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Sprint replacing/fixing htc hero's with dust

ok I know for a fact they will replace your htc hero (it'll be refurbished, but if your dust is as bad as it is on mine then it's worth it).
this is what I did (it's long kinda, i'll put a tl;dr at the bottom) to get a refurbed phone from sprint for no money.
skip to bottom if you want summarized version
-spent about 30 minutes in a sprint live chat, the denied any problems with the phone and tried blaming it on me, I said their forum is full of cases of people with the issue, they told me they don't support online forums. I said then why do you guys have one. they asked for a link to the thread (i linked to one with a bunch of complaints about it in one thread) and told me to just go to the repair center and they would fix it for free, no problems at all.
-went to the sprint repair center, they said sure it'll take about 30 minutes BEFORE my phone went to the back by the techs they opened it up and said it had water damage. I stood there dumbfounded, not once had my phone been near water. He said it was from sweaty palms or sweat on my head. I said come on dude the phone has no problems other than the dust, the water detecting strip isn't even all red it's no big deal, he wouldn't budge though. he told me to go pay 100 for a refurb (deductible)
-called sprint *2. summarized what just happened they said oh no they should have been able to fix it for you. I asked what now ? they said they could have a refurbed phone sent out to me instead of having me go back there. HOWEVER if there was water damage they would charge me (I'm sure there isn't though, the strip isnt' fully activated yet).
summarized
tl;dr - If you have dust, take your phone to the repair center, they can take it apart safely, without voiding the warranty. If you have a custom rom, just take out the battery before giving them the phone. If you have ANY signs of water damage, call *2, explain that you just tried to have the dust blown out at a repair center and they refused due to a minute amount of water on the sensor. they will ship one to you in 2-5 days.
I guess this is mostly my little rant on how much sprint likes to pawn their responsibilities of on the next person. Everytime i go to the damn repair center they say water damage !

yeah i just got my replacement the other day becuase of dust only mine was new not refurb.

I'm assuming it'll be refurbed, but it may be new, I will post what it is when I get it (probably monday or tuesday).

I'm going to have to do this soon, mine is filling up.

So the solution is replaced phones/cleaning out. But they have not fixed this problem? Makes no sense.

Did you guys ever think of cleaning your houses? wtf? I've had 2 heros since it came out, and neither of them have any dust what so ever

auxny said:
Did you guys ever think of cleaning your houses? wtf? I've had 2 heros since it came out, and neither of them have any dust what so ever
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So the issue is unclean houses? Your logic at the very least is interesting. And you having two clean heros does make you an expert, I mean that is a big sample size. Those filthy dusty pigs!

i agree

For the Brave who want to clean their own...
androidforums.com/sprint-htc-hero/22036-sprint-htc-hero-disassembly-diy.html[/url]

auxny said:
i agree
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Yeah and the fact that none of their other electronics have dust in their displays is pure luck. Sprint should just email all those whiny bastards and tell them to take a shower every once and awhile.

bob2300nx said:
Yeah and the fact that none of their other electronics have dust in their displays is pure luck. Sprint should just email all those whiny bastards and tell them to take a shower every once and awhile.
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It's like your in my head d00d. instead of replacement phones, they should get you guys a hover vacuum

I have had a zagg case on my hero since day one and dust has filled the lower screen and top left part of the screen as well. I don't live in a dusty house, not that it would matter really since I'm hardly home.
Also, yes you could disassemble your phone, but that could void the warranty, and this was is free and you could get a new phone from it.

Tell ur mom to start cleaning out your pants pockets better.
Stop placing the damn phone into those filthy pockets till she learns to do the laundry correctly.
Or better yet, how about YOU take a min to clean them before YOU put them on......dust problem solved......your welcome!!!

auxny said:
Did you guys ever think of cleaning your houses? wtf? I've had 2 heros since it came out, and neither of them have any dust what so ever
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dang every time you post you make your self look like an ass lol

this is the internet, young sir, so only a no life loser would care if they look like an ass online, so skeet skeet your face!

Or a complete prick...

rockage said:
ok I know for a fact they will replace your htc hero (it'll be refurbished, but if your dust is as bad as it is on mine then it's worth it).
this is what I did (it's long kinda, i'll put a tl;dr at the bottom) to get a refurbed phone from sprint for no money.
skip to bottom if you want summarized version
-spent about 30 minutes in a sprint live chat, the denied any problems with the phone and tried blaming it on me, I said their forum is full of cases of people with the issue, they told me they don't support online forums. I said then why do you guys have one. they asked for a link to the thread (i linked to one with a bunch of complaints about it in one thread) and told me to just go to the repair center and they would fix it for free, no problems at all.
-went to the sprint repair center, they said sure it'll take about 30 minutes BEFORE my phone went to the back by the techs they opened it up and said it had water damage. I stood there dumbfounded, not once had my phone been near water. He said it was from sweaty palms or sweat on my head. I said come on dude the phone has no problems other than the dust, the water detecting strip isn't even all red it's no big deal, he wouldn't budge though. he told me to go pay 100 for a refurb (deductible)
-called sprint *2. summarized what just happened they said oh no they should have been able to fix it for you. I asked what now ? they said they could have a refurbed phone sent out to me instead of having me go back there. HOWEVER if there was water damage they would charge me (I'm sure there isn't though, the strip isnt' fully activated yet).
summarized
tl;dr - If you have dust, take your phone to the repair center, they can take it apart safely, without voiding the warranty. If you have a custom rom, just take out the battery before giving them the phone. If you have ANY signs of water damage, call *2, explain that you just tried to have the dust blown out at a repair center and they refused due to a minute amount of water on the sensor. they will ship one to you in 2-5 days.
I guess this is mostly my little rant on how much sprint likes to pawn their responsibilities of on the next person. Everytime i go to the damn repair center they say water damage !
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unlike vzw, sprint techs dont use the indicator strip as evidence of water damage. it can be a clue, but when they take the phone apart they have to find corrosion on the board to claim liquid damage. believe it or not they actually get paid to fix phones (and are tracked on when they fix a phone versus referring to insuance or having to exchange it) so the techs want to fix as many phones as possible. the hero dust issue is a very easy repair too.
also, theres no such thing as "not enough" water damage. when moisture gets on the strip it turns colors, plain and simple. yes, if it is submerged then it will get more red than if its just a drop of water, but a drop of water is all it takes to fry electronics. now chances are the warehouse wont look at it enough to charge you, but do be weary if the techs makred the device damaged beyond repair which they should have if they denied the repair in the first place.

unlike vzw, sprint techs dont use the indicator strip as evidence of water damage. it can be a clue, but when they take the phone apart they have to find corrosion on the board to claim liquid damage. believe it or not they actually get paid to fix phones (and are tracked on when they fix a phone versus referring to insuance or having to exchange it) so the techs want to fix as many phones as possible. the hero dust issue is a very easy repair too.
also, theres no such thing as "not enough" water damage. when moisture gets on the strip it turns colors, plain and simple. yes, if it is submerged then it will get more red than if its just a drop of water, but a drop of water is all it takes to fry electronics. now chances are the warehouse wont look at it enough to charge you, but do be weary if the techs makred the device damaged beyond repair which they should have if they denied the repair in the first place.
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the tech didnt get to look at my phone it was someone at the front counter he opened it up without saying anything to me and said oh theres water damage. the whole strip isn't red is what I meant. I never dropped it or came close to water so I'm positive it doesn't have water damage on the inside.
the person said that if the indicator is red AT ALL they can't touch the phone because they don't want to take a risk, they recommended that I took the phone to a third party store where it isn't guaranteed. I called sprint right after the tech store and they agreed with me though.

Sprint techs don't get paid to repair phones, well, not per phone. We get paid an hourly wage.
Some third parties will pay their employees per phone, but corporate employees don't get paid per phone repair.
I wish we got something per repair. I repair 3-400 phones a month. Even if we got a dollar a repair it would be nice.

I also have this problem. In the same house, my other phones are very clean on the lower screeen. Many GSM users of Hero have the same problem too. I only use my hero for 3+ months. I can see dust on my screen.

Bricking hero to get it replaced

My sprint store won't replace my Hero with dust under the screen >_<
So if I brick it, they will, correct?
Would brick by pulling battery during radio update or something.

Yeah...this is against your contract and such...if they can prove you bricked it they can say no...

This is incredibly unethical and results in higher costs for all of us. I understand you're upset that you have dust under your screen, but intentionally bricking your phone to get a replacement, that cost only gets passed on to everyone else.
I guess that you could argue that the product was defective and they ought to replace it anyway, but a little dust under the screen isn't the end of the world is it? I've got chipped paint on my back button and the case has a small crack where the mini-usb plugs in, should I brick my phone just to fix those minor issues?

ASULutzy said:
This is incredibly unethical and results in higher costs for all of us. I understand you're upset that you have dust under your screen, but intentionally bricking your phone to get a replacement, that cost only gets passed on to everyone else.
I guess that you could argue that the product was defective and they ought to replace it anyway, but a little dust under the screen isn't the end of the world is it? I've got chipped paint on my back button and the case has a small crack where the mini-usb plugs in, should I brick my phone just to fix those minor issues?
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I'm completely OCD about these things. Once I notice an issue that I didn't cause, it bothers the complete hell out of me.

Just take it to a local repair shop and pay the cost to have it cleaned/screen replaced.

intx said:
I'm completely OCD about these things. Once I notice an issue that I didn't cause, it bothers the complete hell out of me.
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Asides from all of that, as already mentioned this is unethical, and also illegal, you would be committing fraud. This is something in the same vein as insurance fraud. I don't condone such things. There are guides on the internet on how to openup your phone and clean out the dust, probably guides on how to stop it from happening again, look them up and give that a shot if the dust bothers you so much.

rayborn said:
Just take it to a local repair shop and pay the cost to have it cleaned/screen replaced.
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I absolutely refuse to pay extra money to fix a defect in a phone I've only had for a few months.

So take it to a Sprint shop and they'll blow out the dust for free.

intx said:
I absolutely refuse to pay extra money to fix a defect in a phone I've only had for a few months.
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Then open ur phone and clean it urself, seriously why do ppl think their entitled to sh*t nowadays? if you can flash ur phone then open the shell and clean it out.

entropism said:
So take it to a Sprint shop and they'll blow out the dust for free.
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He said he did that and they wouldnt.
How do u guys get dust under the screen? Om. Truck driver and see tje worst conditions ever, from scorching heat to freezing cold with everything in between n my phone still looks bew after a few months and many drops andi cary it in my pocket.

I would have to agree that the best option, (being money free) is to follow a guide to open up your phone and cleaning it yourself unless of course you would be voiding your warranty. However that seems to be not the case here.

to brick it, flash a gsm radio or rom. BUT "if" they catch it you will be charged for a new phone.

Nate14 said:
I would have to agree that the best option, (being money free) is to follow a guide to open up your phone and cleaning it yourself unless of course you would be voiding your warranty. However that seems to be not the case here.
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no need to clean it, just call sprint and they will send you another phone. i did and i got a new one a week ago. sprint knows about the dust defect.

Uhmmm. The answer to your question is yes. The bricked hero is going to go into a bucket of hero's at the HTC repair center and probably be recycled. There is no forensics team waiting to check every phone because of HOW it got screwed. I would keep it all stock though so if they do read it they wont see something that hasnt been released yet.
I would say the radio update trick may brick it but it would be best if the phone didnt even power on.
Also, don't feel bad. I am ocd about this stuff too and if I had dust under the screen in one hand, and a company like sprint trying back out of responsibility in the other, I would do the same thing. I could go on and on but its up to you to decide what the "right thing" to do is. And I personally feel that they should cover this stuff, so I have no moral or ethical problems with forcing a company to own up and care about their customers. Just be sure to take it to a sprint store you have never been to before.

FYI- I am a Sprint employee.. and I can tell you that as long as you're going to a COMPANY OWNED Sprint store, they will clean the dust out for you at no charge since you're still in warranty. If they do not, ask for a manager and let them know you don't want to have to email [email protected] (yes this actually works, and his executive escalation office really does read these emails.) If it is a repeated issue, they will eventually replace the phone for you, but it will likely be a reconditioned model (which are just as good as new.) The Hero comes apart very very easily and is very simple to clean. Good luck!

a99tandem said:
FYI- I am a Sprint employee.. and I can tell you that as long as you're going to a COMPANY OWNED Sprint store, they will clean the dust out for you at no charge since you're still in warranty. If they do not, ask for a manager and let them know you don't want to have to email [email protected] (yes this actually works, and his executive escalation office really does read these emails.) If it is a repeated issue, they will eventually replace the phone for you, but it will likely be a reconditioned model (which are just as good as new.) The Hero comes apart very very easily and is very simple to clean. Good luck!
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sprint tried to clean my dust but refused to take apart the hero in fear of breaking it or getting fingerprints on the lcd. the blew out what they could and hooked me up with a new phone, no questions asked.

flexgrip said:
Uhmmm. The answer to your question is yes. The bricked hero is going to go into a bucket of hero's at the HTC repair center and probably be recycled. There is no forensics team waiting to check every phone because of HOW it got screwed. I would keep it all stock though so if they do read it they wont see something that hasnt been released yet.
I would say the radio update trick may brick it but it would be best if the phone didnt even power on.
Also, don't feel bad. I am ocd about this stuff too and if I had dust under the screen in one hand, and a company like sprint trying back out of responsibility in the other, I would do the same thing. I could go on and on but its up to you to decide what the "right thing" to do is. And I personally feel that they should cover this stuff, so I have no moral or ethical problems with forcing a company to own up and care about their customers. Just be sure to take it to a sprint store you have never been to before.
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In other words, your telling him its ok to commit fraud, which is a felony. Its because of people like you, that a cell phone costs $500, pc's cost $1000's, insurance rates are high, health care is so expensive, etc.......Fraud accounts for probably a good majority of the cost of products and services. Imagine what it would be like if everybody actually took responsibility for their actions...Ah well..that'll never happen in this society that thinks it's entitled to everything for free.......

intx said:
My sprint store won't replace my Hero with dust under the screen >_<
So if I brick it, they will, correct?
Would brick by pulling battery during radio update or something.
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Use the OPEN enrollment on sprint to get TEP. (they have special now till the end of the month).. then take it in have them 'diagnose' it, and the worse case you pay 50 deductible to get it replaced, keep TEP until your satisfied.
I can usually get out of the TEP deductible by just going to a repair center and waiting for them to fix it.
Maybe that will work.. I had gone through 8 sprint moguls on TEP and never once had to pay the deductible by doing things this way.

TEP on smartphones is $100 not $50 deductible.

OK, first off... The OP never said he tried to fix it, he said he tried to REPLACE it. For all we know, he didn't go to a corporate repair store, just a sales location.
Second, for Fixxxer: if you went to a repair store and they felt uncomfortable opening up your hero? Change stores IMMEDIATELY. They're trained and paid to open up phones, if they can't do that, they're worthless.
Finally, Kkruse: The deductible is $100, hasn't been $50 for smartphones in over a year. Besides, a deductible should only be used for the following: Water damage, physical damage (I'd rather pay $120 on the spot to get it fixed), theft/loss, fire damage, complete devastation (aka motherboard shattered into more than 2 pieces). If you use the deductible for dust, send me the $100 instead, it'll get more use. Half of your insurance goes to free in store repairs. Guess what dust is covered under?

Need some opinions on warranty replacement

So, here's my story.
The screen "died" on my Fascinate last Friday (4 days ago). When I took it off charge in the morning (I always charge it overnight), I noticed some discoloration in the center of the screen. Phone was still functional, but I really didn't look into much as I was leaving for work. After about 2 hours, I looked at the phone again and the screen was much worse. It now had an image burned on it and it was getting darker. Touch screen also stopped working about this time. Well, after another hour or two, I couldn't see anything on the screen except for a small bit at the very top of the screen.
I called the Verizon store over lunch and explained what happened, they patched to another tech support guy who had me pull the battery, which helped nothing. So, he put through to overnight me a replacement, which is arriving today. Well, I picked the broken phone this morning which has been powered off all weekend, and when I looked at it in the light I could see the screen underneath is cracked in an arch at the top. I have no idea how it could have happened. I'm very gentle with my phone and have no memory of when such damage could have occurred. This is the first time I noticed it, and you really have to look at it at the right angle to even see it. The glass on top is flawless and the phone shows no other signs of damage.
I'm really not sure what to do at this point. Is Verizon going to notice it and tack the $500 or so onto my bill? Should I call them and explain what happened? I'm pretty sure there's a good chance it will just slip through the cracks when they receive my broken phone, but I guess my conscience is getting the best of me. Anyone have any thoughts on my situation or experienced similar in the past with Verizon?

I'm guessing you have asurion insurance? I believe you can so 2 replacements a year. That being said... You're first replacement came in broken and I wouldn't accept it.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

daavy said:
I'm guessing you have asurion insurance? I believe you can so 2 replacements a year.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
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I do not, which is why I was happy when they told me it was a warranty replacement. My heart kind of sunk when I saw the crack

An arch from electrical current? If that's the case maybe call and tell them. Just be sure you don't have water damage.

boostedjti said:
An arch from electrical current? If that's the case maybe call and tell them. Just be sure you don't have water damage.
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Definitely no water damage.
Not an arch from electrical current. The crack is in a arch shape. No idea what the cause was. I'm just afraid once I send it back, they are going to see it and claim abuse and charge me for the replacement. If there's a good chance that could happen, I may want to just send the warranty replacement phone back and replace the screen in my broken phone for $100.

If the crack is under the main screen then i would say it will be covered easily. I had a BB Storm where the screen was fine but the digitizer shattered. Vzw store replaced it without a problem.

Sounds like a manufacturing defect to me . AFAIK your phone has a 1 year manufacturer's (Samsung) warranty so Verizon probably won't care to replace it since the replacement cost won't be coming out of their pocket.

"its cracked?" "it wasnt went i sent it. They must have dropped it in shipping" ive been told works with customer service, its not worth their time arguing with you.

One thing with verizon I have noticed it's they really don't have too much of a conscience when it comes to us customers, so why have one with them. Warranty replace it and claim it must have happened during shipment if they notice. doubt they will argue. I know some people misuse the warranty replacement thing, but apparently you aren't. I forgot to replace the official software bacl on one of my storm replacements (there were 11 total and they were all legit) they didnt even notice. Odds are the screen will get replaced and sent off to another customer and they will be none the wiser

Don't pay $100 ins for a broken charger port.

I went into sprint last week because my charging port broke and I couldn't charge my phone. To my surprise they said that it's not a defect or hardware problem and that I would have to claim it on my ins and pay the $100. Well with the 3D coming out soon and me being such a tight A*% with my money, that $100 wasn't going to cut it. So I figured out a way to get a New Refurb phone from Sprint for only $45.
Here's what I did
I called around to some local cell phone repair places here in DFW area. I found this shop in Fort Worth that would replace it for $45. I took it in to get repaired and was told that when the charger port broke it pulled the sync strip off the board. Which means my phone will charge now just fine but I won't be able to sync it up with my pc again. Noway i could live with that.
I know enough about the evo and the hardware to know that the mic is soldered onto the board and that it cannot just be replaced at the Sprint store. Sooooo! I bet you know where I'm going with this? Your right!! I blew out my mic on purpose. How I did this is very easy and truly undetectable. All I did was blow air from my air compressor in the mic hole, maybe 5-10secs. I then opened the voice recorder to make sure it was out,It was.
I took it back to Sprint and told them my mic wasn't working. he said that's a real common problem with Evos. he began to tell me that they repair it and give them 10 mins. I knew they couldn't do it on site. 5 mins later he comes from the back and tells me that the mic was soldered on the board and they have to replace it, which I knew. 2days later Sprint text me and I picked up my new evo for $45.
The bad thing is that you'll have to use your blue tooth or headphones to make calls until the new phone comes in.

we shall not discuss insurance fraud here

cracker0309 said:
I went into sprint last week because my charging port broke and I couldn't charge my phone. To my surprise they said that it's not a defect or hardware problem and that I would have to claim it on my ins and pay the $100. Well with the 3D coming out soon and me being such a tight A*% with my money, that $100 wasn't going to cut it. So I figured out a way to get a New Refurb phone from Sprint for only $45.
Here's what I did
I called around to some local cell phone repair places here in DFW area. I found this shop in Fort Worth that would replace it for $45. I took it in to get repaired and was told that when the charger port broke it pulled the sync strip off the board. Which means my phone will charge now just fine but I won't be able to sync it up with my pc again. Noway i could live with that.
I know enough about the evo and the hardware to know that the mic is soldered onto the board and that it cannot just be replaced at the Sprint store. Sooooo! I bet you know where I'm going with this? Your right!! I blew out my mic on purpose. How I did this is very easy and truly undetectable. All I did was blow air from my air compressor in the mic hole, maybe 5-10secs. I then opened the voice recorder to make sure it was out,It was.
I took it back to Sprint and told them my mic wasn't working. he said that's a real common problem with Evos. he began to tell me that they repair it and give them 10 mins. I knew they couldn't do it on site. 5 mins later he comes from the back and tells me that the mic was soldered on the board and they have to replace it, which I knew. 2days later Sprint text me and I picked up my new evo for $45.
The bad thing is that you'll have to use your blue tooth or headphones to make calls until the new phone comes in.
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NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

instead of being a dipster like the OP let me give you all some actual advice.
First my Background
X-Corporate sprint employee
Close ties with management, techs, and sales reps at retail locations.
Charging port failure on the EVO 4G is a known issue, there the corporate store should know this, if for some reason they are stupid, which can and will happen, politely inform them of this, if your not getting anywhere with the rep, politely ask to speak with management to look into this.
if your charging port is broken due to normal use, and not you plugging it in and swinging it around your head like a lasso, you will be covered, even without T.E.P. insurance plan (and unless they changed policy its covered even after the 1 year warranty on the phone)
As a cautionary note, if you bring your phone in to a corporate store, and they take your phone to the techs, and see your phone is damaged beyond repair, it will be flagged and notated in the system as such, and even if you go out and do some crazy stuff like this guy, and bring it back, they will Pull up your device in E-Ticket and see that its DBR and will not fix it anyway.
So guys, if you have this issue, do the smart thing, and handle the issue politely as you cannot expect every rep to know everything.

I wasn't asked for any of my info from Sprint to flag. I was just asked what the problem was and then it was taken to the back. The TECH not REP was the one that came and spoke to me and explained to me what the problem was. He stated himself that he thinks the ports should be covered due to the fact it does happen so often and that the port isn't connected securly enough to the board with the proper temp grade solder.
Is what I did morally right? NO!! But Sprint and other cell phone companies screw over the consumer everyday, but that's ok! So when the consumer finally gets over on the corporation its sooooo BAD!!
In no way is this ins fraud because Asurion was never involved. This was under hardware warranty and being my phone was bought in Jan I really don't think me or anyone else should have to fork out more money for something that's only 5 months old.

2 wrongs dont make a right, and they don't need to ask you for any info other than to just scan your phone.
and I never said that it happened to you, I said it could and properly should happen.
not to mention the solution to the problem was so easy, you just were to lazy or inept to handle it properly.
also, yes, it was still fraud
and now the phone may get refurbed without the original problem being addressed.

If the charging port is pulled clean from the board, solder joints intact, then it's covered under the known issue.
If the solder joints are broken and circuit board is peeled, it's damaged beyond repair.

Unfortunately in our store right now we have no RECON phones so we are swapping with new in box since they are also backordered...mildly frustrating!

Ur story is awesome. I think the 116 dollars a year should be the deductible. I know there are always people that take advantage of the system. I have done it before but I also thinks it sucks for the real problems we get screwed out of with deductibles on top of monthly premium charges.
They should consider your premium as the deductible unless its more than once a year. I can understand water damage or lost/stolen. I just don't think physical problems should be cause for deductible.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Sunsparc said:
If the charging port is pulled clean from the board, solder joints intact, then it's covered under the known issue.
If the solder joints are broken and circuit board is peeled, it's damaged beyond repair.
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+1
The "damaged beyond repair" can be argued as long as there's no obvious signs of abuse and if cust. service gets involved, we both know that we're ordering a replacement for the customer.

Nice!
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They replaced mine for same problem for free. U were just getting dicked around and in turn u went to make trouble for no reason. You did fraud and wasted ur time and money.
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For fun I recently repaired an Evo 4g that had it's USB port violently removed / peeled away. Definitely not worth the time, but it was a fun after-work project!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1110886

Great fraud
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Who cares, insurance fraud or not. It's not insurance fraud if you not playing $7/mo for insurance in the first place. They should have just fixed it the first time he was in the store. Most of the people (techs) I've dealt with in the Sprint stores are complete idiots that won't even read Sprint's policies on Sprint.com. :|

I can tell you the store I worked at, all of our techs had 4+ years experience, knew everything, and made sure we knew what we needed to know as well.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fraud
yes its still fraud.

Alanmw86 said:
I can tell you the store I worked at, all of our techs had 4+ years experience, knew everything, and made sure we knew what we needed to know as well.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fraud
yes its still fraud.
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HA ha ha
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Sprint EVO Replacement
I have been a customer of Sprint 12+ years and my experience with repair/replace of devices seems pretty typical. Some repair centers have treated me fine and one other consistently work at screwing me over. As with all new devices, there are manufacturer issues which have nothing to do with the user (bad screens, charging ports, non-functioning buttons etc.). As a corporate customer I always had a rep that would take care of an issue even if the local operation couldn't/wouldn't. I have not abused their staff nor have I abused my equipment in any way, I still have a perfect functioning Samsung i300, PPC6600 and Touch (Don't ask why I keep them around, I don't know). Each one of these needed some repair over the 2+ years I had them activated. Sprint has had many repairs centers around Metro Atlanta over the years, closing or consolidating and re-opening them from time to time. It has been my experience that you have to avoid some repair centers, those that take your device out back and come back to you withing 10 minutes with the "Wet" battery story - I have never had any of my devices ever get water or moisture on them except one and I willingly paid the deductible for that one. Recently I had the not charging issue on my EVO purchased June 4, 2010, 9+ months. Because I had to take it to the local/nearest repair center which I had problems with in the past I was apprehensive but confident I had done nothing wrong or abused the device. The tech took it out back, came back 45 minutes later and informed me that I had abused the charging port on the device and that it had come unsolder-ed and would have to go through Assurance to replace it, to which I asked her to show me. I insisted that was a defect as opposed to abuse and got nowhere. It took some insistence that I believed I should not have to pay ANY deductible. She ask her superior and was granted a one time exception to their policy to replace my (Abused, according to her) device. I have since then gone to what was my local Sprint store with my son for a new phone. This store, near our mall had closed and the independent repair center a half mile away had taken over the Sprint space. I recognized an employee who had previously worked in that store for Sprint and we stuck up the conversation about my recent repair and the trouble I had. He informed me that Sprint was well aware of the charging port issue and if I had brought it there there wouldn't have been any problem replacing it at all. He checked my device and discovered that the battery had become over heated and swollen, most likely due to the charging port problems. He ordered a new one at no charge as Sprint was aware of this also.
Moral of the story, sometimes you may have drive to a different repair center or take unscrupulous measures or insistence to get a problem resolved with big companies who aren't able or willing to do the right thing on their own, Sprint being no exception.

This charging port issue, which mine phone has, is another reason I'm leery about getting another HTC phone. I think the quality of their phones is highly overrated.

Everyone keeps saying that the broken charger port is a known issue with Sprint, but I recently did not have any success from this angle.
I took my phone to a local Sprint repair store and the tech opened the phone and said my charger port had came off the motherboard. It looked like a clean solder break to me, and he said he wasn't allowed to fix it and it wasn't covered.
I then called customer service and they also said it would not be covered by warranty. I mentioned that this is supposed to be a known issue with HTC EVOs and they said it wasn't. I spoke with her supervisor, and she also insisted that it was not a known issue. I then spoke with another supervisor who insisted this wasn't a known issue.
Is there something that I'm doing wrong? How can I get them to acknowledge this?

Samsung Epic moisture indicator?

I was curious if anyone can tell me where the moisture indicators are on the Epic, and what they look like in regular state and tripped state. I only see a sticker on my battery (which I think is one) but it is completely white.
My phone isn't acting right, and it is quite a drive for me to the service center. I don't want to waste my time if they aren't going to warranty it. I didn't get it wet or anything, but I have heard of so many stories where due to the Florida humidity they falsely activate.

One on the battery and one inside the headset jack
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I assume the headset one can only be seen if you take it apart???
I don't think that is a very good place for one. WAY too exposed to humidity. Not only that, but it sucks if my headset plug has moisture and I plug it in. INSTANT trip.
Can you tell me what it looks like tripped and not tripped?

I think the ones from samsung turn purple

ive fully torn down mine and i didnt see one in the headphone jack. i wonder if they are from different runs? launch day, you?
lafronz said:
One on the battery and one inside the headset jack
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I believe not tripped it'll have blue markings on it, and tripped is completely white, but...
At our store we don't go by the sticker, it's more of a flag than anything else. What we're really looking for are burns and corrosion.
If you want, it's really easy to take off the back of your epic. Just remove battery and cover, unscrew the small phillips screws in the back, and wedge something small and plastic around the seam between the back plate and the chrome trim. You just have to keep a lookout for the buttons falling so you don't lose them.
What you would be looking for is discoloration on any of the metal.
But if you don't feel that adventurous, here's a little piece of advice: you can start a service repair ticket online before you head to the store. They'll be a little a more lenient when you get there and if there's only a tiny amount of corrosion, they'll probably help you out; they don't want their customer satisfaction score to take a hit if they tell you to go pound sand and you already have a ticket created.
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ugh my battery sticker is completely white. The thing is that I have submerged two phones before, and didn't even go to the store. I knew the phone was fried and called asurian (sp?). This one is TOTALLY legit not a water problem and I am going to REALLY be upset if they give me a hard time over it.
I don't feel like taking the phone apart, and I checked the website, but couldn't find where to open a repair ticket. Are you simply just talking about clicking the "make an appointment" link at my local branch?

If you are talking about the make an appointment link, it isn't working for my local Sprint Repair center (I assume because they are not a corporate store).
SIGH. I am seriously going to be upset if they try playing the water gimmick with me.

Well, I've had plenty of phones that had some water damage come in but aren't completely inoperable, just little quirks that hard resets and reflashing don't solve. You'd be surprised what a tiny amount of water can do.
So are you saying your store is one of those 3rd party authorized retailers? I didn't know they did repairs...
There's always the possibility there isn't any water damage lol
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squshy 7 said:
Well, I've had plenty of phones that had some water damage come in but aren't completely inoperable, just little quirks that hard resets and reflashing don't solve. You'd be surprised what a tiny amount of water can do.
So are you saying your store is one of those 3rd party authorized retailers? I didn't know they did repairs...
There's always the possibility there isn't any water damage lol
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Yeah, this one does repairs. They are exclusively a Sprint store, just not corporate, but they do repairs. Have brought my wifes phone in there before.
You are right, it may not be water, but I use my phone every day at the gym + Florida moisture. I am concerned that these stupid sensors may be too sensitive and I may be dinged for something that I shouldn't.
I guess we will see tomorrow.

Milkman00 said:
Yeah, this one does repairs. They are exclusively a Sprint store, just not corporate, but they do repairs. Have brought my wifes phone in there before.
You are right, it may not be water, but I use my phone every day at the gym + Florida moisture. I am concerned that these stupid sensors may be too sensitive and I may be dinged for something that I shouldn't.
I guess we will see tomorrow.
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ASC's do repairs, which is probably what the store close to you is. They're graded based off of surveys generated on tickets too. What you need to do is call customer support (*2), they'll create a ticket on your device and direct you to the store where the ASC will pull up that ticket and probably get graded.
Also, there's no moisture stickers that I know of besides the mentioned, as was said before, they won't look at those anyway. It's corrosion that's the killer.

So just to follow-up, I pulled into the parking lot, and realized that I totally forgot to call customer service and create a ticket. I was pissed off at myself, but drove all the way out there so I figured I had to try it.
Got there and he tried updating my PRL/Profile, but as I got into the conversation with him, he realized that I did a great deal of troubleshooting, and didn't give it a second look. He created the ticket, and the phone will be in tomorrow.
So basically all of my angst was for nothing. I am thinking that since the phone was working, and turned on, that they probably figured that it wasn't any "abuse" of water damage. Thanks for all of the information.