Warning Your Life Proof iPhone Case is Not Guaranteed

So you just went out and bought yourself a brand new iPhone (or Android) for $199.99 plus a two year contract, what is the first thing you do with it?  Well if you have any sense at all you should be getting a case for the phone if you did not already.  It just makes sense with the high cost of cellular phones to protect them.

You decide to opt for what appears to be an indestructible LifeProof case for $79.99 that will protect you phone from dirt, water, mud, snow or just about anything else your phone probably should not be near it the first place.  Maybe you are even one of the brave ones who tests your case out to see if it really is waterproof, and it will probably work.  Cell phone case have come a long way from the fake leather and clear plastic cases with had ten years ago.

LifeProof case the was not so LifeProof

So now you are confident your investment will keep your phone safe from anything short of a nuclear bomb.  So what happens if your case fails and your phone gets damaged?  No worries right, the case is guaranteed for life so they will fix the phone right?

That is what my son thought.  But he was in for a rude awaking this morning when he called LifeProof.

But first let me back up a little bit and give you some background on what happened first.  For Christmas just a few short months ago my son got a brand new iPhone 5 and a LifeProof case from his mother.  Having watched videos on Youtube of people putting there phones under water, he immediately decided to try it himself.  And it kept the phone dry as advertised.

Since he is a swimmer, he thought nothing of jumping in the pool with his phone in his pocket a few weeks ago.  He is 15, so common sense is not something he posses a lot of yet in life.  But to my surprise the case held up and I got a "see I told you dad" reply like I was the foolish one.  My response was, "son just because it works, does not mean you should push it, you never know it could break on you".  I got a role of the eyes, and a smile.  Obviously dad is just out of touch with technology.

So before yesterdays swim meet, he once again jumps in the pool for warmups with his phone in his pocket.  When he gets out, of course he has to check his text messages because he was in the water for all of five minutes, something important might have happened.  Instantly, his face is filled with shock when he sees little drops of water on the inside of his LifeProof case on his iPhone.

Faster than an Olympian can dive into the water, he got the LifeProof case off his phone and began trying to dry it.  The phone was still on so he thought he was safe.  But a few minutes later the home button stopped working and the camera lense had condensation on it making his pictures foggy.

Looking at the case I found the problem.  Somehow the little rubber gasket that creates a waterproof seal between the two pieces of the case had come off and was missing.

So this morning bright and early my son calls LifeProof.  They ask a few questions and apologize for the case failing.  They tell him they will send out a new case right away.  Then he asks the fatal question, "what about my phone?'.  The response he received surprised me and sent me straight to LifeProofs website to verify what was said.  They do not cover damage to phones cause by there products defects.  What?  I buy a product guaranteed to protect something, and it fails due to defect and I am responsible for the damages.

So I reviewed the website, and sure enough, not once does it make any reference to covering damage to your phone.  When you look at the actual fine print of the warranty, it actually says very clearly they are not responsible for any damage to your device.  Only the case is guaranteed and will be replaced under the warranty.

I looked at the other major case maker, Otterboxes website and found similar terms under the warranty.  Perhaps other people are smarter than myself and realized the guarantee was only for the case.  But given the number of complaints on Internet forums, I think people who understood this before a mishap that damaged their phone are probably in the minority.

Having said that, LifeProof did not engage in any misleading advertising, even if they did not make it explicitly clear they do not guarantee your devices safety.  And to be honest, I will probably buy another LifeProof case when we get our next upgraded phone.

The case itself is a solid case.  It does what it claims to do.  It protects you device from things like water, most of the time.  It still beats a cell phone shell that is guaranteed to fail if you drop your phone in the water.

Like anything in the world, when you mass produce millions of an item, some are bound to fail.  I do not know if ours failed from a flaw in manufacture or maybe my son just flat out did not have the gasket on correctly when he put the case together causing it to break and fall off.  Regardless, they were very responsive when it came to replacing the case.  Something that makes me feel confident they stand behind their product.

Yes, it sucks they will not cover damage to the device, especially given the high cost of the case.  But the warranty is clear from the beginning they will not cover damage to your phone.

Here is my advice, buy the case.  Just don't jump in the pool with it in your pocket.

I do have to admit one thing.  As a father I hate being wrong.  Having my teenage son gloat about his dad being wrong the first time he jumped in the water was not something I enjoyed hearing him everyone.  So their was a slight amount of satisfaction that I warned him to be careful, that the case did not hold up.  I know I am almost 40 years old and I should be the bigger person, but I could not resist saying, "See I told you so".  But my inflated ego about once again being right was quickly deflated when I found out its going cost me $75 to fix his phone.  I hate being right all the time.