10 replies to this topic

[dunc]

Last week the number five key on my Touch Dual (20-key) stopped working. I duly sent it off to HTC as the device was still under warranty having been purchased only in late January.

Today I got an email back from HTC claiming that the device has suffered water damage and as such is not a warranty repair but will instead cost me the thick end of £280. I asked them on what basis they make this assertion and they tell me that they use a sticker inside the device that changes colour if it gets wet. So I ask them to send me a photo of this sticker. They do so (see attached) and I am stunned to note that a) it is not buried deep inside, but sitting as close to the edge of the device as it could be, on top of the casing for the USB port. Furthermore and the to my earlier a) if you look at a Touch Dual, there is a hole over the USB port on the back of the device through which you can actually see the sticker when the back is off. All it would take therefore is a drop of water to be forced in there (maybe making a phone call in the rain for example) and your warranty is totally void. In fact a droplet could even go in to the usb socket and up through the casing and as the sticker is basically blotting paper, it wouldn't take much to force it to change colour.

I have escalated this to senior level with HTC CS (who I have to say are not far short of appalling until you get a native English speaker) and they have changed their tune slightly...but not much. They are now saying that they will replace the keyboard (c£70), but that the device will now be effectively out of warranty and they will not guarantee that it will be free from fault in the future as it might have been if I let them replace the motherboard and the LCD. I contend that this is tantamount to an admission that the fault is not due to water ingress but they refuse to accept this.

They do not seem to accept that the positioning of that sticker is such that it more likely than not gives them an excuse to invalidate the warranty on almost all the devices that come into them. They claim that all their devices have the sticker positioned in the same place and they have a hole over them so that moisture damage can be assessed without opening the handset up. I dispute this as well...I have looked at a Tytn which certainly has no such thing. Can I ask you guys here to have a look at your handsets and let me know two things... is your sticker pink? (particularly interested in hearing from Touch Dual owners on this) and owners of other handsets, can you see your moisture damage alert sticker though any of the holes in the housing when you take the back cover off your device.

Many thanks for your help and I hope this serves as a warning to others as well. For what it's worth, I review tech for a national newspaper as well so they certainly haven't heard the end of this!

Attached Files

•  HT747GC06578.jpg   1.34MB   99 downloads

[Griff_FFOC]

With the battery cover off, and the phone laid the same as yours, i've got two small holes pretty much the same size, next to each other.
I'm assuming, from where the pink is on your phone, it's the lower of the two holes, which on mine still looks white.
(the top hole looks like it just looks down onto the casing of the USB connector).

I'd stick to your guns, surely you can tell if water has actually been in the phone.  There'd be more tell-tales than just that piece of paprt surely.
It looks like whatever wet the paper started from the upper left part of it (where the print underneath is coming through the most, and paper is creased).

Edited by Griff_FFOC, 14 July 2008 - 03:18 PM.

[dunc]

Griff_FFOC, on Jul 14 2008, 16:16, said:

With the battery cover off, and the phone laid the same as yours, i've got two small holes pretty much the same size, next to each other.
I'm assuming, from where the pink is on your phone, it's the lower of the two holes, which on mine still looks white.
(the top hole looks like it just looks down onto the casing of the USB connector).

I'd stick to your guns, surely you can tell if water has actually been in the phone.  There'd be more tell-tales than just that piece of paprt surely.

That's the one, thanks. Make sure it stays that way!!

I know that water hasn't been in the phone and they have told me that they normally expect to see both stickers turning pink (there's another one on the other side apparently that is conveniently out of shot in the image they have sent me) as well as evidence of corrosion on the circuitry which they also admit is not present. I am just stunned by their intransigence on this...

[Mysterious Stranger]

dunc, on Jul 14 2008, 16:20, said:

That's the one, thanks. Make sure it stays that way!!

I know that water hasn't been in the phone and they have told me that they normally expect to see both stickers turning pink (there's another one on the other side apparently that is conveniently out of shot in the image they have sent me) as well as evidence of corrosion on the circuitry which they also admit is not present. I am just stunned by their intransigence on this...

Wowser! It's common to have these strips near the sim holder. I regularly either cover them over or remove them carefully and keep safe as they are easily pink'd :-(

The keypad issue ( haven't got a niki so can't check) is usually caused by corrosion on the round metal push-contact so I can see their point, but it's easily fixed by cleaning the disc contact with IPA and doesn't warrant a keypad replacement. Affected a lot of typhoons IIRC. And if there had been enough water to turn the strip pink i'd have thought you'd have more serious issues that just a keypad fault - plus major corrosion around the board.

HTC did something similar with me when they 'lost' my mda compact III for a few months, then 'fixed' several faults that didn't need doing ( new LCD ) and claimed it was a gesture of goodwill as illegal software (the official t-mob wm6 upgrade!) had been loaded and my remaining warranty was now void! I'd paid for a new casing to be fitted and had to argue like stink to get them to send me a battery cover. Hey-ho. Seems since they opened their shiny new call centre service has gone downhill.


T-mobile have taken the repair contract for MDA branded devices away from HTC btw. So you can't book a t-mob device in anymore on htc's site. Nothing to do with me, honest...

M.S

[dunc]

Mysterious Stranger, on Jul 14 2008, 16:37, said:

Wowser! It's common to have these strips near the sim holder. I regularly either cover them over or remove them carefully and keep safe as they are easily pink'd :-(

The keypad issue ( haven't got a niki so can't check) is usually caused by corrosion on the round metal push-contact so I can see their point, but it's easily fixed by cleaning the disc contact with IPA and doesn't warrant a keypad replacement. Affected a lot of typhoons IIRC. And if there had been enough water to turn the strip pink i'd have thought you'd have more serious issues that just a keypad fault - plus major corrosion around the board.

HTC did something similar with me when they 'lost' my mda compact III for a few months, then 'fixed' several faults that didn't need doing ( new LCD ) and claimed it was a gesture of goodwill as illegal software (the official t-mob wm6 upgrade!) had been loaded and my remaining warranty was now void! I'd paid for a new casing to be fitted and had to argue like stink to get them to send me a battery cover. Hey-ho. Seems since they opened their shiny new call centre service has gone downhill.
T-mobile have taken the repair contract for MDA branded devices away from HTC btw. So you can't book a t-mob device in anymore on htc's site. Nothing to do with me, honest...

M.S

Interesting stuff Mysterious...thanks. As a matter of interest they have just come back with the keyboard quote - £46 - a lot more attractive than the £278 that they came up with this morning.

[Mysterious Stranger]

dunc, on Jul 14 2008, 16:44, said:

Interesting stuff Mysterious...thanks. As a matter of interest they have just come back with the keyboard quote - £46 - a lot more attractive than the £278 that they came up with this morning.

Is it that you have to press *really* hard to get the button to work? Or has it failed completley?
If you do get them to fit a keyboard and pay for it, insist on receiving the old one back and peel the membrane off it. Then look at the contact discs. They should be shiny silvery-gold, corroded ones look greyd and cloudy. Fixed in 5 minutes but no-one 'fixes' anything these days they just swop parts. of course it could be something else entirely that's wrong with it but HTC have form here dating back to the original orange spv's... Hey-ho.

M.S

p.s Maybe you could contact the press office...

edit - links to my previous service experiences:

good: http://www.modaco.co...repair-via-htc/

bad: http://www.modaco.co...-repair-issues/

Edited by Mysterious Stranger, 14 July 2008 - 04:00 PM.

[dunc]

Mysterious Stranger, on Jul 14 2008, 16:57, said:

Is it that you have to press *really* hard to get the button to work? Or has it failed completley?
If you do get them to fit a keyboard and pay for it, insist on receiving the old one back and peel the membrane off it. Then look at the contact discs. They should be shiny silvery-gold, corroded ones look greyd and cloudy. Fixed in 5 minutes but no-one 'fixes' anything these days they just swop parts. of course it could be something else entirely that's wrong with it but HTC have form here dating back to the original orange spv's... Hey-ho.

M.S

p.s Maybe you could contact the press office...

edit - links to my previous service experiences:

good: http://www.modaco.co...repair-via-htc/

bad: http://www.modaco.co...-repair-issues/

failed completely, doesn't matter how hard you press it. In fact the failure of the 5 was preceded by it being permanently depressed (bit like me at the moment in fact) and 5s just running across the screen permanently. Thanks for the tip re keyboard - I will do that. Reluctant to go down press office route as it tends to result in a skewed experience. Would rather be a real customer and provide real opinion. Not a lot of journalists do that these days!

[Mysterious Stranger]

dunc, on Jul 14 2008, 17:09, said:

failed completely, doesn't matter how hard you press it. In fact the failure of the 5 was preceded by it being permanently depressed (bit like me at the moment in fact) and 5s just running across the screen permanently. Thanks for the tip re keyboard - I will do that. Reluctant to go down press office route as it tends to result in a skewed experience. Would rather be a real customer and provide real opinion. Not a lot of journalists do that these days!

So there's no tactile 'push' when you push the 5 button? it just needs a new disc then - the underlying circuit will be fine - even if there is corrosion there are no componants there - only tracks that need cleaning. Easy peasy lemon squeezy...

Maybe it could be the soruce of an article on today's disposable society or summat? I could fix that for the cost of a pint...

M.S

[dunc]

Mysterious Stranger, on Jul 14 2008, 17:14, said:

So there's no tactile 'push' when you push the 5 button? it just needs a new disc then - the underlying circuit will be fine - even if there is corrosion there are no componants there - only tracks that need cleaning. Easy peasy lemon squeezy...

Maybe it could be the soruce of an article on today's disposable society or summat? I could fix that for the cost of a pint...

M.S

no...as far as I recall there was a sense of response when you pushed the button, just no result. They have admitted that there is no corrosion which is why the whole thing is driving me nuts - there is simply not enough evidence of water damage for them to  claim this is out of warranty and I feel certain that the keyboard issue could not have been caused by water.

[Venk]

>> Today I got an email back from HTC claiming that the device has suffered water damage and as such is not a warranty repair but will >> instead cost me the thick end of £280. I asked them on what basis they make this assertion and they tell me that they use a sticker

I have had the exact same problem. My attempts to get HTC Customer service to repair or replace the phone have not succeeded. I have taken to the blogs to spread the word. Please check my blog at:

http://htcsucks.wordpress.com

[TechnoMan]

Hi!

Here is the link to my post on HTC service centre details in India. Hope this is useful
http://techbuzzindia...s-in-india.html