iPhone 5 "extensive water damage" but it's never been in water?

GlasweJen

I'm putting in all the little details so that you can all get a full picture - apologies for the length of the post!

I have an iPhone5 on contract with Orange since the end of October last year.

It was one of the first iPhones and was delivered with minor cosmetic damage and as Orange could only replace it with a white phone I chose to keep my iPhone with its minor scuffs.

First time I updated the iOS the phone crashed and had to be wiped so I lost all of the photos and silly things on the phone - no big deal. About 4 months ago it started not connecting properly to the 3G network on EE even though others around me had a great signal but it only happened for a few minutes at a time so I decided I could live with it.

2 days ago I was out and the battery ran flat. I put it on charge when I came home and it took 15 minutes for the phone to start up, on starting up it received a text message and when I tried to reply the phone died again.

I left it to charge overnight and yesterday morning I had a phone, fully charged with an unresponsive screen but all the other buttons were fine and I could talk to Siri.

I tried rebooting the phone, didn't work. I plugged the phone into my laptop and itunes couldn't find it but it did start to work again. Just in case I booked it in to see a genius at the apple store this morning.

I saw the apple store person this morning and she looked at the cosmetic damage and said she had to examine the phone through the back. She was away a good 10 minutes and when she came back she said that the phone was badly water damaged down one side, around the battery and that was causing the problems. As my phone was water damaged it was not covered by warranty and I would have to purchase a new phone for £179.

I expressed my surprise and she said phones get water damaged sometimes in the rain but as it was definitely water damage there was nothing she could do. I told her £179 was a lot of money and I would need to go away and think about it.

I came home and googled "iphone 5 water damage", a lot of stuff came up about a hidden sensor in the sim tray, on top of the battery compartment that went pink if the phone went near water. I opened my sim tray, found the sensor and it is snow white!

I am currently on apple chat waiting to speak to a supervisor but I was wanting to know if anyone else has experienced this and is there any way Apple can blame me for water damage when the sensor indicates no water damage and I genuinely haven't had it near water?

Wickedkitten

If I were you, I would take it back to the Apple Store and have them check it in front of you because it sounds like the person that checked doesn't know what they are looking for.

GlasweJen

Thanks, the apple supervisor didn't speak to me so I checked the case and it's been closed on my itunes store? I'm really not a happy person at all, apple's statement that it's been water damaged has voided my gadget insurance and my mobile cover wont replace it as it can't be water damaged without a pink disc so they're saying it's a hardware fault and apple's problem.

Exemplar

Hi. I was in the Apple store Sheffield (Meadow Hell) last week. There were 3 people including me that were in to have water damaged phones looked at. Of the 3 I was honest enough to admit that I had dropped it down a toilet. The tech guy bought the phone out to me and showed me the hidden sensors in the phone. As the tech guy stated 'look outside and see how many people use their phones in the rain' and I did do that. I stood at the entrance and watched many people in the pouring rain talking on their mobiles. Oh and I paid my £170 for a shiny subsidised phone with 12 months warranty..

GlasweJen

The thing is my phone hasn't been water damaged that I'm aware of and if you're going to sell a phone in Scotland and describe it as "mobile" then you have to make it some sort of shower proof. I don't have a hobby that involves long walks in the rain while chatting on my phone or anything.

The phone's been having problems since May and I reported it then and was told it was a software issue (I forgot about that until I looked through my apple store case history). Now that it's definitely not a software issue it's water damage. I have been told that the internal sensors are pink, no one showed me this, all I can see is my external sensor situated above the battery which is pure white.

Just off the phone to an apple supervisor who said I need to make another appointment, go back to the store and talk to a manager who MIGHT let me see the inside of my phone. He couldn't explain how my external sensor is white while the insides are allegedly pink and wont accept that it could be a fault with something being introduced to the phone during manufacture.

GlasweJen

alcot33uk wrote: »

Hi. I was in the Apple store Sheffield (Meadow Hell) last week. There were 3 people including me that were in to have water damaged phones looked at. Of the 3 I was honest enough to admit that I had dropped it down a toilet. The tech guy bought the phone out to me and showed me the hidden sensors in the phone. As the tech guy stated 'look outside and see how many people use their phones in the rain' and I did do that. I stood at the entrance and watched many people in the pouring rain talking on their mobiles. Oh and I paid my £170 for a shiny subsidised phone with 12 months warranty..

can I check, the technician brought the phone onto the shop floor and allowed you to view the phone from the genius bar area or did the technician provide photos of the phone?

I eventually phoned apple care who said that I should have been shown my phone if they wanted to charge me for a new one so I called the store and asked why this didn't happen and the manager of the genius bar said that it was impossible for them to arrange for me to see the phone as it had to be opened in a special environment with anti-static mats and things and it would put me and other customers at risk to open the phone and allow me to view the interior.

Obviously I'm not forking out £179 for a phone that might not be damaged and as far as I can see has no water damage to the area I've been told is "extensively damaged". No idea how to proceed with this one.

ILW

Don't buy Iphones. Nothing but trouble.

GwylimT

You need to take it back and request that when they are looking at the phone they take photographs to show you, if you wanted to you could always give them something e.g. a keyring to include in the photo, that way you will be able to see if any of the other internal water sensors are pink.

GlasweJen

I've been told that they will not re-open the phone as it is a risk to their technican! I just want to know how on earth my phone has tide marks around the battery and a pure white SIM tray liquid detector, that just does not add up for me.

GlasweJen

these picture aren't great but you can see my white dot in them.

kwmlondon

Condensation? I put a cold phone in a pocket and the condensation made the screen do all manner of funny things.