Can repair shops know my phone is rooted?

[HXC]

So basically my phone wouldnt charge anymore. and it is rooted... I erased everything and plan to go back to 2.1 PC36img. When i send my phone to sprint , can they tell its rooted? My hboot says S-On which indicates no root. Will they even check? Im getting a new one in the mail and just wanted to make sure

 

[Evoixmrftw]

No they can't tell and no they won't check unless you give them a reason too.

 

[HXC]

Yeah ok im safe then. Waht about it being on 2.1 when stock is 2.2

 

[Evoixmrftw]

Yeah ok im safe then. Waht about it being on 2.1 when stock is 2.2

Like I said they shouldn't check, buy if your worried, just update to 2.2.

 

[HXC]

Like I said they shouldn't check, buy if your worried, just update to 2.2.

I tried. I tried force from sdcard and from recovery and it said signature verification failed. And i cant get it OTA

 

[Evoixmrftw]

I tried. I tried force from sdcard and from recovery and it said signature verification failed. And i cant get it OTA

Hmmm...that's a little beyond me. Hell if they ask why your still on 2.1, just tell em you were getting better battery life than on 2.2

 

[HXC]

Hmmm...that's a little beyond me. Hell if they ask why your still on 2.1, just tell em you were getting better battery life than on 2.2

I dont think they will considering a technician checked it and confirmed it wasnt rooted and no hardware problems cause he really didnt care if it was

 

[Evoixmrftw]

I dont think they will considering a technician checked it and confirmed it wasnt rooted and no hardware problems cause he really didnt care if it was

Yeah your fine then. Hope the next one is better!

 

[HXC]

Yeah your fine then. Hope the next one is better!

I hope so... I dont want any problems

 

[Rylando]

I don't know if my words matter to anyone, but when I got my EVO (the Monday after release) I spoke to the sales guy and asked about root and OTA and all that. He told me that I was paying $500 for phone and $110 a month for my plan and Sprint didn't really care what I did to my phone as they were getting paid either way. I just don't see why everyone worries so much about Sprint knowing if the phone is rooted or not but again, that's just my story.

 

[HXC]

I don't know if my words matter to anyone, but when I got my EVO (the Monday after release) I spoke to the sales guy and asked about root and OTA and all that. He told me that I was paying $500 for phone and $110 a month for my plan and Sprint didn't really care what I did to my phone as they were getting paid either way. I just don't see why everyone worries so much about Sprint knowing if the phone is rooted or not but again, that's just my story.

Yeah im not sure. But i just want everything to go rite

 

[Mr. Ed]

I don't know if my words matter to anyone, but when I got my EVO (the Monday after release) I spoke to the sales guy and asked about root and OTA and all that. He told me that I was paying $500 for phone and $110 a month for my plan and Sprint didn't really care what I did to my phone as they were getting paid either way. I just don't see why everyone worries so much about Sprint knowing if the phone is rooted or not but again, that's just my story.

plain and simple answer...most sales people are going to tell you whatever they think you need to hear to close the sale....

when it comes return time it's a whole nother story and it's your word vs theirs...and if you did something that is clearly outlined as being a no no in the warranty then they are going to deny it in a heartbeat.

like stated above...some have had no issues at all..others have

 

[Thefoodman52]

Hell, the guys at our Sprint store love it when I come in. I always have something nifty they don't usually see running on my phone. =D

Some stores have Nazi repair techs and managers though... and won't take as kindly to seeing that you've made the phone better and voided the warranty, lol.
If you're not sure about it, and you've got some kind of hardware issue you need to take it in for, just flash a stock ROM and they won't be able to tell a difference. If it's a problem (that you can't fix, or something that was just software glitches not caused by you *loop back to you can't fix*), then chances are they won't be able to see you're rooted anyway.

 

[ovrrdrive]

If you do something to your phone while rooting it that causes a warranty claim then I think they might care. If it's a hardware issue I don't see how it's relevant.

I was in sprint yesterday looking at upgrades and I told the sales person I was rooted. He didn't seem to care.

 

[RetiredFinally]

When I bought my Evo I activated my Hero on another line and since it was rooted they could not transfer my contacts nor activate it. I went back home and reinstalled Fresh and all was well. They get their money and that is all they care about but they will blame root for issues in software you might have.

 

[Rylando]

plain and simple answer...most sales people are going to tell you whatever they think you need to hear to close the sale....

Some stores have Nazi repair techs and managers though... and won't take as kindly to seeing that you've made the phone better and voided the warranty, lol.

I know it's semantics, but the talk I had was at a repair center and took place as my screen protector was being applied, after the sale. Both you guys make excellent points and I suppose it's up to the returnee to take the chance or not. Maybe Foodman and myself are just lucky, but then again I haven't had a need to return to the store.

 

[wrapkgb]

So basically my phone wouldnt charge anymore. and it is rooted... I erased everything and plan to go back to 2.1 PC36img. When i send my phone to sprint , can they tell its rooted? My hboot says S-On which indicates no root. Will they even check? Im getting a new one in the mail and just wanted to make sure

I don't understand why you don't just unroot using the most current 2.2 pc36img? Or the RUU

Why do you insist in using the 2.1 pc36img???

 

[flyjbaker]

I am curious. They should not be able to deny you warranty service on something that is totally unrelated to the phone being modified....like a hardware failure in this example. Is there any legal precedent??? In the car world, we always relied on the Magnusson-Moss Act. Basically, no matter how modified your car is, it should not void the warranty on something like an electric window motor. I do believe this act would apply to phones as well. IOW, the fact that your phone has been rooted should have no bearing on whether the warranty work should be accepted/performed since it is a hardware failure and has absolutely nothing to do with the phone being rooted. Obviously in cars, there is a bit more at stake. But that Act is very general and covers all products that have warranties.

 

[Palmetto Fellow]

If you get the everything data plan at $79 for the EVO, then Sprint can hope to earn:

$1920 in revenue over the course of 2 years

A $200 ETF will tell them where to put it. Would they risk the revenue? If early in the contract, probably not. If late, who knows.

 

[Wingzfan61]

If sending the phone to Sprint then yes unroot it. If the tech who evaluates it has a bad day because his home life sucks then he can cause you issues and since the phones gone you have no chance to fix the problem. If going to a store then really dont worry too much. Tell them up front its rooted and you'll know right there if you need to either go to another store or unroot it.

My local store happens to be real cool about this. Ive personally rooted about half a dozen sales guys EVO's as well as a few techs (shocker that the "techs" didnt know how to do it, right). When I bought my wifes new phone the sales guy took mine around the store and in the back to show it off cuz they hadnt seen one done before. Pulling up the Verizon NFL app during the football game was like christmas morning for those guys.

So general rule of thumb, if your sending your phone away put it back to stock but if going to a store, 90% of the time you dont have anything to worry about. Plus if they bitch, go to another store.

 

[Caloy]

I wouldn't risk it. If my phone was rooted, I would unroot when I'm going to have it serviced at a sprint service center. Not that they would not honor the warranty/insurance, but more of what Palmetto Fellow have said. You wouldn't know what the tech is feeling, heck he can be lazy and just say that he won't service it since it's rooted.

It's simple enough to unroot and if you backed up your data, it's easy enough to restore it.

 

[RaiderNations]

If you do something to your phone while rooting it that causes a warranty claim then I think they might care. If it's a hardware issue I don't see how it's relevant.

I was in sprint yesterday looking at upgrades and I told the sales person I was rooted. He didn't seem to care.

Are you looking at getting a EVO? Or something else??

 

[xtravbx]

I have never had a Sprint store care that my phone was rooted.

 

[ovrrdrive]

Are you looking at getting a EVO? Or something else??

I'm torn between the epic and the evo. My wife has an epic and I'm still on my moment until about 2 weeks when I get upgrade discounts. I'm leaning towards the evo though as I'm a heavy navionics user and need a woring gps and want the larger screen. I'm probably going to get an evo and run them side by side for the first month and decide then if I'll keep it.

 

[Tanker]

Not trying to redirect the thread but heres a newbi question..... What is rooted mean? Is it upgrading the operating system thats not offically released yet?