cell phone question

[denn454]

I had a nice new phone that i sort of accidentally dropped... into the toilet (it was clean). so as you might expect the phone didn't like that much, i pulled it out right away and pulled the battery. there is water sensitive sticker is on the battery that didn't get wet, its still white. so i turned the phone back on after it dried, everything worked just fine except the speaker, it was shot. so i called cingular, told them their phone was defective and i wanted a warranty replacement, they were cool with it and sent me a new one.

today I got the new phone and the old one started working again, the speaker doesn't sound quite as good as before, but still very good.

so heres the question. which one should i keep? the new one would be the obvious choice, BUT if they find out the phone went in the drink then i just bought myself a new phone. are there any water evident things inside the phone, or would they even bother to look? I have a few scratches on the screen and a not so great speaker any more, so its not as desire able as the new phone, but i don't want to get a $400 charge for a new phone on my next bill because they find water damage.

Does anyone know how things like this are handled, or been through something simular?

 

[jamesgs4]

i dont think they get too technical on warranty returns. they ususlly just check the water sensitive sticker. then they ship them out to a refurbisher. so id keep the new phone.

 

[Madcat455]

I've worked 7 years for Cingular. Warranty items are tracked VERY strictly just because of all the NON warranty items that do get exchanged.

Granted... I have seen people get away with it, but I've seen far more get nailed 3-4 months later, when the refurbisher. gets the phone back and looks at it.

What kind of phone is it... I highly doubt that the charge would be $400... unless you've got a PDA.

usually there around $75-150 for non covered items.

FYI.. all returned phones are sent back to a refurbisher.. rebuilt.. and returned to Cingular for use as Warranty replacements for other customers. Your replacement was someone elses problem. Cingular tracks your phone by the IMEI.. so when the refurbisher sends the report of it's liquid damage... they'll be able to trace it to you.

NOW.. if the Mfr doesn't find it.. then you're golden.

 

[tommynos]

keep your old one and tell them your old one started working fine.if they find out, your just flushing money down the toilet

 

[tomcatturbo]

I had a nice new phone that i sort of accidentally dropped... into the toilet (it was clean)

Are you sure, the phone was really clean?? lol!


Keep the new one. "dont worrrry bout it"

Also, get some insurance on your new phone. It's pretty cheap and it'll replace the phone at it's full value no matter what happens to it. Even if it ends up in the porcelain tank again, or in the wash, or at the beach, or in the jacuzzi, or get's rolled over by your GN, or eaten by your little weird looking dog.... hahaaa:biggrin:

 

[denn454]

I've worked 7 years for Cingular. Warranty items are tracked VERY strictly just because of all the NON warranty items that do get exchanged.

Granted... I have seen people get away with it, but I've seen far more get nailed 3-4 months later, when the refurbisher. gets the phone back and looks at it.

What kind of phone is it... I highly doubt that the charge would be $400... unless you've got a PDA.

usually there around $75-150 for non covered items.

FYI.. all returned phones are sent back to a refurbisher.. rebuilt.. and returned to Cingular for use as Warranty replacements for other customers. Your replacement was someone elses problem. Cingular tracks your phone by the IMEI.. so when the refurbisher sends the report of it's liquid damage... they'll be able to trace it to you.

NOW.. if the Mfr doesn't find it.. then you're golden.

so whats the chances of them finding out what actually happened? It works fine now. is there anything inside that would tell them that the phone may have water damage?

the phone is a real nice sony ericson 2mp camera phone and mp3 player, i was going to buy it without the contract and it was $450. so i would assume thats what they would charge me if i got caught. I'm really thinking i should just send the new one back since my old one works fine now. I've already called them and i was told it doesn't matter which one i keep, but the people working there don't really seem to know what they are talking about.

I do have the insurance but there is a $50 deductable and it doesnt' cover water damage. I;ve had a phone that got ran over in a rain storm, they replaced it without any issues which was cool, but i'm not spending $50 if i dont' have to.

 

[87grandnat]

Since the old one is working fine, I would just send the new one back (just seems like the right thing to do) but as far as ways they detect the water damage, that strip is the only way that I know of, I did the same thing (dropped my phone in the toilet after I fell asleep on it when working 20hr days caught up to me) I think you would be ok if you kept the new one, but if you are like me, it will eventually come back to you 10 fold if you tried to get them over.

Joshua

 

[TurboDave]

so whats the chances of them finding out what actually happened? It works fine now. is there anything inside that would tell them that the phone may have water damage?

the phone is a real nice sony ericson 2mp camera phone and mp3 player, i was going to buy it without the contract and it was $450. so i would assume thats what they would charge me if i got caught. I'm really thinking i should just send the new one back since my old one works fine now. I've already called them and i was told it doesn't matter which one i keep, but the people working there don't really seem to know what they are talking about.

I do have the insurance but there is a $50 deductable and it doesnt' cover water damage. I;ve had a phone that got ran over in a rain storm, they replaced it without any issues which was cool, but i'm not spending $50 if i dont' have to.

Chances are VERY good they'll find out. I work for Verizon (phone tech). There are litmus triggers inside the phone also, and unless the phone has been opened and alcohol cleaned to remove the corrosion (that is building as we speak) it'll be readilly apparent as soon as the refurb tech opens it. You'll likely get the full retail of the new phone tacked onto your bill at some point a few months down the line. On a phone such as you describe, full retail will be around $350.
Since when does insurance not cover water damage???? That's the primary reason most people opt for the insurance is to cover things that warranty wont cover, like customer abuse, loss, liquid damage, etc.
Warranty does not cover the above items, but insurance does, at least around here (Asurion).

 

[2QUIK6]

I dropped mine in the lake, swam down and found it on the bottom in about 10' of water. Let it sit in the sun on the back of my truck for a day with the wind blowing on it driving down the road and it worked fine.
Thena few months later, it gets water splashed on it and it never worked again..
Wasn't insured either, but called and told them the phone quit working while under warranty..they sent me another...take the 2 phones apart and transfered the good litmus indicators from one phone to the other, and shipped the bad phone back with the good indicators in it...

Insurance is such a rip, they still charge you $50 deductible to get a new refurb phone, which is what a refurb phone costs anyway OTC.

 

[87grandnat]

I have a pda and my deductible is 100 my phone is beat to hell but I havnt used my insurance because I still dont want to spend the 100 dollars to get another one, insurance is a rip off

Later
Joshua

 

[Madcat455]

so whats the chances of them finding out what actually happened? It works fine now. is there anything inside that would tell them that the phone may have water damage?.

VERY good. Like stated.. they're indicators inside the phone too, and you have to be VERY good in order to transfer good ones without showing signs of tampering.

the phone is a real nice sony ericson 2mp camera phone and mp3 player, i was going to buy it without the contract and it was $450. so i would assume thats what they would charge me if i got caught. .

They don't charge full retail because you're not getting a "new" unit, or a battery, charger, manuel, etc.
They're only charging the cost for the refurb... which on a W810 shouldn't be too bad.

I'm really thinking i should just send the new one back since my old one works fine now.

That's what I would do too.

I've already called them and i was told it doesn't matter which one i keep, but the people working there don't really seem to know what they are talking about.

Welcome to Cingular... the new at&t

I do have the insurance but there is a $50 deductable and it doesnt' cover water damage. I;ve had a phone that got ran over in a rain storm, they replaced it without any issues which was cool, but i'm not spending $50 if i dont' have to.

Which is why I would send the replacement back to Warranty... and IF you have any problems later, you just call the INS and say it got wet YESTERDAY!!! if you tell them it happened over 30 days ago, your SOL.

Good Luck...

 

[TurboDave]

<snip>

They don't charge full retail because you're not getting a "new" unit, or a battery, charger, manuel, etc.
They're only charging the cost for the refurb... which on a W810 shouldn't be too bad.



<snip>

.

Actually they do charge full retail price of a new phone. Had several customers trying to sneak liquid damaged phones through that way. Much to their dismay. They don't take kindly to being defrauded by the cust.

 

[Madcat455]

Actually they do charge full retail price of a new phone. Had several customers trying to sneak liquid damaged phones through that way. Much to their dismay. They don't take kindly to being defrauded by the cust.

Was this for Cingular???

Full retail for a Motorola V3 rzr is $299.99. If you send a NON warranty through Cingular's warranty exchange, they'll charge you $75.

I've seen many people do that just to get a replacement cheaper.. .actually had one done last week... they literally broke their phone in half, told warranty that the "Screen doesn't work" (LOL)... I didn't know untill they brought it to me to swap the SIM card. Otherwise I note the account so XBM will see it before they process the exchange. It really gets me when people do that, but it does happen.

I think the most expensive XBM replacement I've seen was for a Siemens SX66 PDA phone.. guy ran it over with his Hummer (the real ones), he was charged $200 for a $650 full retail phone. (This was a few years ago).

I'm not saying that ALL carriers don't charge that way... I can only speak for Cingular. Like I said... 7yrs at a corporate store, and 1yr at my own agent store now... I've seen alot of shady stuff get pulled... only because they can.

Personally, I think XBM should charge a higher price in order to stop this... but I don't think that "Full Retail" can work legally. Because they use Refurbs, not new like the Full retail price reflects, and they're not complete units.

That's just what I've seen.

 

[TurboDave]

Was this for Cingular???

Full retail for a Motorola V3 rzr is $299.99. If you send a NON warranty through Cingular's warranty exchange, they'll charge you $75.

I've seen many people do that just to get a replacement cheaper.. .actually had one done last week... they literally broke their phone in half, told warranty that the "Screen doesn't work" (LOL)... I didn't know untill they brought it to me to swap the SIM card. Otherwise I note the account so XBM will see it before they process the exchange. It really gets me when people do that, but it does happen.

I think the most expensive XBM replacement I've seen was for a Siemens SX66 PDA phone.. guy ran it over with his Hummer (the real ones), he was charged $200 for a $650 full retail phone. (This was a few years ago).

I'm not saying that ALL carriers don't charge that way... I can only speak for Cingular. Like I said... 7yrs at a corporate store, and 1yr at my own agent store now... I've seen alot of shady stuff get pulled... only because they can.

Personally, I think XBM should charge a higher price in order to stop this... but I don't think that "Full Retail" can work legally. Because they use Refurbs, not new like the Full retail price reflects, and they're not complete units.

That's just what I've seen.

No, Verizon. I'm a senior tech with a Premium agent, and can only speak for what Verizon does. In an effort to hold down fraud and the "shady deals" your refer to, they (Verizon) will charge full retail for misrepresetation during a warranty exchange. Insurance on the other hand covers everything that the warranty wont.

 

[turbo nasty]

My last Nokia went under water completely twice and kept working and then the 3rd did it in.
I was in the market for a new one and was contemplating on a Razor and did some very deep research and found out that the Nokia are the toughest and get the best signal over the rest.
Motorola is #1 in problems and returns and signal is not as good.

I went with Nokia again and the wife scooped a Razor and she has already had top have a return sent back as hers would just shut off randomly and then drop calls, etc.

Knock on wood the Nokia is still cruisin.

 

[flattype]

The razor is a piece of crap. I went through 2 of them, now I have an LG no problems. Razor is cool looking and packed with features but not very durable.