Until recently, Israel was a happy and loyal T-Mobile customer of almost a decade. He’s also that person left who’s still using a BlackBerry. He sent his phone in for a warranty exchange, dutifully checking the liquid damage sensor first to make sure his phone hadn’t been dunked. But TMo charged him a fee for water damage anyway, because the real moisture sensor is buried inside the phone, and told a different story. Because Israel had dared…. to live in Miami.

I have been a loyal T-Mobile customer for the past 9 years. It was a fairytale relationship until this morning….

I am one of the last remaining BlackBerry users and I was having a hardware issue which required me to do a warranty exchange. The T-Mobile CSR I spoke with on the phone had me check the liquid or water damage indicator which is located inside the battery compartment. It is normally white; if it turns pink your phone is flagged for water damage. I checked mine and it was white.

I sent the phone in and received a new one, but this morning I got a letter in the mail from T-Mobile indicating that my phone had water damage. I was not very happy to say the least, so I called customer service. I calmly explained to the CSR that I had checked my phone before sending it in and the liquid damage indicator was white. The CSR checked the notes and told me that there are “secret” liquid damage indicators inside the phone which had been triggered due to water submersion.

I had trouble understanding how the “secret” water damage indicators inside the phone were triggered yet the most accessible one inside the battery compartment stayed dry. At this point I asked to speak with a supervisor, who educated me on the fact that the internal or “secret” liquid damage indicators can be triggered simply by humidity. This was great to hear since I live in Miami, Florida, where its humid every day. I tried to reason with the supervisor to see if the $124.00 fee could be waived due to the fact that I have never wet the phone and I have been a T-Mobile customer for almost 10 years, but she didn’t really care. I guess if I can’t pull on T-Mobile’s heart strings I will pull on their purse strings.

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