Goodbye to Vodacom

So what is the lesson learned? : Drop-Kick your faulty phone before you hand it in.

This will not only ensure that they actually replace "something" , but the "fall damage" will more than likely diminish the odds at them throwing "water damage" as an excuse because they couldn't really determine what's wrong with your phone ;).
 
diabolus said:
So what is the lesson learned? : Drop-Kick your faulty phone before you hand it in.

This will not only ensure that they actually replace "something" , but the "fall damage" will more than likely diminish the odds at them throwing "water damage" as an excuse because they couldn't really determine what's wrong with your phone ;).
Click to expand...

Dude I should have taken it to some liitle indian cellphone repair store in Mayfair/Fordsburg, where they fix all your issues for R500. But then my warranty would be void....LOL....not that the warranty helped in any way.
 
xrapidx said:
The new consumer protection act is going to rape these guys - if it is indeed water damage, its because they don't seal the phones enough to keep out plain sweat from a users face.
Click to expand...

when will it come into effect?

Should be interesting to watch what happens then.
 
80 - 90% of "Water Damaged Phones" returned by the networks are not even slightly affected by water. This mythical excuse is being used by all three networks. It actually gets the trade a bad name. The problems usually relate to "Volume Repair Centres" and volume and repair do not go together unless you work in the Hi-Fi trade!

The technician (I'm being really kind here) picks up your handset and sees that he/she has only made half their daily repair target but sadly your handset needs a bit of time spent on it so our technician places a BER (Beyond Economic Repair) sticker on it! The technician knows that all PCB's have "liquid" type stains left on the circuit board from being "washed" during manufacture" and can use this as "evidence" if needs be.

I've had one customer who had a Nokia with a firmware fault, as it was under warranty I told them to take it back to the network as I didn't want to charge them for something that should be done by the network for free! A few weeks later the same customer came back and said they were told it was "water damage" and it was! Some dirty little bugger had spat into the phone (at least I assume it was spit because this tends to leave stains a little like Aero bar bubbles - You do see this genuinely when you let the baby play with your R5000 handset!) I popped on my rubber gloves, cleaned the board, dried it and flashed new firmware and the handset worked again!

I've had a few LG slide phones come in from customers saying it's been returned by their network as "Water Damaged" and found all three to have faulty flex cables. Spares for LG cell phones are as rare as rocking horse poo but I did get them fixed in the end once I'd sourced the spare cables.

Likewise I've had Samsung handsets come in with "Water Damage" and they usually turn out to be firmware problems. I could increase the list but I'm sure you get the drift...

I now give my customers a repair report that reads much like this:

Reported Fault(s) - Water Damaged - Handset Dead

Repair Details - No Water Damage Noted - Replaced Faulty Flex Cable & Tested OK

No detailed report just the facts. A few of my customers have had their repair costs refunded now. I suggest that you try this should you have your "water damaged" phone repaired.

Somewhere there is an accountant who sees that Technician 123 has ten handsets assigned to him awaiting spares, three handsets he has are still "work in progress" and to cap it all he was three repairs short of his target each day for the last three weeks. So he's sacked! Sadly he was technically their best technician! Of course no accountant would be bright enough to compile statistics on handsets returned as BER or even compile stats' on handset return for re-fix! We love accountants - Not!
 
My sister had the same problem with vodacom and i think the phone was a Motorola Z8 as well!!! its slider with a large colour screen and come with the bourne identity pre installed.

It broke after a few months..also exhibiting the same problems you spoke about. and of course Vodacom said it was water damage....

Its partly my sister's fault though...i advised her NOT to EVER get a MOTOROLA they're worse than samsung's and thats saying something.
 
JimM said:
80 - 90% of "Water Damaged Phones" returned by the networks are not even slightly affected by water. This mythical excuse is being used by all three networks. It actually gets the trade a bad name. The problems usually relate to "Volume Repair Centres" and volume and repair do not go together unless you work in the Hi-Fi trade!

The technician (I'm being really kind here) picks up your handset and sees that he/she has only made half their daily repair target but sadly your handset needs a bit of time spent on it so our technician places a BER (Beyond Economic Repair) sticker on it! The technician knows that all PCB's have "liquid" type stains left on the circuit board from being "washed" during manufacture" and can use this as "evidence" if needs be.

I've had one customer who had a Nokia with a firmware fault, as it was under warranty I told them to take it back to the network as I didn't want to charge them for something that should be done by the network for free! A few weeks later the same customer came back and said they were told it was "water damage" and it was! Some dirty little bugger had spat into the phone (at least I assume it was spit because this tends to leave stains a little like Aero bar bubbles - You do see this genuinely when you let the baby play with your R5000 handset!) I popped on my rubber gloves, cleaned the board, dried it and flashed new firmware and the handset worked again!

I've had a few LG slide phones come in from customers saying it's been returned by their network as "Water Damaged" and found all three to have faulty flex cables. Spares for LG cell phones are as rare as rocking horse poo but I did get them fixed in the end once I'd sourced the spare cables.

Likewise I've had Samsung handsets come in with "Water Damage" and they usually turn out to be firmware problems. I could increase the list but I'm sure you get the drift...

I now give my customers a repair report that reads much like this:

Reported Fault(s) - Water Damaged - Handset Dead

Repair Details - No Water Damage Noted - Replaced Faulty Flex Cable & Tested OK

No detailed report just the facts. A few of my customers have had their repair costs refunded now. I suggest that you try this should you have your "water damaged" phone repaired.
Click to expand...

This may just be the solution here!
 
I sent my 22 month old Samsung Z500v for repair, phone did not want to turn on, got the phone back 36 working days later, new battery, 64mb ssd card (only went in with a 32mb,the phone looked brand new got home typed *#06# not the same serial number, took the box and phone back to vodacare they said sorry they forgot to tell me that they replaced the phone, I asked why "Sorry we lost your phone"

So I got a new phone that lasted about 20 months and did the same thing not turning on, bought a N70me no problems till date, took out the broken samsung 1 year later (yesterday) the phone switched on and all is working again.

I think the "water damage" is more like condensation that forms in the phone via hand or face
 
Dad also got the same "water damage" excuse with a Sony Ericsson repair centre with his P800 a few years ago. He argued with the guys and went as far as to talk with the HQ in London, they understood and told the repair cons to give my dad a new phone. They didn't have the P800 anymore at the time so he got the P900.
 
GayTechie said:
My sister had the same problem with vodacom and i think the phone was a Motorola Z8 as well!!! its slider with a large colour screen and come with the bourne identity pre installed.

It broke after a few months..also exhibiting the same problems you spoke about. and of course Vodacom said it was water damage....

Its partly my sister's fault though...i advised her NOT to EVER get a MOTOROLA they're worse than samsung's and thats saying something.
Click to expand...

yes the same phone, thanks for the info! helps with argument with Motorola
 
Good luck to your future prospects. Your story is so similar to hundreds (if not hundreds of thousands) of other South Africans.

Everyone has their problems with one or other provider... in this case Vodacom.
Personally, this is why I took my business elsewhere.

I have been with MTN for 2 years now and am happy thus far. Yes, I have had issues, but at least MTN sorts them out, without too much hassle from my side.

Other people have issues with MTN too, so like I said, everyone has problems with one, or both even.
 
Last edited:
Hi All,

I just wanted to let you know the outcome of my fight with Vodacom,

I contacted Motorola SA, and they were great, within 6 days they have organised with Vodacom to give me a new phone,

I picked up the phone this morning.

I am sure what the outcome would have been if I had not contacted Motorola, but to be fair, I did get a call from Vodacom Head office asking about my complaint and saying that they were looking into it.

I am just happy that I have a new phone :) hopefully this model will be better than the one I had before

I am impressed with the way in which Motorola handled the issue. They quick on replying and sorting out the problem
 
I just have to to throw in my two cents' worth.

I had been with Vodacom since my very first contract, back in 1996 (!). Still, for reasons I can't fully explain, I decided to move to MTN at the end of last year. It wasn't that Vodacom was doing anything wrong at the time, I just felt like a change.

Three months later I paid in mega bucks, had my MTN contract cancelled and moved right back to Vodacom. And I had to change my number, because MTN couldn't release my number before the contract period was up, never mind how much I paid in. But then MTN couldn't do a lot of things...

So I'm back with Vodacom, and very happy to be there. Admittedly, I've never had to have a phone repaired. But then again, I try to stick with the proven brands - Nokia, mostly. I've had one SonyEricsson, but that only lasted about eight months and it was toast. W880i, I think it was. So back to Nokia I went.

I also try to look for phones that don't have too many moving parts, like slides or flips. They break easily. And tiny scroll wheels and the like are just problems waiting to happen. If you pick the right phone, you're unlikely to have any issues. But I stay the hell away from Motorola and Samsung, for sure. LG's phones feel plastic and cheap, and my one experience with a SE product wasn't good.

With that said, I've been using an iPhone 3G since the beginning of the year, and I absolutely love it. Solid, with almost no moving parts, and if you don't mess to much with the firmware, it seems pretty stable too.

Anyway, the point of my ramble is that saying goodbye to Vodacom won't solve all your problems - it'll just bring a whole batch of new ones. And my personal experience with MTN was beyond shocking (billing issues, SMS messages coming through days late, etc.).

I'm glad that Motorola sorted out your problem though!
 
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