• jaschen@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Don’t go to any authorized repair center unless it’s still in warranty. Those people don’t care about you or your things. They are obligated to service you. Any 3rd party repair person has to work triple as hard and give you double the service to win your business.

    • KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      As someone who used to work at and Apple and Samsung authorized repair center, it’s not that we don’t care. It’s that Apple and Samsung control every single thing we do and will fine us for deviating from their rules.

  • sudoku@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    Your fault for buying a phone that doesn’t respect you: it has efuses (knox). Buying a regular Android phone that lets you fully restore it without a trace is the way to go.

    • x4740N@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Know any good brands then that have gold hardware because I like phones with large oled screens that have good hardware but haven’t found any phones that fit that yet

      • scoobford@lemmy.zip
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        10 months ago

        This is a hot take, but get a pixel. The hardware is more than good enough for basically any phone use case and you can install grapheneOS.

        The battery life could be better, but it will last substantially more than a day, so complaining seems a little pointless to me.

        • x4740N@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I will consider it when looking for my next phone but my current Samsung is still functioning so I don’t want to get a new phone until that one kicks the bucket

    • Vuraniute@thelemmy.clubOP
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      10 months ago

      where can I get a good phone like a pixel or fairphone or whatever in greece? phones like that cant be found anywhere.

    • money_loo@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      This is true.

      I’m also wondering what OP was wearing when he took the phone in for repairs, seems like he was asking for it.

  • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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    10 months ago

    It’s illegal for them to do that, BTW. They have to prove magisk damaged your battery.

    I ran into this with Dell when they tried to claim after market RAM was the reason a CPU core wasn’t responding to interrupt requests.

    All it took was asking for the diagnostic data showing that the aftermarket RAM caused it to get the warranty repair approved.

    You just gotta push back until they cave. Maybe ask for their mailing address for your FTC report or for the number to their legal department (most call centers are terrified of escalating anything to the actual company).

    But, don’t directly threaten legal action, because they’ll stop the call right there.

    • db2@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It’s illegal for them to do that, BTW. They have to prove magisk damaged your battery.

      And you have to be able to afford those rights. If you can’t afford to sue them then you’re screwed.

      • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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        10 months ago

        If you read further, I give suggestions on how to do that without a lawyer.

        It’s going to cost the company more money to call their lawyers than just doing the repair, so it usually doesn’t even take a ton of push back.

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        That’s where the arbitration clauses they make you agree to are actually helpful.

        THEY have to pay for arbitration. You don’t need an attorney, and generally they’ll just take care of you because it’s cheaper than hiring an arbiter.

        • funkycarrot@discuss.tchncs.de
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          10 months ago

          Isn’t forced arbitration when the jury deciding on the case is on the payroll of the company you’re having the problem with in the first place?

          • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Not exactly.

            It’s when there’s a third-party arbiter. In the case of customers seeking damages against these companies, the arbitration agencies are paid for by the company, but often there’s a list of arbiters the complainant can choose between.

            My personal strategy has always been to pick the most expensive one so that whether I win or lose, the company stags to lose more money on the process than by simply making me whole.

            The real reason for forced arbitration is because it makes DIY class action suits impossible.

            Otherwise, a company with a class action waiver would find themselves facing 10,000 cases from the same law firm instead of 1 case with 10,000 plaintiffs.

            With forced arbitration they can skip out on the cost process entirely and make the defendant do more leg work.

            And, importantly, there’s no precedent with arbitration. Losing the first case doesn’t necessarily snowball into you losing the next 9,999 cases with identical facts.

  • Mahonia@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I once tried to do a relatively basic repair on a phone, and ended up really breaking it. Like the touch screen won’t work because I broke some shit on the motherboard that now requires micro soldering broke it.

    So I send it to a repair company that allegedly does some micro soldering, and they call me to tell me they can’t repair it because their diagnostic utility doesn’t work unless it’s the stock OS (I’ve been a GrapheneOS user for many years). What they do is… wipe my data and then tell me it’s not the screen so they can’t repair it.

    Then I sent it to an actually good repair shop and they fixed it very quickly, easily understanding the problem. Good repair companies aren’t easy to find but damn are they worth it. They’re almost always smaller shops and they do not GAF what you do with your phone’s software.

  • PhreakyByNature@feddit.uk
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    10 months ago

    Samsung have been trying to dodge honouring under warranty for years - check the comments for how much work had to be put in to get them to honour it. It pays to fight sometimes.

  • ReakDuck@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    My battery broke earlier because I installed GrapheneOS and abused speed charging thr entire time at night.

    A stock android would slow the battery charge till the first Alarm.

  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    That’s illegal under the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act.

    Send them a certified letter. Inform them that they need to prove you caused the damage, repair or replace your device, or you’ll be taking them to arbitration.

    They generally have to pay for the arbiter, so it’ll be cheaper to just replace your cheap phone even if they win.

      • Armand1@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        You can’t void your warranty by rooting your phone. They claim you can, but that’s only their extended warranty, not that statutory one.

        • sphfaar@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Even in cars it’s the same thing, if you tune it they don’t know where to look since it’s no longer the same, On rooted android you can install things like Advanced Charging Controller to fuck your battery, and many software that manage performance/temperature.

          • Dempf@lemmy.zip
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            10 months ago

            Maybe so, but under the Act, the burden is on the company to prove that the modification directly caused the failure in question.

            They can’t just deny deny for no reason. But that’s the tactic as consumers are largely unaware of their rights under the law, and they typically get away with it until the FTC sends a bunch of nasty letters telling them that they’re breaking the law. See “warranty void if removed” stickers.

            There’s some good discussion of this very issue in this article from a few years back. They touch on the sort of “overclocking” situation that you’re talking about.

            https://www.vice.com/en/article/yp3nax/jailbreaking-iphone-rooting-android-does-not-void-warranty

            In my personal opinion, even a modification that can be used to push the hardware to operate beyond it’s design limits doesn’t inherently void any part of a warranty if it’s not used for that purpose. Let’s think through a few examples.

            Does obtaining root on a Windows PC void the hardware warranty since it’s now possible for you to install a kernel driver that lets you overclock?

            Does the presence of MSI Afterburner installed on a machine void hardware warranties? Regardless of whether you use it for overclocking or just for graphing and monitoring?

            Does installing Linux on a PC that you own void the hardware warranty?

            In my mind, the car example is a bit different. I don’t quite know what you mean by “tune”, but I’m going to assume it’s something like ECU remapping. To me, remapping an ECU seems similar to the act of overclocking, since you’re modifying the physical inputs to the engine itself. And I can see how out-of-spec physical inputs could cause irreversible damage to an engine. But that doesn’t mean that every conceivable ECU modification would be grounds to deny a claim for engine failure.

            (Disclaimer: I have no experience with ECU remapping so I’m making some assumptions)

            As another example, let’s say your car comes with an ECU that has some security mechanisms to prevent reflashing. Could the manufacturer deny a warranty claim on engine failure just because you circumvented the security mechanism? Even if you never remapped the ECU parameters?

            What if your ECU fails, and you decide to install a 3rd party ECU. The new ECU has no security mechanism preventing you from reflashing, but the map that it comes with, while provided by the 3rd party, is functionally equivalent to that in the stock ECU. Can the manufacturer deny a warranty claim on an engine failure, just because without the security mechanism you could have reflashed a new map designed for more performance than stock? Even if you didn’t? Could they deny the warranty due to the 3rd party map? Even if physical inputs to the engine stay within safe parameters?

            I think you do raise a good point about the logical connection that Samsung could make between the modification (root) and the failure (battery). But the point I’m making is: the legal burden is on them to make that connection, and show how one caused the other.

            On the other hand, some of the questions and examples that I raised are admittedly messy, and might not have a clear answer unless tested by a court.

            I guess what I’m saying though is: if the cost to seek legal relief here is relatively low (e.g., arbitration or small claims), then if I were OP I would probably go down that route, personally, and make arguments based on Magnuson Moss.

            IANAL

            Edit: just saw elsewhere that OP lives in Greece. Looks like the legal principles are pretty similar when it comes to warranties in the EU. The burden is still on the manufacturer to show that the modification caused the failure in question.

            https://fsfe.org/news/2023/news-20230807-01.en.html

            • sphfaar@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Yes, by tuning I meant ECU remapping or installing aftermarket parts.

              btw like anything to contest, legal action is only worthwhile if the profit at least covers the lawyer’s fees and the time lost, unfortunately.

          • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            But under the Act, they have to show that what you did caused the malfunction. The burden of proof is on them.

            It’s why “warranty void if removed” stickers on products are unenforceable in court.

  • a9cx34udP4ZZ0@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    If it’s still under warranty, they HAVE to unless they can prove your modification caused the system to fail. It’s no different than the silly stickers that say “warranty void if removed” - that’s a nice fantasy for the manufacturer, but at least in the US it’s been ruled those stickers mean absolutely nothing. If they’re refusing to fix a phone under warranty, contact your local AG and enjoy watching them squirm. Loop in the FTC for good measure.

    https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/businesspersons-guide-federal-warranty-law#Magnuson-Moss

  • kadu@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Here in Brazil the hardware and software are technically two different products, in such a way that you can’t deny a hardware warranty repair due to software modifications. That’s the good part.

    The bad part is that manufacturers do that anyway because they know you won’t pay the legal fees to challenge this in court. This strategy mostly pays off. If you’re particularly annoying, or somebody from our customer protection watchdog happens to take interest in your claim, the company will fold and repair the modified device for you eventually.

      • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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        10 months ago

        This kind of thing is illegal in mist eu countries but they also dont enforce it like in brasil. Iirc norway enforces it because a bunch of people sued samsung together.

        • Pringles@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          I have never heard of this kind of thing being an issue in EU countries. If your warranty is still good, they’ll simply fix/repair it without issues. Of course that’s purely anecdotal.

  • smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de
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    10 months ago

    An ideal phone:

    • Fairphone 4/5 like build
    • Unlocking the bootloader without asking manufacturer for the code
    • Access to the flashing and pairing tools from the factory to eliminate bricking
    • U-boot, Coreboot or similar sane bootloader
    • (Close to) mainline Linux support for the components, to enable “lifetime” updates and OS freedom
    • Optional: headphone jack and SD card slot
    • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
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      10 months ago

      What a dream… But sadly it probably won’t happen. They manages to establish this shit as a standard and that’s it.

      Imagine PCs would be like that too. Would anyone buy them if they couldn’t install EVERYTHING? Or delete or change system-stuff/-apps? Or just go and install Linux? Or win? Or both?

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    10 months ago

    If magisk still works like custom stuff in the days of old, settings could very much change battery draw and charge rates that could cause premature wear of a battery.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        10 months ago

        I’m sure, but how are they actually supposed to know that? You unlocked your bootloader, installed something like twrp, and obtained root access to jiggle with anything you want at that point. I used to have a lot of fun doing all that type of stuff, but I knew I voided out my warranty doing it unless I could still roll it back to factory and remove root, first. Not to mention dealing with knox.

        • BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk
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          10 months ago

          Except legally the burden is on Samsung to prove you damaged the battery. They don’t get to say “oh well you could have done xyz, denied”

          • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            No, it’s not. That’s an impossible standard for the company to hold.

            You buy the product under the assessment that you will void the warranty by doing XYZ, if you want that level of access you have made changes that could have damaged the battery and they don’t have the time to grill every wannabe tech douche to make sure they didn’t fuck up the device themselves.

            They tell you what you can and can’t do with the product AND still receive support up front, case closed.

    • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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      10 months ago

      So does installing a app that plays videos. Since watching videos drains more battery than say a typical phone call.

      This argument is weak at best.

      • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        If you rely on lies to protect freedom, you will not be able to protect it. Magisk allows to modify kernel parameters.

          • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            There is no gap between those, for something like this that poses no threat to life. Pick a different phone brand than Samdung. I never recommend such a horrible mainstream brand for good reasons, and privacy is not the only one. If people are enticed by Good Lock and are okay with everything else, enjoy the rest of the baggage that comes with it.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        10 months ago

        Any video apk you install can’t consume more than what the kernel allows for. It can’t change throttling parameters, cant change apu speed, and it can’t change how fast the battery can be charged or the upper limit it will charge to. All apks can only do what they’re allowed to do, and it’s a lot less than what flashed phones and custom kernels can do. Right now, for instance, your phones battery never actually charges to max capacity, or discharges to minimum capacity before powering down. Your “100%” is actually more like 90%, but it increases the batts lifespan because the most damage done to lithium batteries is at the high end and low end of what it can hold. Same for all the fast charge stuff. Fast charging is bad for the batt. That’s why even if you’re using the fastest charge option on your phone, by the time you hit around 50% it starts slowing the charge rate down. The phone is programmed to do that to save the battery from degrading quicker. A custom kernel and OS could change that.