User Review History
DrElena's review of the Samsung Galaxy S 4 Active
original version, submitted Jun 24, 2013, 2:51 PM:
NOT SO WATERPROOF and Samsung refuses to replace the leaking phone
Well, it could be a dream-come-true, as my husband was counting down days before the Galaxy s4 Active was released in stores. And it looked and felt just right and great, until we gave it a "dip test": in our community pool at depth ~10 inches we took two 1-min videos about 3 minutes apart.
The camera lenses got fogged, hardware buttons got disabled and the charger port stopped working. (yes, we did ensure the USB charger port was properly covered at the time of submerging). The phone's camera was switched to "Aqua mode". Despite all the advised precautions, the phone had leaked water in.
The AT&T refused to exchange it claiming it was ***damaged by water*** (how unexpected for a phone advertised to take underwater pictures!!!).
Samsung customer and tech support first reaction was "WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD PUT IT IN WATER?
The two reps we spoke to so far made it sound as it was our fault the phone got water.
After a number of times "checking with managers" they requested us to bring the damaged phone for evaluation to repair services (who were notified in the ticket that "we accidentally dropped it in water")
What is most striking is that Samsung is refusing to admit the phone had a factory-originated problem and their customer service is pushing us around, making us to accept the fact we have to stick with a $700 "waterproof" phone that leaked the day we bought it..
Is this supposed to be fare? what a dream was ruined...
edited Jun 26, 2013, 2:07 PM to the current version:
NOT SO WATERPROOF
Well, it could be a dream-come-true, as my husband was counting down days before the Galaxy s4 Active was released in stores. And it looked and felt just right and great, until we gave it a "dip test": in our community pool at depth ~10 inches we took two 1-min videos about 3 minutes apart.
The camera lenses got fogged, hardware buttons got disabled and the charger port stopped working. (yes, we did ensure the USB charger port was properly covered at the time of submerging). The phone's camera was switched to "Aqua mode". Despite all the advised precautions, the phone had leaked water in.
The AT&T refused to exchange it claiming it was ***damaged by water*** (how unexpected for a phone advertised to take underwater pictures!!!).
Samsung customer and tech support first reaction was "WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD PUT IT IN WATER?
We were asked to bring it to the RSI repair services to evaluate the leak cause. They discovered that water got in through the two bottom screws and made Samsung to send us a replacement phone.
However, from now on we will not be comfortable to use the "Aqua mode" to take underwater pictures and videos, as next such a try may as well result in another two to three days of nervous waiting on the phone with not-so-friendly customer support or in a repair service's lobby (who were very helpful and polite I must say)...
So the bottom line: this is a good phone, but I would strongly recommend not to be fooled by its heavily advertised "waterproof" feature.
