Tesco repair guy says water damage, I disagree...

cormie

My friends phone started acting up about 2 weeks ago. It would give error messages starting apps and then eventually wouldn't get past the boot screen. It seemed like it could have been some virus or something getting to the apps and then one day it just didn't turn on. The phone was sent to tesco and they are saying that as it's water damage, it's not covered under warranty.

I'm not convinced this is the case, I don't think water damage is the problem, the phone had no excessive exposure to water and the way the apps were just shutting down made me think it's just something up with the OS.

Is there any way this could actually be water damage? The phone is only about 6 months old and now it doesn't qualify for warranty repair because the water exposure (which I don't think there was any) voids it apparently, but I think the actual problem was software based and if it is anything but water damage, surely they are entitled to a repair or refund?

Any feedback would be appreciated

DopeTech

cormie wrote: »

My friends phone started acting up about 2 weeks ago. It would give error messages starting apps and then eventually wouldn't get past the boot screen. It seemed like it could have been some virus or something getting to the apps and then one day it just didn't turn on. The phone was sent to tesco and they are saying that as it's water damage, it's not covered under warranty.

I'm not convinced this is the case, I don't think water damage is the problem, the phone had no excessive exposure to water and the way the apps were just shutting down made me think it's just something up with the OS.

Is there any way this could actually be water damage? The phone is only about 6 months old and now it doesn't qualify for warranty repair because the water exposure (which I don't think there was any) voids it apparently, but I think the actual problem was software based and if it is anything but water damage, surely they are entitled to a repair or refund?

Any feedback would be appreciated

How are you so sure where "your friend's" phone has been? Bringing it into the bathroom when showering could be enough to trigger the water damage markers inside the phone. It definitely could be water damage. How are we to know what's happened to the phone? Only "your friend" will know that. What phone is it? Did you try holding down the power button for 1 minute? It should force it to restart if its stuck in any crashed state.

cormie

Haha, so suspicious It's a Huawei y625. What was happening was a few apps were giving error messages when trying to launch about 5 days prior to it not being able to boot up, as the days progressed, more apps were giving problems (everything else was working exactly as it should, only the apps weren't launching), then the phone wouldn't launch to the home screen (I said boot up earlier, but it does actually turn on, it just doesn't get beyong the huawei welcome screen). It's got a removable battery so when it hung, you could just take the battery out and try again, it would just never get past the huawei screen. I tried keep my finger on volume + or - (forget which) on booting and a menu in Chinese came up, all I could understand was SD and SIM from a choice of about 10 options so decided best not to try anything since I hadn't a clue what they were.

Tried it with different sims, with/without SD card etc, but no luck. So everything seemed to be working fine up until a moment where it just wouldn't get by the huawei boot screen, so it was as if some apps were getting buggered and then maybe whatever app that launches to home screen also got buggered and it could no longer launch.

It just doesn't seem at all like water damage.

blue note

Something similar happened to my ex girlfriend, although not with tesco. She dropped the phone down the toilet, but thankfully afterwards the phone worked fine. A few months later there was an update that broke some phones - not a myth, it was widely reported and the company said just send them back to us and we'll repair them. But when they got hers back since the water thing was dissolved or whatever happens to it, they wouldn't fix it.

Now, she should have fought harder and gotten it fixed, but she didn't, she bought a new one.

homerjay2005

without naming the repair center, is it one based in sandyford?

they are famous for this, ive had fierce problems with them and ended up on every occasion sending it to the manufacturer who replace the phone as there was no water damage on any phone.

cormie

Just got confirmation that yup, it's currently for repair in Sandyford.

homerjay, was there any way you could confirm there was no water damage? Did the manufacturer confirm this when you sent it back to them? Any advice? The phone isn't worth very much so not really worth going through so much hassle to get it repaired I guess, but don't like thinking they are saying something untrue.

ED E

Its a reactive marker, think a litmus test from your junior cert. If its changed colour, its changed colour. They won't repair it, end of.


What it sounds like to me is a failing NAND chip, maybe failing RAM. Without moisture they'd swap the mainboard/replace it and off you'd go.

cormie

They've ordered a replacement phone from Amazon, so whether a Huawei y625 is worth sending off to the manufacturer or not I don't know. It would be a free repair if in warranty and without water damage if it's a failing NAND or RAM I guess?

Are there viruses that would affect an android system like that I wonder?

ED E

While not unheard of, viruses on android arent a big thing. And an incremental failure says hardware not infection.

cormie

Thanks for that. So with all that in mind, it looks like it could have been a failing piece of hardware that they brushed off as water damage. I guess the phone will be sent back without repair and then my friend can choose to send it back to the manufacturer if they feel it's worth their time. It would be nice if it was easy to dispute the repair teams analysis

ED E

Point is it doesnt really matter why it failed, if moisture gets in nobody will stand by it.

cormie

Maybe they just dab a bit of damp cloth on the marker so it changes colour and then they claim it's due to water damage and don't bother fixing it :mad:

Should have opened it up to check the marker before sending it off, but that probably would have voided the warranty itself