I just took in my flaky Blackberry 8700 to my local T-Mobile store to see if anything could be done to resuscitate it. Turns out there was some crud lodged betwixt phone and sim card, and the tech got the phone working again. However, before he managed to get it going again, he mentioned my warranty was void because the water damage sticker within the phone indicated there was some moisture in there.
Now, I’ve had Blackberries before. I accidentally dropped my last one in a lake, but it functioned after a thorough drying-out (left it on the air vents of my truck with the heat cranked for about 15 minutes). With this one, I’ve been very careful, and since the phone is with me pretty much on a 24/7/365 basis, I know that the phone hasn’t been immersed in water or subjected to excessive moisture.
Are these water damage stickers the real McCoy? Or are they just another ploy by manufacturers to avoid warranty replacements? Can they be set off by excessive humidity? Can things other than immersion in water cause them to indicate the presence of water in the phone? What’s the dope?
I just took a look at my main phone, and a couple of spares, all of them had white circular stickers either under the battery, or on a circuit board
Since one of the phones was long past warranty anyway (especially since I just took it apart) I dropped some water on the sticker. It started turning from white to red around the edges not long after, so, based on my own, unscientific testing, I’d say they seem to be real.
I knew mine had them, but I just checked and it was red. I’m sure that’s from dropping it in the snow a few times.
How 'bout just putting a piece of tape over it when it’s new. If you need to have the phone worked on, take the tape off. A thin coat of super glue might work as well.
But as far as warranties (with Cingular, anyways) they don’t mean much.
I had a Siemens SX66 (suuuuucked) that had a problem with whining. I can hear CRTs and LCDs when I put my ear close enough. That’s not acceptable in something that, I don’t know, I PUT RIGHT TO MY HEAD.
So I called it in, they had me open it and tell them about the sticker. It was a white sticker with the word “VOID” across it several times in red. The Cingular Monkey tells me that a red “VOID” means that the phone had gotten wet.
Bullshit. I knew for a fact that the thing had never gotten wet.
So, I talk to someone at a Cingular store and he says that probably isn’t the case, it didn’t look like it had gotten wet, so I should try again.
I call back and go through the thing again, pointing out that a Cingular tech (I lied,
he was a salesman) had said the sticker indicated that it was NOT wet. He puts me on hold to “consult” with some other guys and then comes back on, informs me that the SX66 sucked (well, they only carried it for two months or so and didn’t have anything to replace it with) and so I’ll be getting me a nice and sexy new Nokia 8125.
I’ve actually heard some phones have 2 stickers. One easily accessible by the battery and another embedded within the phone so just taping over the battery one won’t do the trick if you do drop it in some water.
My phone has never been in water, per se. However, I live in Florida where we thrive in 99% humidity. My dot is pink. If you google it, you will find that humidity CAN cause it to change. Please note: I do not carry my phone on my person, it is always in the side pouch of my purse when not in use.
I wouldn’t bother buying the dots on ebay. Get a hole punch and a sticker. The hole in a hole punch is pretty close to the same size. I would guess it would fool the casual observer.
Metro PCS refuses to reset my phone to the factory settings because of the freakin’ dot and because of my own laziness, I haven’t gotten around to replacing it.
Well the whole point of a warranty is to cover defects in materials or workmanship. It does not cover events that hit the phone after it’s sold or design defects.
Design defects can make a product shitty but it’s not a warrenty issue, it was built that way and is doing it’s job.
If someone brings in a phone whose Liquid Ingress marker is red, (Some times it’s one of those dots, other phones have a pink stripe on white paper) then warranty void chump. Sorry. Got insurance?
Phones are not built to handle damp, wet or even humid conditions. (In the main. Some are). If you expose the phone to those conditions it’s your look-out.
“But I need my phone, you telling me I can’t take it out of the fridge for six months of the year because of the humidity?”
Nope, it’s your phone do as you please. But don’t expect us poor harrased sales people to be able to do a dam thing about it when it stops working.
I know everyone’s got a story about a water damaged phone that worked for years, but thats the whole point. Water damage is unpredictable. If it predictable you could pay for the repair work and get a warranty on that work. As it stands I know of no service centre who will warranty any work done on such a phone, most of them won’t even touch it.
It is also a very convenient way for a phone company to say “fuck you” without having to use the F or the U.
From the reading up I did and with checking my old phones, I can pretty confidently say those dots are a bullshit excuse. When it is enough of a problem that people are removing the dots right when they buy the phone, put them in baggies and store them away so that when they DO have problems, they can stick the pristine dot back on or they find phones right out of the box (sealed) with red dots, it is a real problem.
For those to lazy to Google: (from search of “water damage dot cell”
I have no problem when there is a legitimate reason for not fixing a phone. I have a HUGE problem when they use something as sketchy as these dots in states where if you aren’t wet, you aren’t here, that are placed right inside the back cover, in the most easiest, simplest place for humidity to get, in order for them to refuse to even LOOK at your phone, call you a liar and you know, do what they are supposed to.
These things are NOT the equivalent to many other warranty voiding stickers/seals I have seen. They are utter crap.
I had an argument with a tech that said that the indicator can be triggered by normal condensation.
I asked him “Does this mean that if I’m outside in the winter, and then come inside, that my phone’s warrantee is void?” He replied, rather sheepishly, “It can be.”
A mobile phone should be able to go from outside to in, without voiding a warrantee. Otherwise, it’s a cordless, inside phone… which defeats the purpose of having a MOBILE phone!
Now, my question is… where can I get a waterproof phone? I can get shock resistant, color screens, mp3 players, and all sorts of phones that do things that I don’t care about. I don’t need fancy features, just a phone that dials, and allows a conversation.
Hey, if you don’t like the products don’t buy em. Don’t buy a phone that can’t stand liquid and then complain when condensation kills it.
I can totaly understand complaing about how weak and annoying mobile phones are. They’re not built for modern life really. But pretending it’s a secret and no one warned you when you kill your phone is just unfair. If your salesman is exagerating the longevity of your phone, time to find a new one of each.
Don’t worry, If you were a customer I’d say it with a lot more charm
I used to work for T-Mobile a long time ago, and we started selling these HP iPaq 6135 pieces of crap. I had some business customers that would walk outside in the winter, then come inside and the screen would crack.
Technically, this was a voided warranty issue, but we always took care of these customers. We realized that we sold these little crappy devices so our business clients could do their work “anywhere, anytime, wirelessly” and they were dropping half a grand on it, they needed to be taken care of. It was good customer service.
That and we quit carrying it when we discovered it was a wide spread problem.
Saying “go fuck yourself dumbass” to a business that has just bought 15 $499.99 cell phones from you with rate plans of $100 a line for each of them is just stupid.
