Galaxy s4 - customer services or not!

[Reet666]

I have a s4. It has a small bit of damage to the case. I like the damage makes it personal and makes it mine. However the software has crashed and now unless I pay for a new case nobody in Vodafone wants to fix my phone. Has anyone else had the same issue because the 10 people in customer services seem to think this is normal practice?

[electrawz]

It is normal practice. You have voided the warranty.

[Reet666]

I understand that it invalidates a warranty written so the customer becomes responsible. It is a mobile device subject to wear and tear. I don't care about the case. Just want the software reloaded so the phone works but can't get it done unless I pay for the case, does anyone know if this can be done by 3rd parties as I have already invalidated the warranty?

[mrathb]

if your not bothered about warrenty there are guides on rooting your device on youtube and xda developer site that have custom roms so you can install new o/s onto your device that have been tweaked or edited to make it work better  some are good some are bad   but all the roms have reviews from people who use them 

i used to install them on my galaxy s2 and s4 that did make my phone work alot better with most of the roms some wasnt as good but if you get a bad one you can reinstall another one no problem 

[Reet666]

Thanks I will take a look, is this easy to do? Not worried about warranty as unless your phone is in showroom condition the warranty is written so you end up paying something anyhow, so unless I carry it around in a box the warranty is worthless. After 7 days of speaking with Vodafone 'customer support'! who at one stage suggested I sell it on Ebay and put that towards an early upgrade, I get a sensible comment, much appreciated, thank you.

[mrathb · Accepted solution]

yes it is easy to do the video guides are step by step so are the guides on the develper forum 

and if you have any issues on that community are always happy to help 

first time you do it will have more steps because need to install a bootloader so it will install the roms in first place but after you have done it and worked first time then 

all you would have to do in future is put the roms onto your memory card that you want and use the key combo you learn from the guide to install the next rom from the memory card

i always root my phones after warrenty has ran out

some roms you can get are just same as the stock roms but without all the forced bloatware and unwanted apps you are forced ot keep 

others are fully redone and have a whole better feel and are faster

also rooting can increase your cpu speed because stock roms limit that speed to save power but some custom roms allow you to choose to have that restriction removed for when you are using powerful apps.

[mrathb]

have you tried a basic factory reset to see if that can fix any issues first    always first option to try unless you have already done that 

[Reet666]

It was the factory rest suggested by Vodafone that caused it to what I am told is brick or boot loop. Now won't load past the Samsung splash screen. Will have a look on you tube and see. Thanks.

[mrathb]

let me know how it goes for you