Three things here, everything to do with mobile phones seems to be a rip off.

I cant agree with the shark thingy about the networks they are just as bad - search any one by name on here or elsewhere - and there aren't enough of them to make real competition. If you can bear not to have the latest model of handset there are loads of bargains on ebay of phones with all the features but a year old or so. If it only cost a half days pay and if it packs up it doesn't hurt so much. My family have stopped going for the newest phones now, we get a decent sim deal and stick it in a secondhand phone bought from a fashion victim who has to have the latest.

A second thing is to get a phone that is less prone to water damage. A friend of mine who teaches electronic engineering and small equipment repair reckons that most of the so called water damage is condensation. The rate of appearance of the problem goes up during cold and especially dry cold spells. People let their phone get very cold then put it in an inside pocket where the air is warm and loaded with moisture. He noticed this especially with people who had been skiing or climbing because they been getting hot and sweaty, talking on the phone then put it inside their jacket.

A plug for LG here, I have an F2400 that has fallen in each of the bath and a watering can, both times I fished it out, wiped it down and put it in the airstream from a hairdryer. It is still working. Same with my Jabra bluetooth earpiece, the old one the BT200, mine has been through the wash and still works!

Third thing is that sometines household insurance covers damage to mobile phones, mine does though for the reasons above I've never bothered claiming. The best of luck with yours, I hope things get sorted out.

you can take it to a cpw express repair centre and get their engineer to give you a second opinion.

A tell tale sign of liquad damage is white residue on the circuit board (which the engineer will normally photograph) or green residue on charging and battery contacts.

And the obvious RED indicator on batteries and inside phones.

Sounds to me like a complete set-up and rip off. If Phones 4 U have certified engineers on site, then they can open the 'phone up in front of you and prove that it has been water damaged. If not, then they should honour the terms and conditions of warranty and stop messing you about.

MORAL OF STORY: If I've said it once, I have said it a hundred times on this forum - DON'T BUY FROM A HIGH STREET RETAILLER! The only people who can offer a proper service are the networks themselves - anything else is whitewash and marketing rubbish. You know the names and you know their games. How O2 got past the Fair Trading rules with the iPhone sole distribution and Craphone Whorehouse got exclusive is beyond me. I would NEVER buy the wretched thing on that basis. O2 doesn't work here and I will have nothing to do with CPW.

Learned your lesson the hard way me-thinks!

SHARK!

I've had my phones 4 u contract for 8 months now and have 4 months left. I had the Sony Ericsson W850i. I set the alarm on it one night and it never came back on. I tried everything to turn it on but it wouldn't work. I took my phone into a Vodafone shop where thay had a quick look at it. They told me that the first thing anyone looks for when a phone is broke is water damage. My phone had never been nowhere near water. Vodafone told me about the little white strips in the phone which give an indication to whether the phone had been water damaged. They confirmed to me that the strips showed that the phone was not water damaged and said that I should take the phone back to Phones 4 U so that they could send it off as it was still under warranty. So I took it back to the Phones for U shop. They also confirmed in the shop that it didn't look to be water damaged, they said it was probably a software fault. A fews weeks passed and I hadn't heard anything so I called Phones 4 U. They said that the engineers report stated that the phone was water damaged. I said to the advisor I didn't believe that could be true. They basically said I'm not an engineer I can't help you. I asked them to send me the phone back but they said they could only send it back if I paid £17.63 which I was not told about in the shop.

So I was quite angry with what was happening and then the advisor wanted to put me through to sales to open start contract for me which I couldn't believe there cheat. ADVICE: Do not go with phones for you they are a con.

 I phoned Vodaphone up to drop my tariff to the lowest price I could and the operater wasn't surprised with what had happened to me and said that she has spoken to lots of people who have also been told that there phone was water damaged when it wasn't.

Has anyone had this happen to them. Sorry about the essay.