LG won't fix phone fault without fixing screen

mikeys12 · 15 March 2018 at 2:26PM

Hi everyone. My 15 month old LG Nexus 5x developed a problem a couple of weeks ago. After doing a bit of research, I found it was bootlooping, and this was a known problem with the phone and my phone is still under the manufacturers warranty.

LG were willing to fix the phone for free as it was a known fault. However, I have a small crack on my screen and they are refusing to fix my phone without repairing the screen first for £160.

The crack was not affecting how I used the phone whatsoever, so I am a bit aggrieved to have to pay to fix a problem that was of no issue to me in order to fix a problem that is their fault and is completely stopping me from using an otherwise fully workable phone.

Is there anything I can do about this? It's their problem that it's not working so surely they should fix my phone for free regardless of if they have to replace my screen? Thanks in advance for any help.

JJ_Egan · 15 March 2018 at 2:31PM

Warranty they can put any restrictions they want on the terms .

Warranty is not your legal rights under Consumer Regulations .
CR are against the vendor .
Take the phone to the vendor and see what they say .

TadleyBaggie · 15 March 2018 at 3:28PM

Cracked screen is down misuse, so you are lucky they are not refusing to repair completely.

To repair the phone the screen will need to be removed, which requires a significant force/pressure, chances are the crack will probably get bigger and so the screen will almost certainly need to be replaced.

agrinnall · 15 March 2018 at 5:53PM

mikeys12 wrote: »

It's their problem that it's not working so surely they should fix my phone for free regardless of if they have to replace my screen? Thanks in advance for any help.

They will fix your phone for free, but the screen needs to be fixed first at your expense. It's very, very common for phone manufacturers to insist on screen repairs before doing anything else. Either do as JJ Egan says and take it up with the seller, or get the phone back and have the screen replaced yourself if you can find someone to do it at a lower cost.

pmduk · 15 March 2018 at 8:35PM

agrinnall wrote: »

...get the phone back and have the screen replaced yourself if you can find someone to do it at a lower cost.

But note you'll possibly have voided the warranty in doing so.

Raxiel · 19 March 2018 at 6:35PM

TadleyBaggie wrote: »

...
To repair the phone the screen will need to be removed, which requires a significant force/pressure, chances are the crack will probably get bigger and so the screen will almost certainly need to be replaced.

Not with this particular model, the 'boot-loop' fix, is basically a motherboard swap, and there's no glue on that side of the chassis.
It takes moderate force with a prying implement (even fingernails if they're long enough) to remove the rear cover, then there are just 9 small + head screws and a couple of clips to remove the inner cover, then 4 ribbon cables (cameras, screen & battery) then the mainboard just lifts out. (Source: Have had to enact rapid disassembly of a 5x multiple times to dry it out after it went for a swim :rotfl:)

The screen & digitiser is glued to the chassis & is effectively a single item, so repairing that at the same time as a dead board is pretty much a new phone (leaving only the cameras, back & internal covers and the battery)

£160 for a screen is a ridiculous price, new screens can be had for £40, and the additional work they would have to do on top of 'fixing' the board (assuming they don't just ship a whole refurb back - which they almost certainly will) is about 10 minutes labour.

So they could do just a board replacement safely but they wont. The bootloop fiasco has cost LG a lot of money, and they will do whatever they can to get out of a repair, there's even reports of them refusing to repair phones that died again after being fixed once, because the new IMEI sticker wasn't placed inside the back cover by their own repair centres the first time round!

OP just has to decide if £160 is worth it for what is effectively a new phone with 9 months warranty (that is likely to die again within the next two years) and 9 months of security updates. If its a 32gb it possibly is (the 5x still has a very good camera for the money). If it's a 16gb, it might be cheaper to pick up a used one from eBay or go for a new model (occasionally LG replace 16gb models with 32gb, but that's quite a gamble).

Getting it back and doing a DIY repair is relatively simple, but absolutely not worth it, IMO.

LG won't fix phone fault without fixing screen

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