vB Easy Archive - HTC Repair center sucks, plus anyone have a VOX with a keyboard gap?

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HTC Repair center sucks, plus anyone have a VOX with a keyboard gap?
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Posted by: Aristotle

The story is kind of long below as to why I'm mad at HTC's Texas repair center, so before the sotry , just have 2 questions:

1. Anyone else used HTC to repair a handset, did it turn out OK?
2. Anyone have a newer built VOX/s710 that has about a 1/16th inch or more gap between either the top of the keys and the glass or between the bottom of the keys and the case?

Now, here's the story:
So I fell on my pocket and cracked the LCD in my HTC s710.

Would have just purchased a new 730, but all indications are the handset is one step away from a brick thanks to memory problems HTC won't agknowledge.

So, called up HTC, asked price and turn around for LCD replacement. Told it's about $150, and it takes 48 hours after receipt to diagnose, they will call me at that point, I will aprove the repair, then they will take just a day or two to repair and ship it back. That sounds pretty great, so off it goes, next day air on a Thursday. On Friday at 11AM UPS shows it delivered and signed for.

Call the following Wednesday to find out why I haven't been called. They haven't "received" it yet. Turns out what they do is just don't mark it as "received" until they feel like getting around to looking at it. I think the day they finally "received" it was Friday, about 7 days after they received it in reality.

It then took about a week to diagnose it. Then another week to "repair" and "test" it. And by "repair" it I mean they sent me a different unit, with a different IMEI number, but the same serial number, that they couldn't possibly have "tested" because it doesn't actually work consistently (rmore below), and not only does it not work, the Keyboard is actually TOO SMALL for the case and slides around on there.

The problems with this handset are several.

One, it physically doesn't fit together right. The keybord is about a 1/16th of an inch too short and because of this it slides up and down, leaving a significant gap either at the top or the bottom. If the gap is at the top, the soft keys' little plastic tabs occasionally pop up out from under the screen cover glass.

Two, right out of the box it wouldn't boot until I put the battery in and out several times. It was just a black screen, green light wouldn't come on. Charging light worked. Thought at first it was a battery problem, even though it had been charging a while before I had time to mess with it - but it wasn't. When it finally came on the battery showed about 50%.

After initally setting up the network settings, and locale settings and doing the initial connection to WMDC, and confirming it had a newer rom in it, it froze up requiring a battery pull to reset it. Then after freezing up it had a white screen complaining to me that I shouldn't take the battery out and it forced a hard reset in order to start back up. So, I'm thinking, wtf is with this new rom!

Anyway, got it all set up again, but had some trouble rebooting it several times. Would be just like at first, either nothing would happen on pressing power or it would hang for 10 minutes at the WinMo logo. Then this morning it just won't boot back up at all. It kept vanishing from WMDC so I restarted it to see if that would help, and now it's a brick. Get a green light sometimes, but nothing on the screen.

Way to go HTC!!!

I'll call them tomorrow and see what they will do, but I'm kind of pissed. they ate up like 3 weeks of my time and about $200 bucks after all the shipping, etc.

Posted by: cbreze

Sounds like terrible service from HTC.

I have been very lucky so far by not needing any type of repair whether from htc,nokia or whatever.
I can feel your frustration. I'm sorry for your problems. It's many,many similar posts that cause me to be so careful with my handsets. I know accidents happen, but from what I've seen and heard on these forums regarding shoddy customer service from these companies I think If I had such an issue I would just have to do an out of pocket upgrade. I mean , look what you say you've paid out of pocket yourself already. Might as well just get something else. Sorry, no help, but thanks, your post makes me more aware and careful.

Posted by: DVS_WiNdz

That sounds bad.. I was thinking about sending my TyTN II in to get my mini usb port repaired.. but after reading this.. I probably won't be doing so.. I can't really manager without my phone for that long.

Posted by: freakyflow

I actually just wrapped up my Touch and is ready to ship out (internal speacker is not working anymore) - before i do...anyone else concur that I shouldn't? lol Is it better to just buy a new handset rather than go thru the HTC repair center?

Posted by: Aristotle

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbreze

I mean , look what you say you've paid out of pocket yourself already. Might as well just get something else. Sorry, no help, but thanks, your post makes me more aware and careful.

Yeah, my initial instinct was hey, now I can get the s730 with twice the processing power. But there are numerous reports about the memory problem in that handset that made me flinch since I use a ton of programs on it all day for work, so that left me with no real upgrade option for this style of WinMo phone. I thought about going to ebay and grabbing one, but that can be a crap shoot with no safety net if you get screwed, and since the repair was just a physical thing for less, I went that route.

In hindsight, I might of been better off going with ebay or another model, but up front on paper it seemed like the right way to go.

Hopefully at this point when I call tomorrow someone will pony up a fresh new replacement, since now we are past my self-inflicted repair issue and into warranty territory.

I mean if they want to send me a shiny handset with no scratches like this one, but works and has a fitting keyboard like the old one, then that would be great.

Posted by: Aristotle

Quote:

Originally Posted by freakyflow

I actually just wrapped up my Touch and is ready to ship out (internal speacker is not working anymore) - before i do...anyone else concur that I shouldn't? lol Is it better to just buy a new handset rather than go thru the HTC repair center?

After I first called, I spent about a week staring at the RMA number wondering if it was the right call!!

I'll let you know tomorrow if they handle this properly or not.

Posted by: WarRaven

Yeah, they cant really mess it up anymore at this point can they.

I would say, for thier reputation and your satisfaction, send it in.

It may turn out well.

Keep us filled in, its interesting to see what will happen.

WR

Posted by: freakyflow

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aristotle

After I first called, I spent about a week staring at the RMA number wondering if it was the right call!!

I'll let you know tomorrow if they handle this properly or not.

Looking forward to it =)

Posted by: Aristotle

So now it's a warranty issue, but they couldn't do any better than me having to wait for them to send out a prepaid shipping label and they coudn't give me any information on how long this will all take.

They do NOT have "advanced replacement" like a lot of electronics companies do... that's where they send you a replacement unit immediately for a credit card deposit and when they get yours back they credit back the deposit.

Posted by: freakyflow

So if it's still under warranty (which mine is) they will pay for the shipping? They told me to send the phone (onmy own expense), and shipping back is on my expense too, along with $28 "triage" fee. =\

Posted by: Aristotle

I think the question is whether the actual problem is under warranty or not. On mine, clearly, the original thing was a repair - the unit was under warranty, but me cracking the LCD isn't under warranty, that's my problem, so I had to pay shippign both ways.

Now this new issue is nothing I could have done to the phone, it's just a lemon so it's under warranty, so they pay the shipping.

Sounds like they are considering your issue a repair rather than a warranty issue?

Posted by: freakyflow

Yea, it's definitely not a repair that is not under warranty... i'm guess I'll call them to clarify.

Thanks - I'll let you know how it goes.

Posted by: freakyflow

I called them just now and they said that they have to diagnose the unit first, and determine whether it's under warranty or not - so shipping there is my expense and shipping back is theirs.

Is this reasonable?

Posted by: Aristotle

It's annoying, but I don't know what else you can do there. Maybe, if it's under warranty once they diagnose it, you can try to ask for a supervisor and ask for some compensation on the shipping.

Posted by: freakyflow

Looks like that's what I'll have to do. Thanks for your advice! (I'll follow up once I get their call)

Posted by: MercuryTYTN

I sent mine (HTC TYTN) to HTC on 2/15 and they said I had to pay for shipping and triage fee($28), and mine is under warranty. I sent it in for the white screen of death and all the buttons on the front stopped working. They flat out told me they would have it for 2-3 weeks. It sucks because its clearly defective and I'm still getting charged. Wonder if this will be my last HTC phone?

Posted by: Aristotle

So I got my "pre-printed" label via email. It took over 24 hours to send me an email!

Anyway, sent it off. Will let you know what happens. Although I suspect I'll just get back another refurb unit. I'm sure my trusty reliable original unit has long since made it's way to a small villiage in south central Asia to have the gold and copper melted out of if.

Posted by: MercuryTYTN

Update: I got a call from HTC America repair center and they told me that my TYTN had "customer induced damage" to the switchboard(motherboard) and I had to pay $129 to repair it, even though its under warranty. I've never dropped or mishandled my phone and it cost me over 600 dollars. Never getting another HTC product ever!!!! Luckilly I got an extended warranty or I would be even more pissed.

Posted by: freakyflow

Yea, if I get charged for repairs this is gonna be my last HTC too :|

Posted by: Aristotle

So my s710 was in their hands the 21st of February. I've called several times. Last week it was just "in diagnosis", and they didn't know what I was talking about with it being a warranty off the original repair. They also insisted that it WAS my original phone, then when I offered to email the photos of the two, they backed off that claim.

Anyway, called again today, and NOW they claim to have just received the phone YESTERDAY! Then when I asked how that could possibly be, they hung up on me.

Called back again. Got all kinds of excuses about computer problems and files not getting transmitted, etc. I asked, "so if the compters don't work over there, everyone just sits around staring at broken phones for several weeks wondering what to do?"

Spoke to yet another supervisor. She told me that sorry for you, but the original supervisor didn't create the right RMA record in the file so no one knew what to do with the phone. I had to explain to her that HTC employees, especially supervisors at a customer service center, need to stop making excuses, stop saying the equivalent of "I only work here" and start trying to offer me at least some solution of some kind, maybe go at least one step beyond their normal process of brushing people off and doing things when they feel like it. She finally agreed and promissed to actually call the repair center (the call center is in Indiana, while the repair shop is in Texas) and beg them to move the phone to the front of the line and then call me back by 1:30 pm.

I doubt it will happen though. So far, HTC has not initiated contact with me even once. Every call for status updates I have had to make. They make a lot of promisses about contacting you and never follow through.

Next call is to corporate. If that doesn't help, I'm off to small claims court.

Posted by: Aristotle

OH damn, props to this one supervisor. She already followed through with a call back and getting a hold of someone that can maybe get things moving.

Posted by: lastdon00

it's called the bbb thats what i did once with my htc touch when the orignals came out the first time.

Posted by: freakyflow

I'm glad to say that I have got my HTC Touch back without any problems. They called me when they received it, called me when they had repaired it, and told me that I did not have to pay for the "triage fee" nor the shipping back. So I am quiet pleased with how they dealt with it. Only bad part was, I had to pay for the shipping there.

Posted by: Aristotle

FINALLY got the phone back again today.

Still has the non-fitting front keyboard sliding around in there.

It failed on the first boot up just like before. Worked on the second. Crashed the second I tested the camera and won't boot back up again now. Booted to the HTC logo a couple of times and hung there for 20 minutes. Now it won't even power up again.... exactly the problem it went for the second time.

So basically just over a month later from the SECOND problem and nothing is fixed. Nothing at all.

Posted by: freakyflow

Man..that sucks..

Did you get your original htc box back? They mailed mine back in a generic white box without the original htc box :|

Posted by: Aristotle

No, I got a generic white box the second time.

I was kind of pissad about that.

I called customer service this time, and they tried to look into it for me but also got frustrated as they were dealing with the RMA department. They didn't say that, but I could tell by the way the call went that each time the guy went back to talk to RMA he was getting more furstrated because he was probably experincing the same going around in cricles I keep getting. Eventually he gave up and transferred me over there to RMA again, which I had asked him not to do because I really didn't want to just go through the same motions again.

What I found out was that all the tech at the repair center did this time was re-flash the phone and send it back. Didn't even LOOK at the loose non-fitting keyboard or try to find out why it wouldn't boot in the first place. And it took a month to do that.

I now have a new RMA number (third one) along with a Customer Service ticket number and a phone number to the corporate offices, which I will for sure be calling. I had a problem like this way back in the early days of Pacific Bell (at the time) DSL. The problem went on for 4 months with no one ever able to fix it and finally I called the heaquarters and managed to get to some marketing vp's extension and within 2 days it was fixed. Which didn't stop me from ordering a cable modem the second it was available.

My problem with all this is the accountability. There doesn't seem to be any kind of escalation or prioritization procedure for when things go wrong. They just keep wanting me to go through the same procedure over and over, and there's that old saying about insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. This is like corporate insanity: set up a procedure, and if it fails, just do it again.

I would be happy to just to have someone say, OK, we screwed up and here are the steps above and beyond what's normal we are going to take to fix it. They have no mechanism to do that, and no one seems to have any authority to do anything but be a robot.

Posted by: freakyflow

Yea, don't know about you but when I talked to them on the phone it seems like I had to repeat myself 2 or 3 times every other sentence. I hope your problem gets resolved soon - you should try asking for a supervisor/manager to talk with...

Should I even bother calling them to get the box back? Only reason I want it is so the resell value would be higher...

Posted by: Aristotle

I've talked to a half dozen supervisors. They aren't any help.

Posted by: tam

any updates on this situation? i was thinking of going with the sprint sero plan and the touch, but this is making me wary..

Posted by: Aristotle

Well after the last call mentioned above I was supposed to get a pre-paid fedex label in email within 24 hours (which, even that long is ridiculous).

2 Calls, 1 "re-escalation", and 10 days later, the pre-paid label finally arrived today.

Now, if we go by the previous two times they had the phone, they will get the phone tomorrow, but will pretend not to have it until next Wedesday, and then I should have it back by maybe the end of April so I should have an update for you by then.

Posted by: freakyflow

So I just got slapped with a $44 customs "brokerage fee" from Fedex the other day, (shipped from texas repair centre to Canada) shouldn't this be paid by HTC?