Fried Nexus 4?

[mohnja]

I just got this email from my wife:

I woke up this morning and it was burning hot at the charger connection. *I had it plugged in to charge through the night as usual... but it was soooo hot in the morning (burnt my fingers). *I think the phone has been damaged at the connection because it won't charge and looks blackened on the left side. *I've put my sim in my old phone and will use that for now. *Should I take it to a phone shop or will I need to send it somewhere?


It appears the phone now will not take a charge. I may had a couple questions :

1. Is it possible the charger (the one that came with the phone) managed to do this?

2. The phone was bought recently in Germany via a friend and we live in the Netherlands, does anyone have any experience trying to return the phone under warranty?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Citizen Coyote]

Definitely defective, although my guess would be the battery rather than the charger. Modern li-ion batteries are designed with fail safes to keep what you describe from happening. I would try to return it under warranty, although I have no idea how you'd go about that where you live. Best bet would be to look at your local versions of Google support websites and see what they say.

 

[John Beirne]

I just got this email from my wife:

I woke up this morning and it was burning hot at the charger connection. *I had it plugged in to charge through the night as usual... but it was soooo hot in the morning (burnt my fingers). *I think the phone has been damaged at the connection because it won't charge and looks blackened on the left side. *I've put my sim in my old phone and will use that for now. *Should I take it to a phone shop or will I need to send it somewhere?


It appears the phone now will not take a charge. I may had a couple questions :

1. Is it possible the charger (the one that came with the phone) managed to do this?

2. The phone was bought recently in Germany via a friend and we live in the Netherlands, does anyone have any experience trying to return the phone under warranty?

Thanks in advance for any help!

I'm just waiting on my phone from my friend in the UK. He is bringing it over to me here in Finland.
I've contacted LG here in Finland to ask, if I have a warranty issue do I have to take it back to the UK. They said as long as I have the proof of purchase and all that I can use LG Finland. So I would contact your local LG store or look at the website and call them.
Hope this helps.

Sent from my GT-I5800 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[mohnja]

Thanks for that, I will check that out.

 

[John Beirne]

That's ok. Let me know how it goes. I am very interested.

Sent from my GT-I5800 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[mohnja]

Well, unfortunately LG Netherlands said that they can't do it and that I would have to do the entire thing via Google.

This was the response from Google Germany, a bit roundabout, but at least they will replace it....

In your case, I would suggest you to send the faulty device to the person in Germany, who bought it originally. After that this person should contact us and request to change the device owner back to his name/Google account. Once the owner is changed back to the original buyer, we can start our normal warranty exchange process for him.

 

[jdbii]

Well, unfortunately LG Netherlands said that they can't do it and that I would have to do the entire thing via Google.

This was the response from Google Germany, a bit roundabout, but at least they will replace it....

In your case, I would suggest you to send the faulty device to the person in Germany, who bought it originally. After that this person should contact us and request to change the device owner back to his name/Google account. Once the owner is changed back to the original buyer, we can start our normal warranty exchange process for him.

@mohnja you would be contacting Google not LG. You might try checking with a different Google Play customer service rep. I got a different response from Google for the same issue. I recently bought a Nexus 4 for a family member and gifted it to them and we contacted Google to find out if there was a warranty issue if they had to go through me (original buyer) or if they could interface with Google themselves (gifted recipient). Unless I misunderstood what they told me over the phone and in the quoted email response below, the answer was the gifted recipient could work directly with Google and bypass me the original buyer so long as they provided the - The Serial Number, CSSN, or IMEI for the defective device.

This was Google Play's email response to me in quotes:

"If your Nexus 4 was definitely purchased from the Google Play store but you received it as a gift, please provide the following information so we can process a warranty replacement if needed:

- Your full name
- Your email address
- Your shipping address
- The Serial Number, CSSN, or IMEI for the defective device.

{For the Nexus 4, the IMEI number can be found on the box or in Settings > About phone > Status > IMEI.}

If you cannot find any device identification number, please provide the email address used for the original purchase."

This wasn't in the email, but over the phone I think Google told me the serial number of IMEI number that you would need is in paperwork or receipt that shipped with the unit. Or maybe they said it was on the box. They sure made it sound like it would be quite easy for the gifted recipient to handle all warranty issues without problems.

One caveat is I guess it had to be bought through Google Play store of it to work, so if it was bought through Google Play Germany I would retry to make sure you can't do it and I wouldn't rely on a response by one customer rep. Germany 0 8007235105 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Monday - Saturday).

Other links that might be useful to you:

https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/3053039
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/2411741

 

[mr_nobody]

The issue here is that the current owner is in a different country than the device was purchased in. As detailed in another current thread here, this is a problem.

 

[John Beirne]

Well, unfortunately LG Netherlands said that they can't do it and that I would have to do the entire thing via Google.

This was the response from Google Germany, a bit roundabout, but at least they will replace it....

In your case, I would suggest you to send the faulty device to the person in Germany, who bought it originally. After that this person should contact us and request to change the device owner back to his name/Google account. Once the owner is changed back to the original buyer, we can start our normal warranty exchange process for him.

That is interesting. I would try contacting LG again just to make sure. Like I said before, I contacted them here in finland to see if I have a warranty issue will they honor it. They basically said yes, as long as I have all the paper work and that.

Sent from my GT-I5800 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[mohnja]

I have sent it back to my friend the original purchaser. I didn't really have time to try LG or Google Germany again, it was just easier for me to send it off by post.