Galaxy Note 10.1: screen shattered in "soft" drop

[mrspatmore]

Update: April 29, 2014. I still have not received a replacement for my defective tablet purchased on 12/8/2013 and returned to Samsung three times for repairs (all of which left the tablet in worse condition than it was previously). Have called customer service more times than I can count. I have six pages of notes documenting all of my contacts with Samsung regarding this tablet. I still cannot get any information other than "it is being processed" and "it will arrive in 7-10 business days." It's been well more than 6 weeks since I was first told that I was eligible to receive a replacement tablet.

I'm going to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and probably small claims court, although where I live there is a $145 filing fee and I'm not sure that I want to spend anymore money on this misadventure.

PS The representative from Samsung "executive customer relations" offered me a $10 gift e-card to Samsung.com for my troubles!!! Adding insult to injury . . . .

EDIT: I bought the tablet from Amazon and I just called Amazon customer service and Amazon is willing to take back the tablet (should I ever receive it from Samsung) and give me a full refund even though it's been five months since I bought it . . . no restocking fee. However, I'm still out the $199 that Samsung charged me to "repair" the shattered screen.

 

[Leigh Crooks]

I got my Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition in March for my birthday. A week later I picked it up (it was in a Poetic case) and there was a crack from the button to the right hand corner of the screen. I sent it back to Samsung who said it would cost 199 to repair. There was no damage, no drop. After talking to numerous supervisor's who all acknowledged there was a problem with the screen they could do nothing to help me. Pay or it doesn't get fixed. We bought it on Amazon and even though Amazon's return policy is 30 days they say they will accept my return. I told Samsung repair to ship it back and we will return to Amazon thank goodness. For such an expensive table already, we refused to make this a $700 tablet by getting the screen fixed. I am almost afraid of using it since it broke without me damaging it! My husband is notifying BBB and going to spam them every chance he gets. Sorry Samsung.

 

[mrspatmore]

I got my Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition in March for my birthday. A week later I picked it up (it was in a Poetic case) and there was a crack from the button to the right hand corner of the screen. I sent it back to Samsung who said it would cost 199 to repair. There was no damage, no drop. After talking to numerous supervisor's who all acknowledged there was a problem with the screen they could do nothing to help me. Pay or it doesn't get fixed. We bought it on Amazon and even though Amazon's return policy is 30 days they say they will accept my return. I told Samsung repair to ship it back and we will return to Amazon thank goodness. For such an expensive table already, we refused to make this a $700 tablet by getting the screen fixed. I am almost afraid of using it since it broke without me damaging it! My husband is notifying BBB and going to spam them every chance he gets. Sorry Samsung.

Hello Leigh Crooks, WOW!! That is virtually the same thing that happened to me, although I was under pressure at the time and caved in and paid the $199 to get the tablet fixed although I swear that I did nothing to cause the screen to crack. I was desperate as I needed the tablet for school, immediately. Little did I know that even AFTER paying $199 to Samsung, under duress, I still would not have a tablet that worked. In fact, the Samsung repair center caused more problems than they fixed. I'm so glad that you did not pay Samsung the $199 and that Amazon is going to issue you a full refund. If I could turn back the hands of time, I would do the same thing! Thanks for sharing your story - maybe someday there will be enough evidence to take a class action against Samsung. Obviously, I'm not the only one who has had this experience. There is clearly a defect (maybe in the glass) on some of these tablets and Samsung should take responsibility. We are not talking about some cheap piece of crap - this is supposedly a top of the line tablet for which we all paid a premium price. We deserve better than what we've gotten.

 

[WordPainter]

It seems everyone ranting and raging about breaking their screens has a Poetic case. Did any of you stop your Samsung hatefest long enough to consider it might be the case and not Samsung? If it's too tight a fit it will put pressure on the screen and eventually it won't be able to take it any more. Just a thought....

 

[geoffwhite18]

The issue is the very thin plastic bezel around the tablet. It doesn't offer much protection. On the old 10.1 there was about 1/4 inch of plastic all the way around. The other issue is the poetic case offers 0% protection to this tablet.

 

[Ryan Skare]

I have never had a screen shatter on any of my Samsung devices until now. I wouldn't exactly call it shattered the screen snapped in the lower corner under the devices own weight. My wife picked it up to use it as a reader the same way you would pick up any device, snap nice clean crescent-shaped crack right where her thumb was. Called Samsung took several pictures and submitted them, sent it to the warranty repair center only to have them say its physical damage in the warranty is void. This has me wondering if there's something going on with Samsung screens that they're not telling anybody about. Kind of the way Apple change the glass they were using without telling anybody.

 

[deV14nt]

Little did I know that even AFTER paying $199 to Samsung, under duress, I still would not have a tablet that worked. In fact, the Samsung repair center caused more problems than they fixed.

That's because they are probably actually sending you a different refurb unit each time, with a different set of problems. They're not actually just tinkering with them until they break them like a bad mechanic. Their process is likely receive your return, validate that it's accepted under warranty, wait for a different refurb to become "certified" and available, and send it out to you. Which is troubling if they're not properly certifying refurbs as I'm about to purchase a refurb.

Also, I was thinking that the Poetic case might be bezel shaped on the front, like a border, and the weight in the middle might have caused it to flex with a pretty much flat drop. But it's actually worse than that I think. Looks like that few mm of edge on the corners and along one side might be enough to cause it to flex, but by holding back each corner. I wouldn't want to fall flat on my face that way. Probably break 4 limbs. But you get the point. It doesn't seem ideal. The bumper or bezel style case would still cause some flex, but the impact would be distributed throughout the bezel and not focused mostly on 4 pressure points in the corners. The middle stops moving last and flexes enough to break. Was the Note still in the Poetic case after it hit?

 

[TomNamibia]

3rd try to answer on this post

OFFTOPIC: I found this msg, wanna answer, had to register, confirmed and landed on the correct page again, showing my user name.
Wrote a LOONG Answer, saw "auto safe" flashing up sometimes. SILLY ME, clicked on "Go Advanced", and landed on the login page. Browser BACK just showed me the message, my looong answer is GONE.
Not a nice first impression.
Well, NOW again (but shorter) my answer:
same thing happend to me, tablet slipped out of my hand (so 1 to 1.5 m high) and landed flat on my wool-livingroom-carpet.
screen scattered and not usable anymore.
I found a FIRST AID solution: the thin kitchen plastic folie you use to cover food etc.
With it you can fully use your touch screen again, and I quickly learned to ignore the cracks and tiny little bubbles under the folie.
As much I liked the smooth touch of the Sams I meanwhile think a bit of a grip would be worth a lot.
Hope my First Aid Tipp will help somebody sometime.

 

[TomNamibia]

Yeeehaaa
found my first written text (happy now)

Hi
It happen to me as well. Sadly NOT in a protection case (I have a leather case with bluetooth keyboard but its to heavy for the daily usage).
My tablet slipped out of my hand (so talking about 1 to 1.5 m height) and felt TOTALY FLAT LANDING on my living room wool carpet.
Like you I didnt expected any damage, and was shocked to see the screen scattered all over.
Usage was now very limited, I had to look for a bigger unscattered spot to sweep with my finger.
But NOW ppl: I found a 1st aid!!!!!
I took a standard kitchen folie you normally used for covering food etc. and applied it onto the damaged screen. Well, lots of tiny little bubbles and spots, but the touchscreen worked immediately, and I quickly learned to ignore the cracks and bubbles.
Well, as I said, 1st Aid.
But I still cant understand why such an expensive device is made with such a week material. Also all the promises from the industry about safety glas, unscratchable, etc., let you think the glas will never be the problem. On top, i LOVED the all around lovely to touch body of the tablet. NOW I know, a little "grip" wouldn't be bad at all. Or an AirBag

 

[Closingracer]

Yeeehaaa
found my first written text (happy now)

Hi
It happen to me as well. Sadly NOT in a protection case (I have a leather case with bluetooth keyboard but its to heavy for the daily usage).
My tablet slipped out of my hand (so talking about 1 to 1.5 m height) and felt TOTALY FLAT LANDING on my living room wool carpet.
Like you I didnt expected any damage, and was shocked to see the screen scattered all over.
Usage was now very limited, I had to look for a bigger unscattered spot to sweep with my finger.
But NOW ppl: I found a 1st aid!!!!!
I took a standard kitchen folie you normally used for covering food etc. and applied it onto the damaged screen. Well, lots of tiny little bubbles and spots, but the touchscreen worked immediately, and I quickly learned to ignore the cracks and bubbles.
Well, as I said, 1st Aid.
But I still cant understand why such an expensive device is made with such a week material. Also all the promises from the industry about safety glas, unscratchable, etc., let you think the glas will never be the problem. On top, i LOVED the all around lovely to touch body of the tablet. NOW I know, a little "grip" wouldn't be bad at all. Or an AirBag

It's glass... Glass will break on impact from a certain distance. Glass will scratch from sand, diamonds and sapphire.

 

[mrspatmore]

I've decided to return my tablet for a refund (thank you Amazon). After 5 unsuccessful returns to the repair center, Samsung finally sent me a *replacement* tablet which also has had a lot of problems. I'm done with this product. I'm going to contest the $199 *repair* charge through my credit card company, since Samsung never did repair my tablet as demonstrated by the online repair ticket history.

Sent from my SM-N900V using AC Forums mobile app

 

[TomNamibia]

unfortunately my carpet isnt made from diamands. its just wool.
and a falling height of 1-1.5m i guess is normal for ppl not lying on the floor
oh - and it's not just "glass" !!!!!!!!!
It's GORILLA GLASS

 

[Skeeter686]

unfortunately my carpet isnt made from diamands. its just wool.

That's a darned shame. If you're carpet were actually diamonds, you probably wouldn't worry about buying a new screen.

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

 

[Closingracer]

unfortunately my carpet isnt made from diamands. its just wool.
and a falling height of 1-1.5m i guess is normal for ppl not lying on the floor
oh - and it's not just "glass" !!!!!!!!!
It's GORILLA GLASS

Gorilla glass means what to you? All it is shatter proof where it won't Crack into a million pieces and fly all over the place and scratch resistance

 

[dienh3161]

My screen cracked when I dropped my backpack with my tablet in it. The drop was only about 1/3m height on wooden floor and my table has a plastic cover. The crack appears like the glass material is very brittle and a light knock would shatter the class.

 

[pegason]

Exact same thing just happened to me. I also have owned mine for about a month and mine fell roughly 1.5 feet off a side table flat on its face with a bodygear protective cover and when I turned it over it was shattered to pieces. I'm utterly disgusted in the screen quality of the samsung galaxy note 10.1 (not 2014 model) screen.
There I have expressed my anger now.

 

[niceven]

I just retrieved all my holiday photos from my cracked screen blank screen S4. It would show on my laptop with a USB but no files would open so I couldn't unlock the screen security pattern.

I tried to use the On The Go hub and use my USB mouse to unlock the screen to no avail.

So what I did was looked up on UTUBE how to change the screen on an S4. My phone must be newer as there was 2 extra screws on the one on the UTUBE video, I found. But to make a long story short, 11 screws later, one homemade tool from a hard plasctic measuring spoon handle and wala! I swapped the broken phones mother board into my good screen phone (same S4) and got the photos.

Hope this helps!