankly I was getting a bit "fed up."

My girlfriend now has a nice shiny new (cheapish temporary) Sony Xperia, so she's happy. When our contracts (3 of them, mine, my business phone and hers) are up, we will not be upgrading to the newest flagship Samsung phones as we otherwise would have been, will not be buying the lovely QLED TV I've been eyeing up ( ), and will not be replacing the Galaxy Tab our little boy uses with another Samsung device. I'll also be making sure to recommend people avoid Samsung if they want any kind of support after they've got their money.

They may have saved themselves £200 on not providing a warranty repair, but I'll make sure it costs them a lot more in the long run.

I could possibly take it further, but at this point a) I have no way of proving the flaw in the screen was already there and we didn't cause it, and b) I can't be bothered; my time is worth more, and to be honest it's too late - they've had adequate opportunity to do the right thing and I've lost all faith in their ability to provide any kind of customer service. It's a shame as they do make some lovely bits of kit, but what's the point in that when it could break after 6 months and they refuse to take any responsibility?

 

[Haggisman]

Yeah, very disappointing! I could understand if it was some no-name chinese phone, but for the flagship device (at the time) from basically the biggest Android phone company is disgusting - I've been on their Facebook page and almost every single post on there is people complaining about their lack of customer support!

 

[Haggisman]

Well I'm sure any manufacturer will have a certain % of devices which are damaged in production/end up DOA. However, frustrating as I can understand that being, it's not the main issue. It's when they refuse to acknowledge responsibility for that it becomes a problem!