Database Develop

Warranty Exchange, Be Careful!

I took my Tilt into a walk in Warranty Exchange location in the Atlanta area and had a very BAD encounter.
My phone would hang at the AT&T screen. They took my info and said have a seat. He came out and ask me if I charged my battery over night, I said yes. He then told me that charging the battery over night had damaged my battery and I would have to buy a new one for $47. I got very upset and challenged him to show me in the users manual where it stated that, he could not.
I protested until he returned my old [perfectly good] battery to me and swapped out my phone.
I took the new phone to my car and made a call to check it out. The sound had a bad buzz in so I went back inside and ask for another phone.
He took the phone and some how brought up a screen with thin lines all across it and said "You have cracked the screen in two places, you will have to pay for this phone." I went ballistic because I knew he had given me a phone with a cracked screen. The cracks are not detectable unless you bring up the screen with thin lines.
I borrowed a phone and dialed 911 and had the police come. I had several witnesses that I only had the phone for 5 minutes and had not dropped it.
They gave me another phone to keep me from filing fraud charges against them.
Bottom line:
1. When you bring a phone in for exchange, make them check it in front of you for screen cracks and water damage.
2. Put your name on your battery so they can not change it with a bad one.
3. Check for screen cracks, water damage, and other physical damage(USB plug) on the new phone in front of them.

wow thats messed up. You should of taken the guys name down and called it in to At&t.
I had to warranty exchange my device for a broken ExtUSB plug and it was a hassle free expereince. Guy looked at my phone,asked me if i needed to back anything up, was walking out with a brand new device in 15-20 min.
I would definately call and file a complaint against the guy. Even threat to report them to the Better Business Bureua if theres one in your area.

I agree with being careful, but I have to say
I have had the same experience as fone_fanatic. I'm in Atlanta as well, and have used one of the walk in centers near my work three times in the last year. Once for my Tilt, (because I broke the mini usb with the stylus) and twice for my wife swapping out RAZRs. They've always been very good guys to deal with. I expected trouble about the usb port, but there wasn't any. I told them it wouldn't charge, and they came back in a few minutes with a "new" Tilt. I even did the "debloating" of the ROM at the counter in front of him.
When my wife complained that she didn't want a third RAZR, the tech said he could only exchange for the same phone, but told her to call the 800 number, and told her what to say to the phone support people to get another model, so now she has a shine.
Anyway, I'm sorry you had an A-hole, but I think most of the techs ther are decent people.

I had the USB plug issue, which actually will ALWAYS happen eventually, due tot he HTC port not being standard. Good news though, 2 returns of a tilt and they [warranty] gave me a free fuze, which, although having the SAME port as the tilt, comes with a dongle from HTC that has a standard port on one end, an HTC port on one end, and a mic port also, pretty nifty.

corrosion like damage on g1 inner case/ Need advice on possible extent of damage

Hello, my first post here and i'll be honest, i haven't done much research or searched this forum (fresh problem, not enough time), but believe that my problem might be unique so please bear with me.
The phone in question is in lithuania - is locked to T-mobile, the seller will try to unlock it, i almost bought the phone but couldn't figure out course of action to unlock it since i'm neither Tmobile customer, neither have receipt for this phone, furthermore i found corrosive like damage under the back cover of phone.
What worries me is lack of PN SN barcode sticker in picture 01 (i wasn't comfortable to post numbers i found there, so i blured them out), "molten" plastic damage seen in all 3 pictures, copper something sticking in picture 02 below camera (i believe it may be bluetooth or other antenna) and overall opinion about extent of damage found here. Otherwise the phone looks fine on the outside, touchscreen works, no dead pixels, minimal bruises on case.
Origin of phone is from USA, guy bought both of them there (one for his wife but she didn't like this "brick"), his own phone also sports deformed plastic inside, but seems to work so i'm at loss here, what may be the cause of this deformation, is it normal or what..? Dealer seems like honest guy who may actually be duped himself...

How much did you pay for that? Were these issues made clear pre-sale? Did you get it off eBay?
That is not normal at all. As well, with no serial # and the semi-stripped screws I would bet the phone is either a) refurbed or b) stolen/made of stolen phones. I don't know of many refurbished phone sellers that remove serial #'s and FCC labels that are reqiured by law to be on the device.

to pjcforpres>>
i almost bought it, the seller was honest enough to return money, will try to unlock then we may meet again and try to check is phone working at all.
Considering new like appearance of outside he was surprised himself (i won't judge him, returned money afterall, almost got duped myself).
I haven't bought it from ebay, because couldn't find anything on ebay that would be of reasonable price and send to lithuania (we are known of failure, i won't deny) - was tracking few days ago developer phone on co.uk, but friend with excelent feedback couldn't even attempt to bet because lithuania is a no no
The phone came with american like charger - it is possible that it was stolen in USA and sent here or sold to the poor guy back there. As i mentioned above, his own phone sports damage though he uses his phone just fine. About missing SN stickers.. well ... what can i say?
Phone price goes 540 lithuanian money with going course (3.4528 Eur, 2.3758 $) approx 156 Eur or 227$. Issue about unlocking was told beforehand, i haven't predicted that it could pose a problem.

As long as you got your money back. You might want to try calling a seller/emailing an eBay seller and seeing if they would sell to you on the basis they don't ship until the payment fully clears, I would bet most retailers and some eBay sellers would be willing to work out/accept something along those lines.

If you ask me it looks like somebody tried to glue the back cover on...

To me it looks like it got run over by a truck...

[Q] I just bought a TyTN II

Greetings
I just bought a TyTN II from ebay.. I thought it would be a nice addition to my ever so small collection of PDA's, and it was relatively cheap.
Here's the link (remove spaces):
ht tp://c gi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260569169356#ht_3409wt_1276
Now, the seller claims it to be 100% oem, but I'm not completely sure.. In case it's a knockoff, I'll use Paypal to get my refund
So my question is, what do you guys think? is this the real deal, or just another fake TyTN II? I've heard about the knockoffs, but I havn't seen anyone.

You call that cheap? That's the real deal though.

yeah well, it's about 1/4 of retail price back in the days it's not too bad for nice little gadget like that
the auction doesn't display any photos of the actual phone, but I'm pretty confident that it's a legit OEM phone by the description, price and the claims made by the seller that it's "100% brand new & genuine or money return", even though it ships from HONG KONG
Anyway, what would a knockoff be like? and what's the price for one of those? What would one look for, in order to spot the knockoffs?
Cheers

Sorry for bumping this thread, but can anyone else confirm this is the real deal, so I can have some peace of mind?

Show us some real picks of it and we will tell you 100%
We know about this phone not the knock off's. If it doesn't look like the one in the pics then it's not what it says it is. It's a 3 year old phone, I wouldn't worry so much about knock off's.

Well, that would be like getting a picture from e.g t-mobile of the specific device you're gonna order. The seller is a powerseller with several (10+ in description) htc tytn II's.. When I ask him he keeps reassuring me that the phone is as described with official specs and pics from HTC and that it's 100 % brand new & genuine.
Would you feel good about this, or would you prepare for a full refund?

Well, I just got my Kaiser Eventhough it's a KAIS100, it has a front camera in addition to the rear-facing one. HTC could confirm it was the real deal, but... i think about the ONLY thing OEM in the package was the phone.... There were 3 chargers in the package (none of which fit !!!!) and i'm not too sure about the battery which said DynaPack on the outer side, and had å chrome-like inner side.
and btw, the battery is behaving weird. the phone takes a very long time to charge. lets say i have 50% battery, and i start charging for 30 min, and i end up with 55% battery.. then i reset my phone, and upon boot i all of a sudden have 82% (for instance)... i don't know if it's just old, or fake..

hanskl said:
Well, I just got my Kaiser Eventhough it's a KAIS100, it has a front camera in addition to the rear-facing one. HTC could confirm it was the real deal, but... i think about the ONLY thing OEM in the package was the phone.... There were 3 chargers in the package (none of which fit !!!!) and i'm not too sure about the battery which said DynaPack on the outer side, and had å chrome-like inner side.
and btw, the battery is behaving weird. the phone takes a very long time to charge. lets say i have 50% battery, and i start charging for 30 min, and i end up with 55% battery.. then i reset my phone, and upon boot i all of a sudden have 82% (for instance)... i don't know if it's just old, or fake..
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I have had three batteries so far for my Kaiser. One was the " chrome type " back, that was the original and the other two were cheap replacement batteries that were all black except for the terminals. They all worked the same.
I would just buy a new battery , seeing as the phone is new to you. Might as well start out with a new battery too.. If HTC ran the serial number and says the phone is legit, I wouldn't worry about wether it is real or not.

DENNCCOOOO
What he said.

Well, it seems its actually a modified AT&T Tilt with a added front camera. Void seals were broken, I think both front and backcover is fake, and the voicedialbutton doesn't show a image of a "speech bubble" but PTT (which seems to be used on AT&T phones)

An ATT Tilt is still a Kaiser..

papabear said:
An ATT Tilt is still a Kaiser..
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Click to collapse
Ok, a Kaiser has a front camera, does the Tilt?
That's pretty strange, they replaced everything but the insides? The Keyboard isn't from a tilt (as far as I could tell).

ChumleyEX said:
Ok, a Kaiser has a front camera, does the Tilt?
That's pretty strange, they replaced everything but the insides? The Keyboard isn't from a tilt (as far as I could tell).
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Click to collapse
Yeah, very strange indeed. It seems as they took a tilt, put on a front camera, changed the housing and keyboard (it's not even a wwe keyboard - it has some chinese letters and other layout on the Fn-keys) and hspl'ed the phone with the first OliP0f hspl.... Either way, after confronting the seller, he did admit that it wasn't a unlocked HTC TyTN II, because they got the best prices on these phones from carriers... He also proposed to give me a 70 USD refund, and a HTC bluetooth headset as a compensation, after i expressed my dissapointment with the phone.
Well, i'm still not sure if the battery is OEM, and also if the housing and keyboard is OEM, but i guess i'll never know for sure

How do I know I got a new phone?

Is there a "life" counter like there was in old nokias where you couldnt reset it and it showed the number of minutes the phone was used (both incoming & outgoing) ?

Hm... check the IMEI, every motherboard / phone should have a unique number.

EarlZ said:
Hm... check the IMEI, every motherboard / phone should have a unique number.
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I bought a new phone and I have a feeling it is not new.. thats why I want to know.

oholic said:
I bought a new phone and I have a feeling it is not new.. thats why I want to know.
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Ah.. there are lots of signs if a phone is used, a bit hard to put it into words but when you get it you can really tell.

I alway look for the protective film on the screen to be perfect, I have never had a new phone that isn't. I also look at the accessories and their packaging and if there have been any tamper stickers removed from the box. A friend once bought new N96 from a well known web site that was in actual fact was reconitioned, no protective film on screen and the box had already been opened. But sorry I do not know how to check the phones software.

Its pretty hard to find it through firmware, because a firmware flash resets almost everything. Even in old Nokia phones you can reset the lifetime counter.
Check the manufactured date of the battery, if its only few months old (i.e Oct or later) then chances are the phone is new. Other than that you have to rely on physical signs, condition of the accessories and box. What about the screen protector ? It comes with a screen protector that has some logos printed on it, make sure its there and no dust particles are trapped underneath (an indication that it has been removed and placed back again). The box also has a seal, but most stores breaks it to check for the contents and put warranty stickers or put SIM cards in. Other than that the the phone usually has a fresh new plastic smell.
Its relatively easy to spot a used phone when you carefully examine it, for example if you can find dust under the battery door, in speaker grills , or see fingerprint smudges etc. The battery is usually shipped half full, if you find it dead or 100% charged that might indicated the phone has been used before (at least for a brief period). Also take a closer look at the charger especially the power pins. These are some of the ways you can check, but none of these are guaranteed ways to make sure.

I think you need to enter engineer mode to see some sort of life timer.
You can also check the battery's contact.

ROOT your phone, get root explorer and check system folders creation dates. My oldest files are december 2010 and i bought phone in january.

icsterm said:
ROOT your phone, get root explorer and check system folders creation dates. My oldest files are december 2010 and i bought phone in january.
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Good idea!

Getting new Captivate.. What do I look out FOR?

Hooray!! Sold my Black iPhone 4 16GB AT&T for $440!
Now getting a Captivate used 3 days old for $175 off some dude on Craigslist. Price is about $190-ish where I am, but those are used.
What do I look out for, guys? (Things I know include
- Water damage indicator on battery (but he can replace battery, right?)
> Is there a water damage indicator like on the iPhones that would help me out more?
- Use touchscreen, try all areas
- Check for dead pixels
- See if camera, 3G, wifi, bluetooth work
- See if speaker works for sound, microphone if I get a chance
Anything else guys? One of the more important things I think is a water damage indicator other than the battery?
Thanks a lot XDA! (And I ordered a microsim adapter TODAY!)

Anyone can help me?
10 char

If it has water damage I would not even buy it.

When you get it, go to Settings/about phone/status to check to make sure the IMEI number matches the number that is behind the battery on the white tag. I have seen on here before where someone buys a captivate from ebay or craigslist and the previous owner screwed up something while flashing custom ROMs and now the phone has a generic IMEI number which means it may not work as a phone anymore.
If the IMEI # in settings is showing a number beginning with something like 004, dont even think twice - DONT BUY IT.
oh, yes, and what jetpuck73 said above - water damage = do not buy.

jack man said:
When you get it, go to Settings/about phone/status to check to make sure the IMEI number matches the number that is behind the battery on the white tag. I have seen on here before where someone buys a captivate from ebay or craigslist and the previous owner screwed up something while flashing custom ROMs and now the phone has a generic IMEI number which means it may not work as a phone anymore.
If the IMEI # in settings is showing a number beginning with something like 004, dont even think twice - DONT BUY IT.
oh, yes, and what jetpuck73 said above - water damage = do not buy.
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Thanks VERY MUCH for that, something I did not know.
And lol maybe I said "water damage" too much, but he said it is brand new and NOT water damaged.
What I wanted to know is HOW to check. There is one on the battery, correct? Any on the phone itself too like iPhone?
Thanks for info!!

gyromanx55 said:
Thanks VERY MUCH for that, something I did not know.
And lol maybe I said "water damage" too much, but he said it is brand new and NOT water damaged.
What I wanted to know is HOW to check. There is one on the battery, correct? Any on the phone itself too like iPhone?
Thanks for info!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sticker I am refering to is actually on the phone, under the battery. Another thing I would look for on the same sitcker is the build number. It is a 4 digit number beginning with either 10 or 11 mayber with a "." in the middle (i.e. 10.07, 10.08, 10.09, 11.01, etc.) If you use GPS at all, I know for a fact (and from hands-on experience) that Captivates with the number 10.07 have CRAPPY gps reception.
I wouldn't worry about numbers on the battery itself. I don't think there is a feature on the Captivate that indicates if it has had water damage.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=873276&highlight=silver+speaker
If it has this mod, buy it without question. *Sarcasm*

It hasn't been clear, so to be clear: yes there is a water indicator on the phone. Plus another on the battery. Its by the battery contacts.
The other problems you originally mentioned aren't known issues. So far I have yet to hear a single dead pixel on a captivate. But checking can't hurt, same with wifi, bt, gps etc. One thing I will say is that sometimes the screen appears to have burn in, in the notification bar. If you pull up an all white picture can can sometimes see shadows of the notification bar, clock, signal, etc. Its not an actual burn, its residual energy or something, there have been a few threads about it. It will usually go away after a reboot. So, if you see what appears to be slight screen burn at the top its fine.
Sent from my Captivate running Continuum 5.6

Alright thanks a lot for the info!!