Problem with Samsung Galaxy SIII on 3 Mobile - Water Damage

Charles1412

Hi I am looking for some advise on what steps to take with this issue. Basically the screen on my 3 week old SIII stopped working last Friday. At first I taught it was just a dead battery as the battery had been low. I charged the phone overnight and on Saturday when I switched on the phone the phone would power up, ring, light up etc but the screen stayed off as if the contrast was turned down. I contacted 3 customer service who advised me to bring the phone into their service partners - Fonemenders. To cut a long story short Fonemenders called me back yesterday to say that the phone was beyond economical repair and they phone was showing signs of water damage as such the warranty is now void. I couldn't believe this as the phone was no where near water but they insist it is showing signs of moisture damage. The guy in the Fonemenders store said that they cannot carry out any work on the phone because of this and I should take up the case with either 3 Mobile or Samsung directly. He reckoned the phone is too new to know if there is a inherit fault in the handset as I was insistent that the phone has never been near water and as you'd expect with such an expensive piece of kit its minded like a baby. I looked on some discussion forums last night and see that "water damage" seems to be a well used cope out for covering repairs on mobile phone. Can anyone advise the best way to progress this whether I should contact 3 or Samsung next. Also I do not have mobile insurance and the phone is still less than 28 days old. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Meesared

The thing is its not really worth Fonemenders saying it isn't repairable, as they don't get paid for it if that is the case, so the conspiracy theory thing is somewhat out the window. Phones have markers on them that change colour when the phone comes in contact with moisture (note i am not saying water). The phone doesn't necessarily have to have taken a swim to have moisture damage, even condensation and steam can cause it, having your phone in your pocket in the rain, hell even sweat can do it. To be honest you are out of luck, I know its not what you want to hear but when buying a €500-600 phone you should insure it.

Charles1412

Hi Thanks for the reply. I've been using mobile phone for years and I have only had one phone that had water damage and that was where I let it fall into a sink filled with water. I'm really peeved about this as I've been using iphones the last 3 years and although I had a few tech issues with the iphone i never had any issues re water damage/condensation in that time & low and behold I have this phone less than one month & it has water damage. I really feel that the phone is not fit for purpose and I'm not in a position financially to take this lying down.

Meesared

Again I do see where you are coming from, but to be honest you will be fighting a losing battle here, Fonemenders will have photographic proof of the moisture damage. Previous history with phones doesnt really come into it.

keithclancy

AFAIK there are Moisture sensors in the phone which change colour when exposed to Moisture.

E.G.
http://www.tested.com/news/how-to/720-stay-dry-where-to-find-your-phones-water-sensors/

Can be activated due to getting slightly wet in the wrong place or by using it in the bathroom when theres steam.

In short, if their activated your knackered.

Charles1412

Hi I am looking for some advise on what steps to take with this issue. Basically the screen on my 3 week old SIII stopped working last Friday. At first I taught it was just a dead battery as the battery had been low. I charged the phone overnight and on Saturday when I switched on the phone the phone would power up, ring, light up etc but the screen stayed off as if the contrast was turned down. I contacted 3 customer service who advised me to bring the phone into their service partners - Fonemenders. To cut a long story short Fonemenders called me back yesterday to say that the phone was beyond economical repair and they phone was showing signs of water damage as such the warranty is now void. I couldn't believe this as the phone was no where near water but they insist it is showing signs of moisture damage. The guy in the Fonemenders store said that they cannot carry out any work on the phone because of this and I should take up the case with either 3 Mobile or Samsung directly. He reckoned the phone is too new to know if there is a inherit fault in the handset as I was insistent that the phone has never been near water and as you'd expect with such an expensive piece of kit its minded like a baby. I looked on some discussion forums last night and see that "water damage" seems to be a well used cope out for covering repairs on mobile phone. Can anyone advise the best way to progress this whether I should contact 3 or Samsung next. Also I do not have mobile insurance and the phone is still less than 28 days old. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sorry reposted now as I think its better titled S3 than SIII for exposure

Meesared

Erm.... double post?

You could have edited the original title

Charles1412

I couldn't see how to do that as it only seems to allow you to edit the text in the body rather than the title

whiterebel

Meesared wrote: »

The thing is its not really worth Fonemenders saying it isn't repairable, as they don't get paid for it if that is the case, so the conspiracy theory thing is somewhat out the window. Phones have markers on them that change colour when the phone comes in contact with moisture (note i am not saying water). The phone doesn't necessarily have to have taken a swim to have moisture damage, even condensation and steam can cause it, having your phone in your pocket in the rain, hell even sweat can do it. To be honest you are out of luck, I know its not what you want to hear but when buying a €500-600 phone you should insure it.

I had first hand experience of Fonemenders saying water damaged on a Nokia, when it was later proved not to have been. I saw one of the Fonemenders staff drop a padded phone envelope from about 4 feet onto concrete....Nothing they do would surprise me.

dudara

Threads merged - do you want the thread title updated?

dudara

Stinicker

Launch a Small Claims Court Case against Three, the amount of threads popping up recently about Three and their repair agents Fonemenders is unbelievable, both companies have terrible reputations and routinely replace working phones with broken models. Take a read over in the Three forum and you will see what I am talking about. It might be best to contact Samsung directly in the hope they'd replace it to save yourself the hassle of taking Three to the Small Claims Court. I defeated Three this year and was left out of contract and Apple replaced my faulty phone; I had earlier received a faulty phone from Fonemenders upon giving in a working phone due to Three's refusal to acknowledge network issues.

Saying insure the phone is fine, however even if the lad had it insured Fonesure Three's Insurance crowd would deny the claim and they only pay out if the phone is stolen in a mugging with a Garda statement.

Three, Fonemenders and Fonesure are very disreputable companies and I cannot see why the media is not following up on this because if a company was behaving the way they are in Ireland in the United States for example you'd have a class action lawsuit launched against them.

Avoid these companies Three, Fonemenders and Fonesure

gerryk

Charles1412 wrote: »

Hi I am looking for some advise on what steps to take with this issue. Basically the screen on my 3 week old SIII stopped working last Friday. At first I taught it was just a dead battery as the battery had been low. I charged the phone overnight and on Saturday when I switched on the phone the phone would power up, ring, light up etc but the screen stayed off as if the contrast was turned down. I contacted 3 customer service who advised me to bring the phone into their service partners - Fonemenders. To cut a long story short Fonemenders called me back yesterday to say that the phone was beyond economical repair and they phone was showing signs of water damage as such the warranty is now void. I couldn't believe this as the phone was no where near water but they insist it is showing signs of moisture damage. The guy in the Fonemenders store said that they cannot carry out any work on the phone because of this and I should take up the case with either 3 Mobile or Samsung directly. He reckoned the phone is too new to know if there is a inherit fault in the handset as I was insistent that the phone has never been near water and as you'd expect with such an expensive piece of kit its minded like a baby. I looked on some discussion forums last night and see that "water damage" seems to be a well used cope out for covering repairs on mobile phone. Can anyone advise the best way to progress this whether I should contact 3 or Samsung next. Also I do not have mobile insurance and the phone is still less than 28 days old. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sorry reposted now as I think its better titled S3 than SIII for exposure

Unfortunately any unauthorised attempts at either repair or investigation will definitely invalidate the warranty. Try calling Samsung directly and speak to them. Moisture sensors are pretty inaccurate, and investigation of the device itself is the only way to prove conclusively that there has been moisture ingress.
Apple came under some pretty heavy flack for their hard stance on moisture sensor activation last year, and had to back down. Perhaps other manufacturers have paid heed also.
Speak to Samsung, explain your case, and ask for the handset to be evaluated by their engineers. Of course, if it turns out that Fonemender's intervention invalidates your warranty, I, personally would be all guns blazin'.

dohouch

@Charles1412: Sorry for your problem.

I have a 4 year old Nokia N82, working perfectly, that I won't answer if I'm out in the rain. On a visit to a Meteor store, ( forget why, but we took off the battery cover ) the girl commented on water damage and showed me the little pink paper tag. So I think over 4 years in this "Green and Misty Isle" all of these tags have changed colour.

Remember a few years back seeing a picture here on Boards of water corrosion damage in a phone. Obviously this would need more water and need a longer time to develop. The picture had been supplied by some phone fixers as a reason for not carrying out repairs under Warranty, but now with these moisture detecting tags there is no need to provide photos of "actual water damage" the little tags says it all.

Rowley Birkin QC

I got an S3 through 3 Mobile aswell lately. I work with maps everyday so Google Maps is essential to me. I was having intermittent issues with Maps freezing on the phone about 3 weeks after receiving it. Contacted 3 and they asked me to bring it to Fonemenders. I googled them and based on the reviews and feedback I declined this remedy and asked for a replacement phone given the short amount of time it took for the issue to appear after purchase. New phone arrived to my desk yesterday.

Charles1412

Rowley based on the issue I am having and the fact that the phone was 21 days old when it occured do you think I should have insisted that 3 replace the handset

Charles1412

I'm awaiting feedback from 3 who have asked fonemenders to reassess the repair request. In the meantime I called Samsung to request that they get one of their engineers to examine the phone as I am not willing to accept the initial diagnosis provided by fonewmenders. The agent I spoke to said that their service partner in Ireland is ........ fonemenders and they have offered to send it to another fonemenders store for assessment. I am not happy with this and would much prefer if a Samsung technician carried out the assessment and now wonder what's the best course of action. With regards to my statutory rights does it boost my position that the phone was only 21 days old when this problem arose. Any input would be greatly appreciated

Rowley Birkin QC

To be honest water damage is a whole other issue than what I was experiencing. Not sure how you should progress in this case.

bogman

Scary, what sort of rip off prices would one be expected for insurance on an S3, if they are that sensitive it may be worthwhile

scholes

I am in the same situation as yourself except I am dealing with 02 and fonemenders. I bought a Samsung Nexus S phone and everything works perfect except when i went to download photos using the USB port it doesnt recognise the phone. It charges through the USB though. I had the phone about 3 months and left it back to the 02 shop and they sent it to fonemenders! and Guess what they told me I had waterdamaged the phone which I 100~% did NOT. I always have phone in a case. I have been to small claims court and case is ongoing. If you want to personal message me it's no problem. I know I can bluetooth photos but I am not prepared to do this as I paid 500 euro for the phone and I did not spill water near it.

gerryk

In a situation like this, I believe you need to be prepared for a bit of a fight. It can be very difficult to get anyone to even take your claims seriously. As far as they are concerned, the sensors are activated, and this indicates water ingress. You will need to be quite forceful in your claim that there cannot have been water damage, and that you expect your rights to be upheld, or there will be a PR sh1tstorm on their hands.

In the past, I have dealt with companies, both retail and manufacturer, to get issues resolved, and it's primarily stubbornness on my part that has resulted in success.

scholes

In my case as far as i am aware there were no sensors activated just the usb port looked tarnished or something like that. It "apparantly" can be caused by condensation if u have ur phone in your pocket , thats what i was told. amazing as the usb still charges through the wall socket and through the pc. My opinion is I hadnt got the phone insured and they dont care. "thats only my opinion btw !"

drunkmonkey

riyarocks wrote: »

I bought Smasung galaxy S3 22 day before and I dont face such issues yet,but if there will be any problem occur then what to do with it?

Make sure it goes to SBE or some other repair center not Fonemenders. There is no comparison between the level of service. Fonemenders constantly send back phones un-repaired stating they are repaired or moisture damaged even when there not, stay away from them.

transylman

One trick I heard about was to put the phone in the microwave and then claim the damage was caused by the phone exploding.

BrookieD

looks like you made engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/06/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-exploding-microwave/

Procrastastudy

I wonder if a nice letter arrived from one of Dublins more expensive law firms

Lord Snooty

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

I wonder if a nice letter arrived from one of Dublins more expensive law firms

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=79594704&postcount=1

Procrastastudy

Aye lol I did have a bit of a giggle at that.

matt-dublin

That statement equals:

I dropped my phone in a pint while pissed, stuck it in the microwave to dry it out and it blew up.

I tried to fake it and say it randomly blew up a publicly had a pop at the manufacturer to get the to replace it

Here Samsung, have me balls on this silver platter:::

Charles1412

Hi

Can someone please let me know when I will receive my replacement Galaxy S3 phone. It’s now 8 days since I first received confirmation that I would receive a replacement handset and 19 days since my handset stopped working. I have received conflicting information online and on the phone stating I would receive the handset last Thursday or Friday, then Monday and now I'm told it will be sometime this week. At the same time I am being charged for a service I cannot make use of as I do not have access to a smartphone. Can someone please come back to me with an update and explain why it is taking so long for the exchange to be organised. I understand there are supply issues with this phone however they are readily available for new contract sign ups in two 3 stores I contacted over the last few days.
I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect the delivery to take place in the time frame I was given & I am still waiting for an update having spoken to one of your agents on Monday night who was “looking into it” and promised to come back to me yesterday. As of noon today there is still no update as such can someone please come back to me today with a definitive delivery date today.

Thank you

Robert

matt-dublin

Charles1412 wrote: »

Hi

Can someone please let me know when I will receive my replacement Galaxy S3 phone. It’s now 8 days since I first received confirmation that I would receive a replacement handset and 19 days since my handset stopped working. I have received conflicting information online and on the phone stating I would receive the handset last Thursday or Friday, then Monday and now I'm told it will be sometime this week. At the same time I am being charged for a service I cannot make use of as I do not have access to a smartphone. Can someone please come back to me with an update and explain why it is taking so long for the exchange to be organised. I understand there are supply issues with this phone however they are readily available for new contract sign ups in two 3 stores I contacted over the last few days.
I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect the delivery to take place in the time frame I was given & I am still waiting for an update having spoken to one of your agents on Monday night who was “looking into it” and promised to come back to me yesterday. As of noon today there is still no update as such can someone please come back to me today with a definitive delivery date today.

Thank you

Robert

you should contact the company you bought the phone off maybe? I don't think anyone here can help you.

prometheus413

hey lads,

with regards to the moisture issues and damage while charging I have had these problems and turned out the battery was leaking. spotted it myself after fonemenders sent my phone back stating water damage.

since then I have had reception issues on 2 phones and one of the replacements was obviously used as it had fingerprints all over it!

all in all I have had 4 replacements from three. yes it was tough each time but you just have to stick to your guns, document every contact session and state your rights under the consumer acts.

what won it for me each time was a registered letter and an email to Dublin stating how I was being passed from rep to rep and that under the supply of goods and services act the phone was not fit for its inteneed purpose (reception issues), then I simply refused to send any phones to fonemenders more than once (you are entitled to a repair, refund or replacement which you get is between you and three provided they are given reasonable opportunity to repair or examine the phone, once is fair in my opinion).

I once got a call from a foreign rep stating that they would no longer be able to replace a damaged phone for me so readily... I gave this rep an earful on the phone and stated that he was effectively denying me my rights under Irish law and that I would be contacting a solicitor in the morning, he wasn't long apologising!

motto of the story... get tough as nails with three, don't accept anything less than what you want, provided you didn't damage the phone! and know your rights.

simo_gu

My phone has been returned from Phonemenders as being _quotBeyond Economical Repair_quot due to liquid damage. I will start by saying my phone has never been in any wet contitions or near any sizeable quantity of water. I have images from Fonmenders which shows very localised damage in one portion of the motherboard. This location is to the right of the battery towards the bottom of the phone which is the exact location the side of the phone comes into contact with the palm of my hand when in use. It would appear the device has been rendered useless from moisture from my hand. This would suggest Samsung are selling a product which is not fit for purpose if moisture from my hand would damage the device. I would expect this issue to be rectified and my warranty honoured as I did not even get 1 years use from the phone. I have also tried to contact Samsung by phone but this has proved futile. I have several Samsung products and am concerned about any future purchases by this issue

daRobot

matt-dublin wrote: »

That statement equals:

I dropped my phone in a pint while pissed, stuck it in the microwave to dry it out and it blew up.

I tried to fake it and say it randomly blew up a publicly had a pop at the manufacturer to get the to replace it

Here Samsung, have me balls on this silver platter:::

Exactly. How thick do you have to be, not to realise that Samsung are going to thoroughly investigate an exploding phone.

ccgarrett

I too have had an issue with my Galaxy S III and what I call perspiration. I spent about an hour and a half working in the yard today with it in my front pocket and it buzzed like I had a message. When I took it out the screen was dead. Since it was less than 2 weeks old I took it back to the Verizon store I purchased it from and when the sales guy opened it up it was wet inside the phone. The phone had not been exposed to water and was inside an OtterBox case. There wasn't any moisture on the inside of the OtterBox case so it is my opinion that there is a perpiration problem with the phone that causes them to quit working if you have them in you pocket in the heat. Of course the sales guy denied that this could even happen. Luckily I had bought the insurance so that I just had to pay the deductable to get a new phone.

matt-dublin

ccgarrett wrote: »

I too have had an issue with my Galaxy S III and what I call perspiration. I spent about an hour and a half working in the yard today with it in my front pocket and it buzzed like I had a message. When I took it out the screen was dead. Since it was less than 2 weeks old I took it back to the Verizon store I purchased it from and when the sales guy opened it up it was wet inside the phone. The phone had not been exposed to water and was inside an OtterBox case. There wasn't any moisture on the inside of the OtterBox case so it is my opinion that there is a perpiration problem with the phone that causes them to quit working if you have them in you pocket in the heat. Of course the sales guy denied that this could even happen. Luckily I had bought the insurance so that I just had to pay the deductable to get a new phone.

I don't see how this could happen either, I have never heard of an electrical item perspiring......

former legend

ccgarrett wrote: »

I too have had an issue with my Galaxy S III and what I call perspiration. I spent about an hour and a half working in the yard today with it in my front pocket and it buzzed like I had a message. When I took it out the screen was dead. Since it was less than 2 weeks old I took it back to the Verizon store I purchased it from and when the sales guy opened it up it was wet inside the phone. The phone had not been exposed to water and was inside an OtterBox case. There wasn't any moisture on the inside of the OtterBox case so it is my opinion that there is a perpiration problem with the phone that causes them to quit working if you have them in you pocket in the heat. Of course the sales guy denied that this could even happen. Luckily I had bought the insurance so that I just had to pay the deductable to get a new phone.

The Verizon store?? The deductable? So you're either a random American guy trawling the net looking for places to b*tch about Samsung products or you're an Irish guy who copied and pasted from an American forum.

Why?

ibarelycare

former legend wrote: »

The Verizon store?? The deductable? So you're either a random American guy trawling the net looking for places to b*tch about Samsung products or you're an Irish guy who copied and pasted from an American forum.

Why?

Maybe he googled "Samsung Galaxy SIII water damage" and this thread came up in the results...it's not that unfathomable. No need to be so rude.