Database Users

HTC WANT ME TO PAY FOR MB Replacement

HI guys as i reported a few days back my hd died on me so i sent it to them to fix, well theyve got back to me 2day saying that:
"Our initial assessment of your device indicates that the repair work required is caused by damage that isn’t covered by warranty. Unfortunately, this means we must charge you for the repair."
they want me to pay 151 sterling for it, what you think shall i pay it? or shall i just buy the dam iphone! its really pissed me off is there any ways around it? is there a way to buy the the motherboard from some where else?

Why isn't the motherboard covered by the warranty? You didn't break the seal did you?

Fallen Spartan said:
If you can't even get phone to start, chances are its a motherboard problem and likelihood is that HTC will just replace motherboard without even looking at whats installed on device. Others have had same problem and they had no problems. However I CANNOT stand by this 100%. It will be a risk!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm.... I think you battery was dead. If battery is completely dead HD won't power up from charger per se. And they have seen the illegal criminal stuff on your HD. The price they quote seems more like for battery than motherboard.

crajee said:
Hmmm.... I think you battery was dead. If battery is completely dead HD won't power up from charger per se. And they have seen the illegal criminal stuff on your HD. The price they quote seems more like for battery than motherboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But a custom ROM can't damage the motherboard... And since he is specifically talking about a problem "caused by damage that isn’t covered by warranty" and not "we have to charge you because your warrenty is void" I'm not too sure this is the problem...
I would ask them to specify what supposedly damaged the motherboard that isn't covered by warrenty!

I'm having the same issue with my Diamond. The screen broke (touches are all over the place) and they say the following:
Illegal software has been found on your device (HardSPL), this has damaged the motherboard. It will have to be replaced and you will have to pay for it as this has voided your warranty.
There are several issues with this. First, HardSPL does not damage the motherboard. Second, software does not break screens. Third, nowhere in their warranty it states anything about something like this voiding it. Fourth, for many countries in the EU they would have to fix it due to EU warranty regulations irregardless if this voided the warranty or not.
Anyways, my lawyer is on it.

thanks guys im thinking of getting it deliveryed without getting it "fixed" will only cost me 11 quid, and buy a new battery, is there anywhere you guys would recooment getting a new battery from? im assuming that they have managed to turn on the hd, which i couldnt do and panicked and sent it to them within a day, if i can turn it on ill down grade everything and then take it to tmobile as im covered with issurance

Chainfire said:
I'm having the same issue with my Diamond. The screen broke (touches are all over the place) and they say the following:
Illegal software has been found on your device (HardSPL), this has damaged the motherboard. It will have to be replaced and you will have to pay for it as this has voided your warranty.
There are several issues with this. First, HardSPL does not damage the motherboard. Second, software does not break screens. Third, nowhere in their warranty it states anything about something like this voiding it. Fourth, for many countries in the EU they would have to fix it due to EU warranty regulations irregardless if this voided the warranty or not.
Anyways, my lawyer is on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks i mite state this to them they didnt even specifically say how i managed to mess up my MB

i cant even get through to them now seems that all there support numbers are down

You'll find that all companies including HTC will try all methods of getting out of warranty and the fact that you have HSPL on your device (whether or not it was related to malfunction) will be enough for them to void your warranty.
Others have sent devices in and had no problem as device wasn't checked. You have been unlucky.
My device broke at the weekend and seeing as I have 2 HD's I decided it was worth the risk taking it apart. I managed to refix the motherboard due to a faulty loose connection. Took a while to figure it out.
HOWEVER I WOULDN'T ADVISE ANYONE TO DO THIS!!! THIS SHOULD BE DONE ONLY AS A LAST RESORT, AND ONLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!! ONCE YOU HAVE OPENED DEVICE YOU WILL COMPLETELY VOID WARRANTY!!!!

i managed to get through and spoke to some1 he said that the usb had something to do with the motherboard failing, im gona try getting it sorted through insurance, they are going to send me a more detailed reason for them charging me for repair, ill post it as soon as i get it

just sent them a letter:
I am writing to inform you of my disappointment with the HTC. Last week I sent my phone my phone in for repair as it kept on switching off (09GBD230000153). After a few days I was sent an email telling me that HTC knew what was wrong with the phone but would charge me for repair as the “work required is caused by damage that isn’t covered by warranty”. I was told the main board needed replacing. This confused me somewhat as I had not ever dropped the phone and the phone never had liquid damage. I called the center saying that this was all a bit confusing; they assured me and told me that they will find a more detailed description of the fault. I received a call today from a HTC operator explaining that the warranty was void as a new rom had been “flashed”. I argued that there was no way this could affect the hardware. He was very sympathetic but kept his stance. I have now decided to have the phone returned without repair but am bitterly disappointed about the way HTC conduct their policies on warranty. If HTC sent me a message when I first sent the phone into repair saying that the warrenty was void due to an “illegal” rom I would have understood. But to claim that the “work required is caused by damage that isn’t covered by warranty” is farcical. It seems HTC will do anything to avoid repairing the phone at their own expense. HTC need to understand why people flash “illegal” roms in the 1st place. It is not because of HTCs interface but primarily because of the poor windows software the stock rom holds. I am contemplating approaching BBC's Watch dog as I believe people need to know more about the company as it is slowly growing in the UK and Europe. I am also aware of people in the US in the same predicament and Dog Eat Dog productions (a Michael Moore company) has taken a special interest for a future documentary.
Regards

scar88 said:
just sent them a letter:
I am writing to inform you of my disappointment with the HTC. Last week I sent my phone my phone in for repair as it kept on switching off (09GBD230000153). After a few days I was sent an email telling me that HTC knew what was wrong with the phone but would charge me for repair as the “work required is caused by damage that isn’t covered by warranty”. I was told the main board needed replacing. This confused me somewhat as I had not ever dropped the phone and the phone never had liquid damage. I called the center saying that this was all a bit confusing; they assured me and told me that they will find a more detailed description of the fault. I received a call today from a HTC operator explaining that the warranty was void as a new rom had been “flashed”. I argued that there was no way this could affect the hardware. He was very sympathetic but kept his stance. I have now decided to have the phone returned without repair but am bitterly disappointed about the way HTC conduct their policies on warranty. If HTC sent me a message when I first sent the phone into repair saying that the warrenty was void due to an “illegal” rom I would have understood. But to claim that the “work required is caused by damage that isn’t covered by warranty” is farcical. It seems HTC will do anything to avoid repairing the phone at their own expense. HTC need to understand why people flash “illegal” roms in the 1st place. It is not because of HTCs interface but primarily because of the poor windows software the stock rom holds. I am contemplating approaching BBC's Watch dog as I believe people need to know more about the company as it is slowly growing in the UK and Europe. I am also aware of people in the US in the same predicament and Dog Eat Dog productions (a Michael Moore company) has taken a special interest for a future documentary.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please let us know HTCs answer - I'm really curious to know what they have to say to your letter!

will do

scar88 said:
just sent them a letter:
I am writing to inform you of my disappointment with the HTC. Last week I sent my phone my phone in for repair as it kept on switching off (09GBD230000153). After a few days I was sent an email telling me that HTC knew what was wrong with the phone but would charge me for repair as the “work required is caused by damage that isn’t covered by warranty”. I was told the main board needed replacing. This confused me somewhat as I had not ever dropped the phone and the phone never had liquid damage. I called the center saying that this was all a bit confusing; they assured me and told me that they will find a more detailed description of the fault. I received a call today from a HTC operator explaining that the warranty was void as a new rom had been “flashed”. I argued that there was no way this could affect the hardware. He was very sympathetic but kept his stance. I have now decided to have the phone returned without repair but am bitterly disappointed about the way HTC conduct their policies on warranty. If HTC sent me a message when I first sent the phone into repair saying that the warrenty was void due to an “illegal” rom I would have understood. But to claim that the “work required is caused by damage that isn’t covered by warranty” is farcical. It seems HTC will do anything to avoid repairing the phone at their own expense. HTC need to understand why people flash “illegal” roms in the 1st place. It is not because of HTCs interface but primarily because of the poor windows software the stock rom holds. I am contemplating approaching BBC's Watch dog as I believe people need to know more about the company as it is slowly growing in the UK and Europe. I am also aware of people in the US in the same predicament and Dog Eat Dog productions (a Michael Moore company) has taken a special interest for a future documentary.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting approach, would have maybe mentioned the contents on this as well.
Would be interested to hear their response!!

I have sent similar letters in the past - never receiving a response though.

Im thinking of sending my HD in as it will no longer charge from power supply only USB any ideas why that could be,, i have hardspl on it now if i take that off and reflash to a stock rom will that unvoid my warrenty?

Fallen Spartan said:
Interesting approach, would have maybe mentioned the contents on this as well.
Would be interested to hear their response!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
didnt think of that dam!

Chainfire said:
I have sent similar letters in the past - never receiving a response though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
realy? what did you write? if we make enough of a racket they have to respond 1 day

meandu229 said:
Im thinking of sending my HD in as it will no longer charge from power supply only USB any ideas why that could be,, i have hardspl on it now if i take that off and reflash to a stock rom will that unvoid my warrenty?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you send it to them make sure you reflash the stock rom, i would have but the phone wouldnt turn on now there screwing me, so along as your phone works, reflash the stock rom and then send it

scar88 said:
realy? what did you write? if we make enough of a racket they have to respond 1 day
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who says they have to? They make enough money out of us already doing what they do. Why do they need to change? I'd be surprised if you get a response (though if you do, post it). I'd imagine they will just stick to what they previousy told you and state warranty is void due to illegal rom installed

Refused repair on phone

I sent my nexus one of for repair as backplate was not flush and it came back not fixed, i rooted phone deciding that i wasnt going to send it back again and because i thought shouldn't matter (as i was told on here) then i decided to send it off again, the guy did not ask me if had changed software on phone either time, but then i got a message saying it been refused repair and i would have to pay for return or new mainboard. I called them to say that it should have been repaired the first time while my phone was under warranty and so it is linked to that case anyway since it should of been repaired then it doesn't matter about its warranty state now its their fault for not repairing it.. they wouldn't have that, i pointed out its not even a warranty matter since it was recieved with fault so its a faulty item so should be replaced or repaired warranty or not.. still wont repair it, i point out that its rediculous they even check the rom of phones that be sent to them with hardware problems because obviously the software does not effect the phone and change the hardware and they know that they sent the item out with the fault so should just fix it they shouldn't even check if warranty is voided by software because that is put in place so they dont fix software faults caused by people themselves so its really bad that they use it to get out of fixing hardware issues.. still no hope so i have to pay for phone be sent back to me and then i will be seeking legal advice

That does suck, and it's completely obvious that the rooted-ness does not affect hardware. Unfortunately there's not much of a case since you clicked the "YES" button to void your warranty when you rooted, voiding all parts of the warranty (hardware and software).
I hate to admit it, fearing that something may happen to my phone, but I can see their side to this matter. It would have been nice for the guy to just fix it for you, though.
Now, the fact that they are making you pay for shipping it back (unfixed) is simply poor customer service.

It does suck, They are using whatever means necessary to make more money.
IMO they should only reject faults that are causable by software. (burnt out LED, bricked, Overheated/Dead due to too high OC...). Since HTC is the manufacturer and they dont state anywhere that they are not evil...theres nothing google can do.
My phone has no faults. Ordered just before the 1/5 announcement

indie12 said:
i will be seeking legal advice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck with that, you don't really have a leg to stand in, unfortunately.

I hope the legal advice is free since a $600 is hardly worth getting a lawyer over and losing a case... average lawyer will be $100 an hour....
Then again... HTC might counter sue you for wasting their time...

I'll give you "free advice as a law student" (I'm not an attorney... yet). You have no case whatsoever. Sorry.

The best thing to do is totally ruin the phone. There are electronic ways to do this. I have access to a device that generates a strong magnetic field that I used to fry a laptop and a phone before. I have heard of people putting things in a microwave too but I am not sure how well that would work.

Rusty! said:
Good luck with that, you don't really have a leg to stand in, unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incorrect.
HTC would need to prove what he did caused the issue for what they are refusing repairs to.
This has been discussed before. Car manufactures did the same thing with aftermarket parts.

drdingo21 said:
Incorrect.
HTC would need to prove what he did caused the issue for what they are refusing repairs to.
This has been discussed before. Car manufactures did the same thing with aftermarket parts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only problem with this, though, is that there is no case law regarding cell phones directly, as of yet. Cars are expensive enough to justify the legal fees, phones are not.
It would stand to reason that the entire warranty isn't voided by rooting, if it were to go to court (simple contract law and warranty law, breaking or voiding one part doesn't null and void all other parts)... but the unlocked bootloader method also has you agree to voiding the warranty, so that makes it more difficult and less clear cut since it wold be pretty easy to argue by doing so you agreed to and entered into a contract giving up your warranty rights.
Personally, I wouldn't waste my time on it. I would do what others have done and contact Google. There are numerous threads in here regarding how to get hardware warranty services on your rooted device, do a search and you should be good to go.

drdingo21 said:
Incorrect.
HTC would need to prove what he did caused the issue for what they are refusing repairs to.
This has been discussed before. Car manufactures did the same thing with aftermarket parts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're incorrect here as well. You can't relate unlocking the bootloader to replacing OEM parts with aftermarket ones. Further, what pjc said is right on. Legally speaking, all of us are expressly informed that the warranty is void if we unlock the bootloader (twice if you count the warranty statement as well). If unlocking the bootloader is not necessary for normal use, then there's no argument that one MUST unlock the bootloader. So any court would laugh at a complaint like this.

I am sure you are all familiar with the M&M act? If not then do a search as it is too much too post here. This at any rate is the one that speaks to aftermarket car parts and touches on many parts of warranty coverage. I fought Chrysler over an issue with a truck I bought some years ago. I won. It cost several times what fixing it out of pocket would have. While the M&M act provides for the ability to recover fees you may or may not do so. I did not. I followed this through as a matter of principle but I can just about promise you if you should decide to pursue this in court you will be sorry you ever stepped down that road. I would not do so again in similar circumstances. Especially since as already stated Google has been quite good about fixing obvious hardware defects with unlocked bootloaders if you contact them and follow the process. I have yet to read one instance where someone with such a problem was denied warranty after following through with Google.

What happens when you don't unroot before returning

I'm having some problems with my phone and customer care told me to just switch it out through the buyers remorse policy at a T-mobile store. I know you have to erase all signs of having rooted the phone before sending it to HTC under the limited warranty or else they charge you. Do I also have to set it back to stock before returning it directly to T-mobile through buyers remorse?

Rooting the phone voids the warranty
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

I would just to make things easier. It's easy enough to do, why make more problems than you need?

I know it voids the warranty but what exactly does that mean in terms of consequences when I return the phone to T-mobile via buyers remorse given they take it back without noticing? It's actually the mytouch and we don't have the stock recovery for it yet and I already put a custom recovery on it so I can't get it back to stock (yet)
Thanks for the help

I think the insurance may be handled differently, but when I had to return my G1 for an insurance replacement I didnt bother to un-root it.
I never heard anything about it.

My only guess is that they won't repair your phone and say, "Oh, you voided the warranty by rooting so we can't help you."
Or maybe they will and charge you for it. Not sure, but my guess is that they won't be much of help.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Sv3nt3k said:
My only guess is that they won't repair your phone and say, "Oh, you voided the warranty by rooting so we can't help you."
Or maybe they will and charge you for it. Not sure, but my guess is that they won't be much of help.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was just gonna exchange it since I'm still in my buyers remorse without even bringing up the rooting.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

carlsbad0331 said:
I think the insurance may be handled differently, but when I had to return my G1 for an insurance replacement I didnt bother to un-root it.
I never heard anything about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that I recommend it or anything, but back in the G1 days my 2nd and 3rd replacements were rooted. One of them I undid, one I didn't. I never heard anything about it from T-Mobile.
When you send a phone back, they usually check to see that a) the screen isn't broken and b) the water damage stickers are ok. Beyond that, they don't do much besides toss them on a pile to be sent back to the manufacturer.

c_licious said:
I know it voids the warranty but what exactly does that mean in terms of consequences when I return the phone to T-mobile via buyers remorse given they take it back without noticing? It's actually the mytouch and we don't have the stock recovery for it yet and I already put a custom recovery on it so I can't get it back to stock (yet)
Thanks for the help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why didn't you backup your stock rom through recovery before flashing a custom one? Would make everything a cinch
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

If anything, maybe you can not mention it and see where that takes you and proceed to feign ignorance, haha.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Sv3nt3k said:
If anything, maybe you can not mention it and see where that takes you and proceed to feign ignorance, haha.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root? What is this root you speak of? I assure you I have not attempted to water my phone.
Just send it back and see if they even notice.

hawaiian.monzta said:
Why didn't you backup your stock rom through recovery before flashing a custom one? Would make everything a cinch
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not the rom but the recovery that I can't restore. It's all good though. I'm just gonna return it to the store with ClockworkMod recovery installed. They won't notice. I was just wondering how HTC will handle it once it gets shipped back to them but since the return wasn't processed through them it shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for the input guys!
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

If u got the insurance it doesn't matter. If not then u better go back to stock or they'll charge u for the phone
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

I can't say for the G2, but when I had my Nexus One, I had it replaced through HTC under factory warrant and the bootloader was unlocked (which is suppose to void warrant). They never said anything about it and never charged me anything.

Correct, they won't really care unless u bricked it. Otherwise it was faulty hardware or remorse. N if u bring it n have warranty, I'm not sure, but they probably replace it for a fee.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

c_licious said:
I'm having some problems with my phone and customer care told me to just switch it out through the buyers remorse policy at a T-mobile store. I know you have to erase all signs of having rooted the phone before sending it to HTC under the limited warranty or else they charge you. Do I also have to set it back to stock before returning it directly to T-mobile through buyers remorse?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, i worked for a tmobile licensed retailer for a year and continue to have contacts within corporate locations as well as other licensees and the truth is as follows:
The employees don't care a whole lot to see if the software is rooted or not, more often than not, a fistful of people have heard of rooting but dont know exactly how to root or what it means, and a smaller fistful are people like myself.
If youre terribly worried, just put on the stock boot animation or flash it to stock (ish) rom. If its a brick, its a brick, just dont walk in announcing that its something you did; they should swap it out there and then with a minimum of questions asked. If they ask what happened, you dont know. We're only instructed to check the water damage stickers and warranty voiding screw stickers just to make sure its not user error, we were/are in no way trained to discern the software's integrity and are instructed to do little more than factory reset it. The end
I cant speak for the corporate locations but our exchanged phones would be sent at the end of each month to some tertiary company that refurbishes the phones. Even if HTC wanted to send agents with laptops out to check on all the HBOOTs and Roots, they would have to do it at a store level, or next up, the refurb centers; at which point these phones are out of your hands and theres not a whole lot they could possibly do to trace it back to you.
tl;dr
Do not worry, play it cool
PS:
And if they dont want to swap it out within your 14 days (30 if youre in CA), dial customer care right there and tell em youre at a store and they wont do the exchange; the CC rep will put his indignant face on and harass the rep at the store, making threats to file complaints and whatnot.
PPS:
I remember instances where the 1.6 OTA was bricking phones, and if i remember correctly an update just rolled out recently.
(probably a soft brick that could have easily been resolved with some fastboot shenanigans, but i didnt care enough to install adb+fastboot on 3 computers)

N31N said:
Hi, i worked for a tmobile licensed retailer for a year and continue to have contacts within corporate locations as well as other licensees and the truth is as follows:
The employees don't care a whole lot to see if the software is rooted or not, more often than not, a fistful of people have heard of rooting but dont know exactly how to root or what it means, and a smaller fistful are people like myself.
If youre terribly worried, just put on the stock boot animation or flash it to stock (ish) rom. If its a brick, its a brick, just dont walk in announcing that its something you did; they should swap it out there and then with a minimum of questions asked. If they ask what happened, you dont know. We're only instructed to check the water damage stickers and warranty voiding screw stickers just to make sure its not user error, we were/are in no way trained to discern the software's integrity and are instructed to do little more than factory reset it. The end
I cant speak for the corporate locations but our exchanged phones would be sent at the end of each month to some tertiary company that refurbishes the phones. Even if HTC wanted to send agents with laptops out to check on all the HBOOTs and Roots, they would have to do it at a store level, or next up, the refurb centers; at which point these phones are out of your hands and theres not a whole lot they could possibly do to trace it back to you.
tl;dr
Do not worry, play it cool
PS:
And if they dont want to swap it out within your 14 days (30 if youre in CA), dial customer care right there and tell em youre at a store and they wont do the exchange; the CC rep will put his indignant face on and harass the rep at the store, making threats to file complaints and whatnot.
PPS:
I remember instances where the 1.6 OTA was bricking phones, and if i remember correctly an update just rolled out recently.
(probably a soft brick that could have easily been resolved with some fastboot shenanigans, but i didnt care enough to install adb+fastboot on 3 computers)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow thanks for the information thats helpful... I am not saying I am going to brick my phone and try it out but I will definately remember this when a hinge breaks or something

N31N said:
Hi, i worked for a tmobile licensed retailer for a year and continue to have contacts within corporate locations as well as other licensees and the truth is as follows:
The employees don't care a whole lot to see if the software is rooted or not, more often than not, a fistful of people have heard of rooting but dont know exactly how to root or what it means, and a smaller fistful are people like myself.
If youre terribly worried, just put on the stock boot animation or flash it to stock (ish) rom. If its a brick, its a brick, just dont walk in announcing that its something you did; they should swap it out there and then with a minimum of questions asked. If they ask what happened, you dont know. We're only instructed to check the water damage stickers and warranty voiding screw stickers just to make sure its not user error, we were/are in no way trained to discern the software's integrity and are instructed to do little more than factory reset it. The end
I cant speak for the corporate locations but our exchanged phones would be sent at the end of each month to some tertiary company that refurbishes the phones. Even if HTC wanted to send agents with laptops out to check on all the HBOOTs and Roots, they would have to do it at a store level, or next up, the refurb centers; at which point these phones are out of your hands and theres not a whole lot they could possibly do to trace it back to you.
tl;dr
Do not worry, play it cool
PS:
And if they dont want to swap it out within your 14 days (30 if youre in CA), dial customer care right there and tell em youre at a store and they wont do the exchange; the CC rep will put his indignant face on and harass the rep at the store, making threats to file complaints and whatnot.
PPS:
I remember instances where the 1.6 OTA was bricking phones, and if i remember correctly an update just rolled out recently.
(probably a soft brick that could have easily been resolved with some fastboot shenanigans, but i didnt care enough to install adb+fastboot on 3 computers)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why thank you sir for taking the time to post this. It's nice to have some first hand information on this. Gave me peace of mind.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

N31N said:
Hi, i worked for a tmobile licensed retailer for a year and continue to have contacts within corporate locations as well as other licensees and the truth is as follows:
The employees don't care a whole lot to see if the software is rooted or not, more often than not, a fistful of people have heard of rooting but dont know exactly how to root or what it means, and a smaller fistful are people like myself.
If youre terribly worried, just put on the stock boot animation or flash it to stock (ish) rom. If its a brick, its a brick, just dont walk in announcing that its something you did; they should swap it out there and then with a minimum of questions asked. If they ask what happened, you dont know. We're only instructed to check the water damage stickers and warranty voiding screw stickers just to make sure its not user error, we were/are in no way trained to discern the software's integrity and are instructed to do little more than factory reset it. The end
I cant speak for the corporate locations but our exchanged phones would be sent at the end of each month to some tertiary company that refurbishes the phones. Even if HTC wanted to send agents with laptops out to check on all the HBOOTs and Roots, they would have to do it at a store level, or next up, the refurb centers; at which point these phones are out of your hands and theres not a whole lot they could possibly do to trace it back to you.
tl;dr
Do not worry, play it cool
PS:
And if they dont want to swap it out within your 14 days (30 if youre in CA), dial customer care right there and tell em youre at a store and they wont do the exchange; the CC rep will put his indignant face on and harass the rep at the store, making threats to file complaints and whatnot.
PPS:
I remember instances where the 1.6 OTA was bricking phones, and if i remember correctly an update just rolled out recently.
(probably a soft brick that could have easily been resolved with some fastboot shenanigans, but i didnt care enough to install adb+fastboot on 3 computers)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is one of the most intelligent and complete posts I have had the pleasure to read. My logic and previous experience told me the same thing, but to have a person with "better than first-hand" experience confirm my beliefs is huge.
Kudos for taking your time to give back to the community

N31N said:
Hi, i worked for a tmobile licensed retailer for a year and continue to have contacts within corporate locations as well as other licensees and the truth is as follows:
The employees don't care a whole lot to see if the software is rooted or not, more often than not, a fistful of people have heard of rooting but dont know exactly how to root or what it means, and a smaller fistful are people like myself.
If youre terribly worried, just put on the stock boot animation or flash it to stock (ish) rom. If its a brick, its a brick, just dont walk in announcing that its something you did; they should swap it out there and then with a minimum of questions asked. If they ask what happened, you dont know. We're only instructed to check the water damage stickers and warranty voiding screw stickers just to make sure its not user error, we were/are in no way trained to discern the software's integrity and are instructed to do little more than factory reset it. The end
I cant speak for the corporate locations but our exchanged phones would be sent at the end of each month to some tertiary company that refurbishes the phones. Even if HTC wanted to send agents with laptops out to check on all the HBOOTs and Roots, they would have to do it at a store level, or next up, the refurb centers; at which point these phones are out of your hands and theres not a whole lot they could possibly do to trace it back to you.
tl;dr
Do not worry, play it cool
PS:
And if they dont want to swap it out within your 14 days (30 if youre in CA), dial customer care right there and tell em youre at a store and they wont do the exchange; the CC rep will put his indignant face on and harass the rep at the store, making threats to file complaints and whatnot.
PPS:
I remember instances where the 1.6 OTA was bricking phones, and if i remember correctly an update just rolled out recently.
(probably a soft brick that could have easily been resolved with some fastboot shenanigans, but i didnt care enough to install adb+fastboot on 3 computers)
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Can confirm the same will happen at a corporate store. Especially if you go with the same person who sold it to you. They will be more worried about you canceling what you did because you will mess with their money lol.

Defective phone, replacement process?

I've come to the conclusion after unrooting/changing to stock rom that my WiFi and Bluetooth is defective, cause it shows very little access points compared to other S4s and Bluetooth is intermittent cutting in and out.
It's been over a month since I've received the phone, would I still be able to bring it to a Sprint Store and exchange for a new one, or would I have to ship it in to Samsung. Also, would I have to stock recovery/unroot before I give it back to them?
Anyone who works at Sprint or have done this before, please let me know!
Thanks!

tinkleondabeach said:
I've come to the conclusion after unrooting/changing to stock rom that my WiFi and Bluetooth is defective, cause it shows very little access points compared to other S4s and Bluetooth is intermittent cutting in and out.
It's been over a month since I've received the phone, would I still be able to bring it to a Sprint Store and exchange for a new one, or would I have to ship it in to Samsung. Also, would I have to stock recovery/unroot before I give it back to them?
Anyone who works at Sprint or have done this before, please let me know!
Thanks!
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Click to collapse
You must unroot. You must flash stock mdc odin 1 click restore and wipe fully. They will laugh at you if you dont.

Put it completely back to stock. Reset the counter and binary to official. Odin the MDL full stock with data wipe. Wipe/format the internal storage. Remove the SD card. Do full factory reset and format internal memory. Pray. Don't act like you've been mucking around with the phone. They might want to do a factory reset and or flash the rom to official stock again. Take it back the next day and tell them it's still malfunctioning. Hope they put in an order for a refurb. If you can replicate the problem, show them. Sometimes one repair center might be less likely to get you a replacement. Find another repair center. When I went to a different place with a previous phone, they were more inclined to just order me a replacement. I had to go back three times within a month to get a fully working phone, because the replacements were defective. Don't be a jerk towards the employees.

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I believe that it's a hardware defect maybe a loose wifi antenna. Went to sprint store and they're holding my phone right now, they said they'd charge $50 for repair if it's a defect but checkup is free.. I told them about a warranty and they told me that I'd have to go through Samsung to get that. Would it void my warranty if I opened up the phone myself?

If you have the TEP insurance a replacement would be free of charge.
You only have 14 days to return a phone if it is defective if the device was a new act or upgrade. A replacement without insurance is $50.
Your situation is difficult though. If the tech can verify the issue it is fine. Verifying your issue is not easy at all.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app

supercholo said:
If you have the TEP insurance a replacement would be free of charge.
You only have 14 days to return a phone if it is defective if the device was a new act or upgrade. A replacement without insurance is $50.
Your situation is difficult though. If the tech can verify the issue it is fine. Verifying your issue is not easy at all.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app
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If the tech can verify the issue I'm still charged the $50 right? I assume the free warranty process through returning to Samsung would take like a month without a phone right?

tinkleondabeach said:
If the tech can verify the issue I'm still charged the $50 right? I assume the free warranty process through returning to Samsung would take like a month without a phone right?
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Click to collapse
I was told around 2 weeks when I asked Samsung about replacing my phone because of a screen defect. Can't go that long without a phone though so I'm just dealing with my screen defect. I'll maybe get it replaced before I sell it or the year is up. Whatever is first.

Yeah I hate Samsung and Sprint, I'm probably going to have to pay $50 for a refurb'd replacement cause the phone they gave me is defective.
Does anyone know if I will void the warranty if I were to open up the casing of the s4?

tinkleondabeach said:
Yeah I hate Samsung and Sprint, I'm probably going to have to pay $50 for a refurb'd replacement cause the phone they gave me is defective.
Does anyone know if I will void the warranty if I were to open up the casing of the s4?
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Click to collapse
Yes you will void the warranty if you open it up.

Rooting and Warranty

Hey guys, I'm in Europe and I have a question.
Back at the end of January, my phone started having a bright horizontal line that would run from top to bottom of the screen. And this would come and go. After a couple weeks, I realized that vibration (whether from the phone itself or the surface it was on) as well as applying pressure to the top right side of the screen or face would cause this to come and go. I even figured out I could shake it and have this happen. So something was loose. I chatted with samsung germany, and even after explaining this to them, they still had me factory reset the phone, which I did. That didn't work, so they wanted me to send it in. It took me a couple weeks to find a replacement phone, but I did and I sent my S7 Edge to Samsungs service center two Fridays ago.
They just sent me an e-mail telling me that it isn't covered by warranty because this was caused by rooting the phone. This is clearly a hardware issue. Furthermore, I thought in Europe it didn't matter if you rooted your phone. I've only ever had to send in my LG G4 for warranty, and they had no problem with it being rooted. What gives? What are my rights?
I feel like deciding never to buy a Samsung product again, and I'm in the market for a new tablet. So on a related note, any better tablets out there?

shiboby said:
Hey guys, I'm in Europe and I have a question.
Back at the end of January, my phone started having a bright horizontal line that would run from top to bottom of the screen. And this would come and go. After a couple weeks, I realized that vibration (whether from the phone itself or the surface it was on) as well as applying pressure to the top right side of the screen or face would cause this to come and go. I even figured out I could shake it and have this happen. So something was loose. I chatted with samsung germany, and even after explaining this to them, they still had me factory reset the phone, which I did. That didn't work, so they wanted me to send it in. It took me a couple weeks to find a replacement phone, but I did and I sent my S7 Edge to Samsungs service center two Fridays ago.
They just sent me an e-mail telling me that it isn't covered by warranty because this was caused by rooting the phone. This is clearly a hardware issue. Furthermore, I thought in Europe it didn't matter if you rooted your phone. I've only ever had to send in my LG G4 for warranty, and they had no problem with it being rooted. What gives? What are my rights?
I feel like deciding never to buy a Samsung product again, and I'm in the market for a new tablet. So on a related note, any better tablets out there?
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Click to collapse
Rooting a Samsung phone has always voided the warranty. Some countries strictly enforce this other do not.
If it was a motherboard problem, the service centre would not have noticed the rooting flag and replaced the hardware with no questions asked. But since your problem involved the screen not the motherboard, service centres have the option of enforcing the warranty at their discretion.
You can either ask for the phone back and use it as is or pay for the repair.

Any rooted phone voids any warranty the manufacturer carries.
When you root your phone, you get these messages that pop up telling you that if you continue, you will probably void your warranty.
They put those warnings there to let you know before you start.
I know my replies can be long, but would rather give too much info, than not enough.

In Europe, your statutory warranty cannot be refused just because of the phone being rooted. That warranty, however, is with the business that sold you the phone, not with Samsung directly. Maybe try and go back to the seller (though you may have to argue your case to make them comply with their legal obligations!).

I'm from Portugal.
My phone is rooted I had to send it to service for repair and had zero problems.

gcogger said:
In Europe, your statutory warranty cannot be refused just because of the phone being rooted. That warranty, however, is with the business that sold you the phone, not with Samsung directly. Maybe try and go back to the seller (though you may have to argue your case to make them comply with their legal obligations!).
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Click to collapse
so I would have to deal with Amazon Germany? That is a freightening thought, since they just had so many mess ups at the end of last summer that I actually cancelled my membership.
Do you have any law or other thing I could point to that would show them they have to replace the phone?