[dZired]

And this is why I love Sony. The earphone jack in my xperia SL stopped working last week. It also had developed a white spot near the left bottom of the display in June, but I was living with it due to lack of time. Went to the service center and to my surprise they gave me an entire new unit after keeping my cell for just two days.

Well coming to your dilemma, as many fellow bhpians have already suggested, option 1 would be the best pick.

[Grr7]

Originally Posted by venks

My problem is I am not confident of the repair job done by the service center folks. The whole motherboard issue might be due to faulty repair work done by service center guys while replacing the connection port as motherboard failed after a day.

I might be the odd one out here. But, as far as I know, even Apple provides a refurb unit (and not a brand new one) for warranty claims. It is just that apple keep on collecting the faulty units and batch process them at once at some chinese facility while samsung's approach is to repair every individual unit.

I agree with your point that putting motherboard failure to a screen replacement(that too from Samsung A.S.S) by samsung is total crap.
Regarding the repair job, might be the service guy wrongly diagnosed some connection port failure for charging issue while the underlying issue could be motherboard faltering. And if they are replacing your motherboard, your phone would be as good as new.

Regarding loss of faith in samsung. You could sell it at the same price as any other 8 month old Samsung galaxy s3 model and go for another phone. Take it as an opportunity to try out the newly (India) launched Nexus 4 or HTC or good old Apple.

Regards

[AbhiJ]

venks, what is the issue with a motherboard replacement? The process is simpler than having the screen changed. Just a couple of screws and connectors and you are done. Its a routine thing. If you motherboard is changed, 99% chance is that any faults in the phone will go away with it.

My Samsung S2 developed a wifi fault 6 months from purchase. The swapped the mobo and it worked perfectly for 1.5 years after that. It still does, and I have that as my backup phone.

I have had service issues with Iphones too, and Apple India does no repairs locally. But thats about to change ..
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news...sts-rep-366381

[AbelAFC]

And here's me thinking Samsung have good service.

What your heart says : Send it to the Samsung CEO, and the return address should be the HTC CEO's address.

What you head says : Change motherboard and use it.

I may be wrong here, or that's just my head and heart talking,

[amitk26]

Apple replaces and gives you a refurbished unit because they do not have local service facility setting up chain of local service centres need volume and time.
Why exactly you think HTC , Samsung and LG should do the same.

Read terms and conditions of warranty if you have not read before .
I am sorry you stand no chance in Court of law as warranty commitment is add per warranty terms and conditions promised at the time of purchase and not by what comptetion provides.
Get the motherboard replaced that is best course of action you have.

[Bluebeem]

Originally Posted by amitk26

Apple replaces and gives you a refurbished unit because they do not have local service facility setting up chain of local service centres need volume and time.
Why exactly you think HTC , Samsung and LG should do the same

Apple doesn't repair their phones anywhere around the world. They replace them irrespective of the volumes in that country.

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by Bluebeem

Apple doesn't repair their phones anywhere around the world. They replace them irrespective of the volumes in that country.

Don't they say it's refurbished unit ? What is refurbished if not repaired.
Running any kind of manual repair operations is extreamly costly exercise in usa.
Cheaper is to send them to China and get them repaired enmass imho refurbish is word used for this.
In India local repair shop is cheaper option and this was considered as reason for sucess of Nokia in past in local market.


In any case what Apple does is orthogonal to warranty of another manufacturer as per law.

[Bluebeem]

Originally Posted by amitk26

Don't they say it's refurbished unit ? What is refurbished if not repaired.
Running any kind of manual repair operations is extreamly costly exercise in usa.
Cheaper is to send them to China and get them repaired enmass imho refurbish is word used for this.
In India local repair shop is cheaper option and this was considered as reason for sucess of Nokia in past in local market.

In any case what Apple does is orthogonal to warranty of another manufacturer as per law.

I think you are mixing up the 2

There is a huge difference between a refurbished unit and repaired one. That is why only apple replaces your phone with a refurbished one rather than doing what Samsung does I.e open up the shell and "repair" the same phone right there n then.

Refurbishing carries a huge cost no matter where it's done. Repair is cheap. And you said apple isn't repairing because of volume considerations.

Apple puts the old motherboards through rigorous testing and then puts them into an entirely new shell. And they do not repair any motherboards in non working conditions. They simply replace the whole thing.

Please google this. Repair and refurbish are very different things.

[deathwalkr]

If the motherboard is being replaced under warranty then go for it. If they are asking for monies then send a legal notice.

Just be glad that it is not a device tough to repair or they would be asking you for money to give you a refurbished unit!

Get the board changed, get the warranty extension, sell it off Something tells me you will not be satisfied and this will keep eating into your mind.

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by Bluebeem

I think you are mixing up the 2

There is a huge difference between a refurbished unit

Apple puts the old motherboards through rigorous testing and then puts them into an entirely new shell. And they do not repair any motherboards in non working conditions. They simply replace the whole thing.

Please google this. Repair and refurbish are very different things.

So as per your description apple additionaly gives a new shell on repaired motherboards ?
So wants better a repaired mb in new shell or new mb in old shell ?

But I have my doubts on your description, I have seen the manufacturing process.
Motherboard is very complex to carry out repairs. Soldering in not manual and it is simply not possible to carry out board level repairs ( except peripherals like vibrater motor mic or speaker)

Let me tell you one thing no brand service centre repairs motherboard.
In modern smartphones motherboards are simply not repairable.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by Bluebeem

I'd take option 3.

This may sound funny, but if the CEO route doesn't work, I would mark an email the CEO and CC it to the CEO of apple india and LG india. Just to put Samsung to shame. Lol. Seriously.

Love this one man.

I had a Nokia N900 - an absolute gem of a phone. The damn thing ran out of battery every 6 hours. Took it to Nokia Care in Bangalore and they found the fault with the hardware itself and replaced the phone. Yes, it took about 2 weeks that was the only problem.

Comparing Apple to any other company is rather useless in terms of ownership experience atleast.

[Octane_Power]

Originally Posted by dZired

And this is why I love Sony. The earphone jack in my xperia SL stopped working last week. It also had developed a white spot near the left bottom of the display in June, but I was living with it due to lack of time. Went to the service center and to my surprise they gave me an entire new unit after keeping my cell for just two days.

In this respect I'd like to say that BlackBerry is one brand which really pampers its customers.

A BB has a 1.5 yr warranty and in this period I've myself witnessed 4-5 cases amongst my friends where they have got their phones replaced with a complete new one.
Say, already in a few months of ownership, they have phones with scratches all around the body, few keys not working, scroll pad problem so they give it to BB service center for repair and after a few days what they have is a completely new handset (read - not repaired).

And this they repeat 2 more times until their warranty is over. I still regret why I didn't do this, given my BB is showing some problems now and the warranty is over :(

-Bhargav

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by venks

My problem is I am not confident of the repair job done by the service center folks. The whole motherboard issue might be due to faulty repair work done by service center guys while replacing the connection port as motherboard failed after a day.

Read this.

Originally Posted by AbhiJ

venks, what is the issue with a motherboard replacement? The process is simpler than having the screen changed. Just a couple of screws and connectors and you are done. Its a routine thing. If you motherboard is changed, 99% chance is that any faults in the phone will go away with it.

Make it 99.99% its like you got a new device. Impacts do cause issues in mother board, so they might not be 100% wrong in diagnosis. Happened to my HTC.

Originally Posted by F150

Your expectations of receiving apple (USA) like service in India are unrealistic, welcome to INDIA.
Your case is already weak, physical damage to the phone.

Infact apple India is much more generous, most often they dont have refurbished pieces and i have seen people get completely packed new piece.

But they are brutal if you take it with liquid damage etc. Will be blindly refuse. Physical damage a bit of persuasion helps.

Originally Posted by Grr7

I might be the odd one out here. But, as far as I know, even Apple provides a refurb unit (and not a brand new one) for warranty claims.

As i said in India if you are lucky you get brand new piece.

Originally Posted by Grr7

I agree with your point that putting motherboard failure to a screen replacement(that too from Samsung A.S.S) by samsung is total crap.
Regards

Again it can happen, a residual issue which cropped up. Maybe the opening and closing of the device also triggered it. You never know, these are complex miniature electronics part that get damaged quite fast.

Originally Posted by amitk26

Read terms and conditions of warranty if you have not read before .
I am sorry you stand no chance in Court of law as warranty commitment is add per warranty terms and conditions promised at the time of purchase and not by what comptetion provides.
Get the motherboard replaced that is best course of action you have.

Yup ^^

Originally Posted by Bluebeem

Apple doesn't repair their phones anywhere around the world. They replace them irrespective of the volumes in that country.

Originally Posted by amitk26

Let me tell you one thing no brand service centre repairs motherboard.
In modern smartphones motherboards are simply not repairable.

Yes these days its straight replacement of these parts, parts are cheaper and much easier to swap than to sit and repair.

But there are local shops who can do this, you will be amazed at their capabilities. Sometimes very jugaad stuff also.

Originally Posted by pratyush6

I had a Nokia N900 - an absolute gem of a phone. The damn thing ran out of battery every 6 hours. Took it to Nokia Care in Bangalore and they found the fault with the hardware itself and replaced the phone. Yes, it took about 2 weeks that was the only problem.

You are lucky, i have had terrible experience with Nokia. They have taken me for royal rides!

[Bluebeem]

Originally Posted by amitk26

So as per your description apple additionaly gives a new shell on repaired motherboards ?
So wants better a repaired mb in new shell or new mb in old shell ?

But I have my doubts on your description, I have seen the manufacturing process.
Motherboard is very complex to carry out repairs. Soldering in not manual and it is simply not possible to carry out board level repairs ( except peripherals like vibrater motor mic or speaker)

Let me tell you one thing no brand service centre repairs motherboard.
In modern smartphones motherboards are simply not repairable.

I think you need to read my post again. I'm also saying what you're saying.

And please google this. You don't need to doubt my description.

[carzone]

I too would suggest you to move on with Option 1.

Get the motherboard changed and then sell it off. No point in going into consumer court for this matter. Samsung will just put a point that they were ready to replace the faulty part and that is what matters. You can definitely argue to give you a stand-by phone till your gets repaired.

Are you sure that the communication port was at fault for the phone taking utter long times to charge. A friend's S3 had the same issue and was solved by just replacing the charger. He had carried out an experiment with another charger, with which the phone charged pretty fast. Went and showed it to the service centre, and he gets a replacement of the charger after a week(no stock of a charger!)

I once had a similar experience with Micromax, the brand which is not known for it after sales. Had bought a qwerty phone from a store around 3 years ago, which had a faulty radio(fm) hardware. This was confirmed just the next day after buying the phone when it was given to the service centre. I waited a couple of days, but later went there and argued a bit and was given full refund. Went and bought a samsung phone which has not given a problem till date. Touchwood.

My option, go with the motherboard replacement as it is just as new. They are Replacing the motherboard and not Repairing it.