Rooting Android and warranty

delsus

I am fully aware that if I root my Android phone, OEMs will say my warranty is void, full stop, end of story.

However, manufacturer's warranty covers mainly hardware faults, if there is a problem with stock firmware they will cover that under warranty as well though.

My main issue with this is that if I choose to root my Android phone (rooting is the method of gaining access to the Linux super user account to do pretty much anything with the phone) and I suffer a hardware failure without overclocking, there is no way for hardware to be damaged (overclocking too much will damage hardware and is easy to find out after terminal damage) so if I choose to root my phone and suffer a hardware failure I find it unfair that my OEM should void my warranty.

With all this in mind does anyone know if this should happen would I have any form of a case.

Also where would be best for me to get some clarification on this matter? I like the ability to do anything with my phone, and I do see it as unfair, I believe I should be able to do anything with something I buy within the confines of the law, and as Android is open source so you can freely modify the software and freely distribute it.

tronator

About two years ago my G1 broke down. T-Mobile repaired it for free without any questions asked even though I rooted it and installed a custom ROM (cyanogenmod).

I think, if it's a hardware fault they just replace the broken part and flash the current firmware.

wealdroam

delsus wrote: »

...if I choose to root my phone and suffer a hardware failure I find it unfair that my OEM should void my warranty.

Manufacturer's warranties are in addition to your statutory rights and as such the manufacturer can specify whetever conditions he wants.
A manufacturer could even not offer a warranty if they chose to do so.
A warranty cannot remove your statutory rights.

Your statutory rights are with/against whoever sold the thing to you. That could of course be the manufacturer.

The Sale of Goods Act affords you many of your statutory rights.

So, in your example, the manufacturer could refuse to fix a hardware fault under warranty if the phone had been rooted if that condition is in their warranty documentation.

I do not believe that the retailer could refuse to provide a remedy just because the phone had been rooted, unless it could be proved that rooting had actually caused the problem.

It might be an idea to read MSE's Consumer Rights article and their How to Complain document which may help to explain who is responsible for what.