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I have no reason to believe this as I haven't been able to find any proof of it but...
I read on the Android and Droid forums that Carriers keep a database of users that root their phones and will block your warranty if you try to return it for anything. I've never heard of this happening to, well...anyone. But the point was also brought up that Google is able to tell if the device is rooted due to the fact that they can block the movies tab from showing up in Market on rooted phones, so carriers can do the same. So, my question is... has anyone heard of this happening or had it happen to them?
I'm pretty sure that is all bull****. I work at best buy mobile and barely anyone knows what rooting is. I'm the only one in my department that messes with that kind of stuff and knows which phones are rooted. We also get crazy carrier support and they just tell us to not mention anything about rooting/jail breaking. Same with my friend who is a manager at verizon. He doesn't know how to detect a rooted phone.
So when you bring in a messed up phone for warranty, everyone is trained to just make sure imei numbers match with original receipt and to check the water mark stickers.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using XDA Premium App
D-REW said:
I'm pretty sure that is all bull****. I work at best buy mobile and barely anyone knows what rooting is. I'm the only one in my department that messes with that kind of stuff and knows which phones are rooted. We also get crazy carrier support and they just tell us to not mention anything about rooting/jail breaking. Same with my friend who is a manager at verizon. He doesn't know how to detect a rooted phone.
So when you bring in a messed up phone for warranty, everyone is trained to just make sure imei numbers match with original receipt and to check the water mark stickers.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, I've returned a stock, rooted phone and even forgot to put the modded battery icon back to stock. No issues.
Go back to stock before you ship back your warranty device and they can't tell. I've done several
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997R using XDA App
Yeah, I didn't believe there was any actual truth behind it. It just wouldn't surprise me if AT&T would start trying doing something like that though. I mean they couldn't even tell I was using my HD2 on a non-smartphone data plan, much less that it was a rooted phone.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App
U escape hd2 cuz its t mobile and its imei is not in thier system
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App
Actually, I read that Verizon and Sprint have the ability to verify if the device is rooted, and they keep track of them along with ESNs. From what I have read, it would be impossible to implement this on GSM devices...
good thing I wear my tin foil hat
Pirateghost said:
Actually, I read that Verizon and Sprint have the ability to verify if the device is rooted, and they keep track of them along with ESNs. From what I have read, it would be impossible to implement this on GSM devices...
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Click to collapse
Yep, that's what they were saying on the Droid forums. It didn't click that its cdma devices they were talking about, and not GSM. Hopefully they don't find a way to do it. I read that over 60% of all android phones are rooted...that's alot of voided warranties.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App
Sully6789 said:
Yep, that's what they were saying on the Droid forums. It didn't click that its cdma devices they were talking about, and not GSM. Hopefully they don't find a way to do it. I read that over 60% of all android phones are rooted...that's alot of voided warranties.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that the number of rooted android phones would be closer to 10%, rather than 60%. The average person is just not geared into fiddling with their phones the way we in the modding community are. Most of my friends, I'm sad to say, are running around with 4 or 5 year old feature phones, and will happily keep on using those things until they finally give up the ghost.
Another deterrent to rooting is that many people are paranoid about voiding their warranty. If you're into modding, losing your warranty is something that you had to come to terms with long ago. You just accept the fact that whatever happens to the phone is now YOUR problem and move on - but a lot of people can't, so they refuse to make any changes to their phones. In the end, we are a minority of cell phone users, albeit an *enlightened* minority.
-Mike
I agree with most of the guys here. Its impossible for AT&T to detect if your phone is rooted or not. Mostly because there is no function on your phone created to send that kind of info to your carrier. Plus if you are on another carrier like T-Mobile they cant tell your IMEI which means they wont know what phone are you using in first place.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App
As a matter of fact, I just did a warranty exchange on my inspire just the other day. I flashed back to stock and s-on before the exchange. But before doing so, I've been on the phone to the warranty department multiple times to troubleshoot the issues I've been having and not once did they mention or even ask if my phone was rooted. If they could detect that my phone was rooted, they would have denied my request for a warranty exchange. And if that were the case, i would think they would explain the denial due to it being rooted.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App
I don't believe AT&T can tell if you are rooted unless you are using a custom apn for data. The stock apns are locked down and I have found trying to have three apns will cause issues. When AT&T sees data registering thru "wap.cingular", instead of "phone", they will know a user more than likely rooted their phone. When they see really heavy data usage on "wap.cingular" they will suspect tethering, but can't tell unless they go analyze it. With the stock apns, one can look at usage on their bill and see usage for both apns. Usage for "wap.cingular" will be very small, as it is used only for location services and the occasional mms. The bulk of data will show on the "phone" apn.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
the only thing AT&T cares about is you paying your bill lol
SuicideMyk said:
the only thing AT&T cares about is you paying your bill lol
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Click to collapse
Yes, but you are not going to get me to believe AT&T is not thinking, the bigger the bill the better.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
Ultra Droid said:
I believe that the number of rooted android phones would be closer to 10%, rather than 60%. The average person is just not geared into fiddling with their phones the way we in the modding community are. Most of my friends, I'm sad to say, are running around with 4 or 5 year old feature phones, and will happily keep on using those things until they finally give up the ghost.
Another deterrent to rooting is that many people are paranoid about voiding their warranty. If you're into modding, losing your warranty is something that you had to come to terms with long ago. You just accept the fact that whatever happens to the phone is now YOUR problem and move on - but a lot of people can't, so they refuse to make any changes to their phones. In the end, we are a minority of cell phone users, albeit an *enlightened* minority.
-Mike
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Click to collapse
Wish more if the "enlightened " group were female though.. it gets kinda lonely sometimes lol.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk
ashies7 said:
Wish more if the "enlightened " group were female though.. it gets kinda lonely sometimes lol.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Lol
Sent from the most interesting device in the world.
They didnt block the Warranty of my phone.
I took my ATT inspire into the AT&Ts repair shop 3 months after i got it because the bottom of the glass on my phone wasn't glued down (or it felt like it wasn't) so i took it in the girl looked it, I was running Inspire Ace (So she might have thought it was a HTC OS) but she took it anyway and gave me a new phone.
SBasham said:
They didnt block the Warranty of my phone.
I took my ATT inspire into the AT&Ts repair shop 3 months after i got it because the bottom of the glass on my phone wasn't glued down (or it felt like it wasn't) so i took it in the girl looked it, I was running Inspire Ace (So she might have thought it was a HTC OS) but she took it anyway and gave me a new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I have this same problem and I'm sure ATT gets a lot of these requests so another person stated it "the money spent investigating these claims would far outweigh the cost of the phone" as this is true as the phone is made literally cents if not less a cent on the dollar in sweat shops around the world. Im going to the ATT tech/warranty shop tomorrow and i would imagine that the legal cost of them trying to prove that the phone had been rooted vs them just replacing the parts or simply doing clean wipe with the technical tools they have at hand far outweigh the legal costs of litigation that they would have to pursue in the US at literally at an exponential cost just for the parts and labor/tech support of the phone. Plus from a business perspective they would lose millions in customers if they gave existing/long-term customers any flack about an expensive phone they paid for along with a long-term plan.
I think i just bricked my phone. I am trying to return to S-on and after following all the instructions in the main sticky, i wrote the SUPERCID back to tmobile, and put in the writesecuflag 3 command, and rebooted the bootloader. Now the phone will not turn on at all. Won't power on regular and cannot turn it on into the bootloader. When i plug the phone into the computer QHUSB-DLOAD comes up in the device manager as to what it is saying it is attatched as. Adb shows no devices and RUU's cannot find the device. Omg i really hope i didnt hose this phone.
Did you flash first the ruu that came with your phone?
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
and1kar said:
Did you flash first the ruu that came with your phone?
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope i used the tmous 1.50.
I am pretty sure you forgot to run the RUU, and sadly yes I have to inform you that it is bricked :/
xsteven77x said:
I think i just bricked my phone. I am trying to return to S-on and after following all the instructions in the main sticky, i wrote the SUPERCID back to tmobile, and put in the writesecuflag 3 command, and rebooted the bootloader. Now the phone will not turn on at all. Won't power on regular and cannot turn it on into the bootloader. When i plug the phone into the computer QHUSB-DLOAD comes up in the device manager as to what it is saying it is attatched as. Adb shows no devices and RUU's cannot find the device. Omg i really hope i didnt hose this phone.
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Click to collapse
Sounds like you bricked it, yes :s
Thanks for the replies guys.
Since i got it from craigslist my only hope is paying htc to repair it i'm assuming?
It should still be covered by the original warranty right?
LooieENG said:
It should still be covered by the original warranty right?
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Just got off the phone with HTC. It is still covered under their warranty. Hopefully since all my void stickers in good standing, I have no physical damage, was able to get the CID back to Tmous and the write secureflag3 went through, there will be no reason to deny it. Here is hoping! I think EXT4 recovery is still on there though. Hopefully it will be so bricked that they will have to reset it and reload the software to be able to do anything with it
Hope you manage to get it fixed!
A question, I have yet to root my XE, but is SUPERCID a must on a sim free phone if you want to flash roms?
the fact is that if it is so bricked that it won't turn on at all they won't check it further. many members achieved to get a new phone as replacement
Just make sure you tell HTC you are the original owner and didnt get it from craigslist.Also DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES Mention any hacking forums like XDA,or ROOT, Just claim that it said "an update was available" so you chose to update and the battery died.I've had free repairs under warranty by using that same advice, A friend of mine mentioned root on his nexus one and they charged him for repair even though it was a month old as he voided the warranty
bonesy said:
Just make sure you tell HTC you are the original owner and didnt get it from craigslist.Also DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES Mention any hacking forums like XDA,or ROOT, Just claim that it said "an update was available" so you chose to update and the battery died.I've had free repairs under warranty by using that same advice, A friend of mine mentioned root on his nexus one and they charged him for repair even though it was a month old as he voided the warranty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I definitely didnt mention xda or flashing roms or anything, and I told them i received it as an anniversary gift (even though i really did get it from craigslist). Told them i rebooted the phone and it just never came back on. Which really is what happened while leaving out a few details lol.
I wonder what would them HTC guys think if they are already among us
same thing happened to me the other day on my evo 3d...gonna send it in to htc as well...hope they won't know...what are the chances of them getting the phone to turn on??
xsteven77x said:
I think i just bricked my phone. I am trying to return to S-on and after following all the instructions in the main sticky, i wrote the SUPERCID back to tmobile, and put in the writesecuflag 3 command, and rebooted the bootloader. Now the phone will not turn on at all. Won't power on regular and cannot turn it on into the bootloader. When i plug the phone into the computer QHUSB-DLOAD comes up in the device manager as to what it is saying it is attatched as. Adb shows no devices and RUU's cannot find the device. Omg i really hope i didnt hose this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
poktangju said:
same thing happened to me the other day on my evo 3d...gonna send it in to htc as well...hope they won't know...what are the chances of them getting the phone to turn on??
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Click to collapse
From everything i read online it really seems hit or miss depending on the technician you get. More often than not they seem to let things slide even if it seems obvious that they should have been able to see it was rooted etc. Here is hoping . I'm gonna send it out tomorrow and will keep this thread updated with developments if anyone is interested in how it went. I have read some HORROR stories about people sending there phone to HTC and it become missing in action for MONTHS. I really pray to christ that does not happen to me.
O/T a little bit, but how come with just about any other "thing" in life a warranty is good and is tied to the object and not to the person. Even though i got this phone off of craigslist, why should that have ANYTHING to do with it. The phone is the phone and the warranty is the warranty regardless of whose possession it is in. I just don't think tmobile should be able to do that. Also i think it's BS that if you buy a brand new phone and it breaks 2 days later, they give you a refurb and not a new one. How do they get away with this ****!
i think im gonna take my chances as well...the person i talked to at htc did say that if the damages were caused by me then i would have a choice to pay them to fix if not i would have to pay $35 to get the phone back...so this could end up costing the shipping to send phone and the $35 to get the phone back.
xsteven77x said:
From everything i read online it really seems hit or miss depending on the technician you get. More often than not they seem to let things slide even if it seems obvious that they should have been able to see it was rooted etc. Here is hoping . I'm gonna send it out tomorrow and will keep this thread updated with developments if anyone is interested in how it went.
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Click to collapse
Just wondering how this has progressed. Did you send your phone to HTC? Did they say what the potential repair costs could be?
Well i sent it out on 12/21 and they received it on 12/28. On the tracking website, it says "In repair". From experience, if it is going to have any issues or gonna charge you any money, it says under review until you have spoke to them and made arrangements or paid them. One thing that is pissing me off good is that every day, the day it says it was received is changed. So everyday i have checked, it went from saying received on 12/28, to 12/29, to 12/30, and now 1/1. So i dont know if that is just the way the system works, or if they are trying to sheist me and take forever and a day like some of the horror stories i have read. Not really sure what their is to do but send a replacement since it is hard bricked and cannot be resuscitated even with professional tools from all the research i have done online. In the meantime, i bought a galaxy s 2 and am LOVING it, except for the lack of development in comparison to here in sensation land!
did you get your phone back?
xsteven77x said:
Well i sent it out on 12/21 and they received it on 12/28. On the tracking website, it says "In repair". From experience, if it is going to have any issues or gonna charge you any money, it says under review until you have spoke to them and made arrangements or paid them. One thing that is pissing me off good is that every day, the day it says it was received is changed. So everyday i have checked, it went from saying received on 12/28, to 12/29, to 12/30, and now 1/1. So i dont know if that is just the way the system works, or if they are trying to sheist me and take forever and a day like some of the horror stories i have read. Not really sure what their is to do but send a replacement since it is hard bricked and cannot be resuscitated even with professional tools from all the research i have done online. In the meantime, i bought a galaxy s 2 and am LOVING it, except for the lack of development in comparison to here in sensation land!
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Click to collapse
Since I was having problems with my phone, and it was still under their warranty, I requested a replacement, and when it was sent to me I was careful (or so I thought) to restore the stock recovery as well as the stock rom. After some time I realized that the "stock" ROM to which I had restore the phone I sent to T-Mobile was a modified Froyo build, rooted, with ROM Manager installed. So now I am worried that they may charge me some ridiculous fee because I sent back a device that was not fully stock. From logic or past experience, is TMO going to take any action?
I've sent in a g2x with cm7, didn't get billed or I don't even know if they found out. Could be different for you but that's my experience
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
honestly, most of the time the phone is never powered on again before its disassembled and refurbished.
and even if it is, nobody working on the floor is going to care either way.
most of the time, as long as the phone gets past the rep in the store, your fine.
I think the worst they could do if they found out, was just return it to you and say they're sorry. I don't think they'll just charge you without your approval. When I brought in my phone to check a problem with my data, the first thing the guy there did was check my phone's info like software and stuff to see if it's stock, otherwise they can't help you if it's a rooted phone.
Let us know what happens.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
When I first got my g2x I returned it rooted and running a custom rom. They didn't even power it on they just checked it for water damage. You should be cool. No worries.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA Premium App
My phone short circuited while rooted and wouldn't turn on so I sent it in and am crossing my fingers lol
Success.
I got an email a couple of days ago saying T-Mobile had received my return. I called customer support under the pretense that my phone was acting weird and got her to check my warranty and it was fine. So as per what most people were saying, sending tmo a rooted phone will not root any warranties or incur any action from their part. Can't say much about phones sent directly to the manufacturer or the "premium handset insurance" people, which apparently managed through a third party company that states "any false information given will be processed accordingly."
On a side note, if you check tmo's support website, for most of their recent phones they attached a note explicitly stating an update to 4.0 in the future. For our beloved g2x, however, they wrote a long note stating how the recently leaked 21y update will be available starting may 14th, without any allusion to ICS. To me that just reinforces the notion that the only company that's more pathetic than a LG and nvidia combo is T-mobile and their haphazard and lethargic approach and contributions to today's smartphone community.
Not to say the update is completely useless, however; from my own experience it makes a tremendous improvement in battery life and wifi calling. Not to mention the fact that my phone does not shut down randomly in the middle of the night like it used to at times.
Here's the link to Tmo's announcement
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2362
and the HTC sensation's (for cross reference)
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2392
I bought my G2X on craigslist. It was already rooted and running CM7. I was getting a SIM error (later to be learned it was caused by ICS) I told TMo I bought it on craigslist already rooted. They still sent me a replacement at no cost.
I was charged a $20 warranty replacement fee, wtf! Anyone else? Are they pulling my leg here?
samsizzle said:
I was charged a $20 warranty replacement fee, wtf! Anyone else? Are they pulling my leg here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have Premium Handset Protection on your plan?
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
luperez said:
I got an email a couple of days ago saying T-Mobile had received my return. I called customer support under the pretense that my phone was acting weird and got her to check my warranty and it was fine. So as per what most people were saying, sending tmo a rooted phone will not root any warranties or incur any action from their part. Can't say much about phones sent directly to the manufacturer or the "premium handset insurance" people, which apparently managed through a third party company that states "any false information given will be processed accordingly."
On a side note, if you check tmo's support website, for most of their recent phones they attached a note explicitly stating an update to 4.0 in the future. For our beloved g2x, however, they wrote a long note stating how the recently leaked 21y update will be available starting may 14th, without any allusion to ICS. To me that just reinforces the notion that the only company that's more pathetic than a LG and nvidia combo is T-mobile and their haphazard and lethargic approach and contributions to today's smartphone community.
Not to say the update is completely useless, however; from my own experience it makes a tremendous improvement in battery life and wifi calling. Not to mention the fact that my phone does not shut down randomly in the middle of the night like it used to at times.
Here's the link to Tmo's announcement
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2362
and the HTC sensation's (for cross reference)
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2392
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do you see the G2X ICS notes? o-o
samsizzle said:
I was charged a $20 warranty replacement fee, wtf! Anyone else? Are they pulling my leg here?
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Click to collapse
I was going through warranty replacement proceedings (cuz of screen bleeding, 3rd time) over the phone with a tmo rep and when he said there would be a $5 charge i flipped out (it's the principal, if they would send me a properly manufactured device i wouldn't need to keep returning their ****) he instantly volunteered to waive the fee. I'm about to call and get ANOTHER replacement. Eventually i will get them to replace it with a sensation.
vishousv said:
I bought my G2X on craigslist. It was already rooted and running CM7. I was getting a SIM error (later to be learned it was caused by ICS) I told TMo I bought it on craigslist already rooted. They still sent me a replacement at no cost.
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Click to collapse
Wtf?! Really?! But you didnt even buy it feom them... why theyhelp you out like that???
My friend told me whatever phone the SIM card is in is covered by the insurance. That's the only thing I've heard. I didn't ask them (T-Mobile) any more questions.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App
vishousv said:
My friend told me whatever phone the SIM card is in is covered by the insurance. That's the only thing I've heard. I didn't ask them (T-Mobile) any more questions.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App
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Click to collapse
Sweeet! Kudos for playing that one smart. I have sent back a few phones for warranty replacement to T-mo. My 1st was a modded HD2 that registered on their system (so they said) as running android. (it was running android, lol). 2nd was a G2x which was rooted and had a custom ROM. I know for sure they have no way of knowing without you volunteering the information yourself because they ask you have you modded the phone. If you say yes they may use that to deny you flat out but if not they probably will never be notified of such. Devices typically are wiped clean before ever being powered on.
*bump* yea I'm looking to send in my HTC one s for battery life issues and Im wondering fogs sane thing seeibg that I'm rooted and custom viper Rom installed.
had my phone off th3 charger for 50mins now and I'm at 82% Battery wtff
Has anyone ever been "caught" and denied a warranty return after s-off and\or root? You hear all of these horror stories of you warranty being void but I personally have never had a problem.
I rooted my original Incredible and got two warranty replacements in the first year. One was for a blown speaker and the other was because I bricked it. When I bricked it I called Verizon and played dumb and said 'I don't know what is going on with my phone but it won't boot up'. They asked me a few questions and then said something like 'wow, I have never seen that before we will send you a new one.'
On my Incredible 4G, I rooted and s-offed (via HTC DEV before they removed it from the list) and got a warranty replacement (I don't remember what the problem was that caused me to exchange it). In fact, when I got the replacement it was obviously s-on and no longer unlockable via HTC Dev so I called Verizon to complain (told them something about being a software developer so I needed a phone I could ROM and develop on) hoping they would give me a HTC One (M7). Of course they did not but my point is no one seems to care about s-off or root.
Each time I have done a warranty exchange I have done it via phone not in the store. They ship me a new phone next day and I send my old one back. I would find it hard to believe that they have someone sitting there opening returned phones, checking for root or s-off, comparing them to the call that originated the return and then following up. Instead, I am sure the process is more like: Get the returned phone, note the RMA and note on the account that the old phone was returned, check for physical damage, throw it in a pile with all of the other returned phones to be formatted, re-flashed, tested and sold as refurbished phones.
I exchanged my weaksauce rooted M8 to the store last Friday due to frequent reboots. The sales guy turned on the screen, set it down, and rang me up a new one. He didn't boot into HBoot to look for s-off, and didn't look for any root checker or rooting application.
My experience is that the 'you will void your warranty' line is a scare tactic and it doesn't worry me one bit. While I am sure s-off and rooting can cause physical harm to a phone (maybe by doing something like overclocking) but I do not believe that the big cell phone companies like Verizon have any process in place to catch this. They do thousands of returns a day and don't care to slow down their return exchange process to check for the 1 out of 1000 rooted\s-off phones they come through.
This is my opinion and experience I would be interested in yours.
dneiding said:
Has anyone ever been "caught" and denied a warranty return after s-off and\or root? You hear all of these horror stories of you warranty being void but I personally have never had a problem.
I rooted my original Incredible and got two warranty replacements in the first year. One was for a blown speaker and the other was because I bricked it. When I bricked it I called Verizon and played dumb and said 'I don't know what is going on with my phone but it won't boot up'. They asked me a few questions and then said something like 'wow, I have never seen that before we will send you a new one.'
I rooted and s-offed (via HTC DEV before they removed it from the list) and got a warranty replacement (I don't remember what the problem was that caused me to exchange it). In fact, when I got the replacement it was obviously s-on and no longer unlockable via HTC Dev so I called Verizon to complain (told them something about being a software developer so I needed a phone I could ROM and develop on) hoping they would give me a HTC One (M7). Of course they did not but my point is no one seems to care about s-off or root.
Each time I have done a warranty exchange I have done it via phone not in the store. They ship me a new phone next day and I send my old one back. I would find it hard to believe that they have someone sitting there opening returned phones, checking for root or s-off, comparing them to the call that originated the return and then following up. Instead, I am sure the process is more like: Get the returned phone, note the RMA and note on the account that the old phone was returned, check for physical damage, throw it in a pile with all of the other returned phones to be formatted, re-flashed, tested and sold as refurbished phones.
I exchanged my weaksauce rooted M8 to the store last Friday due to frequent reboots. The sales guy turned on the screen, set it down, and rang me up a new one. He didn't boot into HBoot to look for s-off, and didn't look for any root checker or rooting application.
My experience is that the 'you will void your warranty' line is a scare tactic and it doesn't worry me one bit. While I am sure s-off and rooting can cause physical harm to a phone (maybe by doing something like overclocking) but I do not believe that the big cell phone companies like Verizon have any process in place to catch this. They do thousands of returns a day and don't care to slow down their return exchange process to check for the 1 out of 1000 rooted\s-off phones they come through.
This is my opinion and experience I would be interested in yours.
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Click to collapse
There is always a risk, although I personally will send in phones S-OFF even, and never had an issue. (I don't suggest this)
From my understanding, they get so many devices to repair, really all they look at is for water damage and things of that nature.
It would take too long to go through every device they get returned for whatever reason to see if it has been rooted at on point.
I also am yet to know of anyone to get caught and having to pay for the device due to rooting.
I've destroyed one phone (older Samsung 4G) by accidentally installing inappropriate software. It was about 3 days old, bricked it completely. Even the service guys couldn't reflash it. The folks at the store really didn't check anything or ask any questions, They just threw it in the return barrel and gave me a new one. Wouldn't worry too much, unless you return frequently, they shouldn't give you a hard time. After all, what do they care?
This made me think of a question. With this phone being an all-in-one construction, how would they tell if it has water damage?
sitlet said:
This made me think of a question. With this phone being an all-in-one construction, how would they tell if it has water damage?
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Click to collapse
I'm guessing they're not too worried about water damage with these phones...
They do pay attention in the retail stores though. My account was once flagged for having a rooted phone, galaxy nexus, when I took it in for some issue, I don't remember why. Yes, first mistake was allowing them to have my phone, lesson learned. Luckily I know people who work for Verizon and they had to go in and remove the note which stated my phone was rooted and warrantee was voided.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using xda app-developers app
I went in to return my M8 due to battery issues and the Verizon guy who had to call tech support stated that when they send the phones in if they've been rooted in the past that even if you unroot it and turn S-On they can tell that it's been rooted and that S was indeed On and turned Off. He stated they can tell how many times you do it and boom you get a $400 charge on your account for the price of the phone they gave you and you had a voided warranty.
As hard as that is to believe, I feel like there may be such a thing where they Devs can tell if the phone was rooted, when, and how many times... But i'm no Dev. Someone working for Verizon care to chime in?
kj13569 said:
I went in to return my M8 due to battery issues and the Verizon guy who had to call tech support stated that when they send the phones in if they've been rooted in the past that even if you unroot it and turn S-On they can tell that it's been rooted and that S was indeed On and turned Off. He stated they can tell how many times you do it and boom you get a $400 charge on your account for the price of the phone they gave you and you had a voided warranty.
As hard as that is to believe, I feel like there may be such a thing where they Devs can tell if the phone was rooted, when, and how many times... But i'm no Dev. Someone working for Verizon care to chime in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe they can tell but do they even look or care? My experience is that they don't care. In my case, three times, I have returned a s-off and rooted phone (not to the store, via mail). I didn't bother to try to go back to s-on or un-root. They wouldn't need black magic to tell my phones were tampered with - just turn it on. My point is they don't care and they don't look (at least when you deal with Verizon via phone).
I stand by my claim that it is a scare tactic and they don't even look.
dneiding said:
Maybe they can tell but do they even look or care? My experience is that they don't care. In my case, three times, I have returned a s-off and rooted phone (not to the store, via mail). I didn't bother to try to go back to s-on or un-root. They wouldn't need black magic to tell my phones were tampered with - just turn it on. My point is they don't care and they don't look (at least when you deal with Verizon via phone).
I stand by my claim that it is a scare tactic and they don't even look.
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Click to collapse
i tried to take a phone in recently for a warranty return. the sales guy at the corporate store takes my phone to the back to test it and comes back a few minutes later to tell me my phone was rooted and the warranty was void. he was nice enough to tell me his manager told him to flag my account, but he didn't. he just said to undo the process and bring it back in.
Abe21599 said:
i tried to take a phone in recently for a warranty return. the sales guy at the corporate store takes my phone to the back to test it and comes back a few minutes later to tell me my phone was rooted and the warranty was void. he was nice enough to tell me his manager told him to flag my account, but he didn't. he just said to undo the process and bring it back in.
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Click to collapse
That's why I say deal with 1-800 Verizon not a store. You get a replacement the next day so long as you can be without the replacement for a day that is the way to go.
Edited.
dneiding said:
That's why I say deal with 1-800 Verizon not a store. You get a replacement the next day so long as you can be without the replacement for a day that is the way to go.
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i wish i would have known that before bothering going into the store. would have saved me an hour. good to know.
Yeah I never go to a store. Complain on the phone then have them ship me a new one. Swap and done.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
blestsol said:
Yeah I never go to a store. Complain on the phone then have them ship me a new one. Swap and done.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
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I'm assuming you guys all have insurance then right? Otherwise why are your carriers to easily swapping you new phones?
rudyolph said:
I'm assuming you guys all have insurance then right? Otherwise why are your carriers to easily swapping you new phones?
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Warranty claims they will easily swap. I called about a Rezound that would get incredibly hot while charging. They sent me a new phone that arrived the next day. I sent back the old phone with S-Off, rooted, and a custom rom installed. From what I've read all they check is that the phone will power on.
I'll find out soon. Enough just sent an M8 back to BIG RED Monday. I'll update when it shows received and there are no extra charges added to my account.
I have a replacement on the way myself. Hopefully we have no issues. The phone aesthetically is in perfect condition.
I claimed my warranty the other week from a cracked screen and I just flashed a modified hboot before sending it off so that it said locked and s-on
Upgrading my phone at Verizon took me hours to do. While the time passed I talked to the Verizon associate about how I've rooted every smart phone I've ever owned and he didn't seem to mind a bit that those were all their phones, and actually seemed quite intrigued about doing so himself. Anyway my microphone piece won't work during calls, so I'm going to replace mine through Verizon's warrantee claims phone number. I'll post with results.
Unlocked, s-off, rooted with modified hboot that shows status locked and s-on.
Just an update. All seems good no extra charges or calls asking WTF?? Just a message saying thanks for returning the phone and my next bill came. Which is normal.
How would they know this?
I had to chat with their online CS about replacing my phone that seems to have a defective digitizer (sometimes it registers inputs when I'm not touching it and inputs in places other than where I touch it). They asked me what software number I'm running, which is 1.55.605.2. I'm guessing that number somehow denotes if my bootloader is unlocked?
They didn't seem to care though and told me to just re-lock my bootloader before I send the phone back to them. I'm just curious as to how they knew since that's the only info I gave them about the phone.
No just that number alone doesn't tell them that your bootloader is unlocked. You must have told them other information as well like say you radio versions, etc. If say you flashed a 1.55.605.2 based stock rom but DIDN'T flash the most current radios then you would have mismatching versions. If they by chance asked what radio version number you had then that could give it away. Cause the only way you could have mismatching radio/software versions is if your bootloader was unlocked and you were flashing stuff. But there are other indictators too. You might have unwittingly told them other stuff that could give it away. I wouldn't worry about it though. HTC is generally pretty cool about it. They know for example that a dead pixel in a screen has absolutely nothing to do with an unlocked bootloader or SOFF so they still honor the warranty. Unlike companies like Verizon.
I had a similar conversation with Motorola when I had the Droid RAZR MAXX HD. After trying to do a factory reset to sell the phone it got hung up in the cache wipe. I contacted Moto, explained the problem and told them that the phone was not rooted. The csr told me that she could see that the phone was not rooted, and set up the rma to get it fixed. I too was surprised by this info from Moto. Moto had built in a root checker into their software and apparently it sent back info to Moto without my knowing. So I wouldn't be too surprised if other oems have followed suit.
Sent from my HTC One M8.
nicholi2789 said:
No just that number alone doesn't tell them that your bootloader is unlocked. You must have told them other information as well like say you radio versions, etc. If say you flashed a 1.55.605.2 based stock rom but DIDN'T flash the most current radios then you would have mismatching versions. If they by chance asked what radio version number you had then that could give it away. Cause the only way you could have mismatching radio/software versions is if your bootloader was unlocked and you were flashing stuff. But there are other indictators too. You might have unwittingly told them other stuff that could give it away. I wouldn't worry about it though. HTC is generally pretty cool about it. They know for example that a dead pixel in a screen has absolutely nothing to do with an unlocked bootloader or SOFF so they still honor the warranty. Unlike companies like Verizon.
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No, I'll post the transcript later (at work right now) if you want. It was literally the only thing she asked me about the software before she confirmed with me that the bootloader was unlocked. Maybe it was social engineering..? Lol
Yeah, I'm not worried about it, as she didn't even hesitate to warranty the phone for me still. I was just curious as to how she knew that.
NSA I tell ya. Oh and HTC knew you met that hooker on your lunch break too so watch those texts.
T4rd said:
No, I'll post the transcript later (at work right now) if you want. It was literally the only thing she asked me about the software before she confirmed with me that the bootloader was unlocked. Maybe it was social engineering..? Lol
Yeah, I'm not worried about it, as she didn't even hesitate to warranty the phone for me still. I was just curious as to how she knew that.
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Click to collapse
Well for all we know HTC apps could be logging information about our phones. There's no way we could know except for reading days and days worth of logcats. It is interesting though.
Yeah I recently had the worst customer service experience with HTC ever. They confirmed my bootloader was unlocked and i sent it in for a screen repair since it was cracked. They made me pay full price for the repair because they said it voided the warranty.
Then when I asked the customer support person if i paid for the repair out of pocket would they send me the phone still unlocked and S-off'd. The support person said specifically that if i didn't escelate the problem then they would just repair the screen. So i didn't escalate the problem and when i got the phone back i found out i was no longer unlocked or S-Off'd.
Then when i spoke to customer support again they quoted the previous tech and said that if i escalated the problem they would have likely done the repair for free and left my phone unlocked. I also found out what i paid for was a new board and the screen repair. They refused to help me in any way. I even asked if i could escalate the problem and if there was a way i could be refunded for the main board replacement since i only requested the screen be repaired. They said nope your SOL.
Litterally don't understand how anyone has had a good experience with HTC support :/
TLDR: Bootloader unlocked, sent phone for repair. Was lied to by customer support and offered no help from HTC.
T4rd said:
Yeah, I'm not worried about it, as she didn't even hesitate to warranty the phone for me still. I was just curious as to how she knew that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it was social engineering
Or
HTC allows most every phone to be unlocked EXCEPT Verizon does not. So they are probably working with the rest of the world and thinking Remember to lock your bootloader!
scrosler said:
I think it was social engineering
Or
HTC allows most every phone to be unlocked EXCEPT Verizon does not. So they are probably working with the rest of the world and thinking Remember to lock your bootloader!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are saying they knew it was unlocked from the phone call, does this mean make sure it is relocked before making the call? This kinda scares me, I have never had issues with warranty replacements but I am new to Verizon. Will Verizon know I am unlocked and reject me or can I simply relock if needed? Hopefully I will never have to use warranty but this does not sound good lol.
While I am here I have a quick question without opening a new thread, why does this Verizon M8 forum's phone description show us having the 2.5ghz processor? I thought we had the 2.3Ghz version from Verizon? Thanks
LibertyMonger said:
They are saying they knew it was unlocked from the phone call, does this mean make sure it is relocked before making the call? This kinda scares me, I have never had issues with warranty replacements but I am new to Verizon. Will Verizon know I am unlocked and reject me or can I simply relock if needed? Hopefully I will never have to use warranty but this does not sound good lol.
While I am here I have a quick question without opening a new thread, why does this Verizon M8 forum's phone description show us having the 2.5ghz processor? I thought we had the 2.3Ghz version from Verizon? Thanks
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Click to collapse
Well do have the 2.3 ghz version. And you can re-lock your bootloader with a fastboot command. Verizon is not that strict on their phones. Noone even looks. I've sent 2 M8s back to Verizon for warranty replacements. One still said s-off, the other said unlocked and s-off. Noone every said a word to me. Not to mention all the warranty replacements in the past I've done with other devices.
Just do everything you can to lock it back up and get it as close to stock as possible since it doesn't take that much effort. But I wouldn't sweat it too hard. I don't think they even look aside from powering it on and making sure it isn't water damaged.
They can tell because of the HTC DM and the HTC Checkin Services
These apps occasionally check in with HTC servers and send log files
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Free mobile app
my HTC story:
well here goes.... I bricked my my M8...BAD, to the point of no boot, no hope. So i worked with HTC tech support via chat, and told them i had rooted & SOFF'd my phone, and i was willing to pay to get the phone fixed and back. So they sent me an email explaining the mail in procedure. I sent the phone, the tech conversation transcript, and a letter stating the specific problem with the phone, also explaining root & SOFF. And i got a refurb phone from them a week later, free of charge. But this one had terrible scratches all over the camera lense. So i sent it back, and i got sent another refurb, this time with a good lense. By that time, i had paid my edge contract buyout, and gotten a new M8, so now i have 2 M8's. Customer service wasn't bad for me.
FragmentedLogik said:
They can tell because of the HTC DM and the HTC Checkin Services
These apps occasionally check in with HTC servers and send log files
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Free mobile app
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Click to collapse
Maybe time to see what happens if they are renamed,removed, or froze with TB.
I recently cracked the screen on my VZW M8. I chose the $19 option with HTC Advantage. I first sent my unlocked, s-off device to HTC. They received the device in 2 days, and shipped out a replacement device the same day, free of charge. I guess I'll call it "luck".
sfobrien said:
Maybe time to see what happens if they are renamed,removed, or froze with TB.
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Click to collapse
HTC DM you can disable in the app mgr.
Do you have the HTC Quick Guide app installed from the market?