Samsung trying to wriggle out of "Sudden Death Syndrome"

MissRomeo

Hello,

On the 24th February 2013 my Samsung Galaxy SIII randomly froze on its "Boot screen" without myself or anyone touching it next to me on the sofa, more importantly not near water. It stayed like that for almost 24 hours, before it switched off completely and refused to turn back on. I changed batteries and put the SIII on charge but nothing helped.

I took the faulty phone to the Samsung store the following day and after speaking to a consultant she decided to send it for repair. I overheard her speaking to her colleague mentioning "another 'Sudden Death Syndrome". I had googled the symptoms of my phone the night before when the incident took place and "Sudden Death Syndrome" came up numerous amount of times.

I asked her about this, and she said it looked like it but if it comes back as liquid damage you will have to pay up to half the price of your handset.

I received an email today, I am not covered by warranty because the phone has "water ingress", I requested a photo which looks quite generic and it's a minute patch on the corner of the motherboard, not touching any chips and so forth and they are requesting £147. I feel they are having me on and I don't know what to do, through correspondence they seem to have an answer for everything...

The whole point of this post was to find out if anyone else has faced this problem if so what was your outcome, also if anyone can assist me with the next step.

Thanks

bengalknights

Ask them for the serial number etc on the board these should tie up to serial number on box.

If they match then its your phone if they dont you can dispute it.

MissRomeo

bengalknights wrote: »

Ask them for the serial number etc on the board these should tie up to serial number on box.

If they match then its your phone if they dont you can dispute it.

The photo they sent me was just of a mother board corner with a red square and a red writing on top done by a computer with my reference number...

So they went inside the phone.

grumbler

Was it Samsung who supplied the phone?
If the water damage indicators are still white you can try suing the supplier under the SOGA: Consumer Rights Armour

However, if the motherboard is really damaged and the supplier can prove this, you are unlikely to win.

Buzby

To ensure you are not bring diddled, say you want to have the handset checked at an independent repairer - if the report supports their contention, the cost of this (and repair) will be your responsibility.

Do remember, the indicators will change if Humid, it does not require immersion.

MissRomeo

Yes, I have also read that indicators can change due to climate change ie from being outside in the heat then changing to a cooler location. They don't inform customers of such thing but want to charge people.

I am arranging an independent as I type, I should hear from them tomorrow.

Samsung didn't but Tmobile did in July 2012.

JJ_Egan

Samsung no full well about SDS that is why they updated firmware .

It was on specific build motherboards.

The "Sudden Death" issue is caused by firmware on the (16 GB) VTU00M, revision 0xf1 eMMC (Embedded MultiMedia Card or internal memory if you like). Samsungs Kernel Source Code (Update 7) has been identified as the fix. There is still no evidence that the latest sboot bootloader addresses this issue.

viddy

I am in the same boat as you see my story here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4620641
I am planning to sue samsung, I see from your post you were planning to get an independent report, how far did you go, contact me by replying to either of the posts