Liquid damage indicators are two-faced?
Chances are that one time or another, you had to bring our phone in for repair only to be frustrated and aggravated when you're told that your phone has moisture damage. As you attempt to argue that you've never gotten your phone wet, you get pushback from the local technician because the litmus paper on the back of your phone is never wrong. Hopefully you are fortunate enough to have insurance (and you're lucky if you don't get a refurb). Now how many of you can honestly say you've had this problem and you really didn't get the phone wet? [Via Textually]
Filed under: Misc
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Martin @ Feb 8th 2007 12:26AM
Ummm... I dropped my phone in a cup of water...checked the white paper and it was still white, called Cingular and I got a new phone (v551 at the time, this was a year and a half ago). The case I had on it was probably what saved me. "No Mr. Cingular rep sir, I SWEAR I never got it wet. I don't know how the screen just died like that" hehehe
Martin @ Feb 8th 2007 12:33AM
Actually it was kinda funny because I had to turn my 8525 in for another one because Windows Mobile Shi**y Edition kept freezing and the keyboard was sliding out to easily (anyone else have this problem with a tytn or similar model?). Anyways, pop the cover off of the back to make sure the sticker was good before I sent it in and to my horror the sticker says "VOID" in red letters. I almost sh** my pants. Anyways, a few calls later and it turns out that the 8525's sticker says "VOID" by default and then if it gets wet turn all red. They definitely need to change that.
ALex @ Feb 8th 2007 2:23AM
Dropped my vx8000 in a glass of water and fried the phone. When I took off the battery and noticed that they put the sticker on the battery only not the phone.
Brought it in and told them the phone just went dead and was given a refurb.
Ben @ Feb 8th 2007 2:24AM
anyone know how to fix this? I did NOT get my phone wet, but the thing changed colors, and.... i tried a white pencil on it (so that's why they put them in the box!), and it helped, but, not fully. So, any clues?
Arpad @ Feb 8th 2007 3:28AM
try bleach maybe?
Kristen @ Feb 8th 2007 9:04AM
I got a phone wet and brought it in to get repaired, and the paper hadn't turned. I snickered when the guy said, "well it doesn't look like there's been any water damage".
MayTech @ Feb 8th 2007 9:37AM
As a service technician the litmus paper doesnt lie. I live in Florida and people start talking about humidity and the like. The ONLY reason the paper turns red IS if moisture touched the paper. Be it rain, a babys spit, sweat.. it is still moisture. There has been extensive testing on humidity and moisture with the litmus paper.
Jeff Davidson @ Feb 8th 2007 10:25AM
When you first receive your phone, just cover the paper with scotch tape. If you get the phone wet, dry it off and remove tape. Most of the time the paper will remain dry.
Matthew @ Feb 8th 2007 10:43AM
I have taken a phone in when the earpiece speaker quit working. Was told it had liquid damage. I had never dropped it in the water nor had it in the rain. I did carry it in my pocket. If moisture/humidity from carrying it in a pocket can set it off, then it's too sensitive. Cell phones are meant to be pocketable, and this should not void a warranty. (In my case, the phone was no longer under warranty so that wasn't really an issue.)
pikaljuice @ Feb 8th 2007 10:49AM
i use to refuse to believe people when they said they didn't get their phones wet, until it happened to me. just the litmus paper on the phone, not the battery. brand new blackberry 8703e, no problems, no damage. never took it in to report the color change of litmus paper (i know they'll say what i used to say). being brand new, i know when and where it happened, but not why it happened. found a post awhile back about blackberries and litmus paper. wish i could find it again....
VZW TECH @ Feb 8th 2007 10:52AM
Im a technician and the whole humidity turing your paper is a crock. Half the phones dont even have indicators, and when they get wet, they dont turn half the time. So think of it this way, if u have a turned indicator, dont argue with me. Ya know it probably got wet
jeff @ May 24th 2007 2:16AM
vzw tech i have a verizon razr and never did get mine wet. can sweat turn a dot red and if so why? i mean you would almost have to have the back off while you are talking and on top of that how can the dot on the phone itself be red but the dot on the battery itself is as white as the battery in my phone? can you explain?
Jonathan Sundy @ Feb 8th 2007 12:22PM
My girlfriend's phone stopped working after she dropped it. It was working perfectly fine before that. She brought it in to buy a new phone and while talking to them about her contract they opened the phone and coyly (sp?) pointed out that it was water damage cause the sticker was red.
The phone didn't die from water damage. These stickers are speculative at best.
Mark Eret @ Feb 8th 2007 12:26PM
There's no such thing as a test which doesn't produce false-positives. They may be rare, but they will always be possible. Everyone who is saying that it if the litmus paper is red then it definitely got wet is ignorant.
jp @ Feb 8th 2007 2:44PM
I work as a tech and I have seen this many times, the amount of sweat it takes to turn these things is enough that it shoud void ur warranty, dont forget the manual has a very specific set of operating guidlines that covers temp. evaporated water shock dust and so on. many people violate these without ever realizing it.
James Mertz @ Feb 8th 2007 5:30PM
My dot on my Verizon V3M RAZR is red. It turned red when I was walking through fog. If fog can void my warranty or even cause my phone to function improperly, which it didn't at that time, then that's ridiculous.
Also, I work for a computer chip manufacturer.
uwntmybode @ Feb 8th 2007 8:20PM
The fact that people snicker for stealing is terrible. If you damage your phone YOU should pay for another and not try to beat the system. You got away with it this time but the phones liquid indicators are correct. There are in most cases multiple indicators inside and out to prevent false positives. You can also see scorching on the internal components of the phones. Take responsibility for your actions in damaging your own property. The fact that it was sold to you at a discount does not change that the product still has a monetary value.
Adrian @ Feb 8th 2007 9:05PM
I had a Nokia 8290 go through the washer AND dryer in my pants ... It was powered up when it went into the washer....
When I found it, it was off. I changed to a spare battery and I couldn't believe it, but it worked perfectly. I went on to use it for quite a while after that. The screen had a light "blob" on it but it was still readable.
Sam Cornwell @ Feb 8th 2007 10:08PM
ME ME oh oh pick me!!!
Verizon stores should hire people that aren't clueless
Jason @ Mar 26th 2007 8:22PM
Your guys are so funny. Ok I used to sell phones for a living, i've had over 35 phones (mostly high end Motorola's, remember the $1400+ Startac VIP yeah I had 3). Well anyways those indicators are for lazy techs. Just because a phone gets a little wet shouldn't void anything. I've had white dots go red. What did I do, I removed the dot. Techs shot me down. So I bought a new battery(which comes with its own new white dot), did a swap put on my phone, and tada replacement phone. Now what I did was not wrong it's my dot and I'll do what I want with it(theres poeple on ebay who will sell you an entire reel of unpunched limus paper for cheap dollars). Now if a tech would do a half decent job and open up the phone like back in the day, they would probably find that my phones problem was, the effect of verizon screwing with the software and the UI of my phone. But they would never admit that. Just keep telling poeple to *228 send and update your phone(cough CRIPPLE your phone+add banners). No thak you to verizon banners and logos on my MOTO, only manual programming down on my phone please. I learned that Verizon cheap trick back when alltel had the first batch of v60's. Can't wiat to get a Moto maxx VE, send back to moto and get flashed back to original MOTO Spec.
Addie @ Apr 6th 2007 12:37AM
so.. my friend got her phone wet, and we were looking at this together.
and i saw some ppl say that they had never gotten their phones wet and the indicator had changed.. well for those of you who don't think thats possible, i opened mine and mine was all red with a white dot still in the middle.
the only time i can think of that it was in liquid was when it was sitting on a table that had spilled beer on it.. but i don't think that's enough to turn it red? it's not like it was a lot of liquid.. i was sitting on a wet table.. wtf?
well my phone works fine but idk if it will forever. hopefully it will because verizon probably won't replace it.
Jerryg50 @ Apr 14th 2007 3:49AM
I have a Blackberry 8703. It started to have dust or dirt getting under the display glass. I brought it in for service. They told me that the litmus dot turned red. The warrenty is void. I had this phone for only 2 months, and also paid for the extended warranty. The phone is working perfectly, except for the dirt behind the display glass. So, here I am with a very expensive 2 month old Blackberry, and I am told I have zero warranty! I never got this phone wet that I know of! Jerry G.
Sandy @ May 2nd 2007 6:32PM
I have a V3 and its battery chargeing reciever died. I took it in to get it fixed, which is covered under factory warranty...but Oh Gosh, that damn red dot. I KNOW I DID NOT GET WATER DAMAGE TO THAT PHONE.
My guess is that because it was a "free" phone, that they recoop their money by putting very sensitive litmus paper on these phones. I bought the insurance but they are telling me it will cost $95.00 to have it replaced. Hmmm...that's quite a bit more than what I paid for it.
That's corporate america for us...I guess they're fighting back ...lol.
Cindy @ Nov 21st 2007 10:27AM
I recently had trouble with my Razor phone and took it to a Sprint store. The technician opened the back and told me it has water damage? The dot inside was red. I have never gotten this phone wet and was confused as to how this could happen. I work in a call center and found 19 people that had this same phone. Out of the 19 people - 18 of them had a red dot. The one person who did not have a red dot just got her phone a week before. What are the odds? We are all looking forward to watching the one white dot. Maybe a class action suit is in order?
pa @ Nov 25th 2007 3:54AM
My 6288 has been well looked after and lived in my pocket / desk / or bedside table, and has been used to make calls. It has not been rowing on the lake, to a sauna, in a pint, through fog, or swimming with the fishes.
The screen failed and the tech report from Nokia came back saying liquid damage, tough luck no repair, no warranty.
If that phone fails through normal everyday use it is not fit for purpose.
leyla @ Mar 11th 2008 2:46AM
my cup of coffee felt on my cell, and i tried quickly to dry it, but still it acts like crazy, and worst people cant hear me from it, but my water proof dot is white, do u think i have chances of excbanging it?, please help T_T, it doesnt has water on it, im totally sure. otherwise i have to buy a new one which totally sucks cause i just had this for a month and a half and it will be my 3rd razr on a year T_T
Nicole Crawford @ Apr 14th 2008 9:29PM
You should check out the LDI on a Sony Ericcson W300i. There is no "dot" at all! Underneath the latch for the back cover there is an opening about the size of 2 ballpoint pen heads that you have to look through to look for a hint of color back behind. The guy asked for a "dot" under the battery and I told him there isn't a dot at all and he just said okay and sent the refurbished phone. By the way, it was not exposed to any moisture. I was furious when I got the "You lied to us" charge of $115. I would gladly have bought a refurbished phone for less than half that but since I knew there was no water damage and no red "dot", I became a victim. I am whole-heartedly fighting it.
Seth Terpstra @ Jun 6th 2008 12:20AM
For those of you with RAZR v3m phones that have red indicators (the dot below the battery) I figured out a good way of outsmarting the system, though I am not sure if there are indeed more indicators deeper inside the phone.
If you want to restore your warranty (albeit dishonestly--though my dot turned even though my phone was never really wet) carefully peel off the red dot, you should do it with your fingernail so there are no scratches in the plastic. You should make sure all traces of red are gone, use a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol to dissolve the adhesive.
Get a white envelope and use GLOSSY tape (not plain matte scotch tape) and tape an area of envelope's flap opposite the lickable glue seal, smooth the tape down. Then use a standard size hole punch and punch through the flap, be sure the little round piece you punch out has a shiny coat of tape on top and the envelope glue on the bottom. Carefully dab or lick the bottom and stick it right where the red dot used to be.
Now you have a white dot that looks just like the indicator before it was activated. Best thing is it won't ever turn red!