Overheated - cracked screen - BEWARE.

[c8m6p]

Figured I'd warn/inform you all about what happened to me the other day.

I got my Focus S the day it was available, Nov. 7. Love the phone, still do.

One issue with the phone that I noticed over the past four months is that it gets HOT at certain points, when doing intensive things, such as playing games (like Wordament for a few rounds).

A couple of days ago I was watching a show on Netflix. Phone was just sitting there, plugged in. Didn't touch it, didn't move it, literally, was just sitting there. All of the sudden I hear a very slight "click", and out of nowhere, there is a hairline fracture going horizontally across the screen. When I run my finger over the fracture, I can't even feel it. Leads me to believe the actual LCD screen cracked, and not the protective screen over it.

Needless to say, a four month old phone I payed $200 for, and am under contract for, I was pretty upset about it. Called AT&T, for the past 3 hours have been fighting with them. I felt I deserve a new phone free of charge, they didn't.

My point of view was that I was using the phone the way it was supposed to be used, and it just flat out broke on its own. I did nothing to break the phone. Warranty would not accept my claim because of physical damage. Got on the phone with customer care, talked to a rep, then a supervisor, then a manager, pleaded my case with the manager. She put me on hold for half an hour, I was a minute away from hanging up, she came back on and said they would send me a new Focus S free of charge.

They were stupid to even consider trying to charge me for this. Been an AT&T customer for about 10 years, always paid the bill. Paying about $200 a month now for a fam plan. I threatened to go to Verizon if they did not give me a free phone. That is what I think did the trick. I still had to pay the state tax of $30.

Still, beware of this issue. When I get the new phone in the mail, I'm taking both the old and the new one to the AT&T store. I want something in writing that will gurantee that I'm protected if this happens again.

The fact that the outer screen is not cracked is proof that I'm not BSing and dropped it. The phone broke on its own, period.

Just figured I'd warn you all. If you feel the phone getting hot, do yourself a favor and give it a rest. My 3 hours on the phone with AT&T was definetely not a pleasant experience, though it did net me a solution to the problem.

Attached to this post is a somewhat blurry picture of the fracture.

 

[btbam91]

1. That sucks man. I've done a 4 hour Netflix marathon on my phone and I fortunately did not experience that problem.


2. You didn't call to get your Black Friday reimbursement?

 

[Silverdogz]

This is really unusual because LED strings are designed to work under a lot of heat. My guess is that you had a bad screen. For example my iPod touch's screen did do this but then I was 50 miles from Death Valley. Temps were in the 100's.:excl:

 

[svtfmook]

i was on the phone over the weekend, i've had this focus s for a couple weeks now (warranty replacement from my original focus s) and this was the first time i had a phone call over 20 minutes. the phone got really hot and the battery went from 80% to 15% during that call.

 

[HeyCori]

My Focus would get really hot but I haven't seen any lasting effects from it. I wonder if the same thing happens to their Galaxy S line.

 

[ashykat]

Typically a hairline fracture points to a manufacturing defect in the phone. I know that Apple will replace iPhones, iPads, and iPods if the only "damage" is a hairline fracture in the glass.