My Sprint 4G GalaxyS cell phone has been randomly rebooting or locking up as I navigate applications and got to the point where I had to take it in. I’ve been paying insurance from the start and was told that if anything happens, it will be replaced free of charge.
I brought it into the service center and was told it would take about an hour to fix, that the screen looked like it was causing the problem but that the battery had an active water damage indicator. Click on the photo to your right and you’ll see a close up – notice the red color (looks like a marker).
I came back an hour later and was told another hour; 2.5 hours later it was ready. When asked what the problem was, the technician said it was the screen, that there was no water damage whatsoever and that the battery indicator sometimes gives a false positive. I was also told that if this doesn’t work, then they would swap out the back end.
Got home and sure enough, same exact problem, only now it’s even worse. The following day I take it to a different service center (hoping it won’t take as long) where they immediately tell me it has water damage but they will look at it. An hour later, I’m told that because of the indicator, they can’t swap it out and they can’t work on it. The service manager stated that he would be personally charged $350+ if he were to do any work on it; story goes that he would swap out my phone, send it into sprint’s main service center and if water damage was discovered, they would bill him.
I can understand that, but why one service center operates different than the other and why they didn’t tell me this up front when seeing the indicator, I’ve no clue. One tech says no water damage and false alarm, the other is afraid to touch it. What really irritates me though, is that I have to pay $100. So I do have insurance, but there is a $100 deductible and I get a refurbished phone in the end.
I had the tech reset the phone before I left; I have had only one problem since then and that was after loading my apps back to the phone. I had asked both Sprint technicians about rooting my phone, which I was surprised to find out that they are okay with that; in fact, they were proud to state that Sprint is the only company they know of that doesn’t care if you root your phone. If you mess things up and loose your data, it’s on you; however, they will reset your phone back to standard software without charge it that happens.
Warning: you should verify this yourself before rooting your phone, I didn’t get that in writing :)
So, my next project is rooting my Sprint Galaxy which I’ll document and write about here.
Moral of the story – Before you take in your phone, check to see if the water indicator is active! If you search the internet for similar issues, you’ll see this is a BIG problem and customers are upset.
Update: During my research to see if this was a problem with the battery, I found Sprint customer after Sprint customer complaining that high altitudes or areas of high humidity can cause the battery to activate the water damage strip. I was recently on vacation where high humidity is common and am now convinced this triggered the false warning.
I went to one sprint store and he checked my iPhone 6 and tried to power it up unsuccessfully. He asked if it had been exposed to water and I told him no. He said I could take it to the service stored for it to be replaced or repaired without charge. I went to the repairing and service sprint store she looked around at my phone and then opened it up. Never did she mention that any water damaged indicators had been breached. On the inside of the phone there was some debris, she called it corrosion.. I don’t think it was. She said my only choice was to pY a $200 deductible. I called the insurance co to complain. I am about to contact sprint again. I should not have to pay this deductible. I’m tKing it to apple first and then back to sprint. They are definitely running scams. I know that all my phone needs is a new lithium battery.
OK wanted to see if someone could answer this my daughter cracks her screen on her phone insurance said since o didn’t file a claim in a certain amount of time there was nothing they could do to contact sprint! BC when they asked me when it happened I told the truth BC know one told me that you had so many days to file a claim! They added the insurance to all my phones by phone so was never told anything about the fine print stuff! Well today her phone drops in the toilet at school I have it soaking in rice if it doesn’t work tomorrow do you think I can call and file a claim!?!
same here. Told me I had water damage and told me either use the warranty (which has a 150 deductible) or pay the rest of phone off and upgrade.. Straight bull, I never had any water near my phone. AND they told my girl the same thing. We bought our phones at the same time. Only been a little over a year. Something doesn’t smell right.
I had the same experience today at Sprint. I promise you my phone was not exposed to water. Sprint is running a fr.aud. i am looking to seek a class action lawsuit