Water damage to Xperia Z3 and Sony's customer service.

[Wollombi]

I love my Z3 - very little I can find wrong with the phone itself, except the "waterproof" feature isn't all it was cracked up to be on my phone. I got it wet for 30 seconds in less than a foot of water, and within a couple of hours the phone started malfunctioning. I have water on my camera lens now, and the vibration motor has stopped working. Sony won't cross ship a warranty replacement - they want me to ship to them at my cost, then they will take 2 weeks to "evaluate" the warranty claim (translation: find a way to blame the customer, if reports are true), then ship me either a new phone or my old one. looking at 3.5-4 weeks with no phone.

Or, I could blow away my accidental damage plan (shouldn't have to - phone was defective and leaked) and be out the money on that.

Neither option is very acceptable to me.

So, it looks like I may be relegating my Z3 to backup phone status, or, if I gain a replacement, putting the new unit up for sale. I don't want to deal with Sony's crappy customer service any longer (this isn't my first brush with their customer service line, and it has never been a "good" experience - just ordering the phone was an experience). Sad, because aside from that the unit is a very nice phone - best I've owned so far.

 

[darthhen]

Doh...that sucks.

 

[jeffx]

Just took me exactly 4 weeks and 1 day to get the warranty replacement for my Z Ultra.

 

[aimeeRB]

I bought this phone specifically to take photos around the pool. After being splashed a few times, it would not come back on, even though all the flaps were closed. I tried different ways to dry it out. Nothing worked. I am so disappointed and I no longer trust Sony products.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I bought this phone specifically to take photos around the pool. After being splashed a few times, it would not come back on, even though all the flaps were closed. I tried different ways to dry it out. Nothing worked. I am so disappointed and I no longer trust Sony products.

It wasn't designed to take pictures around the pool. Salt or chlorinated water are not what the phone is meant to be protected against.

Salt is highly corrosive and chlorine crystallises. If either of these got into the phone that's why it's broke.

If you didn't rinse your phone off in fresh water after the 'few splashes' it's your own fault. You can 'get splashes' but you need to rinse the phone off.

Sony is very specific about what what water it's protected against. Also the IP rating is for fresh water only.

No I'm not a Sony representative I just hate misinformation.