Repair centre won't repair my phone cause it's supposedly been rooted?

[iain555]

Hi guys, recently I've been having battery issues with my UK Note 3 not been able to last for more than a day. So I sent to Vodafone repair centre to have a look at it last week, and got a call this morning telling me my phone has been rooted? Now... My phone is completey standard, only apps I've downloaded is sky sports, spots and whatsapp and android central app. don't understand how my phone can be rooted cause I've not even plugged it in the computer or download anything new. So they are wanting 190 uk pounds to fix it, don't know if the board is damage or a bit of software is all it's needing.

Now where do I stand? Cause the phone hasn't been rooted by me at all.
When I bought my first note 6 weeks the screen began to flicker, so Vodafone replaced it with a new one and reinstalled my existing apps.

 

[zmann]

You really think the battery not lasting MORE than a day is a problem? A whole day is pretty great for a pocket computer.

THE BEAST,,NOTE 3. SIZE IS EVERYTHING!!!

 

[iain555]

We'll I've got a 5 star care plan and Vodafone will look at the phone free of charge. But now it's supposedly it's been rooted it voids the warranty. So with this root can it actually damage the phone part or software? Cause when I handed the phone in it was working perfectly fine.

 

[mikeng714]

Iain555,

Rooted does not damage the phone. What happened is the repair center has determined something has tripped the Knox security, usually happens when you root your phone, as this is will informed the service center that the software has been tampered with rendering your warranty useless. I say, a day of use, is very normal. I usually get a day with heavy use on my Note 3. Anyway, hope this alliviates some of your concerns.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[mrwallyy]

If you truly didn't root it, STAND YOUR GROUND. Not sure how customer service works in the UK, but in the US if you insist on one thing, they'll eventually give in.

 

[iain555]

I'm 100% sure I've not rooted the phone, unless when I reinstalled my previous apps from my google account has carried out a root?
So to get things right, if Vodafone refuses to do anything, will me phone still be the same when I get it back with this root thing?

Also talking about Knox. 3 weeks ago I received an error message saying something was trying to access my files. I googled it and apparently a lot of user says its Knox

 

[mrwallyy]

I'm 100% sure I've not rooted the phone, unless when I reinstalled my previous apps from my google account has carried out a root?
So to get things right, if Vodafone refuses to do anything, will me phone still be the same when I get it back with this root thing?

Also talking about Knox. 3 weeks ago I received an error message saying something was trying to access my files. I googled it and apparently a lot of user says its Knox

Rooting is many more steps than installing an app.

Not sure what Vodafone will do, not really familiar with them (don't have them in the US).

Knox has been a pain to all of us, there still isn't a solution, so just be patient like the rest of us (ignore it)!

 

[GANote3]

If they exchanged it a couple of weeks ago, it is possible they gave you a phone that was returned and had been rooted. It is also possible that Vodaphone tripped Knox themselves to purposely void the warranty. Dealing with companies over here in the states, I would not doubt either scenario. There is an efuse that reads either 0 or 1. When you do the steps required to root, it blows the efuse and causes it to read 1 then knox will read the 1 and put warranty void on it.

I am not sure of the failure rate of the efuse that knox reads, but that may be anothet way it happened although I cant say for sure how likely that is or isnt because I do not have the statistical failure rate of the efuse and most likely noone will except samsung who will keep it deeply buried because every blown efuse saves them money by voiding the warranty!

Sent from my SM-N900V using AC Forums mobile app

 

[iain555]

Thanks for your guys kind reply. I wrote to Vodafone telling how dissatisfied I was about getting accused for my phone being rooted. But apparently the repair centre plugged it In their system and it's showing up the phone has been rooted. And to get it everything wiped and back to normal it'll cost me 190 uk pounds.
Sorry for being clueless about root. But my question is will this affect my phone in the long run? And is there anyways to find out what root I've got or is there any ways to remove it? I use my phone for mostly for talking to family abroad and to take photos. And the last thing I want is my phone been bugged or someone accessing my files!!

Or is it the thing to do, is pay them 190 pounds and get the phone back to factory setting. (Which I don't really want)

 

[GANote3]

At this time they do not have a way to remove rooting on the note 3. In the long run your phone will be fine. There is a root method around that sends your ime and other info to china which could allow them to clone it. I think it may be on the play store I belive it is superuser something. I recommend downloading that and installing to be safe. It has been around a long time and is trusted.

Sent from my SM-N900V using AC Forums mobile app

 

[anon8126715]

Sounds like they're just giving you the run around, and here I thought that only U.S. merchants had a monopoly on that practice... I would insist that the phone is not rooted, and have them demonstrate to you why they think it's rooted.

And as someone else has already mentioned, 1 full day worth of battery life seems about normal, especially for E-social butterfly types (you know you facetwitterinstagram types). If you're really concerned about battery life, the best advice I would suggest is to turn off all the apps that want to constantly send you notifications and refresh statuses every 5 minutes. That type of constant back and forth does put a drain on the battery.

 

[TheMacs]

You more than likely were given a refurbished phone that was rooted.

Rooting correctly will not hurt your phone in any way.

Entirely up to you, but I would attempt to negotiate a much fairer price. For them to wipe the phone is well under an hour (more like 10-20 minutes). For them to initially diagnosis this, probably 15 minutes. I'd offer an hour at their service rate and no more. If they aren't interested, tell them to send the phone back to you. The price they want to charge is not worth it.

Lastly, others are right, your battery life is not that bad. Maybe something is running in the background causing a higher drain, but you can do that leg work on your time, not theirs.

Good luck.

 

[TheMacs]

Sounds like they're just giving you the run around, and here I thought that only U.S. merchants had a monopoly on that practice...

Lol... It's a big-company practice, not nationalistic, so we're all in this. And Vodophone is around 12 times bigger than Verizon. In fact, Vodophone owns almost half of Verizon Wireless, but Vz is in the process of buying it back.

 

[Kegman]

damn, you are better off "losing" the phone or dumping it in the toilet.