Fried ...Note II

[Ian Canefire]

Hi All,
I am new to this forum and this is my first post. I want to share my experience with the Note II.
My Note II stopped working yesterday. It was stuck on a screen that just kept showing "SAMSUNG" and then it would show "SPRINT" and a yellow swirling graphic would show up. I tried the hard reset taking out the battery and replacing it and hard reset...no dice.
I bought the Note II the first day it was available at my local SPRINT store. It served me well up until yesterday. I did not buy insurance. I had it in a case (never dropped it).
The SPRINT corporate store close to me is where I had to go to get another one. They charged me $35. They said it was fired. My choice was shipping it to SAMSUNG and getting it fixed under it manufacturers warranty (2 days shipping, 5 days of repair and 2 days return shipping at the most) or pay $35 to get a new one since the store did not have any refurbished ones to trade out!
In order to save time and to make sure I had a phone for the Holidays I chose the $35. Now it gets interesting...they said they don't know why it would happen but it was probably a site I went to and picked up a virus! However the technician was not sure and the two stores I went to (the initial place I purchased from and that corporate store) both stated they had never seen the problem I came with.
I am going to add insurance ($11/month). I can assure you all that I have not gone to any crazy websites, I am not a gamer other than angry birds. I only had a bloomberg finance app, Ebay, Amazon, Amazon price checker and the Angry Birds games on my phone. I mainly used my phone as a way to read on my commute and to read at night in bed. I would plug it in at work at around 3 pm when it would start to get a low battery and once I got home.
So beware...something is out there or the phone was a lemon.

Cheers,
Ian

 

[AgentR]

First, it'd be impossible for them to know the cause without really testing the phone, a process that would be very nearly as expensive as their losses on the bad device anyway. So supports & techs tend to make up probable stories that have the advantage of seeming reasonable.

It could have been a virus.
It could have been a component failure.
It could have been a power surge while it was charging.

Just no way to really know.

The only thing that is certain is that it is a computing device, some small percentage of which will always fail within a short time of being brought into service; and in those cases you save yourself a lot of time and value if you just replace it and try not to worry about it.

 

[jim8193]

In order to save time and to make sure I had a phone for the Holidays I chose the $35.

I am going to add insurance ($11/month).

Hmmmm ... $35 for a brand new replacement phone ...
... or, $11 a month for insurance ---- maybe, time to do a little math : x4, x10, x16 months ...
... think I'd take the $35 option every time ...

... & :ditto:to AgentR's evaluation of the Tech's response ...

Nonetheless - glad to hear they got it worked it out for you --- relax & enjoy ...

 

[ceva321]

$35!!! wow...........why would you even think about it???

 

[septembersrain]

I've actually read something similar. The person used a non-oem charger and it caused hardware failure. That, In turn, caused the software to fail too. So the phone no longer fully booted up. I've noticed this phone doesn't react well to any charger but the one it came with.

If you never used a different charger, I've got no idea! =/

 

[SupperDroid]

Did you get to keep the old one?

 

[Ian Canefire]

I was not able to keep the original one. However I did get to keep the original ones battery, headphones and power cable. So now I have two of each of those items.
They said I will not be able to get another phone for that $35 deal at that location. That location happens to be the nearest corporate owned facility(thus it has a repair department).
The $35 was the fee for the repairs. I guess in the future I could always just send the phone to Samsung if within the years manufacturer warranty.
I will have better peace of mind spending the money.
Good luck to us all.

Cheers
Ian
PS I only used the samsung charger.

 

[ScandaLeX]

I was not able to keep the original one. However I did get to keep the original ones battery, headphones and power cable. So now I have two of each of those items.
They said I will not be able to get another phone for that $35 deal at that location. That location happens to be the nearest corporate owned facility(thus it has a repair department).
The $35 was the fee for the repairs. I guess in the future I could always just send the phone to Samsung if within the years manufacturer warranty.
I will have better peace of mind spending the money.
Good luck to us all.

Cheers
Ian
PS I only used the samsung charger.

Hi and welcome to the forums.

The fact that you were able to walk in uninsured and walk out with a brand new $35 Note 2 is a gift many of us wish could happen to us.
You my friend definitely came out of this on top so I wouldn't complain.

And like AgentR said, Sprint or any carrier tech for the matter, has no idea what could've happened to your phone.
They like to sound as though they know what they're talking about and since you didn't know either, they come off as believable.
ANYTHING could've caused the malfunction- anything!!

I'm glad you added the $11 for insurance cause this could've cost you $600 for a new phone had they not been willing to do it for $35.
Now that you have insurance just know you won't pay $35 again but whatever the deductible is. ($150.)