February 12th, 2006
New “Red Dot” Technology Tattles When You’ve Dunked Your Cell Phone in a Toilet and Voids Your Warranty
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
We’ve all had it happen at least once - that moment when your cell phone slips from a pocket or your hands and crashes to the ground. Most phones survive, but apparently many more make the fall into a liquid surface - like into the water of a toilet bowl. Gross! To save on warranty claims, there’s a new “red dot” technology that detects water damage and alerts the manufacturer that your trusty cell phone didn’t randomly stop working - you dunked it in the bowl. Game over.
I’m visiting ATC Logistics & Electronics’ sprawling plant to personally follow my phone through triage, diagnosis and verdict. It’s more than professional curiosity — it’s potentially more than $200 out of my pocket. The device is covered by a one-year warranty, but that assumes I’ve been a good boy. If the five-minute evaluation concludes that I had dunked, punted, crushed or otherwise abused my Motorola RAZR, I’ll have to pay $210 to Cingular.
Instead of taking my box off a conveyor belt, the technician was handed the phone. She scanned the mailing labels inside the box, scanned the bar codes in the battery compartment and took a look at a dot that normally is hidden behind the battery. That dot, about the diameter of a pencil eraser, is very important. “This little dot here?” Mr. Dickson said, pointing. “If you had water damage, it would be red. It pretty much takes a submerging. But if it’s red, it voids the warranty.” Source: NWCN.com
We Say: What took them so long? And how long before someone figures out how to hack the dot?
David Johnston says:
I think that’s pretty cool. I mean, it sucks for those of us who are dropping our cell phones all over the place, but you can’t blame companies for not wanting to replace the phones of people who abuse them by dropping them in the fishbowl or something.
That said, I think most damage just comes from regular old drops. I’m sure they could detect those as well with some sort of g-meter. I’m guessing that tech isn’t cost-effective yet though.
February 12th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
EvanWasHere says:
This is NOT new. I was screwed about 4-5 years ago. Got caught in a huge downpour one night. My phone still worked though. About a month later, I decided to trade in my phone for a newer one. The salesperson at Sprint took one look at the red dot on the phone, and said the trade in was unacceptable.
Then again, I got the new Samsung A900 a month ago. I dropped it in the shower (of course the shower’s drain was clogged so there was 8 inches of water). The phone was totally submersed while on for at least 15 seconds. I brought it to the sprint store about an hour later (after it had been under a blowdryer for that hour) and told them that the phone had stopped working a week after I had gotten it. I complained really loudly, and they wanted me out of the store as quick as possible…so they never checked the dot! I’m a baaaaaaaaad man.
February 12th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
David Johnston says:
This begs the question: what are you doing with your cell phone in the shower???
February 12th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
Nico says:
So what happens in very humid areas? Is the humidity at sea level enough to “activate” the red dot?
Just wondering…
February 12th, 2006 at 9:21 pm
Alice says:
My understanding is that the dot goes red when the phone is completely submerged. But it sounds like it is more sensitive based on the comments above.
February 13th, 2006 at 7:07 am
Ryan says:
I got a pretty good hack, its called whiteout or even one of thoughs dot stickers.
February 13th, 2006 at 7:41 am
Josh says:
I recently got screwed by this because there’s a red dot/bar on both my battery and my cell phone. I merely traded my battery for my wife’s and peeled off her Red dot which is a piece of cloth/sticker and pasted it with a little super glue in place of my red dot which I had promptly removed. Worked like a charm.
February 13th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Alice says:
Nice!
February 13th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Isaac says:
What most people don’t realize is that the warranty usually covers theft and loss. Get your phone wet? Lose it in a gutter, trash bin, Leave it at a bar, give it to a homeless guy, etc. now they have to replace it.
February 13th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
“Red Dot” Tech Voids Warranty When Cell Phone’s Dunked In Toilet
We’ve all had it happen at least once - that moment when your cell phone slips from a pocket or your hands and crashes to the ground. Most phones survive, but apparently many more make the fall into a liquid surface - like into the water of a toilet b…
February 13th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Anonymous says:
I sell phones in a retail environment and the red dot has been around for quite some time. The only drawback to the red dot is that extreme humidity can affect it. In colder climates even the humidity from a person’s breath can sometimes be enought to over time make the dot turn red.
February 14th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Hal says:
I can tell you for sure my phone has not been under water- or wet in any way. Yet the dot on my E815 is red. The battery, that’s always in the phone, isn’t red… SO clearly the dot is garbage.
Unfortunately I noticed this dot is red while trying to diagnose a charging problem… Now I am going to have to fight with verizon.
February 25th, 2006 at 11:25 am
phentermine says:
phentermine
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May 18th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Stacy says:
The dot on my battery is white, but on my phone is white. Can anyone help me get around this. I have NEVER dropped it in water, but I live in Indiana, I coach and have it in my pocket when it rains, so it might be humiditiy. Any suggestions? Please email me at JandSreisdorf@sbcglobal.net thanks
July 20th, 2006 at 6:33 am
Steve says:
Does anyone know what a small green dot on the lower right portion of the back of the phone (behind the battery) would indicate?
July 25th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Brittany says:
What do the phone companies have to say if the dot is partially red? 50% or less… and not a very bright red… I knocked over a glass of water on my phone and took it apart immediately, I’m scared to put it back together bc I’m scared it won’t work but if it doesn’t I’m very scared the phone company won’t pay for the damage and I just had to buy this phone full price, $329, because my last one was stolen and my insurance DIDN’T cover that… which is crazy bc I’d like to know why I was paying so much for insurance if that was the case…
August 14th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Becca says:
ok well ya.. that would suck.. but how do you turn the red dot back into white like it cant just be game over there are second chances . arent there?
September 4th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Nick says:
Anyone try to peel the dot off?
September 27th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Goutir says:
0
October 20th, 2006 at 2:55 am
Solomon says:
0
October 20th, 2006 at 10:11 am
Biotlon says:
D
October 21st, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Auron says:
f
October 22nd, 2006 at 12:46 am
Mc\'Corin says:
A
October 22nd, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Reed says:
t
October 23rd, 2006 at 7:34 am
Fioriset says:
A
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:24 pm
O\'Neel says:
0
October 24th, 2006 at 12:52 am
Mc\'Corin says:
%
October 24th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Reed says:
:
October 25th, 2006 at 1:36 am
Rip says:
0
October 26th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Ded says:
0
October 28th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Red says:
0
October 29th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Sed says:
0
November 5th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
Mc\'Corin says:
0
November 6th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Goutir says:
2
November 8th, 2006 at 1:27 am
O\'Neel says:
%
November 8th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Caison says:
The sticker in the industry is an LDI or liquid damage indicator, if it turns pink or red the manufacturer refuses to accept the phone as covered under their limited warranty. The exception is blackberry who seems to replace their handsets unless it is corroded or broken in two pieces.
November 25th, 2006 at 10:12 am
Ken says:
bought razr ph 2/14/06 quit charging 3/10/06 took back to store and told asst mgr I did not know if bad charger, bad battery or bad phone. He took phone and walked to back of office, raised phone and charger up to wall and turned around and walked back and had phone open and said was wet. He said nothing about red dot and I did not see dot. Phone had not gotten wet. He provided new phone and old charger. About one hour later tried phone and wouldn/t charge. 3 hours after receiving new phone took back to store. He said charger bad. Insisted old phone was bad and for first time showed red dot. I demanded return of $20 service fee and return of my old phone and reinstatement of my insurance on phone. (don’t know if insurance reinstated yet. Went to Wal-mart, bought new charger. Battery took charge and old phone works in all respects. Peeled of red dot.
I’m seriously considering suing asst. manager for fraud and damages for mental anguish. I believe he moisted dot to cause it to turn red, etc.
March 16th, 2007 at 4:15 am
kendra says:
well this is wat i think its a good idea but its bond to make a few pepole mad when they get cought in the lie my cell phone has one so yeah and the dots res but its never fell in the tolet:-p thats nasty any ways is it possible that it got wet well out in the rain or something like that? but any ways thats all
April 5th, 2007 at 8:21 am
celeste says:
Ugh. Check your spelling and grammar.
April 29th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Melissa Nichols says:
does anyone know if they can tell if there is water damage if i replace the red dot with a white one?
May 8th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
ivaimt says:
Hi My Name Is ivaspg.
May 12th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Diana says:
Does anyone know if they always turn red? My water bottle spilled a little on the phone it has all these little purplish “X’s” on it, the problemis I can’t remember if there were always “X’s” and if they were always that color.
May 17th, 2007 at 6:22 am
Spashgrood says:
My dot was red out of the box and they wouldn’t take it back at cingular.
May 25th, 2007 at 10:31 am
alicia says:
I tried to peel off the dot and now they are charging me. I know for a fact i did not drop this phone in water. They sent me a new phone and now that dot is red. could it be from humidity in the bathroom while i take a shower? my mom thinks its a scam
May 31st, 2007 at 11:17 am
Lenny "Blue" says:
RED DOT SCAM…..my new blackberry dot turned red. The screen won’t go on and the RED light flashes. Phone service company looked at it and said “no deal!!” I pulled off the little f’kin dot with my
x-acto knive and pointed tweezer and stuck a white avery glossy label cut to size in it’s place. Headed to the store this morning……update to follow.
June 9th, 2007 at 6:42 am
cbc says:
Where are the dots on a sidekick 3?
June 12th, 2007 at 11:49 am
UBERJODY says:
The defect is in the stickers, however, this is a huge asset for the phone companies. The stickers do not indicate that the phone has water damage. They turn red due to normal moisture in the air. All of these companies are tricking customers into buying an insurance plan that is automatically voided under normal conditions. No phone sticker will last in your purse in the bathroom sink when you are taking a shower or when you have the humidifier on in the baby’s room. Humidity, not just water, turns the sticker red. These companies know this, but it is in your contract so that they don’t have to provide any service at all, period. Almost all of the phones that are returned for work have absolutely no water damage to them. This is a cheap way to void the contract on every phone.
To make a long story short, don’t buy this contract and expect to ever have your phone fixed even though it didn’t get wet. The contract does not say “if your phone has water damage,” it says, “if the sticker is red” otherwise they you would be liable for a lawsuit against them. If anybody knows of a case where the contract is otherwise, PLEASE, SUE THE F@(k out of them and tell us all about it on Fox News. Somebody needs to put these deceivers in their right place!
On the other side, I assume every company does this, so I would take some precautions. Primarily, I would place a tiny pice of plastic over the sticker that is slightly larger than the sticker and does not contain any adhesive (whick will cause the sticker to turn red. Then I would hold that in place with another layer - this time electrical tape, which will lock out moisture. Another solution is to just say your phone is lost. Hey, if they are deceiving us and saving millions of dollars doing it, don’t you deserve the right to do the same to them for the small cost (on their behalf) of your single phone?
BY THE WAY, if you really do drop your phone in water, TURN IT OFF IMMEDIATELY AND LEAVE IT OFF FOR THE NEXT FEW HOURS or the circuits will short and the phone (or some portion of it) will never work again! Corrosion occurs when metals and water mix. In addition, microbes will form and begin to grow around the circuitry. To stop this you should use alcohol (rubbing alcohol only!), which is the common way for cleaning computer circuit boards too. Alcohol will help the phone dry quicker too! I would do the following ONLY in this order AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE ISSUE OCCURS EVEN IF THE PHONE APPEARS TO BE WORKING (BEST) OR IF THE PHONE BEGINS TO STOP FUNCTIONING LONG AFTER THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT.
1. REMOVE THE BATTERY
2. EITHER TAKE THE PHONE APART AND CLEAN THE CIRCUITS (BOTH SIDES) WITH ALCOHOL AND A RAG, BEING CAREFUL NOT TO BREAK ANYTHING
OR
FILL A CUP WITH RUBBING ALCOHOL AND DIP THE PHONE IN IT
3. DO NOT TURN THE PHONE ON FOR ANY REASON UNTIL THE NEXT DAY. YOU MAY SPEED THIS UP BY PLACING IT IN THE SUN OR USE A BLOW DRYER AT A LONG ENOUGH DISTANCE TO KEEP IT FROM GETTING HOT BUT DON’T EVEN THINK OF PUTTING IT IN THE OVEN UNLESS YOU PLAN TO EAT IT!
4. REPLACE THE BATTERY AND TURN THE POWER ON.
IF YOU DON’T DO THIS, MICROBES WILL GROW ON THE CIRCUITRY (THEY LOVE THE HEAT) AND SOME FUNCTIONS OF THE PHONE MAY CEASE TO WORK.
NOTE THAT I LEARNED THIS THROUGH A+ EXAM GUIDES AS THE COMMON TECHNIQUE FOR FIXING BAD RAM STICKS ON COMPUTERS.
June 30th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Billy says:
Well, I dropped my phone in the sink, then attempted to dry it, and turn it on. Im guessing microbes are forming because of the fact that my up button doesent work, and because when I press left it makes my volume go down (?). Yet functions on the phone are progressively coming back.
September 20th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
suck it says:
bro this shit sucks ass
November 10th, 2007 at 3:50 am
Jeff says:
I have a blackberry curve. The other day it was pouring rain outside, i was walking into the gym and dropped in on the ground on its backside. It got a little wet on the outside, but didn’t appear to get inside, or affect its performance. Today i took my battery out to add memory and noticed that the dot was red. So if my phone malfunctions in a year, will they not fix it because they are going to think its water damage??
February 13th, 2008 at 7:29 am
chong says:
so what does void the warantee mean
February 18th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Jeff says:
a void warranty means that the warranty is no longer available for whatever reason
February 21st, 2008 at 7:02 am
sas says:
I just dropped my phone in my cat’s water bowl, kinda didn’t take the battery out right away, dried it off, then took the bat out and put it back in… i know that was a bad idea, but it came back on and worked, til 15 min later when i got to work and the screen went white. took the battery out again, been shaking the water out (the screen is foggy now), and i checked this white dot everyone’s talking about…mine is still white, on the battery and on the back inside of the phone. what does that mean?
March 19th, 2008 at 5:17 am
Reid says:
An ex-girlfriend of mine threw my phone, a k1m, in the toilet (long story) and caused both of the dots to turn bright red. about a week later, the hinge on the phone broke and caused it to start malfunctioning, and I took it to verizon to try to get a warranty replacement. I spent an hour talking to the store manager and made him show me the clause in the contract where the red dot voids the warranty- to his surprise and mine, we didn’t find such a clause. Even though verizon stores seem to be telling their employees that policy is not to allow warranty returns on any phone with the red dot activated, the actual internal literature states that the red dots “are to be taken along with other evidence (corrosion, fogging of the screen, etc)” as suggestive of water damage, and that they are fallible enough in terms of humidity and environmental factors that they should not be used alone as proof of water damage. If you actually get them to admit this, though, you are doing pretty well, since consumers aren’t supposed to see their internal policies and procedures. Ultimately, the red dot DOES NOT VOID THE WARRANTY. The literature that is available to you, both in your contract and in the motorola warranty in your user’s manual, are sufficient to prove this. Argue this intelligently enough and they can’t disagree with you. If they do, I’d suggest contacting the Better Business Bureau or your state attorney general to file a formal complaint. I noticed in an earlier message that someone suggested suing them, and I would almost agree, but your right to file class action lawsuits are waived in your contract (verizon customers that is) and the only recourse that appears to be available to you is internal arbitration. This is a huge scam that the wireless companies are using to take advantage of their consumers- but its a perfectly legal one, since you signed a ridiculously unfair contract in the first place. I got a new phone, but I would never expect to be so lucky in the future.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Daniel says:
Well, my sister in law bought a LG Shine (CU720) in the end of January. She washed it by accident not even a month later. She took it to cingular to see if they would replace it, the dot killed that. Good thing she didn’t give them any info. I took the phone apart yesterday and cleaned it up real well with alchohol. I had to think of a way to clean the dot. The dot on this phone isn’t a sticker. I used bleach, and it worked perfect. My replacement phone will be coming in this week. I’ll report back here if I get any trouble from the manufactuer about the old phone. Looks perfect to me though.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Bob K says:
Bleach and a cue tip works
June 6th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Alex Santander says:
I like the lost phone idea.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
YouPeopleAre***INGDUMB says:
You guys are completely God-damn retarded. BECCA, there are no ***cking SECOND CHANCES in business. People, the LDI peels off. Replace the damn thing with the one in your spouse’s… or friends phone… I don’t care. Newer phones have the sticker covered by a plastic ‘lip’. Put a single, well-placed dot of superglue on the sticker. This will protect the LDI from a moderate water ‘invasion’, but not from submersion. There is no way to turn the red into white… unless you replace the indicator. God damn it.
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
YouPeopleAre***INGDUMB says:
WHAT THE **** IS A CUE-TIP? ARE YOU REFERRING TO THE TIP OF A POOL CUE? IT’S A GOD-DAMN Q-TIP.
BLEACH WORKS WELL FOR THE LDI.
IF YOUR OVEN DOESN’T GO LOW ENOUGH THEN OPEN THE OVEN AND SET THE PHONE DOWN ON THE OVEN DOOR. USE A DAMN CERAMIC PLATE OR SOMETHING. JESUS!
“Waaa, waaa my oven doesn’t go down to 120… waaaa.”
THEN PUT IT IN THE GOD-DAMN MICROWAVE!
Reid seems to have noticed a great loop-hole. Congrats to him/her.
GOD DAMN FEMALES DON’T KNOW HOW TO FUCKING WORK A DAMN PHONE.
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Nancy says:
OK - Answers, what happend with the bleached dot and or alcohol repaired phone & dot. Did you get by with it?
but then disintergrated 
. Trying to do new one. This phone was 3 days old whrn this started - now 2 wks. Bought insurance before it went crackers. Blinks the orange & brt blue indicators when powered. Battery is fine-tested on husbands Help pls!~N
My phone - NOT DUNKED - BUT at&t DUDE - said red dot no trade -offered to sell me a new one for $400. Riiigghht!
Sticker is now off
July 27th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
holly says:
My phone has NEVER been dunked, or anything close. The closest it has come is a couple of drops on the outside of the frame… from walking in rain or the like. Now I look inside my phone and lo and behold there is this red dot. That is bullshit, I’m sorry. I was not planning on taking my phone back anyway. But the fact that this “alert” went off when my phone has NOT been in water is complete crap. Of course phones should not be expected to handle being throwin a swimming pool. But I don’t think it’s too much to expect a phone that isn’t so flimsy that it can’t handle being held during a walk in the rain.
July 29th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Mike says:
I have a phone that had a battery indicater and it turned red and I went to the local store and they took a look at it and told me that I should switch to verizon because there is a hot chick working up the street, WTF
October 5th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
joe says:
There has to be a chemical that will turn the dot back to white. What is the process by which this dot works. Where are the chemists?
November 10th, 2008 at 10:13 am
kris kringle says:
ok i got my phone wet and was talking on my phone just about an hour ago, then suddenly it died. I can still turn it on but after like 5 or 10 seconds it turns off again but i can keep it on if i continuasly press random buttons. i dont know if is completely useles, help???
December 1st, 2008 at 6:11 pm
fyug9bhuigju says:
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December 12th, 2008 at 11:39 am
fyug9bhuigju says:
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December 12th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Brad Maliha says:
I got my phone wet and sure enough the little dot turned red. To turn it back white use clorox bleach. Worked like a charm.
December 26th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Eric says:
I dropped my cell phone into a large amount of water. I took the battery out, dried everything off and noticed that the dot on the battery was still white. However the phone will not turn back on. The verizon logo turns on then the phone turns back off. Is there another dot any other place?
December 27th, 2008 at 9:15 pm