[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shaneveeg:
Samsung will not repair mine under warranty.

I've read here that at least a couple people have said that they sent the phone in and it was send back good as new no charge. Some countries in Africa have special replacement warranties, but I think these users were in the US.

I was not so lucky. The initial inspection was written that the damage was physical and not covered.

I just talked with a first level tech who was only able to take payment or send the phone parts back to me. I asked to have the call escalated and then waited 25 minutes and spoke with someone who had a thick Indian accent and a poor phone connection but was otherwise very professional. The other support technicians have had clear American English speech up to that point.

All of the support I've received from Samsung has been very professional and polite actually. Almost to the point of being irritating as they keep asking if there is anything else they can help with after I tell them all I want is for the problem to be covered under warranty and they can't do that. :)

When I asked the advanced tech if he could escalate the call again since he is not able to make the decision to provide the repair under warranty, he said that he could, but that anyone he escalated to would only offer the same options of pay for repair or take back parts. So I opted to leave the phone with Samsung for the moment and possibly call back and pay for repair tonight.

I was also very respectful with the techs. It truly can make a difference in how they decide things if they just don't like how they are being treated. I explained how I thought the issue was a defect because it should not have broken with no known physical impact and no external evidence of impact. But he was powerless to change the decision that was made before I even called.

*Off Topic*

I used to work at a helpdesk for a huge international consumer printer company in the 90s. We supported maybe 10 models of printers and multifunction printer/fax/scanners. The one that caused us huge problems was a new Multifunction. It would constantly clog the inkjets if it wasn't used daily. This became costly for customers, but we also sent out hundreds of free cartridges a day when it seemed like they were full, but clogged due to this product not sealing properly or something.

The company had statistics on this problem, and they worked to correct it for the next model. But at no point did they just flat out admit that this was a manufacturing "defect" even though as techs we talked amongst ourselves about how it should be recalled if they can't fix it. It was the one issue that every tech on the floor knew was a problem and we did what we could to keep the customers happy when they landed on our phones.

*Mostly back on*

Samsung seems to have that same sort of thing going on with this issue. It's not that every single S4 is going to get a cracked LED with no abuse. But if average smart phones get damaged in this way 1 in 2000 phones, this phone might be 1 in 100. That's why this thread has dozens of people missing the point with their "I have one and mine didn't crack. I think you must have done something to yours". You are the 99%.

A defect that causes even 1% of a device that is sold in the millions to be broken too easily can either be a big problem for the big company, or it can be a small source of profit through repair centers. Sell it for $600, sell part of it again for $175. The expensive engineering is already done, just run off more copies! I think Samsung is riding that line. And to continue doing so, they can't let on that they know it's a manufacturing defect.

The above is my speculation. Please don't misunderstand and think that I know anything about the real numbers they are dealing with. I don't. I only know that a damage so specific, and one that shows no evidence of user mishandling causing it, must be something particular to the way the device is made. It's not happening with other smart phones in the same way.

Like most of the posters here, I have never broken a phone since I got my first one in 97. I'm very careful of the small glass and plastic $600 mission critical communication device I carry with me everywhere and sleep next to at night. It's not a kids toy and I treat it well.

But this one broke anyway. Nothing I could tell that I did. I texted someone then put it in my pocket, then took it out a half hour later to text again, and it was cracked. In that half hour it was in my side pocket where my phones always have gone for many years. I didn't sit on it. I didn't practice kung fu while carrying it. On inspection in very good light, one would see that it had zero damage of any sort to the exterior. Yet the interior AMOLED was cracked with a spidering series of cracks from the upper corner.

I'm afraid that if I pay for the repair, I will lose any ability to reasonably report this to the BBB or go over options with Amazon or Verizon. But I very much want a modern working smart phone back in my possession.

*Responses to common objections in this thread*

1.) "It's made of glass and it's expensive, you have to be careful or you will break it."

a. While very pretty, it's not a piece of fine crystal to be kept in a cabinet for the light to gleam off of it. It's a "Mobile" phone. Being in a pocket is a huge part of it's job. The large majority of mobile phones do not break randomly while in a pocket. The fact that this model has some percentage that do is what this thread is about.

2.) "You bought it. Don't blame the manufacturer for your decision. Just don't buy it again."

a. If it was a loaf of bread that I paid two dollars for and I found that it was dry and tasteless bread, I wouldn't call the bakery. I would just not buy that kind again. If it was a car that I enjoyed driving, but the engine fell out while it was in the garage overnight, I would definitely call for the problem to be fixed under warranty. I would also probably not buy another one. This phone situation is somewhere between those scenarios.

3.) "You must be lying. There is no way a phone can break without someone doing something to break it."

a. I would be tempted to agree. But a phone evidently can break itself as mentioned by several people here who found theirs broken after being on the charger overnight, or sitting on the table with no movement in between uses. My guess is that there may be an issue with tension on the thin glass that makes up the amoled. It may also have to do with heat, perhaps from charging, perhaps from sunlight hitting the phone while it sits on a table.

a2. Even if something physical did have to happen externally to such a device to cause it to break, it obviously wasn't much if the entire outside surface of the phone is still flawless and only the inside LED is damaged. Just as I have a reasonable expectation that a car be able to drive over the bump at the threshold of my garage without the engine falling out, I have a reasonable expectation that my mobile phone should be able to be bounced around in my soft pocket or charged overnight, or allowed to rest in a place where the sun might shine on it without breaking inside.

4.) "You didn't mention my argument that X"

a. If I missed your particular reason that I'm being ridiculous, I apologize. I really tried to cover the 900+ comments in this thread somewhat completely. But I didn't mean to offend anyone through neglect.

So, while I'm enjoying writing all this, I realize it's a bit much. I'm going to give some thought to how much effort I want to put into getting this resolved. It will be more than the $175 cost in effort if I decide to go BBB or build a website specifically to gather together consumers with similar problems for some sort of class action. But it could be rewarding in other ways. And I get really worked up when I feel like someone is abusing their power and being unfair like I think Samsung is doing with this issue. If it feeds that part of me that gets excited about making a positive change in the world, I might just have at it.

I'm very interested in hearing any more stories of how Samsung has dealt with this issue for others.

In the mean time, my phone sits at Samsung's repair facility. The 5s is looking pretty attractive.