HTC Warranty / Service - Thoughts?

[Guest SilentBob]

Hi,

My wife has a T-Mobile MDA Compact II (HTC Charmer I believe). She has had it since March last year. So getting near upgrade time, but still within the 2 year manufacturers warranty.

We already had to send the phone back (via T-Mobile) not long after getting it, as the touch screen stopped responding. Got it back, but was infacta different phone (or at least different internals).

For a while the loudspeaker & the headphone jack have been a bit iffy. Speaker just sounds distorted at any volume & headphone jack doesn't make proper contact. But last week the ear piece suddenly stopped working completely. So she cannot hear caller/ callee during phone call. She can be heard on the other end though.

Speaking to T-Mobile, as it was outside of the 1st year they seemed a bit reluctant to be of any help. As such I thought that it'd be easier to go directly to HTC.

Anyway, sent off the phone detailing ALL the problems. They received it on Friday. I have still had no update so gave them a call this lunchtime. The guy I spoke to said that the phone is showing signs of "water ingress" and basically hinting that it will not be covered.

As I said to the guy on the phone, my wife has been very good at looking after the phone. Always keeping it in its case & in her bag, and I can guarantee that it has NEVER been subject to spillage. If it had, then I would not even have wasted my time & money sending it on to them.

My questions are:

Is it possible that condensation could have built up in the phone at anytime? Would this be quite common? In this case, as it has not been subject to misuse, should it be covered by warranty?

Alternatively, is it possible that they are telling me this in order to try & shrug off their respnsibility? Do I stand any chance of getting a resolution from them?

Could ALL of the problems detailed be caused by water damage? I am guessing not.

If they do not show any signs of backing down, then would I have any chance of picking out ONE of the problems as unrelated to water damage (e.g. the headphone jack) & insisting that they fix that & return the handset free of charge under warranty, ignoring any other issues?

I have found this to be a real let down. I have had 3 different HTC handsets myself, & have always found them very good. The one instance that I did have a fault, the service provided by HTC at that time was very good, despite the huge delays caused by Orange. However, the problems with this handset has got me thinking that they may not be producing hansets to the same quality & not providing the same level of service. This will probably encourage my wife to move away form these types of phone, and I myself am certainly far from happy about it at the moment.

Any comments greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Simon

[Guest LSmith4285]

Condensation could have built up depending where it is, I worked for Orange for years and as soon as the manufacturers saw liquid ingress they don't touch it. It invalidates the warranty instantly so they won't look at the device for any issues.

Do all HTC devices have a 2 years warranty? Where did you find this out? As far as I was aware it was a standard 12 month warranty.

T-Mobile probably weren't very helpful as they want you to upgrade and sign up with them again. My experiences with HTC have been that they are well above the rest for warranty issues, not quite as good as SE with technical questions.

Edited July 18, 2007 by LSmith4285

[Guest SilentBob]

Do all HTC devices have a 2 years warranty? Where did you find this out? As far as I was aware it was a standard 12 month warranty.

When we took it back for the original problem, after receiving it back insurance was mentioned. When I declined due to the general rip off factor, the guy at T-Mobile said that these devices have 2 year warranty anyway.

When speaking to T-Mobile customer services last week, I asked them to confirm the warranty period, and was advised 2 years. However, after logging a call with HTC I received an email/ tick sheet with their T&Cs which stagted 12 months. Tried to check the manual, but there is no mention of warranty whatsoever. So called HTC again for confirmation, & was told that it is indeed 2 years.

[Guest SilentBob]

T-Mobile probably weren't very helpful as they want you to upgrade and sign up with them again. My experiences with HTC have been that they are well above the rest for warranty issues, not quite as good as SE with technical questions.

Not a particularly good way of encouraging someone to remain with them, by showing no interest. I left Orange after about 11/12 years due partly to their total drop in serice standards.