Develop Bugs

Should I unroot before taking my phone in for a screen replacement?

I went by the print store today to ask about getting my screen replaced. the guy I talked with said that for a hardware fix it wouldn't matter if I were rooted.
But they couldn't put my phone on any kind of blacklist or anything could they? I'd rather not waste the time unrooting if I don't have to.
Thanks
Sent from my EVO using XDA App

Sprint will work on rooted phones for hardware issues. It's internal policy for them now as of recently. I confirmed this with my local Sprint repair store.

They may work on them, but they may also take note of the fact that you're rooted in case you have software problems. Takes 10 min, just make a backup before you do, so when you root again, easy to get back to where you were.

Do not unroot your phone to take to sprint. Ive had 2 screen rep;acements and many other replacements rooted. And that was before the alleged new policy regarding root. Used to be, they would say (after fixing), 'yeah, as long as you atleast try to make it look stock, thats all good'.
But apparently/allegedly now, even obvious root is ok. I'd still flash a stock theme
Why are there so many threads about this? people no searchy?

thanks for the info.
scottspa74 said:
Why are there so many threads about this? people no searchy?
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Click to collapse
sorry about that search on the xda app is almost unbearable...

I would unroot it. Better safe than sorry.
send from MikFroYo v4.61

I took my Evo's for screen repairs, speaker phone repair and battery issues many times, all while having MIUI flashed. No one ever said anything to me.
Sprint people didn't even know what it was. I just said "oh I downloaded a new theme."

I thought rooting was not illegal anymore. Maybe it depends on the technician you speak with. Some are cool, some are not. I say unroot just to be safe. Thank god for easy rooting practices...

screen fix and root
I think it all depends on what store you are taking it into, i took my rooted phone in and had the screen replaced no issues,

[Q]Can Sprint Track rooting???

Does anyone here think sprint can track if you were rooted???????
i also read someone's post said when they take your phone in to repair they have the technology to see if you ever been rooted even if you unrooted to get the repair.
but i dont really believe it
Any Opinions??
http://forum.androidcentral.com/htc-evo-4g/88600-can-sprint-find-out-if-youre-rooted.html

I'm sure that many carriers can check to see if you are rooted. Google is able to see if you are rooted, so why wouldn't carriers know? (Google is able to block movie rentals on rooted devices).
As far as the "technology to see if you unrooted", I am positive that they have no way of telling if you did such a thing. However, if you have some files on your external SD card such as removed Sprint apps, that's a dead giveaway.

Without getting out the tin foil hat theories, I'll agree and say it's possible... with a catch.
One thing: IF you are running a ROM that the device doesn't ship with, it should be easy to tell. If they can do that with simple over the air checks, I don't know or care.
Checking for the su binary. Several apps already do this (WoW Authenticator) and such. The presence of this binary alone is enough to tip someone off.
The bottom line is, who cares. It's not that big of a deal to carriers right now (so it seems). Just return the device to stock if you ever need service.
To answer your question: Yes.

About a month ago I had to return my EVO to the sprint store, left it rooted, and they could of cared less if it was rooted or not.

For a while I think they allowed it... I can only assume they were trying to figure out how to handle the situation...
When I had called into tech... they said they would charge $125 for rooted devices... No idea. There's disclaimers everywhere... you do it at your own risk.

Sprint can't track your rooting/unrooting.
There's no way they know unless you tell them or bring it in rooted.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Go back and read that thread. There's also one here in the General forum just started today in which the OP says he's being canned because of rooting his phone. The background is he was also using a ton of data, and it may have been roaming data. THAT'S the issue. Root has nothing to do with it.

Whether they can or can't doesn't really matter. Sprint doesn't care if you are rooted. Yes, it voids your phone's warranty, but that's it. It's your phone, you can do what you want with it. And you can always unroot and bingo, you have your warranty back.

Samsung "Flash Counter" Discovered in SGSII's

Check this out guys. The following is a post from a member named coomb on the darkyrom.com forums. Check this out...its almost scary
"Hello everyone!
As I was surfing the web to look for a jig for the first SGS, I've discovered the SGS II has an internal counter which goes up by 1 everytime you flash something that's custom
What does this counter do exactly?
It's very simple: it counts the number of times you flash a custom ROM or kernel on your SGS II, so the guys over at Samsung know of it when you return the phone to them for any kind of problem you may have (this is done so they can say whether you've voided your warranty or not). Even using Odin to get back to stock won't help you and will let the counter go up by one
The good news is that the counter can be reset by using one of those jigs we all know very well
Ha, Samsung! You thought you could fool us that easy?
No, unfortunately Samsung has very clear in mind what it's doing.
It seems there is a second counter, which counts the number of times the custom flash counter has been reset, and the bad news is that its position/folder has not been discovered yet.
So, it seems all the future SGS II owners and flash addicts over here (and not only here) will have a hard time returning their SGS II to Samsung after having flashed something... I hope someone over at XDA will get everything sorted out (Chainfire is already working on it).
Speaking about XDA, here's the source of this article: XDA-SGS II flash counter.
That's it for now, bye! "
Link to the original thread, remove spaces http://www. darkyrom. com/community/index.php?threads/attention-the-sgs-ii-has-a-custom-rom-kernel-flash-counter.3827/

a couple of points:
1.) I deal with Sprint, not Samsung. Sprint's front-lines CS people aren't typically known for their technical prowess (my apologies to those in present company)
2.) This sounds doubtful. The way this is phrased makes it seem as if it's a file in the current file system we have all the tools required to wipe that clean. If that's true they should expect that someone here *will* figure it out.
3.) All this is going to do is encourage those of us with insurance/TEP et al to render the phone completely inoperable within the scope of our insurance (or return period). Poof, problem solved.
So even if this is in fact true, and it could very well be, I don't see the immediate threat to us and I don't see how Sprint would use this ability to prevent us from using our insurance or return ability given that it would be trivial to render the phone and any file system or electronic counter completely inaccessible by any practical means. Coming up with a process to read the "counter" would involve more time and inconvenience for both the customer and the carrier than either would find acceptable to bear. Though there is that suspicious hole right about the volume rockers that may be a nearly fool-proof direct port to a "counter" it would be impossible to make that a 100% reliable mechanism either.
EDIT: after thinking about this some more I am of the belief that while in our unique circumstance (in the US) it wouldn't be too big a hurdle to pass, should we need to, that it is definitely possible if inconvenient/implausible in practice. (In most of the world you just buy the phone and then hook it up to a carrier, in the US you pick your carrier and get your phone from them....so while everyone else would have to deal with Samsung for warranty claims we do not.)
However I was also wondering what it was counting. Writes to /system and/or any directories/partitions that are typically R/O without root?
There are plenty of times in your phones life where that may be flashed for legitimate purposes. Upgrading the OS comes to mind (cue "Samsung never updates" jokes), as would any carrier provided "flash to stock" (which at my area stores is their last, and usually only, attempt to repair a device for just about any reason). There are likely other scenarios that escape me at the moment.
Any reason legitimate is enough to place a reasonable doubt on any claims of tampering that would cause any court of law to demand far more compelling evidence than merely "the counter went up" in order to find you guilty/uncovered by warranty. "What if the counter is unreasonably high?" You say...well what if you tried desperately to flash and reflash and reflash your broken phone attempting to repair it to get your data back? That's a pretty likely scenario.
EDIT²: ...and if "legitimate writes" don't tick the counter up a notch then there is a mechanism to avoid flash detection and it will be found.

daneurysm said:
3.) All this is going to do is encourage those of us with insurance/TEP et al to render the phone completely inoperable within the scope of our insurance. Poof, problem solved.
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Click to collapse
That.
Let's see them prove I've flashed custom roms after I pass the phone under a powerful electromagnet a few times.

daneurysm said:
a couple of points:
1.) I deal with Sprint, not Samsung. Sprint's front-lines CS people aren't typically known for their technical prowess (my apologies to those in present company)
2.) This sounds doubtful. The way this is phrased makes it seem as if it's a file in the current file system we have all the tools required to wipe that clean.
3.) All this is going to do is encourage those of us with insurance/TEP et al to render the phone completely inoperable within the scope of our insurance (or return period). Poof, problem solved.
So even if this is in fact true, and it could very well be, I don't see the immediate threat to us and I don't see how Sprint would use this ability to prevent us from using our insurance or return ability given that it would be trivial to render the phone and any file system or electronic counter completely inaccessible by any practical means. Coming up with a process to do so would involve more time and inconvenience for both the customer and the carrier than either would find acceptable to bear. Though there is that suspicious hole right about the volume rockers that may be a nearly fool-proof direct port to this "counter" it would be impossible to make that a 100% reliable mechanism either.
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Click to collapse
In response.
1. As far as phone returns, you never deal with the the phone maker anyway, you ALWAYS deal with the returns per the carrier. My thoughts on this is that Sprint has been supplied with the tools and info from samsung to verify if the phone has been flashed or not, seeing as how it would be pointless for samsung to include such a feature when they wont be doing the warranty checks.
2. This doesnt sound beyond the scope of samsung in my opinion. And as far as how it was "phrased" this was from a regular user with no real dev experience or technical experience. So if what he said sound a bit odd or simpleton in terms of terminology or his guess as to where this counter would be, thats why. Just because he made a guess that its in the filesystem somewhere doesnt mean much. Also where do we all get these magical tools that you say we have to delete this data that no one knows the location of yet?
3.If you render the phone completely useless in a way that there could be no data pulled from the phone (aka smashing it) then you wouldnt be able to redeem your warranty anyway. bricking the phone wouldnt matter as sprint/samsung have the tools to easily access and repair any bricks that you or I could perform, and then read the information that they need.
Also the fact that the user ChainFire is working on this confirms its vailidity to me, as he is a major dev in the Galaxy S I & II Scenes.

HaiKaiDo said:
3.If you render the phone completely useless in a way that there could be no data pulled from the phone (aka smashing it) then you wouldnt be able to redeem your warranty anyway. bricking the phone wouldnt matter as sprint/samsung have the tools to easily access and repair any bricks that you or I could perform, and then read the information that they need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TEP covers all that.
I guarantee after I put the phone internals into the microwave for a few seconds there is no tool in the world that's going to be able to repair the brick.

eagercrow said:
TEP covers all that.
I guarantee after I put the phone internals into the microwave for a few seconds there is no tool in the world that's going to be able to repair the brick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well for the 90% of people out there that dont pay 30 dollars a month for the protection plan, and just want a warranty exchange for something that actually wasnt their fault and at one time or another had a custom rom on their phone, they will be out of luck. So this is a problem for people like myself. Ive never bricked a phone, but i did have my captivate radio antennae die and was getting no signal whatsoever and was able to get att regular warranty to replace it. Had i been in that situation NOW, with this counter in place, i would be screwed. for something that wasnt caused by myself.
---------- Post added at 10:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:42 PM ----------
Torethyr said:
That.
Let's see them prove I've flashed custom roms after I pass the phone under a powerful electromagnet a few times.
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Click to collapse
If I remember correctly flash based storage isnt effected by magnetic fields. Also if that did work, good for you....but where do the rest of us get an expensive highpowered electromagnet lol.

I think this is very low of Samsung ... but i doubt anything will change ... sprint employees know less about this stuff than we do on here .. and haven't people already mess their phones up and got them replaced easily ? ..
Sprint can't accuse you and deny you a replacement if you play stupid and never admit to rooting/ modding ..

HaiKaiDo said:
In response.
1. As far as phone returns, you never deal with the the phone maker anyway, you ALWAYS deal with the returns per the carrier. My thoughts on this is that Sprint has been supplied with the tools and info from samsung to verify if the phone has been flashed or not, seeing as how it would be pointless for samsung to include such a feature when they wont be doing the warranty checks.
2. This doesnt sound beyond the scope of samsung in my opinion. And as far as how it was "phrased" this was from a regular user with no real dev experience or technical experience. So if what he said sound a bit odd or simpleton in terms of terminology or his guess as to where this counter would be, thats why. Just because he made a guess that its in the filesystem somewhere doesnt mean much. Also where do we all get these magical tools that you say we have to delete this data that no one knows the location of yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's in the file system I would use "rm". If it is being stored in a non-standard way as to escape a deep directory/partition inspection I would have to say that it's outside of the file system. A pedantic gripe of mine, to be fair.
3.If you render the phone completely useless in a way that there could be no data pulled from the phone (aka smashing it) then you wouldnt be able to redeem your warranty anyway. bricking the phone wouldnt matter as sprint/samsung have the tools to easily access and repair any bricks that you or I could perform, and then read the information that they need.
Click to expand...
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I don't even have to present the damn phone to get a new one , it must be lost or stolen....or flashed to boost, lol. Not that I ever have or would, but, that's pretty feasible.
Also the fact that the user ChainFire is working on this confirms its vailidity to me, as he is a major dev in the Galaxy S I & II Scenes.
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Click to collapse
I don't doubt the veracity of the claim. Nor do I doubt the word of chainfire. What I am not certain of is what exactly they found and what it is counting and how that counter can be used as incontrovertible proof of a warranty damning activity.
I updated my post above which partially addresses this.

I checked into this before I returned my 1 day old bricked epic touch 4 g, and Sprint replaced it no questions asked.

akkord64 said:
I checked into this before I returned my 1 day old bricked epic touch 4 g, and Sprint replaced it no questions asked.
BTW - After you use the JIG it resets the counter..
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Click to collapse
But what about the counter-counter?

akkord64 said:
I checked into this before I returned my 1 day old bricked epic touch 4 g, and Sprint replaced it no questions asked.
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Click to collapse
lol yeah it resets the FIRST counter...but thats not the problem. Theres appearently some mechanism in place the count how many times youve reset that first counter lol. Im sure itll be killed in a few days if not weeks by people here on XDA, but i sure do find these kind of things interesting.

HaiKaiDo said:
Well for the 90% of people out there that dont pay 30 dollars a month for the protection plan, and just want a warranty exchange for something that actually wasnt their fault and at one time or another had a custom rom on their phone, they will be out of luck. So this is a problem for people like myself. Ive never bricked a phone, but i did have my captivate radio antennae die and was getting no signal whatsoever and was able to get att regular warranty to replace it. Had i been in that situation NOW, with this counter in place, i would be screwed. for something that wasnt caused by myself.
---------- Post added at 10:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:42 PM ----------
If I remember correctly flash based storage isnt effected by magnetic fields. Also if that did work, good for you....but where do the rest of us get an expensive highpowered electromagnet lol.
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Click to collapse
Bro, you are high if you think this has any bearing on Sprint users being able return an Epic Touch 4G. Moreover, Steve Kondick...hired by Samsung. Team CM, given GS2's to hack by Samsung.
Also, if this is an issue with the Galaxy SII international variant, why don't you POST IT IN THAT FORUM?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

All you have to do is flash something in odin with the OG Epic Pit and check re-partition. Start it, run it for a minute or 2 and pull the cord. Completely inoperable.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Hope you people that want to make the phone inoperable and stuff under stand you are the reason the insurance deductible keeps going up......
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

abowlby said:
Bro, you are high if you think this has any bearing on Sprint users being able return an Epic Touch 4G. Moreover, Steve Kondick...hired by Samsung. Team CM, given GS2's to hack by Samsung.
Also, if this is an issue with the Galaxy SII international variant, why don't you POST IT IN THAT FORUM?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh god you called me bro -_-. second off, im not high, i just found this interesting.
Also Steve being hired by samsung doesnt make him president of the "i get to do whatever the **** i want" club lol. He still has to adhere to NDA and the like.
and finally, its in our phones too. our phones are SGS II's lol. Sprint just gave ours a "fancy" name.
---------- Post added at 10:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:54 PM ----------
SAShady said:
All you have to do is flash something in odin with the OG Epic Pit and check re-partition. Start it, run it for a minute or 2 and pull the cord. Completely inoperable.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Inoperable to you sure. To the people with the equiptment MADE to run diagnostics and access low level bootloaders, not a problem. Half flashing a bootloader isnt the end all to a warranty claim. Also i dont know why you all are taking this almost personally as if i was saying this is something that will never be patched or worked out here on xda. And continue to come up with scenarios where you are above the counter lol.

As long as mine doesn't count how many times it sees me masturbate I'm happy...

Something else im curious about.....it says that Odin wont help reset the second counter. To my mind that makes me think that theres something hardware based thats keeping track. Lol exbawkz eFUZE

paniro187 said:
Hope you people that want to make the phone inoperable and stuff under stand you are the reason the insurance deductible keeps going up......
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I agree and would never do that to my phone, I would just find somewhere else to return it that would accept it. That always works.
But the main point here is that it is the natural "next thing to do" when you go about punishing people for treating their own hardware as, well, their own hardware and installing whatever software they would like on a device that they own...
...Why don't they expend this type of effort on making the phones unbrickable? That would surely save them far more money than "catching the bad guys" and denying people warranty service for things issues that have nothing to do with the software you chose to install on a device you own.
If my PC were to **** itself and something broke because I was running linux/macos/beos/MSDOS/Windows/Xenix/AmigaOS/etc do you know what that means? That the computer was a piece of crap and the computer (or component responsible) should be replaced if it was under warranty... do you suggest that a piece of hardware failing is the softwares fault?
Most (non oem) motherboards come with overclocking tools built into the BIOS these days with safeguards to keep you from blowing your isht up.
This has less to do with hardware failures than it has to do with the freedom to run whatever you want on a computer you purchased....with a dual-core 1.2ghz chip and 1 gig of ram you can be damn sure this is a computer.

alnova1 said:
As long as mine doesn't count how many times it sees me masturbate I'm happy...
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Best post of the day +1 lol
xDDDD

HaiKaiDo said:
Well for the 90% of people out there that dont pay 30 dollars a month for the protection plan, and just want a warranty exchange for something that actually wasnt their fault and at one time or another had a custom rom on their phone, they will be out of luck. So this is a problem for people like myself. Ive never bricked a phone, but i did have my captivate radio antennae die and was getting no signal whatsoever and was able to get att regular warranty to replace it. Had i been in that situation NOW, with this counter in place, i would be screwed. for something that wasnt caused by myself.
---------- Post added at 10:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:42 PM ----------
If I remember correctly flash based storage isnt effected by magnetic fields. Also if that did work, good for you....but where do the rest of us get an expensive highpowered electromagnet lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasn't sure you were crazy, until you said TEP was thirty bucks. It's 8. Honestly not having it on your plan is crazy at this point, unless you have a good backup device you aren't planning on selling.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Experience in Sprint Store (Sprint Employees please give feedback)

I went into the sprint store today to exchange my bricked epic touch. I walked up to the lady and told her that my phone notified me of an update today and I accepted it and the phone turned off and now it does this. I showed her my phone and it just hangs at the Galaxy SII screen or sometimes it goes into the stock recovery and just gives errors about not being able to mount data. so she looked at it and said this is what happens when you try to root your phone. I said what are you talking about I didnt try to root it. I got an update notification and I tried to install it. She took the phone over to the manager and came back with the phone in download mode. She said see this screen, this is where you flash root at and this is what messed up your phone. There is nothing I can do. I told her again that I dont know what she is talking about and I showed her that the phone said it was on official firmware and the odin count was 0. I told her to prove that I did anything to it. Then the manager walks over and tells me to calm down or I would have to leave. I explained to him the problem and he said I have the same phone and my updates install just fine, you shouldn't have tried to root it. Sorry there is nothing I can do for you go call 611. I told him he was full of **** and that i wasn't leaving until he did something. He said get out of my store. I said "fu** you". then he said oh yeah meet me out back at 8 when I get off. I know that I shouldnt have said that to him but the whole time I was in there they were rude and they kept interrupting me and my wife when we tried to talk. My question is I though Sprint couldnt turn a phone down even if it was rooted? Plus she had not proof cause I reset my Odin count with my jig and it has the stock recovery. BTW I called 611 and they are sending me a replacement in the mail. I just couldnt believe they gave me such a hard time at the sprint store.

What I want to know is how can they tell from just looking at the phone with and Odin count of 0 and on Stock firmware how they can say you rooted the device? Cause honestly without seeing anything that shows it was rooted and it showing that you are on an official rom (be it EG30/EK02 or EL29) outside of looking at the Odin count they really have no way of knowing what is wrong.
I would guess maybe they have had other users go there that have rooted and wanted a replacement and they are looking at thing wrong but who knows. But yeah I do agree wrong things said even though I do understand you were upset and you had good reason to be for that mater but they were rude about how they handled things.

Either they have had a few people come in or those guys in that store are on xda.....The word is out

You had rooted it before though?
I wouldn't care as long as I'm getting another one.

calm
musclehead84 said:
I went into the sprint store today to exchange my bricked epic touch. I walked up to the lady and told her that my phone notified me of an update today and I accepted it and the phone turned off and now it does this. I showed her my phone and it just hangs at the Galaxy SII screen or sometimes it goes into the stock recovery and just gives errors about not being able to mount data. so she looked at it and said this is what happens when you try to root your phone. I said what are you talking about I didnt try to root it. I got an update notification and I tried to install it. She took the phone over to the manager and came back with the phone in download mode. She said see this screen, this is where you flash root at and this is what messed up your phone. There is nothing I can do. I told her again that I dont know what she is talking about and I showed her that the phone said it was on official firmware and the odin count was 0. I told her to prove that I did anything to it. Then the manager walks over and tells me to calm down or I would have to leave. I explained to him the problem and he said I have the same phone and my updates install just fine, you shouldn't have tried to root it. Sorry there is nothing I can do for you go call 611. I told him he was full of **** and that i wasn't leaving until he did something. He said get out of my store. I said "fu** you". then he said oh yeah meet me out back at 8 when I get off. I know that I shouldnt have said that to him but the whole time I was in there they were rude and they kept interrupting me and my wife when we tried to talk. My question is I though Sprint couldnt turn a phone down even if it was rooted? Plus she had not proof cause I reset my Odin count with my jig and it has the stock recovery. BTW I called 611 and they are sending me a replacement in the mail. I just couldnt believe they gave me such a hard time at the sprint store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you should have kept your calm and then ask for the regional managers number as there is no proof that you did anything .... They definitlely would be getting multiple contacts from me .... on here earlier was a email address for dan hesse .... definitely escalate the situation up the ladder ....That store needs to be in trouble ....
edit : [email protected] gets to executive escalations try that

Sprint doesn't have a policy against rooting yet, it's still covered by TEP in store with no deductable.

musclehead84 said:
I went into the sprint store today to exchange my bricked epic touch. I walked up to the lady and told her that my phone notified me of an update today and I accepted it and the phone turned off and now it does this. I showed her my phone and it just hangs at the Galaxy SII screen or sometimes it goes into the stock recovery and just gives errors about not being able to mount data. so she looked at it and said this is what happens when you try to root your phone. I said what are you talking about I didnt try to root it. I got an update notification and I tried to install it. She took the phone over to the manager and came back with the phone in download mode. She said see this screen, this is where you flash root at and this is what messed up your phone. There is nothing I can do. I told her again that I dont know what she is talking about and I showed her that the phone said it was on official firmware and the odin count was 0. I told her to prove that I did anything to it. Then the manager walks over and tells me to calm down or I would have to leave. I explained to him the problem and he said I have the same phone and my updates install just fine, you shouldn't have tried to root it. Sorry there is nothing I can do for you go call 611. I told him he was full of **** and that i wasn't leaving until he did something. He said get out of my store. I said "fu** you". then he said oh yeah meet me out back at 8 when I get off. I know that I shouldnt have said that to him but the whole time I was in there they were rude and they kept interrupting me and my wife when we tried to talk. My question is I though Sprint couldnt turn a phone down even if it was rooted? Plus she had not proof cause I reset my Odin count with my jig and it has the stock recovery. BTW I called 611 and they are sending me a replacement in the mail. I just couldnt believe they gave me such a hard time at the sprint store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hahahahahahahahahahahaha im clowing couldnt of happen to a nicer guy
If you wouldve come into My store I wouldve asked you to leave as well, Mr. I know more about this phone than you do. HAHA love karma

Exactly. I told them to shoe me proof that it was rooted. I said the Odin count is 0 and its on stock firmware. They said well there is no way that an update did this to make a phone not boot up. I am getting another phone which is all I wanted. I pay for the insurance for 2 years and never used it once. Its just the idea of how they treated me aand my wife. I was calm until he disrespected my wife by interrupting her and pretty much calling her a liar. I know I shouldn't have said that but its aggreviating. I will email Dan @ that email address plus I told 611 about it so someone is supposed to call me back. Thanks for the help guys.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

Actually they do have a policy about rooting. I've seen memos posted by a sprint emplyee that say that if a phone is suspected to be rooted, to handle it as normal and make a note of it ... it was in the og epic forum at one point.

If they could get it in download mode, why didn't you just Odin a ek02 build or something.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

Are you sure you were in a corporate sprint store and not a third party store? I have been in a couple of the stores that were not corporate and they are complete idiots.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Specialksg1 said:
Actually they do have a policy about rooting. I've seen memos posted by a sprint emplyee that say that if a phone is suspected to be rooted, to handle it as normal and make a note of it ... it was in the og epic forum at one point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They can't refuse a rooted phone, as of right now.

Vrekk said:
If they could get it in download mode, why didn't you just Odin a ek02 build or something.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Facepalm(OP)
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Sprint corp stores are pretty pathetic in my area so Ive found the last 8 years
Most Employes put out negative vibe , lack experience and very rude .
4389 Virginia Beach Boulevard.
Virginia Beach, VA = A customers worse nightmare that comes true on entry very very long wait time all reps & techs suck.
2076 South Independence Boulevard.
Virginia Beach, VA = Pure hell came close to knocking out rep .
1412 Greenbrier Pkwy Ste 134.
Chesapeake, VA 23320 = OK service

I would definitely take it to escalationd through dans office and get their asses in trouble. they ****ed up. and the manager telling you to meet him outside was very unprifessional. he should be fired.

Poor service...
That is pretty absurd treatment. As a tech at a corporate Sprint store, apologies to you. Though rooted devices are generally frowned upon by most carriers, Sprint is the most relaxed I have ever seen. Here's a breakdown of my personal approach to the subject.
If a customer brings a rooted device in with complains of software issues, I will try to resolve them without a hard reset (Factory reset) first. I'll tell them up front that if I can't do so it could result in a hard reset or factory flash using computers we have to do just that, resulting in loss of root access. If there are issues that appear as hardware that can only be resolve by replacing the device, I will need to rule out custom software as the source. (EX: The customer's GPS will not get a lock or shows them pointing the wrong way or they have lost their HSA keys and can't authenticate on 4g) Meaning I will be happy to replace it if re-flashing it did not resolve the issue. Though I am not officially allowed to provide information for rooting or support the process, I will never default to turning away a customer for wanting more from their device.
The exception is when someone is being an ass about it. I have had customers swear they have paid for 4g hot spot service, and it's not working. As if I don't have access to finding out whether that's true. People beat the crap out of these devices and we fix or replace them all day long - software can almost always be resolved with a simple 5-minute re-flash.
To everyone here - your best bet when taking your device in for repair is never dishonesty or douchebaggery. When someone lies to me to try to get their way, they generally assume I am dumb enough to fall for it. This is insulting and makes me less likely to be their advocate. I am an experienced technician, and have been rooting, jailbreaking, and modding nearly every electronic device I own for years.
If being polite and curteous, and accepting (or requesting for that matter) a reflash don't work, try another store and play dumb.
Oh - and if someone told me to meet him outside, I would - and bet on him censoring that comment more carefully in the future.

The manager said to meet him outside at 8, after he got off? That's enough to get him fired.
EDIT: I work with Customer Service at my local Grocery store and I've had a customer who cussed the living s*** out of a friend of mine who also works in Customer Service. She couldn't cash in a $10,000 lotto ticket so the woman cussed out my friend. My friend was very professional about it and didn't retaliate at all. If my friend retaliated at all, I can guarantee you right now she'd be jobless.

I always buy my phones at my local Best Buy; I made friends with the phone dept. manager a long time ago, and, whenever I have done something stupid, i just take whatever phone back there, and they help me out..
I agree, some of the Sprint store employees can be real assholes, but, considering I hate dealing with the public, and alot of these folks get lied to, threatened, and talked to like pieces of **** all day, I can understand why they can become assholes sometimes..
But, it is a fact, that Sprint currently does NOT refuse to work on Rooted phones at this point, so, obviously this douchebag was just being an asswiper..

All I can say is, they were completely in the wrong.
I've rehashed this time and again, but we're not allowed to turn someone away for rooting.
I don't know how many times I have to make these people read their M&Ps, but this is bordering on ridiculous.
Now, to the OP. .if you could get your phone in to download mode...well then it's not bricked. Why did you try to get it exchanged?
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srgwidowmaker said:
This. Facepalm(OP)
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Don't u think I know this. My data partition was borked. Check out the threads on xda. Sfhub couldn't figure it out. Odin flashes did work but it wouldn't boot.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

T-Mobile stance on rooted phones?

Food for thought. As a part of the "T-Mobile My Account" app is a device health (beta) page that will scan the phone for various settings. If you tap on either the "Battery state" or "Device performance" and look for a box that says "Show all test" being rooted is among the list. When I read over the various warranties and agreements, I was looking specifically for anything about root, rooting, rooted, "" access. The best I found only mentions that issues caused by 3rd party software are not covered.
Seeing this makes me wonder if T-Mobile as part of its "un-carrier" move may be opening up to the idea.
Sent from my LG-D851 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I work for tmo, so far, no change in our stance on processing warranties for rooted devices
Sent from my G3

beats4x said:
I work for tmo, so far, no change in our stance on processing warranties for rooted devices
Sent from my G3
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This is why I don't understand people's hate towards Samsung's Knox when they trip it due to rooting and custom TOM's.
-Sent from my TMO LG G3 using Tapatalk

Cause on an HTC or nexus device you can completely go back to stock and have no evidence of rooting. With Knox, you're screwed. There's no resetting it. I don't know how LG works, this is my first LG device
Sent from my G3

beats4x said:
I work for tmo, so far, no change in our stance on processing warranties for rooted devices
Sent from my G3
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Just out of curiosity, what is T-Mobile's stance? I'm very new to TMo. So new, I switched/ordered my phone on Tuesday and due to a "Systems Issue" I don't even believe my phone has been shipped yet.

CrucialBT said:
Just out of curiosity, what is T-Mobile's stance? I'm very new to TMo. So new, I switched/ordered my phone on Tuesday and due to a "Systems Issue" I don't even believe my phone has been shipped yet.
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Honestly, if you return to stock (completely) and then go in for warranty, you should be okay. The official stance is no, but I know that 99 times out of 100 you're not gonna have an issue. Unless it's blatantly obvious that you caused your issue by messing with your phone. If you ever need anything when dealing with Tmobile feel free to pm me on here. That goes for anyone who reads this.
Sent from my G3

Returned my g2 yesterday, wiped it but left it stock rooted with twrp recovery. She didn't say anything about it.

bfranklin1986 said:
Returned my g2 yesterday, wiped it but left it stock rooted with twrp recovery. She didn't say anything about it.
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Yup, and things like this happen where reps are completely oblivious. It's not uncommon.
I only said what I did because I know quite a few managers from the bay area to Sacramento, and a good portion of them are into rooting phones and train their staff (not cause they want to screw you over, just to make sure that they retain their job) to look for it.
So yeah, you'll probably be fine if you don't unroot your phone, but an extra 10 minutes of work won't hurt you.
Sent from my G3

I usually get my best results by going into the store and being a real jerk, swear at the counter people, call them names then tell them you rooted the phone and now there are some issues....
JK,,, dont do that.
If you are nice and act dumb they will help you.

Hmm, I don't even HAVE a store around here, I'd be dealing with whoever is at the other end of the shipping tag.

beats4x said:
Honestly, if you return to stock (completely) and then go in for warranty, you should be okay. The official stance is no, but I know that 99 times out of 100 you're not gonna have an issue. Unless it's blatantly obvious that you caused your issue by messing with your phone. If you ever need anything when dealing with Tmobile feel free to pm me on here. That goes for anyone who reads this.
Sent from my G3
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thats very nice of you to offer that:good:
I agree with your comments; I have rooted every phone I have had over the years with ATT/Sprint/TMO, and NEVER "restored to stock" ANY of the phones I turned in for upgrade/repair/etc, and never once had an issue with ANY carrier.
If you act like a jerk, and hassle the store personnel, you will always have a problem; if you are polite, professional, and dont try to blame someone else for your problem, 99% of the time, you wont have a problem turning in a rooted phone.
Treat people like YOU want to be treated, and you will always be taken care of; at least that's always been my experience..

I have always just unrooted before I went in. Some times I have watched them check the phone and worried if they would try to update it. That was the case with both my HTC Evo 4g and Samsung Galaxy S3 with Sprint. I was trying to avoid the hboot 1.5 and KNOX updates. Only issue I had was when my mms stopped working. Even unrooted the stock messenger wouldn't send them. I was asked if it was rooted and was hoping the unroot file worked. Ever time the phones have finished as I was parking in the lot so I never really had a chance to make sure it was all back to stock.
When I picked up the G3 and changed to T-Mobile I asked and was told unroot it. If no one knows it was rooted then you're good.
Sent from my LG-D851 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

yeah, its so easy to unroot a phone, and if they do a quick check to see if its rooted, and they dont see that it is, they never go any further..

wase4711 said:
yeah, its so easy to unroot a phone, and if they do a quick check to see if its rooted, and they dont see that it is, they never go any further..
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I have had to over the years exchange a few phones with t-mobile, been with them going on 8 years with 5 lines. I always unroot and set back to stock with that said tho, I had to exchange a note 3 for non working GPS and although I did set it back to stock I obviously couldn't reset the knox counter. So far, haven't heard anything about it and that was almost a month ago. While I have no official comment, I do believe t-mobile doesn't care so long as the issue is not related to anything you have done.
I want the g3, but am waiting for root. Just don't care for phones I can't restore to, uninstall unneeded apps etc.

i went on store at LG G3 launch and i showed my note 3 to swap with G3. via JUMP
my phone is rooted, i even teased the girl representative that i have the coolest ROM on it lol. she just smiled and check the note 3 physically. i even let her do a factory reset on the note 3. few mins later i have the black G3 on my possession

I'm not sure what the big deal is. If we can flash a stock ROM onto a phone I'm sure they can, probably easier than we can. It's the hardware condition that really matters.

wase4711 said:
Treat people like YOU want to be treated, and you will always be taken care of; at least that's always been my experience..
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This is called The Golden Rule and XDA and the world in general would be a better place if it was practiced at every opportunity. ?