My Cracked Screen

[dp135]

Originally Posted by BAMF1500

same as everyone else from the button up the screen in a multiple crack fasion

That area seems to me to take a lot of pressure with always pressing it and with sliding the keyboard. Of all the issues, this one scares me because if it is not a recall type thing, the deductible on insurance is 100.00.
This phone is so growing on me each and every day but cracking screens
by folks who have not seemingly done anything unusual is worrisome.

[ImmaSlave4U]

I have walked 5-10 miles since I got my phone and it has been in my front pocket. I haven't had any crackage, thank goodness.

[pshah]

how many of you got your phone replaced by Asuriance and how was that experience. I am expecitng my phone tomorrow.

[cme]

Originally Posted by pshah

how many of you got your phone replaced by Asuriance and how was that experience. I am expecitng my phone tomorrow.

I called today so i am waiting for the phone also.

[bballintom22]

Originally Posted by pshah

how many of you got your phone replaced by Asuriance and how was that experience. I am expecitng my phone tomorrow.

Got mine on tuesday, claim was on sunday afternoon. I had to call several times to make sure i was getting the Pre though, with customer reps nowadays its just a standard you gotta double check their work. But as promised i got mine very fast. Oh and sprint will be crediting the 100 deductible back on my acct after me tellin them of what's happening to many people's screen.

[james415]

I am really sorry to hear about all of the trouble you are all having. I feel a bit bad because I am using your experience to save myself the trouble. I got a call this afternoon that my reservation would be in tomorrow. It looks like that is not going to happen.

I would like to make a few points though. I have had an iPhone for a 2 years now. The operating system is a real pain, but it was great for the time. I think WebOS really has it beat by a mile. I have been using my office mates constantly this whole week, so I feel like I can make an informed opinion.

That being said. The iPhone hardware is amazing. It is like a tank. I have no protection of any sort on it. I don't even have a case. I carry it in my front hip pocket everywhere. I have dropped it, had it dance off the table on vibrate, spilled water on it, carried it with keys and coins, basically everything over that last few years (this was a long sentence). My girlfriend has done even worse (no respect for shiny objects). Basically, I use it like a tool that I really don't care about. It is definitely not my baby, it is how work calls and ruins my dinner every night.

Anyway, after 2 years of abuse, both of our phone look like they were just bought last week. Mine has a tiny scuff in the shiny logo on the back but that is it. Screen=perfect. Aluminum back=perfect.

There is no excuse for these phones to be breaking like this. Don't let sprint make you feel bad for having the temerity to *gasp* put it in your pocket. That is where it belongs.

I can forgive a buggy OS, it is new, that happens. The hardware is another story. There is nothing new there. Not one thing on that hardware is innovative. The entire draw is the WebOS and that is fine, but let's not pretend like there are bugs to work out of the design. That is what the engineers do. There is no excuse for not making a piece of plastic that does not have so much internal tension that it is begging to break. I am an engineer, I see this stuff happen at work all the time, but you work it out before saying "OK, were done".

Well that is enough of a rant. I hope you all have better luck with your replacements. I will remain jealous of you Pre owners for now.

By the way, there is a reason that only the iPhone is glass. Corning developed the process to create a capacitive touch screen on a glass pane a few years ago. Apple has the exclusive rights to this initial revision of the screens, so you will not see it anywhere else. The good news is that Corning has recently completed another version which, in their words, makes the iPhone panel look like "the stone age". This will likely be adopted by several companies, now that it is a proven concept. Remember, everyone thought it was a stupid idea at first.

Cheers,

James

[jayandlo1999]

Sorry for the delay but I have an update on my particular instance. After several calls to CS, online chats and multiple visits to the sprint store (with my 3 kids in tow, no less) I finally got a replacement phone without paying the deductible. It ended up that the manager basically took the position that according to the rules its an insurance issue due to physical damage but "I'll go ahead and take care of you". Fortunately a shipment of a few pres came in today and I went back and picked mine up this afternoon.

I am still very concerned about the durability of this phone. Maybe its an extremely small percentage of phones that are affected, but if I have this problem again, I will be returing it and going with something else. After all of this I hate to think that, but carrying a phone in your front pocket (of a loose scrub top) is enough to deem the phone inoperable than this I guess this is not for me.

Ironically, I had encouraged a friend of mine and her husband to go with the pre over the iphone. We had been discussing the pros and cons of each for several weeks. He was interested to see what I thought after getting mine on saturday, they got their phones on Tuesday. During one of my visits today, he shows up while I am still in the store to return their 2 Pres. They didn't have any cracking, but seeing what happened to mine and hearing about the flack I was getting over it they decided it wasn't a great investment. He had also seen similar issues on forums. They love the phone but think waiting for some improvements might be a better idea.

They may be right, but who knows, maybe that was enough to prove my point and get me a replacment.

We definitely need to get this issue to the forefront.

Good luck!

[Conceyted]

Someone needs to CONTACT PALM and see what they have to say about this. Insist on speaking with someone of value over at Palm so you can really get your point across and report back with their response. Maybe we should just take to their forum.

[quahtrader]

Originally Posted by Conceyted

Someone needs to CONTACT PALM and see what they have to say about this. Insist on speaking with someone of value over at Palm so you can really get your point across and report back with their response. Maybe we should just take to their forum.

Over at palm.com forums, I've noticed that on some threads, there seem to be "official" Palm employee replies, etc. However, there are no Palm employee replies to the cracked screen thread.

I don't think we will get any official input or acknowledgment from Palm on this - unless or until it turn into a full out recall/replacement announcement.

Unfortunately those of us who ended up with a "free" replacement already are probably on the fence about complaining any more as we don't want to bite the hand that fed us. - I don't know.

Bottom line, if this is really a defect, we will be hearing about it in the next few weeks or so...

[StormChaser]

Exactly...something smut be wrong, or it's just a weak design. I've carried my Treos in my front pocket for YEARS...never once had a problem...and no, I don't use a case.

[wlmoore]

My sympathy to those who are experiencing the cracks. A few points.

If you didn't purchase Asurion TEP when you purchased your phone, it's not too late. You have up until 30 days from purchase to add TEP. I don't have that in writing; it's what the Sprint associate told me when I asked. (Now I see the mood here is that probably this issue shouldn't require TEP, but just letting you know you have that option, and of course it'll cover other problems too). I picked up an Asurion flyer in the Sprint store on launch day and it has an ominous Photoshop of a Pre with a shattered screen...prophetic?

As to the cause, I don't know much about plastic or materials so this is pure conjecture, but I wonder if the button hole is drilled (or reamed or bored or whatever the right term is) in the manufacturing process. Seems to me drilling could introduce some micro cracks that are invisible at first but could spread over time. Could be exacerbated by button presses that put pressure on the screen there. Could also be exacerbated by temperature changes. It does get pretty hot.

I just examined our two Pres with a 10X magnifying glass. Thankfully I didn't see any cracks. With the light just right, even with the phone off I could see a lot of interesting detail like individual pixels and a really fine criss-cross pattern of wires connecting a grid of dots--probably the touch screen mechanism. I think there's a good chance that if there were cracks, even really fine ones, I could see them. If you have a magnifying glass, take a look. Maybe it's a problem you can catch early. Do it under a bright light so you can see everything.

[lisaaa1]

This has also happened to me i was walking around the mall and had the phone in my pocket when i went to leave the mall i went to check my phone and couldnt unlock it so i thought it froze reset it and realized the 3 cracks coming from where the button is to the top of the screen took it to the sprint store and they told me the screen was cracked and told me to take it to a service repair center. i did absolutely nothing to crack the screen.

[quahtrader]

Originally Posted by wlmoore

As to the cause, I don't know much about plastic or materials so this is pure conjecture, but I wonder if the button hole is drilled (or reamed or bored or whatever the right term is) in the manufacturing process. Seems to me drilling could introduce some micro cracks that are invisible at first but could spread over time. Could be exacerbated by button presses that put pressure on the screen there. Could also be exacerbated by temperature changes. It does get pretty hot.

I just examined our two Pres with a 10X magnifying glass. Thankfully I didn't see any cracks.

The "drilling, reaming, boring" was something I had been thinking of too - but then again, the hole might just be molded into the plastic when it was formed.

One thing about looking for the cracks - it seems like they start at the top part of the hole, and I don't think you can see that from the top because of the black paint that covers the gesture area. Too bad we can't see that exact spot, if might provide some information.

[nora]

That being said. The iPhone hardware is amazing. It is like a tank. I have no protection of any sort on it. I don't even have a case. I carry it in my front hip pocket everywhere. I have dropped it, had it dance off the table on vibrate, spilled water on it, carried it with keys and coins, basically everything over that last few years (this was a long sentence). My girlfriend has done even worse (no respect for shiny objects). Basically, I use it like a tool that I really don't care about. It is definitely not my baby, it is how work calls and ruins my dinner every night.

Consider yourself lucky. My 21 year old son got his iPhone and three days later it got swept off his coffee table onto his wood floors (not ceramic, wood, and the fall was less than 2 feet!) and cracked the screen. No insurance offered through AT&T, so it cost him another $199 to get a REFURBISHED unit from Apple, and he had bought new just a couple of days prior!

I researched cracked screens on iPhones and found just as many forums where people where talking about the same thing happening to them, so it goes both ways.

iPhones crack and apparently the Pre does too. The TEP insurance is worth every penny, believe me.

[cme]

Originally Posted by nora

Consider yourself lucky. My 21 year old son got his iPhone and three days later it got swept off his coffee table onto his wood floors (not ceramic, wood, and the fall was less than 2 feet!) and cracked the screen. No insurance offered through AT&T, so it cost him another $199 to get a REFURBISHED unit from Apple, and he had bought new just a couple of days prior!

I researched cracked screens on iPhones and found just as many forums where people where talking about the same thing happening to them, so it goes both ways.

iPhones crack and apparently the Pre does too. The TEP insurance is worth every penny, believe me.

But the Pre's screen is cracking without being drop. Big Difference.

[palandri]

Originally Posted by lisaaa1

This has also happened to me i was walking around the mall and had the phone in my pocket when i went to leave the mall i went to check my phone and couldnt unlock it so i thought it froze reset it and realized the 3 cracks coming from where the button is to the top of the screen took it to the sprint store and they told me the screen was cracked and told me to take it to a service repair center. i did absolutely nothing to crack the screen.

So did you take it in?

[Duo]

Originally Posted by nora

Consider yourself lucky. My 21 year old son got his iPhone and three days later it got swept off his coffee table onto his wood floors (not ceramic, wood, and the fall was less than 2 feet!) and cracked the screen. No insurance offered through AT&T, so it cost him another $199 to get a REFURBISHED unit from Apple, and he had bought new just a couple of days prior!

I researched cracked screens on iPhones and found just as many forums where people where talking about the same thing happening to them, so it goes both ways.

iPhones crack and apparently the Pre does too. The TEP insurance is worth every penny, believe me.

The iPhone's screen is glass and if you drop glass onto a hard floor (and wood IS hard) you can expect it to break. However the Pre screen is plastic and from reading the reports it appears to be cracking [on the inside] without being dropped or struck.


Generally the people with cracked iPhone screens did something to physically damage them and they are aware of what they did but the people with cracked Pre screens didn't do anything to physically damage them and don't know how they cracked.

[lopezpm]

Originally Posted by Duo

The iPhone's screen is glass and if you drop glass onto a hard floor (and wood IS hard) you can expect it to break. However the Pre screen is plastic and from reading the reports it appears to be cracking [on the inside] without being dropped or struck.


Generally the people with cracked iPhone screens did something to physically damage them and they are aware of what they did but the people with cracked Pre screens didn't do anything to physically damage them and don't know how they cracked.

Agreed the iPhone screen doesn't just form a crack. The backs of them have had some kind of problem but not the glass. I've dropped my iPhone at least 3 times and it hasn't cracked. I'm actually a little scared with the Pre now cause I carry it in my front pocket as I did with all other phones.

lisaaa1 did you take it in for repair? What did they say?

[nora]

Understood. I was just pointing out that my son had to pay $200 to get a refurbished unit just three days after buying a NEW one because of the way AT&T is set up with no insurance protection on iPhone.

Aren't these people w/ cracked screens taking them in and getting them replaced with BRAND NEW units and I am even hearing that the deductibles are being waived because they say they didn't cause the damage. I would imagine that some actually DID (i.e. dropping it, sitting on it, whatever), while others may have not. How many are we talking about really also?

It seems like a lot, but I have noticed some double postings from the same people on different forums, so do we have a hard fast count on how many of the 50,000 units that were sold now have cracked screens?

Again, I'm not saying it's not happening, but with any item there will be a certain percentage of defective units. I own a business that sells electronic business equipment online. All of our items are brand new from manufacturer. We have a certain small percentage of any brand that we sell, that are returned due to a defect of some sort, it doesn't matter who the manufacturer is. It's the nature of the game. Are we talking 100 out of 50,000 units or 10,000 out of 50,000 units. Huge difference in percentages here.

[nora]

And, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to by a Pre groupie here. I wish this thing was built like my Treo 755P. Man I could sit on that thing, throw it around, drop it from a height of five feet (my height) and that thing would never break or have a scratch on it!