Samsung Galaxy S4 Active test - anyone else's handset faulty? And can I edit my review?

[Queen0fFeckingEverything]

I was selected as a product tester for this phone last October and it was amazing for the first three months until about Christmas when it started randomly switching itself off and not staying on once restarted. Did some googling and found there was a known battery issue - they were swelling up and causing phones to turn off at random and the battery to instantly drain so they won't turn back on. Checked my battery and it was indeed swollen.

Phone went back to Samsung who put in a new battery from a different batch, and returned it. But within a week it was switching itself off again and I suspect the swollen battery has somehow damaged the phone. About to ring Samsung to see what if anything they can do next.

Anyway I'd quite like to edit my review to reflect this because it turns out this was a known issue before the product test even started (Samsung had put out a press release about the issue offering replacement batteries for free about a month earlier), the phone is unusable atm because it won't stay on reliably and its really rather irritating! But it seems reviews can't be edited - is there a way round this MNHQ?

[woodhill]

mine just suddenly turns off and you have to plug it into a charger to get it to work. Should I return it to Samsung? I was one of the product testers so how do I go about this

thanks.

[DharmaBumpkin]

Another tester who had problems... Battery became swollen, was replaced quickly but the phone now seems to drift in and out of reception, I'll quite often realise I've had no messages for a couple of days, take the battery out then get a few coming through at once. Can't afford to replace it but definitely don't trust it!

[cococandyfloss]

Hi (I am a name change but was originally on this thread) Mellow-contact Samsung direct and return it to customer services -they will help you-may take a while but they should help. I had issues firstly with battery which I sorted myself by replacing my own but then the handset was playing up in September and sent it away and they tried to fix It (there was a bit of a mix up and took a couple of weeks longer than it should have) but they did fix it. I think they have a 2 year warranty so you shouldn't have to pay.

Samsungs PR person wasn't particularly helpful with me either and I had more luck just going through the normal channels. Still very interesting that a large quanity of the testers had problems.

[MollyBdenum]

Mine also started turning itself off randomly AND the sound stopped working in late spring. I'm not imptessed and wouldnt get one again.

[Moogdroog]

Mellow - might be worth trying generic customer services? I got the number of MN's contact at the Samsung PR place and after a few inital promising emails, it's come to nothing. Bought myself a new battery in the end!

[MellowMarshmallow]

Resurrecting this thread in the hope that one of the other testers can help.

The charger cable won't stay in unless I hold it. And then after a few minutes it says the battery is nearly full - which clearly it isn't as a few minutes later it needs charging again.

Any ideas on who to contact to get this fixed. I appreciate that as this is a year old I will probably need to pay for the repair.

[magentastardust]

I emailed Samsung about it still being 4.2.2 and they said if it hadn't updated then it may have to be sent away! I think I may try again with someone else.
DH has the S4 for a work phone and his updated weeks ago but I know the active can take longer to receive updates?

[DoItTooJulia]

Mine did this too. I'd really appreciate a replacement battery sent out to me, but Samsung said no can do.

[Moogdroog]

Magenta - still on 4.2.2 - I think they just take an age to roll or updates for each specific model.

[magentastardust]

Reading through thread probably worth passing on to Samsung that out of 20 testers at least 6 or more? have had faulty batteries.

[magentastardust]

Thanks Anne- I did let you know about the faulty battery though and it cost me £23 as Samsung just said to contact customer services!

This one seems okay though -fingers crossed that is it sorted!

Can I ask if everyone else who has the active are still operating on System 4.2.2? Mine hasn't upgraded to 4.3 and I know there is a new 4.4 coming soon.
Samsung say to send it off to them for repair if it isn't updating but just wondered if it was something I was doing wrong or whether everyone else has had automatic updates?


Thanks everyone.

[MellowMarshmallow]

Me too - fat battery, phone keeps turning off :(

[YeahBuddy]

I had the same problem with the battery, googled and sent for a new one from eBay (cost about £8 I think) rather than faff about with calling Samsung. Haven't had any problems relating to battery life since - fingers crossed! But I am having other issues and would also like to change or add to my review if possible HQ? That stupid flimsy cover on the charger port has fallen off meaning it is no longer waterproof, plus as others have said, I couldn't be sure the swelling battery hasn't affected the back cover in some way.

[AnnMumsnet]

Hello - sorry for the massive delay - Samsung say "in the event you have specific technical issues related to S4 active battery please contact Mumsnet who will escalate this to Samsung" - you can contact us by PM-ing me.

Our contact does have some spare batteries which they can send out to any tester who needs a replacement.

[magentastardust]

Did we ever get an update/answer on this?

[emblosion]

Oh this is interesting. I haven't had problems with the battery, but my charge port (where you plug charger in) is knackered and phone therefore currently useless as it wont charge. I've had to buy a cheap pay as you go handset as I'm going to have to send it off to be fixed.

Ive not got round to ringing Samsung CS yet - will report back with their take on things.

I agree that if I had paid 500 quid for the phone I would be beyond annoyed. The charge port has always been stiff, and I did have problems with it around Christmas that seemed to self-resolve. At one point my son stuck a bit of sequin in there which I blamed initially but thinking back I noticed that straight away & problems predated it. I reckon the connectors must have always been a bit bent. Annoying.

[GhostsInSnow]

Me! (old NN JuiceOrtiz)

About a month ago my battery life suddenly became appallingly bad. As an experiment I tried a friends S4 battery and was a bit surprised mine wouldn't fit in her standard S4.. then I realised my battery was so swollen it was affecting the back of the case. I turned off the phone, kept the battery out.

Popped it into my local Samsung repair place the next day, an hour and a new battery later and all is well in the world again

The repair place told me the issue primarily affects Galaxy S4's and mine was the first Active they had seen with the problem as they were reasonably sure all 'BD' affected batteries had been recalled before the Actives went out. Looks like a few slipped through.

Huge thumbs up for Samsung repair though.

[magentastardust]

Ah that's interesting Queen -just checked mine and the one that was swollen did indeed start with a BD serial number. My new one starts LC (still made in china though).

[Queen0fFeckingEverything]

Bertie from what I have found out through a bit of searching, there was a batch of batteries made in China with serial numbers starting BD that were affected. Samsung issued press releases last October saying that anyone having battery trouble could get a free replacement - that was about 2 weeks before the product test was announced and IMO they should have recalled the affected ones not just carried on sending them out. I don't know if there's any way to check the serial number of a battery included in a phone before you buy it...? My original (the one that swelled) was made in China and had a BD serial number and my new one is different (made in Lithuania iirc).

I just won't be letting mine anywhere near water ever again - not too big a problem as things go (gift horse/mouth etc, after all its still a fantastic smartphone and I still love it and most phones aren't waterproof anyway) but had I chosen and bought the phone based on the waterproof-ness then that would really annoy me and I'd be taking it a lot further.

[BertieBottsJustGotMarried]

Thanks for highlighting this. I really wanted an active, mainly for the water resistant thing! So will be rethinking unless Samsung can convince me this isn't a cause for concern.

[Queen0fFeckingEverything]

Thanks Ann - mine is now fixed, and I've registered it with Samsung so if I have further problems I will be able to get it fixed again.

The main thing is that I would like to edit my review to reflect this. I know I got it free and I'm very grateful for it but like others have said if I'd spent £500 on a phone I would've been livid to find that it had a known battery issue at the time of purchase and that said issue had affected one of the main selling points of the phone (the water resistant cover).

[magentastardust]

Thanks Ann, its ok now -the guy at my local phone shop place helped and I just bought a replacement battery and I haven't had any more trouble so far.

[AnnMumsnet]

Sorry for delay in coming back to you guys: bear with whilst we look into this for you.

And any outstanding issues please do call Samsung CS.

And apologies magentastardust - your battery query should have been answered. Will chase this for you

[AliceinWinterWonderland]

ok thanks, will look into it.

[Queen0fFeckingEverything]

No idea Alice but have a google for "galaxy y battery problems" and see what it turns up... That's what I did when my S4 Active started playing up and it transpired that it was a known issue even before the product test started, which I think is really shoddy of Samsung!

Alternatively you could just ring Samsung and explain, their CS was very good and the phone was back with me very fast. It does now seem okay again too, after I did a hard reset myself