5 ms·

5 Months of Customer Service Hell with HTC

46 points by lucasdailey 15y ago

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
lucasdailey 15y ago
A youtube video illustrating the phone malfunctioning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTYKk8XZw0g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTYKk8XZw0g
tatsuke95 15y ago
Crappy deal. However, I think that every company has the potential to suck you into the customer service black hole. In such cases, it's a matter of persistence (which this guy definitely had in spades) and a bit of luck finding that customer service rep that cares enough and can actually do something about your problem. Now that the problem is fixed --albeit very late-- continue to let them know how dissatisfied you are. I'd be shocked if they didn't care and felt the need to do something extra.
- lucasdailey 15y ago
  Thanks, tatsuke. I'll definitely continue talking with them about the issue and overall experience.
- NaOH 15y ago
  I don't want to say tatsuke95 is wrong, but I don't see this the same way. I'd say every company has the potential to make the customer service experience pleasant and gratifying while remaining fair to all involved. I don't think a customer should have to be this persistent. Like the author, I'm all for turning a cheek, but at a certain point I won't continue to purchase from a company. A little frustration is one thing. Months and months of it is another. Had this been my experience, I imagine I'd be done with HTC.
daimyoyo 15y ago
I've had my fair share of rotten hardware so I understand what a hassle it can be when it craps out. That said, why didn't you just request a refund, and get a new phone? It seems that'd be much easier than playing customer service chicken with a bunch of people who seem in desperate need of retraining.
- lucasdailey 15y ago
  I bought the phone with a Wirefly deal... which I assumed would be an even more difficult customer service experience. I won't make that mistake again. The "deal" turned out to be almost nothing as I got hit with an activation charge typically waived when you buy direct from Sprint.
felipemnoa 15y ago
The person sure has incredible persistence almost to the point of seeming naive. My advice would be to simply recognize that you've been screwed, shake your fist at them, complain in some highly visible forum (here in hacker news, yelp, blog post) and never use them again. Isn't his time a lot more valuable than this? Sometimes companies just suck.
- lucasdailey 15y ago
  Thanks, and yes it is valuable. In fact my stealth startups is in private testing atm! But as you say I'm persistent. And I have a sort of sense of duty to bring attention to people that fall through the cracks. Obviously almost ludicrous in this context, but something I practice in my political day job(s).
  - felipemnoa 15y ago
    Agree, if looked from a different perspective, you seem to be providing a public service by thoroughly exposing problems with HTC. That is certainly very valuable as a whole.
runjake 15y ago
Paste the link to @HTC on Twitter. They will listen. They're probably already aware of your post. Anyway, HTC generally listens (as evidenced by the recent locked bootloader controversy) so complain on the Internet and hold them accountable.
- lucasdailey 15y ago
  Thanks for the advice, will do.
- catch23 15y ago
  Also, if you look at their twitter stream, you'll see that tons of HTC users have phones that crash. The crashing phones are all different models too, so it seems like it's a reoccurring problem that nobody has bother to fix. Maybe HTC just builds crappy phones. HTC's replies to the users having problems are not very reassuring. They just ask the user to contact htc.com/support and explain the issue.
ChuckMcM 15y ago
Interesting, you don't mention whether or not you replaced the SD card. Replacing it would be useful for two reasons: 1) If you have some sort of malware it will live in the SD card to keep from being killed by a factory reset. 2) If you have a bad SD card it can crash the system by doing something the system does not expect.
- lucasdailey 15y ago
  I mentioned replacing the SD card in the notes on the youtube video. I didn't want to overly bore the reader with the troubleshooting steps, but I believe I listed everything in the youtube video notes. Also, I'm using the "old" SD card and battery from the defective phone in the new phone without incident.
  - ChuckMcM 15y ago
    That's interesting. I'm an electrical engineer by training and I'm surprised that when they replaced the 'main' board and the display the first time that didn't manage to replace all of the active components in the phone. Since passive components are rarely affected (like this) by heat (they change value slightly but that is part of the spec) getting a 'refurb' back with new active components was the most probable fix. Too bad we don't have the HTC diagnostics on this problem as well. While I feel for you and your poor customer service, no doubt somewhere buried in the bowels of the company there is some guy or gal who has to figure out the root cause and get them to change the phone.
    - lucasdailey 15y ago
      Yeah, I was surprised as well. As integrated as everything I would think replacing the main board would replace every component in the chain that could cause the problem. I'm very curious about the diagnostics as well, I'll update the post with any additional information I get.
dhughes 15y ago
I dropped my phone, yes a fall of two feet onto fluffy carpet is 'dropping' but really come on! Later on when I looked the screen was blank. Called HTC support and the first question I was asked mere seconds after calling was "Did you drop it?" so me being an honest person said yes. Apparently that's bad being honest and in this situation it meant any damage was my fault no matter what it was. The phone was still under warranty. I argued with them for a month it was under warranty and the phone can't be so delicate that dropping it like I did caused the problem. The stalemate ended when HTC threatened to send it back to me charging me a fee for looking at the phone. I said fix it since it didn't make sense having a six month old $600 phone and not be able to use it! There was absolutely no effort to help you it's just by the book you are wrong, it's all your fault no chance, warranty be damned. Then after they repaired it they asked me to complete a "how did we do" survey and I ripped them a new arsehole I let them know exactly how I felt about their service. Then the calls started coming wanted to talk about the incident but it didn't involve me getting my money back. They called everyday and I know it was HTC because the first call I answered which was an HTC representative and all the others which I didn't answer were very odd no name, no number calls - I never saw such a thing. Anyway I've owned cellphones since 1996 and this Google Nexus One/HTC Passion crap is the worst phone I have ever owned and the HTC service is just as bad. Oh and the phone is still not fixed it's acting weird.
- lucasdailey 15y ago
  Damn man, that sucks. I'm obsessively careful with my phone/comps because of that very reason. But no matter how careful they still fall occasionally. Falling in a manner you described shouldn't break a phone, it's just not realistic that that sort of jostling won't happen through normal use. Good for you for at least giving them some negative feedback.
- rkalla 15y ago
  This is exactly how they handled my 14 day old Nexus One hardware issue as well. I think they incentify the CS reps to avoid replacements or repairs with rewards. It shows in the service, it is like dealing with used car salesmen.
- DanHulton 15y ago
rkalla 15y ago
This was exactly the same experience[1] I had with HTC back when I got the first Nexus One (hardware defect). A year later I got a myTouch 4G, again rampant hardware issues with the screen. I plan to honor my initial promise of never trying another HTcC device, but I get weak in the knees from high end tech and they seem to be leading the android race the most aggressively right now, Bah. [1] http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/my-experience-with-htc-nexus-one-support-was-mediocre/ http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/my-experience-with-htc-nexus-one...
- karolist 15y ago
  My knowledge might be expired, but what HTC phone currently holds the performance/tech crown? I thought Samsung's Galaxy SII is on the top now and soon to be released Google Nexus S 4G (made by Samsung, afaik). I own HTC myself currently.
  - encoderer 15y ago
    The Nexus S is out already -- and its tech specs weren't nothing out of the ordinary IIRC. Plus (and this is the whole point) it's not a great phone if you don't intend to customize it. That is, unlike HTC Sense and whatever the Samsung equiv is, this is bare bare bones Android 2.3. Honestly, the upcoming HTC Evo 3D looks smashing. At first I groaned. I mean... 3D?!?! WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!! And i still think the whole "record your own 3D HD videos" is absurd. But the rest of the way it uses 3D, and the new HTC Sense (on top of 2.3) is just reallllly cool. And with 1.2ghz dual core, it's a beast.
    - nl 15y ago
      The Nexus S is out already The parent said the Nexus S 4G, but I think they meant the rumored Nexus 4G (which isn't out yet). Here's some leaked specs: http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/15/exclusive-google-nexus-4g-detailed-720p-display-4g-lte-android-4-0/ http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/15/exclusive-google-nexus-4g-deta...
      - karolist 15y ago
aaronbrethorst 15y ago
I brought my 11 month old iPhone 4 into the Apple Store two weeks ago. My home button was intermittently sticking, and it was really frustrating me. I spent three minutes explaining to a guy at the Genius Bar how, despite the problem not repro'ing then, that it still did usually occur. He went in back with it for five minutes and then came back to tell me they'd replace it free of charge. Now, that's customer service.
- gmac 15y ago
  I had the exact same experience at an Apple Store two days ago. Brilliant service -- though I do wish they'd think of a better way to deal with a faulty button contact than junking the whole device. Contrast to my Asus netbook, for which the power adapter pin fell apart after a few weeks' use. I called the support line, who more-or-less accused me of deliberately breaking it myself and said I'd have to send everything back, netbook (with my data on) included, and they'd see whether or not to charge me. Cheap device, cheap service.
- Xuzz 15y ago
  That's actually happened to me — not-in-store-reproducable home button issues on iPhone 4 — twice now, and I've gotten a brand new phone in 5 minutes every time. Definitely agree,
  - heresy 15y ago
    Oh, that's awesome. My home button sometimes requires pressing twice before it does something, I'm definitely taking it in now.
- potatolicious 15y ago
  +1 for Apple, this is why I insist on buying all hardware from them. A couple of years back my MacBook Pro started having bad graphics artifact problems compounded by overheating - it looked like the graphics chip was going to bite it any day. I called Apple, and I shit you not, within twenty-five minutes of picking up the phone, I had received authorization to get it replaced. Not only that, they were going to replace my 2 year-old non-unibody MBP with one of the (at the time) brand-spankin' new unibodies. Since the MBP was pretty heavily customized, I couldn't go get it swapped at an Apple Store, they wanted me to send it in. When I balked about the downtime, they simply shipped the replacement machine out to me and let me return the old one once I got it. Now that's customer service. And before someone makes the argument that Apple sells extremely high-margin items and thus can afford good customer service... HTC sells the same type of product at the same price points. Not only that, I've consistently gotten great customer service from Amazon, who is decidedly a very low margin business.
Hostile 15y ago
Just wanted to chime in here, since I happen to have a positive HTC customer service story. I have a nexus one. I bought it when it still came with an OLED screen. The screen eventually started having color issues. I just dealt with a pinkish screen up until a few days before my warranty was up. I contacted them, and without a hassle they sent me a new nexus one, and had me ship back mine after it came (putting a 500 dollar hold on my credit card just in case I tried to keep both devices or something). New device worked fine but the power button was a bit iffy. Contacted them again and told them my power button was really hard to press. This was AFTER my warranty period was up (but only a couple days after I received the new phone), but the customer service rep put me on hold for a bit, and my request was approved. I got sent another new phone, and I shipped off the "old" one once I received it (with the same credit card hold situation). New phone was perfect, and I still have it and working great. I had to deal with having to do two phone wipes and all that, but I felt pretty good about the whole thing. Cost me nothing but the time to prepare the phones for shipping and getting the new phone back up to speed.
- lucasdailey 15y ago
  In general, when you get a warranty replacement that replacement itself has a 30 or 60 warranty, that can generally extend beyond your original warranty. I don't know the particulars from your case, but thats a pretty standard practice that I believe HTC follows as well.
  - Hostile 15y ago
    Perhaps, but I think you'd agree that my experience in general was very different from what a lot of people are describing here.

46 points by lucasdailey 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

A youtube video illustrating the phone malfunctioning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTYKk8XZw0g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTYKk8XZw0g

tatsuke95 15y ago

Crappy deal. However, I think that every company has the potential to suck you into the customer service black hole. In such cases, it's a matter of persistence (which this guy definitely had in spades) and a bit of luck finding that customer service rep that cares enough and can actually do something about your problem. Now that the problem is fixed --albeit very late-- continue to let them know how dissatisfied you are. I'd be shocked if they didn't care and felt the need to do something extra.

lucasdailey 15y ago
Thanks, tatsuke. I'll definitely continue talking with them about the issue and overall experience.
NaOH 15y ago
I don't want to say tatsuke95 is wrong, but I don't see this the same way. I'd say every company has the potential to make the customer service experience pleasant and gratifying while remaining fair to all involved. I don't think a customer should have to be this persistent. Like the author, I'm all for turning a cheek, but at a certain point I won't continue to purchase from a company. A little frustration is one thing. Months and months of it is another. Had this been my experience, I imagine I'd be done with HTC.

daimyoyo 15y ago

I've had my fair share of rotten hardware so I understand what a hassle it can be when it craps out. That said, why didn't you just request a refund, and get a new phone? It seems that'd be much easier than playing customer service chicken with a bunch of people who seem in desperate need of retraining.

lucasdailey 15y ago
I bought the phone with a Wirefly deal... which I assumed would be an even more difficult customer service experience. I won't make that mistake again. The "deal" turned out to be almost nothing as I got hit with an activation charge typically waived when you buy direct from Sprint.

felipemnoa 15y ago

The person sure has incredible persistence almost to the point of seeming naive. My advice would be to simply recognize that you've been screwed, shake your fist at them, complain in some highly visible forum (here in hacker news, yelp, blog post) and never use them again. Isn't his time a lot more valuable than this? Sometimes companies just suck.

lucasdailey 15y ago
Thanks, and yes it is valuable. In fact my stealth startups is in private testing atm! But as you say I'm persistent. And I have a sort of sense of duty to bring attention to people that fall through the cracks. Obviously almost ludicrous in this context, but something I practice in my political day job(s).
- felipemnoa 15y ago
  Agree, if looked from a different perspective, you seem to be providing a public service by thoroughly exposing problems with HTC. That is certainly very valuable as a whole.

runjake 15y ago

Paste the link to @HTC on Twitter. They will listen. They're probably already aware of your post. Anyway, HTC generally listens (as evidenced by the recent locked bootloader controversy) so complain on the Internet and hold them accountable.

lucasdailey 15y ago
Thanks for the advice, will do.
catch23 15y ago
Also, if you look at their twitter stream, you'll see that tons of HTC users have phones that crash. The crashing phones are all different models too, so it seems like it's a reoccurring problem that nobody has bother to fix. Maybe HTC just builds crappy phones. HTC's replies to the users having problems are not very reassuring. They just ask the user to contact htc.com/support and explain the issue.

ChuckMcM 15y ago

Interesting, you don't mention whether or not you replaced the SD card. Replacing it would be useful for two reasons: 1) If you have some sort of malware it will live in the SD card to keep from being killed by a factory reset. 2) If you have a bad SD card it can crash the system by doing something the system does not expect.

lucasdailey 15y ago
I mentioned replacing the SD card in the notes on the youtube video. I didn't want to overly bore the reader with the troubleshooting steps, but I believe I listed everything in the youtube video notes. Also, I'm using the "old" SD card and battery from the defective phone in the new phone without incident.
- ChuckMcM 15y ago
  That's interesting. I'm an electrical engineer by training and I'm surprised that when they replaced the 'main' board and the display the first time that didn't manage to replace all of the active components in the phone. Since passive components are rarely affected (like this) by heat (they change value slightly but that is part of the spec) getting a 'refurb' back with new active components was the most probable fix. Too bad we don't have the HTC diagnostics on this problem as well. While I feel for you and your poor customer service, no doubt somewhere buried in the bowels of the company there is some guy or gal who has to figure out the root cause and get them to change the phone.
  - lucasdailey 15y ago
    Yeah, I was surprised as well. As integrated as everything I would think replacing the main board would replace every component in the chain that could cause the problem. I'm very curious about the diagnostics as well, I'll update the post with any additional information I get.

dhughes 15y ago

I dropped my phone, yes a fall of two feet onto fluffy carpet is 'dropping' but really come on! Later on when I looked the screen was blank. Called HTC support and the first question I was asked mere seconds after calling was "Did you drop it?" so me being an honest person said yes. Apparently that's bad being honest and in this situation it meant any damage was my fault no matter what it was. The phone was still under warranty. I argued with them for a month it was under warranty and the phone can't be so delicate that dropping it like I did caused the problem. The stalemate ended when HTC threatened to send it back to me charging me a fee for looking at the phone. I said fix it since it didn't make sense having a six month old $600 phone and not be able to use it! There was absolutely no effort to help you it's just by the book you are wrong, it's all your fault no chance, warranty be damned. Then after they repaired it they asked me to complete a "how did we do" survey and I ripped them a new arsehole I let them know exactly how I felt about their service. Then the calls started coming wanted to talk about the incident but it didn't involve me getting my money back. They called everyday and I know it was HTC because the first call I answered which was an HTC representative and all the others which I didn't answer were very odd no name, no number calls - I never saw such a thing. Anyway I've owned cellphones since 1996 and this Google Nexus One/HTC Passion crap is the worst phone I have ever owned and the HTC service is just as bad. Oh and the phone is still not fixed it's acting weird.

lucasdailey 15y ago
Damn man, that sucks. I'm obsessively careful with my phone/comps because of that very reason. But no matter how careful they still fall occasionally. Falling in a manner you described shouldn't break a phone, it's just not realistic that that sort of jostling won't happen through normal use. Good for you for at least giving them some negative feedback.
rkalla 15y ago
This is exactly how they handled my 14 day old Nexus One hardware issue as well. I think they incentify the CS reps to avoid replacements or repairs with rewards. It shows in the service, it is like dealing with used car salesmen.
DanHulton 15y ago

rkalla 15y ago

This was exactly the same experience[1] I had with HTC back when I got the first Nexus One (hardware defect). A year later I got a myTouch 4G, again rampant hardware issues with the screen. I plan to honor my initial promise of never trying another HTcC device, but I get weak in the knees from high end tech and they seem to be leading the android race the most aggressively right now, Bah. [1] http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/my-experience-with-htc-nexus-one-support-was-mediocre/ http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/my-experience-with-htc-nexus-one...

karolist 15y ago
My knowledge might be expired, but what HTC phone currently holds the performance/tech crown? I thought Samsung's Galaxy SII is on the top now and soon to be released Google Nexus S 4G (made by Samsung, afaik). I own HTC myself currently.
- encoderer 15y ago
  The Nexus S is out already -- and its tech specs weren't nothing out of the ordinary IIRC. Plus (and this is the whole point) it's not a great phone if you don't intend to customize it. That is, unlike HTC Sense and whatever the Samsung equiv is, this is bare bare bones Android 2.3. Honestly, the upcoming HTC Evo 3D looks smashing. At first I groaned. I mean... 3D?!?! WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!! And i still think the whole "record your own 3D HD videos" is absurd. But the rest of the way it uses 3D, and the new HTC Sense (on top of 2.3) is just reallllly cool. And with 1.2ghz dual core, it's a beast.
  - nl 15y ago
    The Nexus S is out already The parent said the Nexus S 4G, but I think they meant the rumored Nexus 4G (which isn't out yet). Here's some leaked specs: http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/15/exclusive-google-nexus-4g-detailed-720p-display-4g-lte-android-4-0/ http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/15/exclusive-google-nexus-4g-deta...
    - karolist 15y ago

aaronbrethorst 15y ago

I brought my 11 month old iPhone 4 into the Apple Store two weeks ago. My home button was intermittently sticking, and it was really frustrating me. I spent three minutes explaining to a guy at the Genius Bar how, despite the problem not repro'ing then, that it still did usually occur. He went in back with it for five minutes and then came back to tell me they'd replace it free of charge. Now, that's customer service.

gmac 15y ago
I had the exact same experience at an Apple Store two days ago. Brilliant service -- though I do wish they'd think of a better way to deal with a faulty button contact than junking the whole device. Contrast to my Asus netbook, for which the power adapter pin fell apart after a few weeks' use. I called the support line, who more-or-less accused me of deliberately breaking it myself and said I'd have to send everything back, netbook (with my data on) included, and they'd see whether or not to charge me. Cheap device, cheap service.
Xuzz 15y ago
That's actually happened to me — not-in-store-reproducable home button issues on iPhone 4 — twice now, and I've gotten a brand new phone in 5 minutes every time. Definitely agree,
- heresy 15y ago
  Oh, that's awesome. My home button sometimes requires pressing twice before it does something, I'm definitely taking it in now.
potatolicious 15y ago
+1 for Apple, this is why I insist on buying all hardware from them. A couple of years back my MacBook Pro started having bad graphics artifact problems compounded by overheating - it looked like the graphics chip was going to bite it any day. I called Apple, and I shit you not, within twenty-five minutes of picking up the phone, I had received authorization to get it replaced. Not only that, they were going to replace my 2 year-old non-unibody MBP with one of the (at the time) brand-spankin' new unibodies. Since the MBP was pretty heavily customized, I couldn't go get it swapped at an Apple Store, they wanted me to send it in. When I balked about the downtime, they simply shipped the replacement machine out to me and let me return the old one once I got it. Now that's customer service. And before someone makes the argument that Apple sells extremely high-margin items and thus can afford good customer service... HTC sells the same type of product at the same price points. Not only that, I've consistently gotten great customer service from Amazon, who is decidedly a very low margin business.

Hostile 15y ago

Just wanted to chime in here, since I happen to have a positive HTC customer service story. I have a nexus one. I bought it when it still came with an OLED screen. The screen eventually started having color issues. I just dealt with a pinkish screen up until a few days before my warranty was up. I contacted them, and without a hassle they sent me a new nexus one, and had me ship back mine after it came (putting a 500 dollar hold on my credit card just in case I tried to keep both devices or something). New device worked fine but the power button was a bit iffy. Contacted them again and told them my power button was really hard to press. This was AFTER my warranty period was up (but only a couple days after I received the new phone), but the customer service rep put me on hold for a bit, and my request was approved. I got sent another new phone, and I shipped off the "old" one once I received it (with the same credit card hold situation). New phone was perfect, and I still have it and working great. I had to deal with having to do two phone wipes and all that, but I felt pretty good about the whole thing. Cost me nothing but the time to prepare the phones for shipping and getting the new phone back up to speed.

lucasdailey 15y ago
In general, when you get a warranty replacement that replacement itself has a 30 or 60 warranty, that can generally extend beyond your original warranty. I don't know the particulars from your case, but thats a pretty standard practice that I believe HTC follows as well.
- Hostile 15y ago
  Perhaps, but I think you'd agree that my experience in general was very different from what a lot of people are describing here.