My Xperia Z broke itself!#
Mid June I was notified by Vodafone that I could transfer my Crazy John’s service and to sweeten the deal, I could upgrade early. I checked out what was available and the Xperia Z had the best specs and kept me on the same plan I had previously. The real big tick in Sony’s favour was the fact there was a factory supported unlocking method, the usual caveats apply but I’ll vote with my wallet every time (are you listening Samsung!).
I’m a massive gadget geek and I must admit I love my Xperia Z. The size is great, the screen resolution (1920x1080) is awesome, takes great photos for a phone and the cpu is nice and fast leaving me as a mostly hassle free CyanogenMod nightly build user.
However a week ago… :-(
So how did it happen? Did I drop it? Well no, I set my alarm put it on charge and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up and it took me a little while to wake enough to work out why I couldn’t turn off my alarm. Once waking up properly I noticed the crack and the fact that to the right of the crack the digitiser no longer functioned.
Now I had a bumper case and screen protectors waiting for my shiny new toy to arrive, when I originally ordered it. So I was quite flumuxed to find my screen cracked, for all intents and purposes unsuable. After recovering from the intial shock, I did what any good geek would do; search the internet! It did not take long and I found numerous examples of the same issue.
So off to Vodafone I went, after showing the shop assistant the details of the issue; He noted that the device apart from the crack and a couple of light marks on the back, the phone was almost spotless. Unfortunately he may not have been aware exactly how ridgid their Repair Centers policies are. I noted the status of the repair changed to ‘Awaiting Customer Response’ I gave them a call, which resulted being informed that without formal notification from Sony all physical damage is not covered by warranty and that I have to pay $350 for it to be repaired. The representative couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to pay and said I would have to take it up with Sony.
I called Sony, to which their response was they would need to to assess the phone at their service center. Which required rejecting Vodafone’s quote and getting the phone shipped back to me. So I have the device back and am waiting for shipping details from Sony’s service center. By time the phone gets back to me It will have travelled ~16,000kms (Both Sony’s Mobile and Vodafone’s service centers are on the East Coast and I live on the West Coast)!
I’ll add updates as I get them, but I do hope Sony come to the party here. It’s inexcusable for a screen to break seemingly of it’s own accord, I would completely understand if I dropped it or stood on it and it broke; However that is not the case here.
UPDATE 2014-08-06: Fonebiz finally received my device. As a private individual I had to ship it via Road Freight (Had a lithium ion battery, so considered dangerous goods…) so it took a week. I should have spoken nicely to the warehouse guys at work, they have the necessary approvals and qualifications to do so. Aus Post info here.
UPDATE 2014-08-09: It’s fixed! Took them no time at all, it was shipped the day after they received it and I received it the day after that. Very happy. The only things weren’t replaced were the rear cover and Main PCB. PCB due to have been flashed with non Sony firmware, I’ll leave my issues with that aside for now as that was something I knew upfront before purchasing the device. Some support for the modding community is better than none.
