Update Killed My Phone - Am I Liable To Pay For Repair?

taketothetrees

Hello everyone.

I really need some help and hope this is the right place to post. Apologies in advance if it's not - just point me in the direction to go otherwise. 

On the 22nd April I was using my Samsung Galaxy S7 phone (purchased March 2017) when an Android update began downloading automatically. The phone shut down in my hand and would not restart. It took me a while to get through to Samsung, given the current circumstances, but a repair engineer visited a few days later. He said the phone was irreparable. I emailed Samsung again to lodge a complaint on the basis that it was their update that killed my phone and nothing that I had done. They booked it in for repair and a courier took it in to them. I just received an email saying that the phone is "Out of Warranty by age 30/09/19" and needs a new mainboard at a cost of £225.00. 

In my mind it seems to me unfair that I should foot the bill for something I did not do. If somebody used my phone and broke it I would expect them to offer to pay for repairs, at the least. Similarly, if I damaged someone else's property I would expect to offer to pay for repairs. I don't see why this is any different. It was their update that killed it, or their phone is faulty if it broke down completely only after three years. 

Can anybody offer any advice on what I can do - if anything - at this time. I'm self-employed and haven't worked for weeks and am unlikely to return to work in the near future, so am a bit stuck for options. I know this may sound like I'm pleading, "Oh, poor old me, wah wah wah..." but £225.00 is a bit mush right now. 

Many thanks for any help offered. 

(BTW - I've only got three days to get back on touch with Samsung before they send my phone back unrepaired).

Supersonos

The update did not kill your phone, it's coincidence that the phone burnt out at that time.

It's a three year old phone - things don't last forever.  If you want it repaired you'll need to pay someone to do it.

Aylesbury_Duck

As above, just a coincidence.  Otherwise there would be thousands - millions perhaps - affected.

You had the option to disable automatic updates.  I never allow automatic updates.  I prefer to let others be the guinea pigs and update my phone if I think the new release is an improvement and only if it's clear there aren't users having problems as a result.

taketothetrees

Thank you for the replies. What a crappy coincidence. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Three years isn't bad going to be honest.  When you think of what we ask these phones to do, for hours every day, it's impressive they last three years.

powerful_Rogue

You can pick up a refurbished Galaxy S7 for around £80, or new for around £115. Much cheaper then having it repaired.

shaun_from_Africa

Sounds similar to what happened to my computer monitor earlier this year.
I had a gas engineer in my property repairing the boiler and somehow he managed to trip the electrics.
When they had been reset, everything except my monitor came back on again. (well, it did come on but was so dim it was impossible to use).
I did a bit of Googling and discovered that the backlight controller in the monitor concerned was fairly unreliable and they would often fail. However, this failure generally only became apparent when the monitor was turned off and then when switched on again, the backlight wouldn't illuminate.

This failure was already there when the gas man caused the power to trip but if he hadn't done it, it would have happened next time there was a power cut or I turned the monitor off and your phoen may well have suffered a similar fate.