Consumeractive
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Can Samsung ignore broken phone screen?
Q
My wife has a
Samsung Z Flip 4 phone (pictured)
on a two-year contract with Three. Recently, she noticed some minor marking at the fold which seemed to be entirely on the screen protector, so she removed it and thought no more of it, until suddenly a few weeks later the screen suffered a catastrophic failure. The phone is only 17 months old. Three said it’s Samsung’s problem. But Samsung refuses to repair it under warranty because the screen protector was removed. Can it do this?
Tim Whitehead
A
Yes it can because companies
can dictate the terms and conditions of their warranty.
But Tim doesn’t need to use Samsung’s warranty because Three is responsible for helping him, and shouldn’t have fobbed him off. We’ve told Three that it must deal with Tim directly.
We also pointed out that lots of people have reported problems with the Flip 4’s screen (see Samsung’s forum: www.snipca.com/52832). There were also many complaints about the Flip 3’s screen breaking. It could be a design fault, which means the problem is inherent and Three would have to refund Tim, or offer a repair or replacement. We’ve asked Samsung for a response to these complaints, and asked whether there’s a specific problem with the screen protector, which doesn’t seem to be living up to its name.