The "its water damaged" lie

w1z4rd

w1z4rd

Karmic Sangoma
Joined
Jan 17, 2005
Messages
52,146
Reaction score
8,340
Location
127.0.0.1
A couple of weeks ago my mom came back from a vacation in the mountains and her Nokia N70 phone was not working. She took it to the local Vodashop to get repaired as it was "under warranty". A day later she gets a phone call from the shop informing her it is "water damaged".

This really surprised my mom has she has not taken near any water, and is pretty paranoid in the way she looks after her phone. Also, a couple of months before she had had to have the phone replaced, because it to was, "water damaged".

However this time my mom was not going to buy the "its water damaged excuse" but there was nothing she could do. The Vodacom person she was dealing with also informed her that they could fix it, but she would have to pay in R300.

This really upset her, but there was nothing she could do. She decided to wait until she had the R300 available. Yesterday the Vodacom person phoned her to tell her to fetch her phone from the shop, but she told them she did not have the money yet.

The guy waited a bit and then told my mom that because she had not authorized the fixing of the phone she would not have to pay the money, and she could come fetch it at no charge. That was nice of them.. but... when my mom asked what did they have to fix.. she got told, "we replaced the battery",

It seems like every phone we take to Vodacom that is under warranty has, "water damage"... if there is anything wrong with it. It looks like their general get-out-of-paying-for-the-warranties card.

Anyone else had the water damaged excuse even though you know your phone has not being wet?
 
yup, my K750 had two months warranty left... then stopped working.. they said water damage. so i thought oh ok.

Girlfriends phone got the same problem.. also a K750, they said water damage but her mom argued and they fixed it.

:( sigh
 
If I remember it correctly, all phones has one of those water damage sticker thingie inside, when there's water inside your phone, sticker will change color or something forever and that's how technicians use to determine water damage besides other visual checkes.....
 
Water damage is also a bit dodgy in my book.

My Nokia (cant remember which one, but it was one of the first with a colour screen) went through a full hour-long machine wash in hot & cold cycle in my washing machine.

I just took it out once the washing machine stopped, opened it up and left it to dry and hey presto, a fully working Nokia.
 
cyberarmy said:
If I remember it correctly, all phones has one of those water damage sticker thingie inside, when there's water inside your phone, sticker will change color or something forever and that's how technicians use to determine water damage besides other visual checkes.....
Click to expand...

Dont know about that ...but I can tell you from taking any and everything electronic I could lay my hands on as a boy that just about every piece of consumer electronics has a build up of fluffy white crap on the board and particularly around capacitors (if you live at the coast even more so) which to my mind makes it rather a convenient clause to write into warranties.
Maybe I need a tinfoil hat but my theory is that they classify thta as water damage despite the fact that it exists in almost every gadget and I'm sure that if you called a technician out on that they'd have to at least consider it.
 
A phone submerged in water for 15 min will still work if you do the leave it out to dry thing and remove the battery.

The problem is that if theres dust or other things in there mixed with water becomes a problem.

If the white sticker thingy turns red, the technician will just say its BER "water damaged" but chances are the phone will still work.
 
that indicator that turns red is called litmus paper.
u right about 1/2 the phones working though inspite of the colour indication.

JK8 said:
A phone submerged in water for 15 min will still work if you do the leave it out to dry thing and remove the battery.

The problem is that if theres dust or other things in there mixed with water becomes a problem.

If the white sticker thingy turns red, the technician will just say its BER "water damaged" but chances are the phone will still work.
Click to expand...
 
This is an old 'trick' that first appeared in the UK. The engineers stuffed up and broke something so they used it as an excuse to cover costs or just to make a profit. Who would argue?

Motorola phones are notorius for this. Just the sweat from your palms can activate the indicator.
 
Unless the battery causes damage - which normally happens when water is introduced to short things out, then it should be fine once it dries. One thing tho is to use a contact cleaning solution if a corrosive agent is involved i.e salt water. I used to be a repair technician to level 5 and I have seen some work for a while and then stop when things corrode. Up in the mountains tho im pretty sure its not going to be salt water!
 
I had the same problem with water damage on my K800i! Oh wait, it fell in the pool... ;)
 
What's to stop the engineer from putting a little water on the litmus sticker?
 
my fishtank broke and my laptop was covered in water, a literal wave of water went over it as all the stones and stuff were sitting on the keyboard afterwards, it sat the entire night wet and battery in.. little bit of drying and good as new!

and then some chick spilt her drink on it , still works

lots of my cellphones have been in the water for a few seconds till i could fish it out and all worked afterwards
 
ok guys, i'm a cellphone techie, the h20 damage myth is a lie sometimes, but mostly when in comes to the service providers, like vodacom/mtn/virgin and cell c. it's a easy way for them to get rid of warantees. but lemme inform you on something that most people don't know about... it's condensation! you're phone doesn't even have to come into direct contact with water to get liquid damaged.

if you keep your phone in ur pocket/bra you're likely to pick up condesation damage. if you take it to the bathroom while u bath/shower the same applies. so it's not always a front to get rid of you or take your money. i'm a level 7 technician and lemme tell you, h20 is a bigger problem than cleaning up the spill.

parts on your phone operate at different voltages. so when ur phone's dipped, all parts function at the current of the highest voltage the phone can emit, 90% of the time it's 19V coz of your display and lights... so there goes the smaller components. this makes things really complicated so the service provider rather puts that bright sticker saying "B.E.R"

so next time ur phone takes a dive, take the batt out immediately, take the face off stick it in a zip lock bag, drive to the mall, go to the bathroom and keep that bag under the hand dryer for about 5 mins, make sure ur phone flies around in that bag, it'll knock all the water out and dry the insides at the same time... you just saved R300 if you get all the water out, lol. :) oh, DONT use a hair dryer, it's heat setting is too high
 
Last edited:
w1z4rd said:
A couple of weeks ago my mom came back from a vacation in the mountains and her Nokia N70 phone was not working. She took it to the local Vodashop to get repaired as it was "under warranty". A day later she gets a phone call from the shop informing her it is "water damaged".

This really surprised my mom has she has not taken near any water, and is pretty paranoid in the way she looks after her phone. Also, a couple of months before she had had to have the phone replaced, because it to was, "water damaged".

However this time my mom was not going to buy the "its water damaged excuse" but there was nothing she could do. The Vodacom person she was dealing with also informed her that they could fix it, but she would have to pay in R300.

This really upset her, but there was nothing she could do. She decided to wait until she had the R300 available. Yesterday the Vodacom person phoned her to tell her to fetch her phone from the shop, but she told them she did not have the money yet.

The guy waited a bit and then told my mom that because she had not authorized the fixing of the phone she would not have to pay the money, and she could come fetch it at no charge. That was nice of them.. but... when my mom asked what did they have to fix.. she got told, "we replaced the battery",

It seems like every phone we take to Vodacom that is under warranty has, "water damage"... if there is anything wrong with it. It looks like their general get-out-of-paying-for-the-warranties card.

Anyone else had the water damaged excuse even though you know your phone has not being wet?
Click to expand...

Happened to me on an old MTN contract, not much you can do though. IF it is condensation from being in your pocket etc. then its pathetic that that's not covered under warranty, where do they expect you to keep it?
 
I bought a Mio A700 from Rectron, after about 7 months the touch screen stopped working, they display was 100% working, scratch free. Just the touch screen wasn't responding.

I dropped it off at Rectron Jhb, first they phoned and said its not coverred by warranty because it had been opened (I let them know it had been opened by Rectron Cpt.). Two days later I get an email saying it will cost R1800 to repair due to WATER damage, they even included pictures. I said no thanks, I'll order the part of ebay and fixit myself for R100.

When I got the phone back from Rectron and opened it, no signs of water damage, I even compared it to the pictures they sent me, the pictures had VERY obvious water damange, except there was none on my phone. Nice going, just to get out of a R100 film. I closed my accounts at both branches of Rectron two days afterwards.
 
stoke said:
hinterestink .. thanks.
So now condensation is our fault.
Click to expand...

if you read that thick manual they give you with the phone, you'll learn about not taking your phone to the bathroom with you, coz of condensation, however, it's not mentioned about pockets. but condensation takes place when there's a sudden drop in temp. out ur pocket, into the night air, etc. so to an extent, it is ur fault, but it should be covered by the warranty, coz it's not negligence! at least that my opinion.
 
Good cellphopne repairs in CapeTown?

Can anyone repair a good cellphone repairshop in Cape Town?

I am also a victim of the great 'water damage' scam, and have to get my phone repaired outside its warranty.:mad::mad::mad:
 
Last edited:
Interesting topic.
Am currently working with insiders on this issue...
I think Vodacom's corrupt bubble will be popped soon, and boy am I looking forward to it...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X