Blackberry 9300 lines on screen

markyslim

Hi this is my first post,

My daughter has a blackberry 9300 she has had it for 5 weeks first thing on Saturday morning 2 white lines appeared on the screen. Now the screen is almost covered in them. I took it back to O2 on Sunday who presssed on the screen and said there is a crack under the glass???? the phone definately hasn't been dropped and they are refusing to repair it under warranty, surely a phone should last longer than 5 weeks. What would you advise?

T_T_2

It is a fairly common problem amongst touchscreen phones and can be caused not only by impact damage, but also by condensation and/or dramatic temperature changes. That particular phone has a capacitive TFT screen. Put simply it is made up of two layers. The back layer is the TFT screen and layed over the top of that is a capacitive digitiser (this bit recognises your finger swipes).

In the case of condensation, moisture can become trapped between the two layers and ingress into the screen surrounds. In what is described as a dramatic temperature change (any change that exceeds 4 or 5 degrees in a matter of seconds/minutes) this can cause the screen to expand and contract rapidly resulting in cracking which can rapidly grow like a ladder on a pair of tights. This is similar to the freeze/thaw effect on pot holes in the road.

Now, proof. The law states that the responsibility for proving the cause of damage lies with the retailer in the first 6 months, thereafter, the consumer must prove that the device was inherently faulty at the time of purchase. As you are within this first 6 months the outcome will depend entirely on how relentless you are. Be advised that they won't cave in easily, it doesn't do business any good if the word gets around that they replace/repaire broken screens.

jbainbridge

It's not a touchscreen!!

T_T_2

jbainbridge wrote: »

It's not a touchscreen!!

Right you are, but the effect is still the same. Instead of a digitiser overlay is has a plain screen overlay. Condensation doesn't discriminate unfortunately.

Wintermute

Lines down a screen are a classic symptom of a cracked screen I'm afraid, do a google image search for cracked TFT or cracked LCD and you'll see a lot of examples.

Manufacturers warranty will never cover damaged items, so O2 are correct in not repairing it under warranty as RIM (Blackberry) wouldn't cover the cost of the repair so they'd be out of pocket. If you send the handset away for repair it will be a chargable repair and you'll probably be looking at around £99. Unfortunately RIM wont deal with you directly so you don't have the option of booking it in for repair with them.

If you have any sort of insurance you may be able to claim on that, if not it's going to come down to speaking to O2 and hoping for a goodwill gesture as it's your word ("the phone wasn't damaged by my daughter") vs O2s word ("The phone was supplied undamaged and you've had 5 weeks to damage it"), if you try this make sure you're polite, if you demand things you wont get anything.