Is this crack my fault? You decide!

[creativemeat]

Have you ever wanted to be Sprint customer service for a day? Well, now you can.

I received this refurbed Pre on August 5th after an air bubble appeared on my first Pre. On August 16th, I noticed a crack coming from the USB port. That's 10 days of use by the way.

Oddly enough, I used the USB port once. I charge via Touchstones.

Sadly, Sprint says it's my fault. I either 1) left it in extreme hot 2) extreme cold 3) or dropped it. None of which actually happened.

P.S. This is not a fair and balanced poll. And definitely not scientific
P.P.S. This particular crack (from the USB port) is not covered under Palm's manufacturer's warranty as I was told by Palm CS. They did offer to match my deductible.

[Drnycallstar19]

That really sucks. Seems like it's palms fault. I've heard of numerous claims of cracks coming from the charger port. I really hope that doesn't happen to mine.

[swieder]

I would be hard pressed to replace your phone base on the crack in the picture.

Just wait until a different and more serious problem develops that would justify a replacement.

[creativemeat]

I should mention, this is NOT a scientific poll.

[dcigary]

It's gotta be a design flaw. There are MANY people who have the SAME crack (including ME) and they haven't abused their phone either. How come it always cracks on that corner and not the other?

[kreesedup]

I have seen a couple different cracks from different spots. Another common one, seems to be from the center button. You would think, some typee of physical stress would cause this it doesn't seem logical that it would just crack because it was looked at wrong. But then who knows.

[motox502]

I got that EXACT same crack, I was furious when I saw it because I baby the hell out of my phone. Called Sprint and *****ed, they told me to make a claim through Asurion and that they would credit my Sprint account. 3 days later I received a brand new Palm Pre box from ASurion.

[creativemeat]

Originally Posted by kreesedup

You would think, some typee of physical stress would cause this it doesn't seem logical that it would just crack because it was looked at wrong.

I agree, physical stress causes cracks, but the question should be how much physical stress should this phone reasonable take before it cracks? There seems to be a lot of disagreements on this issue.

[i700plus]

Originally Posted by motox502

I got that EXACT same crack, I was furious when I saw it because I baby the hell out of my phone. Called Sprint and *****ed, they told me to make a claim through Asurion and that they would credit my Sprint account. 3 days later I received a brand new Palm Pre box from ASurion.

But have you gotten the $100.00 Credit yet? If not.. good luck getting them to budge!

[Coper22]

I have the exact same crack and it is getting worse. My phone looks like out of the box condition except for that crack. Sprint told me that it was my fault. Bull S..t I had to pay full price for this thing and it ****es me off that it would crack just from opening the port to charge the dam thing.

[Levi4u]

407-531-4496 Call Palm they will replace it without an issue, I would refuse to file an insurance claim on a product that has an obvious manufactures defect.

[jwdesselle]

Wow, this looks like a photo of my phone. Sprint told me the same thing, it must be my fault. They offered to do the exchange for the $100 deduct. I passed. I figured it doesn't hinder any operations of the phone, so just live with it. I did end up ordering, just the other day, a case for my phone: Innocase Surface, Black I figured this would hold it in place. My crack has only grown a little bit, and doesn't go over the screen, yet.

[ttocs230]

I had a crack like this, i was within my 30 days and told them it wasn't my fault, I have a new pre.

[ABBlockhead]

It doesn't matter what any of us thinks, and it shouldn't matter what Sprint thinks. You're the customer, and if you say you didn't drop the thing, you didn't drop it, end of story.

Cracks around the USB port and around the center button, are common issues, and Sprint must be well aware of that by now. So whether in reality you took a hammer to it or it simply happened on its own doesn't matter, as they have absolutely no way of determining the history. The fact is it DOES simply happen all the time, and for Sprint to pretend otherwise is a sadly typical example of their stubborn resistance to honoring their warranty obligations.

Their standard practice, nationwide, seems to be "Warranty, what warranty? No, no, no. File an insurance claim. Yeah, that's the ticket." Not only is this dodging of the warranty a breach of contract, but this practice of passing the buck to the insurance company may actually be criminal. If you didn't abuse your phone in any way, and if it wasn't lost or stolen, then to file an insurance claim on it could well be considered fraud.

I'm currently in the preliminary stages of organizing a class action suit against Sprint. There are literally hundreds of these kinds of stories all over this forum and elsewhere, and we as consumers have a right to have something done about it. I'll add yours to the fast-growing list I'm assembling. When we're ready to go forward, I'll post information here and elsewhere about how to join the class.

[meyerweb]

There are just too many of these kinds of issues. I'm beginning to feel like Palm cheaped out. Whether for cost reasons, or to keep it small and light, it seems Palm used the minimum thickness / strength / type of material throughout the phone, and as a result it's turned out to be quite fragile. Between the slider issues, cracks in the plastic, and cracks in the screen, I'm quite worried about the lifespan of this phone. Not everyone buys a new phone every year or two.

[palandri]

Do you carry the phone in your front pants pocket?

[motox502]

Originally Posted by i700plus

But have you gotten the $100.00 Credit yet? If not.. good luck getting them to budge!

From my latest bill

Equipment Insurance Deductible $100.00
Valued Customer Upgrade $100 -$100.00

[creativemeat]

I just got off the phone with Palm CS. My particular crack is not covered under the manufacturer's warranty.

I believe this implies that there are certain cracks that are covered. For example, the cracks emanating from the center button may be classified as a covered crack whereas cracks from the USB port are not covered.

[creativemeat]

Originally Posted by palandri

Do you carry the phone in your front pants pocket?

Yes

[creativemeat]

Originally Posted by swieder

Just wait until a different and more serious problem develops that would justify a replacement.

This is my next course of action. I'll wait until it gets worse and pay the $100 deductible. But hopefully Asurion sends me a new phone and not a refurb.