Dropped phone

[SavageRobot]

Well, it finally happened, I dropped my phone yesterday and have out a lovely hairline crack down the screen. Doesn't look too bad, I know a lot of phones when they crack have all the LCD leaking into a big mess and you can't see half the screen, but unless you look at it in a certain light at a certain angle you can't tell, just half the screen doesn't work from where the crack is.
Anyway, few questions now as I have never needed to claim on a phone before.

1. I have asked around about just getting the screen replaced and it will cost between

 

[El Presidente]

Who's your insurance with? We've just had to use our Halifax Bank of Scotland insurance to claim for Mrs Presidente's handset (it took a bath) and as it was deemed beyond economical repair, they replaced/upgraded it. I'm not sure if you could class a crack in the screen as beyond economical repair though.

If you're using EE's clone phone service, they are absolutely fantastic. Give them a call and they'll send someone round with a replacement phone and swap it out no questions asked. They even refunded the excess I paid when I returned my first, water damaged Z1.

I've had 2 Z1's replaced and my old HTC One X replaced with EE clone phone. With the One X, I was open and honest with the fact I had an unlocked bootloader and their response was along the lines of "your fault isn't related to whatever you've done to your bootloader and/or software related, so who cares".

If you are worried, you can easily flash any EE ftf to take you back to stock, but in my experience, they'll be cool.

 

[SavageRobot]

That's a relief. Yes with EE so looks like I will get a replacement phone. I assume that means I will get a refurbed phone? If so does that matter or are they in top nick and without fault etc? They won't be other phones that have had their screen fixed and no longer waterproof or something?
Were your Z1s rooted at the time of returning? I assume if they swap the phone there and then there won't be any come back about it anyway? Also I think malicious damage is covered, I assume if it is covered for someone picking it up and launching it at the wall it should be covered for rooting too anyway?
Should I just keep quiet about the cover being missing if they send a replacement or should I say it came off in the drop or something, or just say it went missing but not worth the excess?
I think when I get a replacement I will invest in a case this time. Did you manage to find a decent one that covered the important bits in the end?
Sorry about all the questions but in my time I have only tried to claim once and Vodafone had some sneaky loophole and got out of it, so I was tied in for another 36 months without a phone (they even asked if I wanted to carry on the insurance for the phone I no longer had lol).

 

[El Presidente]

The replacements should be without fault. Both my Xperia's were replaced within the first 2 months of the handsets launch so they were both brand new.

Whilst I've given back a rooted Xperia, it wouldn't turn on so they couldn't tell. The replacement I received was given back the day after I'd got it, and I knew as soon as I turned it on it was going back so I didn't bother rooting etc. The waterproofing failed on the first and it broke after I was taking some pictures in my fish tank. Its replacement had a hideous yellow hue to the screen so I knew as soon as the Sony logo flashed on the screen, it wasn't a keeper and it was replaced the next day.

With the One X, the rotation sensor stopped working. I was rooted and running a custom ROM at the time, so I used an RUU (a simplified version of flashtool and ftf files that return HTC's phones back to stock) to flash back to stock to see if the ROM was the issue and it turns out it wasn't. With HTC devices, even after returning to stock, when you access the bootloader, it displays ***RELOCKED*** in big red letters at the top of the screen so it's blatantly obvious that the device has been modified. I went in to the Orange store, explained the situation, showed the guy the bootloader screen, I got a knowing smirk and he called their tech support for me. I explained the situation again, that I was rooted etc, they said it was a hardware issue and it didn't matter, they'd send someone round tomorrow. I chose a delivery window the following day and the courier was round with a replacement handset pretty much bang on when he said he would be. At no point during the process was I without a phone (the same for all 3 replacements).

That was way longer than I expected it to be, sorry .

Accidental damage is fine, so technically, you could launch it off a wall and you'd be ok for a replacement. Re. the cover, I'd just be honest and say it happened before and that you didn't think it was worth the excess.

I didn't manage to get the exact case I wanted for mine, but I'm using this one at the moment: Nillkin Super Shield Shell Case Back Cover for Sony: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics (Mine is black)

It has a small lip around the screen which offers a little protection from falling face down. I can confirm this works as I dropped mine on the tiled, kitchen floor at work last night. It's easy enough to take off if you have the charging dock, but I picked up a magnetic charging cable too so I don't need to mess about opening flimsy ports or taking the case off all the time etc.

Anyhoo, tl;dr, just give EE a call, be honest with them and I'm sure they'll be fine. If you are paranoid, just flash an ftf file to take you back to stock before hand.

PS - Vodafone have screwed me over in the past too, that's why I switched to Orange.

 

[Stevenhomz]

I had the same problem i tapped mine on the dashboard of my car and had a hair line crack which made the touchscreen go haywire. I rang Sony and told them it happened in my pocket as we're no obvious signs of impact. I sent it to them for evaluation and a week later it returned repaired free of charge. It's worth a shot and you won't have to pay insurance excess. The worst that can happen is they say it's not covered by warranty and they will give you the choice of a paid repair. If you don't want to pay them to do the repair there is a