S5 warranty void due to Root

I purchased my Galaxy S5 on adverts in December last year, I have flashed a custom Cyanogenmod ROM on the phone, on Sunday the phone battery went dead and after a charge wouldn't turn on.

I'm sure the issue is a hardware fault and not an issue with the ROM, it's been on the phone for months.

I have many years experience repairing phones and other tech and was about to strip her down, when I though to check the warranty on the phone.

She's good till October next year.

I have the receipt from the guy I bought the phone off.

So I contacted Samsung online and they advised me to bring it into one of there stores for repair, which I did.

The store contacted me today and they have said the warranty is void because the phone was rooted, the main board is damaged and the cost of the repair is €165

After reading another thread on boards: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=83920841

Another user posted a link

That references this law

I contacted my solicitor and she advised me that my consumer rights likely were being violated and that I could take it to the small claims court.

Does anybody have any input on this?

dudara

The warranty is a completely separate matter to your consumer rights. The warranty is something additional offered by the manufacturer or retailer for additional peace of mind, but it cannot supersede your consumer rights. To claim under consumer law (which is what you would be doing in Small Claims Court), you would be claiming that the phone did not last for the lifetime intended or it was not fit for the purpose intended.

You should let the shop know that you wish the phone to be repaired under your consumer rights (not warranty) as you believe that the phone is not of merchantable quality and has not lasted for the lifetime intended. Of course, you should be sure that you have not caused any damage to the phone yourself, as this will negate your claim that the phone is not of merchantable quality.

A Dub in Glasgo

Messy as you bought a 2nd hand phone and then rooted it and now want to claim off Samsung warranty. Is the warranty transferable?

A Dub in Glasgo

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

Messy as you bought a 2nd hand phone and then rooted it and now want to claim off Samsung warranty. Is the warranty transferable?

Yes the warranty is transferable, It's so frustrating, I know the ROM had nothing to do with the defect in the phone.

28064212

Lochlan Bitter Schoolmaster wrote: »

I purchased my Galaxy S5 on adverts

Lochlan Bitter Schoolmaster wrote: »

I contacted my solicitor and she advised me that my consumer rights likely were being violated and that I could take it to the small claims court.

Either you didn't tell your solicitor that you purchased it on adverts, or they don't know what they're talking about. Consumer rights are between a retailer and a consumer, manufacturers have nothing to do with it. You purchased it from a private individual, which basically means you have no recourse against the seller (unless you could prove that they knew the phone had a fault and sold it in bad faith).

As above, a warranty is in addition to consumer rights, and a manufacturer can put pretty much whatever restrictions they want on it. If the warranty specifically mentions that rooted phones are excluded, then you're out of luck

28064212

28064212 wrote: »

Either you didn't tell your solicitor that you purchased it on adverts, or they don't know what they're talking about. Consumer rights are between a retailer and a consumer, manufacturers have nothing to do with it. You purchased it from a private individual, which basically means you have no recourse against the seller (unless you could prove that they knew the phone had a fault and sold it in bad faith).

As above, a warranty is in addition to consumer rights, and a manufacturer can put pretty much whatever restrictions they want on it. If the warranty specifically mentions that rooted phones are excluded, then you're out of luck

I didn't tell my Solicitor that I bought it on Adverts and I did think this would be an issue.

I've gone through the seven stages and accepted that there is probably nothing I can do about it.

It's just very frustrating for me, I can say with 100% certainty that the defect is in no way related to the ROM and I feel it should still be under warranty.

If I buy a PC with Windows on it and install Linux and then my motherboard fails the OEM cant refuse me an RMA because I installed Linux.

I've told them to go ahead with the repair, I will be Rooting and installing a custom ROM on the device as soon as I get it back, as I have with all my phones, for years, without issue. :cool:

Just out of curiosity why have the above law I linked to, if it has no effect?

stronglikebull

Lochlan Bitter Schoolmaster wrote: »

Just out of curiosity why have the above law I linked to if it has no effect?

It has no effect in a private sale, only in the case of a consumer buying from a business, where it should be perfectly effective. In a private sale, you have no rights, except that the warranty may be transferable. Warranties are up to the manufacturer to honour, and they can impose any conditions that they want on it.

It's not entirely crazy that rooting a phone and installing a custom ROM would invalidate the warranty, as the process can brick a phone, and the manufacturer can't be held liable for user damage. What I find stupid is that the phones are locked and restricted in the first place. Sure, it's probably to stop idiots from accidentally deleting their OS, but if I pay €600 for a phone, I should be able to remove all the crap that Samsung fill the memory with, and install a proper backup solution if I want to.

stronglikebull

stronglikebull wrote: »

It has no effect in a private sale, only in the case of a consumer buying from a business, where it should be perfectly effective. In a private sale, you have no rights, except that the warranty may be transferable. Warranties are up to the manufacturer to honour, and they can impose any conditions that they want on it.

It's not entirely crazy that rooting a phone and installing a custom ROM would invalidate the warranty, as the process can brick a phone, and the manufacturer can't be held liable for user damage. What I find stupid is that the phones are locked and restricted in the first place. Sure, it's probably to stop idiots from accidentally deleting their OS, but if I pay €600 for a phone, I should be able to remove all the crap that Samsung fill the memory with, and install a proper backup solution if I want to.

I never told Samsung that I wasn't the original owner. I presented them with that law and they didn't budge, assuming I had bought it from the store myself, I think I would still be in the same position?

I really have no comeback in this situation, if they'd told me that the warranty was due to a broken screen I wouldn't have cared, my carelessness caused the issue, but when you know that's it's for something that didn't cause the problem :mad:

On a side note I logged into the site where the phone was sent for repair and they have declared the phone warranty as void due to the crack on the screen, but when I went into Samsung originally I had a screen protector on the phone and the assistant never noticed the crack.
When I rang to confirm that I wanted the phone repaired I asked him about the crack, he informed me that it was a mistake in the documentation and that he seen a photo of the phone and there was 100% no crack on the phone.

I laughed and said 100% sure? he said 99.9% I laughed again and said ok, but lets imagine there was a crack on the phone, would it be repaired? yes, yes it would be repaired.

Didn't really know what else to say, they clearly thought the damage had happened in transit to the repair center :pac::pac:

28064212

Lochlan Bitter Schoolmaster wrote: »

I never told Samsung that I wasn't the original owner. I presented them with that law and they didn't budge, assuming I had bought it from the store myself, I think I would still be in the same position?

You would in relation to Samsung. However, your contract would be with the retailer, and the retailer is bound by law. The manufacturer is only bound by the terms of their warranty with you

So I went back to the store and the screen had been replaced, fonefix had removed the part about screen damage form their repair status on the website and Carphone warehouse and fonfix both claim that the screen was never changed.

Fine, I pay the €165 and go home with my "repaired" phone I immediately flash a custom recovery (TWRP) and Cyanogenmod onto my phone, as I've done a thousand times, I stupidly didn't use the phone at all before I flashed it.

As I start using the new ROM I notice erratic behavior with the touch screen, there is something wrong with the phone. I backed up the original ROM when I installed TWRP, I rollback to the original ROM to see if it's an issue with the ROM I'm using, nope same issue with the old ROM.

Go back to Carphone warehouse with the phone, Carphone warehouse send the phone off to fonfix again.

Fonfix want another €165 to repair the device saying that the main board is damaged and that the damage was caused by flashing Cyanogenmod on the phone (it was in my hole)

I'm at a loss for words, I really just don't know what to do now.:(:(
any advice greatly appreciated.

A Dub in Glasgo

Sounds like you are back to the start as fonfix know that they removed the custom flash

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

There are known bugs with cyanogenmod and the Galaxy.

Margaret Full Theory

Margaret Full Theory wrote: »

There are known bugs with cyanogenmod and the Galaxy.

I've had cyanogenmod on the phone for over a year and had it on my S2 before that and never had any issues with it, what are the known issues?

Their claiming the board is faulty, if it is, then it was faulty when they put it in, nothing I did could have caused damage to the hardware.

gctest50

Lochlan Bitter Schoolmaster wrote: »

....
Their claiming the board is faulty, if it is, then it was faulty when they put it in, nothing I did could have caused damage to the hardware.

you can't be sure cos you didn't try it

Lochlan Bitter Schoolmaster wrote: »

.......... I stupidly didn't use the phone at all before I flashed it.

gctest50

gctest50 wrote: »

you can't be sure cos you didn't try it

Yes I can be sure, I just can't prove it, nothing I did could have caused damage to hardware, it's impossible, the only way custom software could damage the main board is if it was over clocked and putting the hardware components under stress. I didn't do anything along those lines, just a straight forward flash of a costume recovery and a costume ROM.

The ROM or recovery may have effected drivers on the phone that communicate with the touch screen, but that would not necessitate a new board, I'll be getting back the phone as is and try to repair the device myself and see where I go from there.

Today was a bad day.

Cabaal

Lochlan Bitter Schoolmaster wrote: »

Yes I can be sure, I just can't prove it, nothing I did could have caused damage to hardware, it's impossible, the only way custom software could damage the main board is if it was over clocked and putting the hardware components under stress. I didn't do anything along those lines, .

Problem is, you can't prove that you didn't do any of this.

you have to admit from their end it looks suspect, they repair the phone only to have it returned and its broken again and you've once again installed a custom rom

Cabaal

Cabaal wrote: »

Problem is, you can't prove that you didn't do any of this.

you have to admit from their end it looks suspect, they repair the phone only to have it returned and its broken again and you've once again installed a custom rom

I'm exhausted with this now, I haven't had a phone for nearly 2 weeks, I suppose it could be seen as suspect, I've done nothing wrong though, I've been lied to on numerous occasions.

I assume I have a new contract with carphone warehouse now? since they supplied me with this repair services, does this mean the consumer law I brought up earlier in this thread could now apply to me?

Firblog

28064212 wrote: »

You would in relation to Samsung. However, your contract would be with the retailer, and the retailer is bound by law. The manufacturer is only bound by the terms of their warranty with you

That's not quite true, if there is an issue with a product and let's say the retailer is not getting any support from their supplier / manufacturer on the problem then the retailer can attach the manufacturer to any action taken against them in the small claims court.

I'm sure of this as a shop I worked in did it with a manufacturer a couple of years ago on the suggestion of the clerk of the court. Manufacturer changed tune, and repaired the item in question to satisfaction of customer before got to court.