A note about warranty claims
blazer said:
I was expecting to hear that if I wanted it fixed, I would have to pay full price... but the Verizon Tech on site looked at it, kinda smiled and shook his head, then said "We have an app for that" that Verizon will charge me US$50.00 for a replacement phone but they had to send it out from their distribution site.
Guchi said:
wish i would have waited and took it to verizon instead of filing insurance. i'm probably getting a refurb too
I'm a warranty service agent with a different carrier (and we use Asurion for INS claims as well), and I just wanted to clarify a couple of things about how warranty/insurance works (which is pretty much the same on all carriers in the US, to my knowledge at least).
1.) Any type of liquid or physical damage (like a fractured screen), will
always put the phone out of the manufacturers warranty. It is up the to carrier if they will provide replacement handsets--and under what terms and conditions they deem fit--in situations where a phone is deemed to be out of the manufacturers warranty. This can range from being based on Product Advisories from the manufacturer, advising of known incidental damage based on flaws in the design or manufacturing process, but not strictly being manufacturing defects (such as micro-fractures around the nav-button on the Palm Pre with Sprint, or the hinges cracking on the Motorola EM330 on AT&T); or it can be based on considerations such as market and-or mind share and ongoing campaigns--i.e., does it make good business sense to replace damaged handsets for $50, when it nets a positive feedback (i.e., "would you recommend Verizon to a friend") and a return customer base. In other words, I would never
bank on Verizon replacing an Out Of Warranty device for $50. Not a very smart move, imo. At some point, the cost of replacing the phone is going to outweigh the cost of just letting you bite the bullet--all things considered. So if you're not insured, or don't have some type of third-party protection (e.g., with Best Buy or similar), you may be SOL if you break your phone.
Just to be very clear, here is the pertinent warranty coverage legal-ise from the DROID manual:
Defects or damage that result from: (a) improper operation, misuse or abuse, accident or neglect, such as physical damage (cracks, scratches, etc.) to the surface of the product resulting from misuse; (b) contact with liquid, water, rain, extreme humidity or heavy perspiration, sand, dirt or the like, extreme heat, or food; (c) use of the Products or Accessories for commercial purposes or subjecting the Product or Accessory to abnormal usage or conditions; or (d) other acts which are not the fault of Motorola, are excluded from coverage.
2.) Even if Verizon is replacing handsets with physically damaged screens for $50, there is no guarantee that you are getting a brand new phone versus a factory reconditioned device. In fact, given the description above (replacement did not include back/battery), it sounds like a seed stock unit. This means it
may be a brand new device, it
may also be an overstocked unit, it may be a phone that was returned to the point of purchase 3 days after it was activated, or it may be a phone that was used for 3 weeks before it was returned. Neither warranty service, nor Asurion, can guarantee replacement of the defective/damaged phone with a brand new device. A "like new" device is guaranteed, but not necessarily a brand new device. Basically, you're not turning in a brand new device, and there is no guarantee you'll receive a brand new device. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. People hear "refurb" and automatically think "piece of junk." Not so. I've purchased several reconditioned phones, and done a couple of warranty replacements, and have personally found reconditioned devices to be indistinguishable from brand new phones. YMMY.