Help Cracked Screen

xIdkwtS · Jun 5, 2013

I have dropped my old electronics countless times and never suffered the consequence of having a cracked screen due to either having a case on or just complete luck. I dropped my GS4 yesterday (on my birthday too

) and of course...the screen ended up cracking. I had been waiting for my case to arrive and of course, it arrived when I got home later that day. The reason I'm posting this is because I would like to ask for help such as your opinions on what to do or how I could fix it in the cheapest way possible. I am a student in high school without a job so coming up with around $200-300 is something that would take months to do. Can any of you guys help or give me advice on what to do because I've never dealt with repairing or dealing with a cracked screen before. I have insurance with Tmobile and I purchased the phone around 2-3 weeks ago.

karen667 · Jun 5, 2013

If your insurance has accidental damage cover then that will deal with it. Check your policy or give t mobile a ring.

DanDroide · Jun 5, 2013

xIdkwtS said:
I have dropped my old electronics countless times and never suffered the consequence of having a cracked screen due to either having a case on or just complete luck. I dropped my GS4 yesterday (on my birthday too ) and of course...the screen ended up cracking. I had been waiting for my case to arrive and of course, it arrived when I got home later that day. The reason I'm posting this is because I would like to ask for help such as your opinions on what to do or how I could fix it in the cheapest way possible. I am a student in high school without a job so coming up with around $200-300 is something that would take months to do. Can any of you guys help or give me advice on what to do because I've never dealt with repairing or dealing with a cracked screen before. I have insurance with Tmobile and I purchased the phone around 2-3 weeks ago.

Sorry to hear that

I watched the DROP TESTS on YouTube and opted for the Otterbox Defender which came with my S4. I dropped it getting out of my car (day 1)...no problem. The next day (day 2), while my wife handing me a magazine, I dropped it again and I tried to save it (breaking the fall). To no avail, it hit the ground and took a 4 foot (funny bounce) and landed right in my dog's water bowl. The case protected it pretty well but I had gurgling in the earpiece. I took the phone apart and put it in rice for 24 hours. It fixed the problem totally but I did have to dig rice out of my charge port and ear jack hole.

lotus49 · Jun 5, 2013

It it the screen itself or just the digitizer? I dropped my iPad recently and the glass smashed but the display still worked. I was able to buy a replacement digitizer on eBay for

xIdkwtS · Jun 5, 2013

lotus49 said:
It it the screen itself or just the digitizer? I dropped my iPad recently and the glass smashed but the display still worked. I was able to buy a replacement digitizer on eBay for

lotus49 · Jun 5, 2013

xIdkwtS said:
I read somewhere that the screen and the glass are all glued together though, so would that cause a problem?

I haven't taken mine apart so I don't know whether that is true. If that is true then it will make it either more difficult or more expensive.

If they are glued together, it is possible to separate them. It's not for the faint of heart but the worst that you can do is break something that you would otherwise only have to throw out.

If you are not able to separate them, you will have to buy a new screen and digitizer. I don't know how much that costs but sadly it will be a lot more expensive. The LCD is the expensive bit

.

sincarafan · Jun 5, 2013

If you have Asurion through tmobile I higly doubt they cover accidental. You could look under your plans terms to be sure. I bought a plan with Square Trade because it does include accidental and has a $99 deductible.

xIdkwtS · Jun 5, 2013

I guess I'll see what happens when they get to my claim, thanks guys!

chris2k5 · Jun 5, 2013

Did you buy the phone with a credit card? If you bought it with American Express credit card (any of them except prepaid ones) then they cover you for accidental damage.

speedlever · Jun 6, 2013

chris2k5 said:
Did you buy the phone with a credit card? If you bought it with American Express credit card (any of them except prepaid ones) then they cover you for accidental damage.

^ This. And doesn't AE add a year of warranty to the factory coverage too? It's one reason I bought our phones with my AE card.

xIdkwtS · Jun 7, 2013

chris2k5 said:
Did you buy the phone with a credit card? If you bought it with American Express credit card (any of them except prepaid ones) then they cover you for accidental damage.

speedlever said:
^ This. And doesn't AE add a year of warranty to the factory coverage too? It's one reason I bought our phones with my AE card.

Actually, I did. I'll have to ask my family when I get home but thanks for the idea. I'll follow up with what happens.

chris2k5 · Jun 7, 2013

xIdkwtS said:
Actually, I did. I'll have to ask my family when I get home but thanks for the idea. I'll follow up with what happens.

It's pretty easy to do too.

You go to americanexpress.com
Then search claims under their search

Should bring to you a sign-in page and then you can fill out the page of what happened and such. Make sure you file it under the exact card it was bought with.

They will email you asking for a receipt. Make sure you fax or mail it in within 30 days.

They will credit the money back in about a week after they receive the receipt.

xIdkwtS · Jun 7, 2013

chris2k5 said:
It's pretty easy to do too.

You go to americanexpress.com
Then search claims under their search

Should bring to you a sign-in page and then you can fill out the page of what happened and such. Make sure you file it under the exact card it was bought with.

They will email you asking for a receipt. Make sure you fax or mail it in within 30 days.

They will credit the money back in about a week after they receive the receipt.

Does it only work with AE?

Grecho · Jun 7, 2013

chris2k5 said:
Did you buy the phone with a credit card? If you bought it with American Express credit card (any of them except prepaid ones) then they cover you for accidental damage.

wow, i didn't know this, that's awesome! so they basically refund the claim, and you can then buy a new one?

speedlever · Jun 7, 2013

Grecho said:
wow, i didn't know this, that's awesome! so they basically refund the claim, and you can then buy a new one?

That's a good question. Does AE refund the puchase price (subsidized price) or the cost of a new replacement?

chris2k5 · Jun 7, 2013

They will only refund the price that is shown on the receipt and what on your statement.
So if you bought the phone for $199 on a contract, they will only refund $199.

If you bought full retail at $650, they will refund you $650.

Doesn't make sense if they gave you $650 when you only spent $199 does it guys?

chris2k5 · Jun 7, 2013

xIdkwtS said:
Does it only work with AE?

Visa, Mastercard and Discover Cards claim having similar programs but they are scams in my opinion. They have a huge exclusion list and only cover you for a small amount of money. And they make you jump through so many hoops to get a claim done that you want to give up on the claim.

American Express covers up to $1000 per incident with the Green/Gold charge cards and any other credit card BUT if you have the Platinum like me, they cover you up to $10,000 per incident. The infamous Amex Black Card also gets coverage up to $10,000 per incident.

speedlever · Jun 7, 2013

Being a curious sort, I called AMEX about this issue and here's what I learned:
1) the AMEX card adds a year to the existing year of warranty coverage
2) damage or theft of the device is covered for the first 90 days of ownership

Coverage is as Chris2k5 states: amount of purchase only. It is not a replacement program.

So while not as good as I originally thought, it's still better than nothing. My wife and I do not participate in the provider insurance coverage. However, the two kids DO participate in this coverage.

xIdkwtS · Jun 8, 2013

Well, this sucks. Turns out the phone was bought with a Visa. Although it was said that their program is more difficult to go through when compared to AE, would it be worth trying?

tastycaramel · Jun 8, 2013

xIdkwtS said:
Well, this sucks. Turns out the phone was bought with a Visa. Although it was said that their program is more difficult to go through when compared to AE, would it be worth trying?

Just give it a shot.

xIdkwtS · Jun 8, 2013

One question: would your credit card company automatically be protecting you through this or would you have to sign up for it prior to the accident?

tastycaramel · Jun 8, 2013

xIdkwtS said:
One question: would your credit card company automatically be protecting you through this or would you have to sign up for it prior to the accident?

You would have to sign up for it. If it's automatically protecting, the credit card company would filed for bankruptcy sooner or later.

lotus49 · Jun 8, 2013

tastycaramel said:
You would have to sign up for it. If it's automatically protecting, the credit card company would filed for bankruptcy sooner or later.

Are you sure about this? Although I have never claimed I had understood that it's automatic. Most people don't even know about this so I doubt very much that the occasional claim would have any material financial impact on organisations like Amex.

trparky · Jun 8, 2013

Asurion should cover that along with theft.

xIdkwtS · Jun 8, 2013

Eh, I guess that option is out the window then.

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