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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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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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?
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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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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.
Related
Hi Guys, this is my story
Recently I have saw a black mark on my screen that would not go away. In addition there were some spots that were also visible.
I have went to a ATT service spot and ask for a replacement, the guy looked at my phone and agreed to give me a refurbished phone.
I am worried about two things:
1. the guy said that if the spots were caused by water I will pay 500$. Truthfully, the phone was anywhere near water but it does look like water damage....
2. The phone that ATT took was rooted.
Do you think that I have a big bill coming on?
* really worried...
Regards
B
borisb said:
Hi Guys, this is my story
Recently I have saw a black mark on my screen that would not go away. In addition there were some spots that were also visible.
I have went to a ATT service spot and ask for a replacement, the guy looked at my phone and agreed to give me a refurbished phone.
I am worried about two things:
1. the guy said that if the spots were caused by water I will pay 500$. Truthfully, the phone was anywhere near water but it does look like water damage....
2. The phone that ATT took was rooted.
Do you think that I have a big bill coming on?
* really worried...
Regards
B
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my discussions with the att warranty department (ie. last three days), anything that they can constitute as user damaged, they will charge you 399 dollars for the refurbished phone.
So technically since the phone was rooted, unless the att tech reflashed it before sending it out, you have voided your warranty.
Even if its a HW issue?
What are the chances that they will reflash it? probably zero.....
Has anyone had something like this?
borisb said:
Even if its a HW issue?
What are the chances that they will reflash it? probably zero.....
Has anyone had something like this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even if its a hardware issue, while the phone is rooted the warranty is voided.
I am not sure never worked at att, but I am guessing they just put it in a box and ship it.
The most they do is wipe user data.
In all honesty, I would argue with them if they do charge. Reason: " the guy at the stand did not check it first. " all blame should fall on him because he furnished you with another phone without checking it first.
ATT rep.. The phone you provided us is no longer under warranty due to it being voided.
You.. The guy at the store gave me a new phone and said everything was ok. Why am I now being charged. Did he break it? .
ATT Rep.. I am sorry for the confusion.........
Something like that, just play really dumb like you have no idea what there talking about, and chances are the will void the charge due to employee negligence.
Now if you signed something agreeing to take the phone with the chance of being charged anyways, you may be **** out of luck. But its worth a shot. I know when it was cingular, our returns department never even checked the phones, the most we checked for was the water mark stickers. And even that was not always checked. When we sent them off to the manufacturer for exchanges we shipped them out in bulk and by doing so they realy couldnt tell what came from who.
Sent from my VEGAn-TAB using Tapatalk
xKrisx said:
Now if you signed something agreeing to take the phone with the chance of being charged anyways, you may be **** out of luck. But its worth a shot. I know when it was cingular, our returns department never even checked the phones, the most we checked for was the water mark stickers. And even that was not always checked. When we sent them off to the manufacturer for exchanges we shipped them out in bulk and by doing so they realy couldnt tell what came from who.
Sent from my VEGAn-TAB using Tapatalk
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The last part of that has changed since they use imei's now.
I think you will be fine. You giving the Warranty Department too much credit. You will be fine.
i guess it matters on how hard the warranty guyz wana work... hopefully they will get the phone on a friday lol good luck
A year or so ago i was buying a mytouch 3g in a tmobile store and the guy selling me the phone told me about how i could root the phone and wireless tether for free!
I even asked him if it would void the warrenty and he said it wouldnt!
I hope it will be OK.
Do they sent it to ATT o directly to HTC?
mudknot2005 said:
Even if its a hardware issue, while the phone is rooted the warranty is voided.
I am not sure never worked at att, but I am guessing they just put it in a box and ship it.
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Click to collapse
Right. He taped it up before me (for one of my earlier captivates) and when I asked if they would reset or anything like that, he said it'll go directly to Samsung. Its a good thing I always wipe data before I return any phone.
So my guess is, for phones returned within 30 days that wud come as refurb, they will be within AT&T. But for any hardware issues they won't even bother to look into it and simply return the phone to manufacturer.
I sent a rooted Samsung captivate (told them it had random shut down issue which was a known issue it didn't have that prob gps was crappy) in that was rooted and nothing happened. A lot of times its not cost effective for a manufacturer to check all that stuff. Remember they have to pay a tech by the hour to do all that. Its usually more cost effective to just refurb and either resell or use as a replacement. I'm betting you'll be ok. I wouldn't worry about it until you hear from them. And like the other guy said play dumb.
Carlrobling said:
I sent a rooted Samsung captivate (told them it had random shut down issue which was a known issue it didn't have that prob gps was crappy) in that was rooted and nothing happened. A lot of times its not cost effective for a manufacturer to check all that stuff. Remember they have to pay a tech by the hour to do all that. Its usually more cost effective to just refurb and either resell or use as a replacement. I'm betting you'll be ok. I wouldn't worry about it until you hear from them. And like the other guy said play dumb.
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Click to collapse
AT&T doesn't bother until the manufacturer comes back. I remember reading on Captivate forums where some people got billed full amount after a couple months cos Samsung came back to AT&T charging them.
diablo009 said:
AT&T doesn't bother until the manufacturer comes back. I remember reading on Captivate forums where some people got billed full amount after a couple months cos Samsung came back to AT&T charging them.
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I'm sure it has happened. Not everyone gets lucky. I will say this ATT techs aren't very bright. When i first got my inspire (used from craigslist) i put my sim in and it said it had a sim lock. I called tech support they told me they didn't know what it was. Then tried to tell me it was cause someone tried to root it and failed. I later figured out on my own that it was a bad sim and after having it replaced it worked perfectly. So i wouldn't count on ATT but Htc its a roll of the dice. Keep us posted let us know how things turn out.
Some of you are giving far too much credit to the warranty department. I can't speak for AT&T as I don't work for them...But I do, do tech support for Philips Electronics... In all honesty, 1 out of every 15 people here is technologically advanced. Most people work here because its a job.
The way our warranties work is 2 ways.
1. We either say screw it and send another product
or
2. The product comes in for testing, we test it...If it works, it goes back, if not, we replace it. 99.99% of the time, the people testing the product are not smart enough to look for alterations to the software.
Again, this is how we work here, and I can't speak for AT&T.
tribalartgod said:
Some of you are giving far too much credit to the warranty department. I can't speak for AT&T as I don't work for them...But I do, do tech support for Philips Electronics... In all honesty, 1 out of every 15 people here is technologically advanced. Most people work here because its a job.
The way our warranties work is 2 ways.
1. We either say screw it and send another product
or
2. The product comes in for testing, we test it...If it works, it goes back, if not, we replace it. 99.99% of the time, the people testing the product are not smart enough to look for alterations to the software.
Again, this is how we work here, and I can't speak for AT&T.
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Not only not smart enough but like you said its just a job and they don't even bother to care. Like i said earlier there techs aren't very bright and tried to tell me someone tried to root the used inspire that i had. He even went around and asked other techs that's the only problem it could be he said. After some trial and error I figured it out called tech support back told the lady this time what i figured out she agreed and made note on my account that i could get a free sim. Glad i don't bother believing everything i hear lol and would rather do my own research first.
P.S. Its like that everywhere you go. People are all the same from job to job you see the same things everywhere lol.
BAleR said:
A year or so ago i was buying a mytouch 3g in a tmobile store and the guy selling me the phone told me about how i could root the phone and wireless tether for free!
I even asked him if it would void the warrenty and he said it wouldnt!
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Click to collapse
And if the rep said that they will give you a free phone every 6months you would believe that too?
jaw2012 said:
And if the rep said that they will give you a free phone every 6months you would believe that too?
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Never said I believed it, just quoting him
When htc gets the phone they will wipe it and put it back to factory because there is no need of anything on the phone and anything done on the phone software issues could be the problem, so always best from there stand point to have it back to factory. That is exact reason any time u call about anything with pc or phone they want u to restore to factory.
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
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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
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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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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
As a preface, I got the ATT one x a few days ago, so far I'm really happy with it, but would like to get rid of a bunch of the bloatware and want to get root.
So this morning I woke up to the update message. Now I read up on it the night before on these forums that I should wait to update if I want to root/etc, so naturally I don't want to update quite yet. But here's the problem. The message popped up so fast that I could barely read the message. My thumb must have been right above the accept button, since the message disappeared almost instantly and the process started up. I exited it as far as possible, and it seemed to work. I used apps on the phone, and everything seemed fine. As soon as I locked the phone again, it decided to reboot, initiating the update, all on its own. Even a forced power-off wouldn't stop the wheels turning. And now I feel like an idiot. So is there any way/what is the best way to downgrade or reverse the update?
TL;DR: I accidentally updated the new update, is there, and or what is the best way to downgrade so I can eventually root?
As for my second question, obviously the warranty will be in question if I root/unlock. I've read that HTC will honor the warranty even if it's an unlock, but not a rom flash (even after a return to stock?) If I root/unlock, run into a problem, and return to stock will by warranty be effected? I've never done a warranty return, so would there be a difference if I tried to go through HTC, ATT, or Costco (purchase location)? The reason I ask is because my last phone's (Original Atrix, love it so much) wifi died before the 2 year period, and we had an upgrade on the family account, and this time the One x was purchased with American Express, so I now effectively have a 2 year warranty to cover such problems I might have.
I know that with enough time I could find some of these answers on the forums, but because they are so lively, it's hard to keep track and sift through the forums for information. Thanks for your time and thank you in advance for your help.
In regards to the root on the update there is no way to downgrade or root given your situation at this time but hopefully one of the talented people here on xda wil find a new exploit like they did for the 1.85
As far as warranty goes someone else will.have to let you know.
Sent from my Nocturnalized Beast
same boat
I am in exactly the same boat. I didn't check the MD5 on a download of CR4.5 and it completed wiped my phone (SD Card as well). I was away from my laptop and had to wait days to get it back online. When I finally got it up and running, I was rooting through the one click and in checking the update, it updated to 2.20. So now I'm stuck.
I have my previous unlock token, but I'm not sure if that will do me any good. I don't want to do much until a new RUU becomes available.
misiek93 said:
As a preface, I got the ATT one x a few days ago, so far I'm really happy with it, but would like to get rid of a bunch of the bloatware and want to get root.
So this morning I woke up to the update message. Now I read up on it the night before on these forums that I should wait to update if I want to root/etc, so naturally I don't want to update quite yet. But here's the problem. The message popped up so fast that I could barely read the message. My thumb must have been right above the accept button, since the message disappeared almost instantly and the process started up. I exited it as far as possible, and it seemed to work. I used apps on the phone, and everything seemed fine. As soon as I locked the phone again, it decided to reboot, initiating the update, all on its own. Even a forced power-off wouldn't stop the wheels turning. And now I feel like an idiot. So is there any way/what is the best way to downgrade or reverse the update?
TL;DR: I accidentally updated the new update, is there, and or what is the best way to downgrade so I can eventually root?
As for my second question, obviously the warranty will be in question if I root/unlock. I've read that HTC will honor the warranty even if it's an unlock, but not a rom flash (even after a return to stock?) If I root/unlock, run into a problem, and return to stock will by warranty be effected? I've never done a warranty return, so would there be a difference if I tried to go through HTC, ATT, or Costco (purchase location)? The reason I ask is because my last phone's (Original Atrix, love it so much) wifi died before the 2 year period, and we had an upgrade on the family account, and this time the One x was purchased with American Express, so I now effectively have a 2 year warranty to cover such problems I might have.
I know that with enough time I could find some of these answers on the forums, but because they are so lively, it's hard to keep track and sift through the forums for information. Thanks for your time and thank you in advance for your help.
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BB2DX said:
I am in exactly the same boat. I didn't check the MD5 on a download of CR4.5 and it completed wiped my phone (SD Card as well). I was away from my laptop and had to wait days to get it back online. When I finally got it up and running, I was rooting through the one click and in checking the update, it updated to 2.20. So now I'm stuck.
I have my previous unlock token, but I'm not sure if that will do me any good. I don't want to do much until a new RUU becomes available.
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The ruu is out for the 2.20 on the HTC dev site
If you already have your unlock token you should be fine just run through the steps to unlock then root. Your still stuck with the new hboot so your previous nandroids will no longer work and you can no longer flash boot images from recovery.
Sent from my Nocturnalized Beast
misiek93 said:
As for my second question, obviously the warranty will be in question if I root/unlock. I've read that HTC will honor the warranty even if it's an unlock, but not a rom flash (even after a return to stock?) If I root/unlock, run into a problem, and return to stock will by warranty be effected? I've never done a warranty return, so would there be a difference if I tried to go through HTC, ATT, or Costco (purchase location)? The reason I ask is because my last phone's (Original Atrix, love it so much) wifi died before the 2 year period, and we had an upgrade on the family account, and this time the One x was purchased with American Express, so I now effectively have a 2 year warranty to cover such problems I might have.
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Consensus seems to be that a warranty return to AT&T, they don't normally check for bootloader unlock at all. Technically, they can check, and void your warranty. But to this point, they don't seem to be. This is probably your safest bet. But that warranty is only one year.
Based on various reports by XDA users HTC seems to be much more strict about enforcing their own warranty terms. I would suggest going through AT&T rather than HTC.
For your AmEx warranty, I think that would be handled by AmEx (not AT&T). You should probably check through them, and see what the warranty terms our (might be handled by a 3rd party?). I think only someone that has had experience with the AmEx process could say for sure what would happen in this case. So maybe somebody will chime in.
redpoint73 said:
Consensus seems to be that a warranty return to AT&T, they don't normally check for bootloader unlock at all. Technically, they can check, and void your warranty. But to this point, they don't seem to be. This is probably your safest bet. But that warranty is only one year.
Based on various reports by XDA users HTC seems to be much more strict about enforcing their own warranty terms. I would suggest going through AT&T rather than HTC.
For your AmEx warranty, I think that would be handled by AmEx (not AT&T). You should probably check through them, and see what the warranty terms our (might be handled by a 3rd party?). I think only someone that has had experience with the AmEx process could say for sure what would happen in this case. So maybe somebody will chime in.
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Amex is extremely lax. All they want is a copy of the original warranty and require doing the work at an authorized repair shop. Then they reimburse you, no questions asked.
GroovyGeek said:
Amex is extremely lax. All they want is a copy of the original warranty and require doing the work at an authorized repair shop. Then they reimburse you, no questions asked.
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I kinda figured as much. They aren't in the business of fixing phones, so I guessed they either just farmed it out to a 3rd party company, or just paid up pretty easily. Credit cards (especially AmEx) also often cover things like lost luggage, travel insurance (cancelled flights, etc.) and I don't imagine they go through much hassle confirming that kind of thing either. They must figure that the extra business gained from offering their services (and yearly fees) outweighs the payouts they have to make.
Thanks for clarifying with your personal experience, probably useful to the OP.
So. I bricked my phone when I ruu'd back to the 2.20 update and took the 3.18 OTA update. It bricked my phone because I was rooted with s-on. I called AT&T's warranty center and told my phone stopped working after I performed an update and they sent me a new one. What are the chances that they'll actually know that my phone was rooted? Has anyone else gone through this?
marcur12 said:
So. I bricked my phone when I ruu'd back to the 2.20 update and took the 3.18 OTA update. It bricked my phone because I was rooted with s-on. I called AT&T's warranty center and told my phone stopped working after I performed an update and they sent me a new one. What are the chances that they'll actually know that my phone was rooted? Has anyone else gone through this?
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If it doesn't turn on at all they won't be able to tell because, well, they can't turn it on.
I'm just guessing but you might be committing some kind of fraud in doing that?
Sent from my One XL using XDA Premium
I bricked my old one x by flashing ice cold jelly RIM meant for the international one x. And I called Rogers and they sent me a new one as my old one x won't turn on. Its been a year now and no calls, no fees, nothing.
Sent from my One X using xda app-developers app
While AT&T technically reserves the right to refuse warranty service due to modification of the phone; in actual practice I have yet to see a report of them actually doing that. Many folks here have returned rooted and bootloader unlocked phones (even running custom ROMs) for various hardware defects (with the screen still able to turn on, and therefore not difficult to tell it was rooted), with no issue.
That said, I'm usually not a fan of making a warranty claim for a brick resulting from your own lack of research. But the case of SuperCID and OTA/RUU shouldn't be bricking people's phones (its not clear why it does), so its a bit of a gray area, and I'd personally on the fence about calling it fraud (leaning to the side of "not fraud").
I will say this about AT&T warranty. They really don't deal with software. In fact they recieve 5,000 phones that are not really broken. They have a simple check system and if everything passes, then they give you a new phone. Even though I was not in the warranty department, I transferred a lot people there.
Back to the subject, if you tell them you tried to update it and it did not work, most likely they will replace it. As long as it is not water damaged and was not physically tampered with.
Sent from my Carbon-ize Evita using xda-developers app
Herc08 said:
I will say this about AT&T warranty. They really don't deal with software. In fact they recieve 5,000 phones that are not really broken. They have a simple check system and if everything passes, then they give you a new phone. Even though I was not in the warranty department, I transferred a lot people there.
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5000 phones in a month? In a week?
Very informative, nonetheless. Thanks for the post.
No worries. Since I didn't sign a contract I can talk about it as much as I want . The reason for this is because reps do not fully troubleshoot. As a tech support rep, I made sure to rarely transfer, because it coudld be something as small as a setting
Sent from my Carbon-ize Evita using xda-developers app
I wouldn't say this is fraud at all. The rep on the phone asked me if the phone had any physical or water damage. He said nothing about software modification and if he did, I would have been honest with him. The bricked phone itself was in excellent condition even after 8 months of use. I've always been good at maintaining my phones in the past. If anything, they could use the phone for parts or something.
I did receive my replacement phone yesterday in the mail. I sent out my bricked phone today.
Technically with Google and HTC both having tracking software buried in stock os a real phone software egineer can prolly tell just by punching up your imei what's going on. I did tech support for blackberry business (worst phn in my opinion) and it was possible to pull up there home screen and guide them through setting up stuff. I know some people that do att warranty and they tell me they have never in there location made phone out of warranty from software only physical damage and water strip detector.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
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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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.
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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!
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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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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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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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HTC DM you can disable in the app mgr.
Do you have the HTC Quick Guide app installed from the market?