Phone IP68 rating does not hold up (excluded in warranty)

Summary: The IP68 rating does not hold up and any form of physical damage is explicitly excluded in the wording on the warranty.

Whole story: I bought the BV9500 Plus from Blackview 6 months ago, and enjoyed the phone which has had good battery life so far. I work on a mine and had the CAT S60 before which got water damaged and was replaced by CAT free of charge as it has an IP68 rating, which was crucial for me and the industry I work in.

Wanting to get a newer phone and on hearing some good thing about Blackview and its rugged phones, I went ahead and got myself the BV9500 plus after reviewing some of their phones and obviously the IP68 rating was key. It worked great as a phone but unfortunately after falling from a height of 40cm (from my coffee table onto a hard floor) the screen cracked, even though the provided screen protector was installed.

According to Blackview, the IP68 rating ensures the phone is protected against falls from 1.5m and can be submerged in water up to 1.5m deep. When I contacted them to get it fixed, and offered to provide my proof of purchase for the purpose of the warranty, I was informed that Blackview's warranty does not cover any physical damage of any sort under any circumstances. The employee who assisted me explained that this was as they cant prove it was (or wasn't, quite importantly) damaged within these limits, so the warranty outright refuses any repair under warranty for physical damage, though they say they have 100% confidence in their IP68 rating.

Basically you can have the incident on film and have witnesses, or even if it happens right in front of them, they will not fix it through the warranty. The warranty does not even cater for any form of proof or witness statements of the incident or anything of that sort. Just no.

This is not stated to you when you buy the phone, though its IP68 rating is advertised on every possible occasion. When you buy these phones you will likely be under the same impression as I was: Firstly that this phone will not break when suffering small falls or water exposure, and Secondly, that if it does, they will fix it for you as the IP68 rating in itself tells you it should be replaced if it does fail under these circumstances. This is kept quiet until it does fail and then you get charged to have it fixed. The only way to find this out is by reading the warranty which is inside the sealed box when you buy it, thus meaning if you don't ask this ridiculous question before buying the phone, you wont find out until its too late. And why would you ask? All logic says that it would of course be covered as its an IP68 rated phone, sold on a Rugged phone website, while all other manufacturers back the rating in terms of their warranty (CAT for example, as I experienced first hand).

To sum up, the IP68 rating is most probably false and is therefore explicitly excluded from warranty claims. This is likely as this is a cheap chinese phone which the salesperson claimed is from Italy, though the box says it is manufactured in China.

If you want a rugged phone capable of robust use, and want the peace of mind which the claimed IP68 rating offers, rather go for a CAT or some alternative established brand.

I was bitterly disappointed, you shouldn't have to make my mistake.