9 replies to this topic

[ripnet]

Hi,

Just a warning to people who are thinking of buying a phone made by HTC - My 6 month old Touch Pro 2 stopped working (microphone fault), and I sent it off for repair, and HTC want to charge me £320 to have it fixed. They have quoted for a new motherboard, new LCD (old one is perfect) and new plastic case (again, old one is perfect).

Thing is, im absolutely certain that it wasnt water damaged - its never left my person since ive had it, and no accidents have occurred.

They are saying that it got wet on the basis of a sticker in the phone turning pink (They emailed me photo of it) - attached. In my opinion, that sticker is too sensitive, as it must have gone pink from either natural moisture in the air, or perhaps from by breath. Or it was never white in the first place...

I have written a recorded delivery letter to both their head office, and to their UK repair centre, which should have arrived yesterday (Thursday 1st Oct) at the latest. I have explicitly asked them to acknowledge receipt. I am awaiting this now.

Has anyone else had experience of the UK repair centre refusing to repair a under-warrenty phone? did you get anywhere?

Copy of letter I sent them:

"
Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to complain about the customer service provided by your UK repair centre. In short, I sent a Touch Pro 2 in for warranty repair, and they are claiming that it has water damage. They say that on the basis of a sticker inside the phone that has turned pink.

I am absolutely certain that the phone has never been in contact with water. It has been on my person since purchase, and even gets put in a plastic bag when it rains. I am unsure how sensitive that sticker is, but it seems to me that it is too sensitive. Also, how can you prove that the sticker wasn’t pink before I received the phone?

The phone in question is a Touch Pro 2. Your repair ref is 09GBD38000XXXX.
The IMEI is 3588450XXXXXXXX

I have been promised several calls back from your helpdesk, none of which have actually happened. They tell me that all authority lies with the repair centre, and that they have to ‘make a case’ to them to get the repair done without me paying. They have failed to feedback any progress to me.

I also believe that the repair centre is quoting for unneeded work, as they have quoted for replacing the motherboard, LCD and case, the latter 2 of which I know to be perfect, as the LCD worked before I sent it off, and the case is in pristine condition.

Ive been a customer of HTC for many many years. I have bought at least one HTC device a year since the original orange c500. Ive owned the c500, c550, wizard, hermes, kaiser, o2 xda exec, touch pro and now the rhodium. I expected better from HTC.

Im not going to let this drop. I paid the best part of £500 for the phone, looked after it, and then submitted it to you for what was clearly a warranty fault. It is unacceptable that you refuse to repair a £500 phone after 6 months. I dispute entirely that it has been water-damaged.

My contact details are [email protected] (preferred) or 07709 xxx xxx

I hope that this can be resolved amicably between HTC and myself, but if you continue to refuse to honour your warranty obligations, I am happy to take it to the UK small claims court to get satisfaction.

Can I also request that you acknowledge receipt of this letter, either in writing or by email please.

I have sent this letter by recorded delivery to both the central HTC office and the repair centre.

Finally, I have comprehensive extended contents insurance on my home policy. If I had indeed dropped the phone in water etc. I would have simply claimed on that, rather than sending it off for repair.
"

Attached Files

•  Pinkticker.jpg   25.16K   284 downloads

[Flahman]

ripnet, on Oct 2 2009, 21:35, said:

They are saying that it got wet on the basis of a sticker in the phone turning pink (They emailed me photo of it) - attached.
"

It seems strange to me, given the apparent size of the sticker that any alleged water entered the phone at that very location...

if indeed this sticker is an indicator of "water" it could be put down to condensation or humidity, similar to moving from a cold area to warm area etc.  however it is unlikely that your phone would fail based on this unless it was a seriously big amount of condensation which would have probably shown up as steam or fogginess on the LCD, which you mention was perfect.

I used to work in a repair centre for a well known computer manufacturer and some of the technicians were very very careless with how they looked after customer's equipment...

it may also be a possibility that someone at the repair centre has caused more damage to it and is trying to put it back on you...

with similar issues in the past, i have mentioned my membership with many online forums and the fact that i would be posting my experience of the company's service...  no company likes bad publicity no matter how big they are.

good luck with getting your phone fixed!

[SilentBob]

I had a similar experience approx 3 (or more?) years back with my wife's MDA Compact II. First the headphone/headset socket went. Not completely. It went between sound with lots of crackle to nothing. TBH, she put up with this for a while. However, the speaker (earpiece, not loudspeaker) failed completely, so she could no longer use it for calls.

This was well within warranty, so I sent it back to them. They then came back to me saying that it was water damaged & would need a new mainboard, screen etc. They sent photos that supposedly showed water damage. Like you, my wife took very good care of her phone. She always used the case, kept it in her bag, and also kept a small plastic bag in her handbag for when it rained. However, they wouldn't budge, I had no insurance (refuse to pay the rip off cost of insurance from the mobile operators) so I had to write it off. I didn't even want to pay the £30 they wanted just to send it back.

TBH honest I was totally disgusted with the "service" provided, and it really seemed to me to be a "get out" excuse. The problem was clearly with off-board components with faulty connections to the board. This was also in contrast to the absolutely fantastic service I received from them when my Orange SPV E200 went tits up.

I now have both my wife's and my phone (both Touch HDs) covered by insurance for free via my bank. And I have wondered in the event of a fault occurring would I be best sending it back under warranty? Or claiming immediately under insurance?

[ripnet]

I didnt realise the sticker was on the outside until I looked at another touch pro 2... i reckon it got made red by me just handling it with sweaty hands... im always switching the sim-cards because im a tech-head!

[ScottC]

ripnet, on Oct 2 2009, 14:35, said:

I didnt realise the sticker was on the outside until I looked at another touch pro 2... i reckon it got made red by me just handling it with sweaty hands... im always switching the sim-cards because im a tech-head!

Those stickers are such a scam - they change colour too quickly, and are an easy way for the vendor to refuse warranty issues.

[ripnet]

ScottC, on Oct 8 2009, 18:05, said:

Those stickers are such a scam - they change colour too quickly, and are an easy way for the vendor to refuse warranty issues.

Today HTC contacted me and agreed to mend the phone... woohoo

g

[colinp]

Well Done

[PaulOBrien]

Good result!

P

[doleawg]

ripnet, on Oct 2 2009, 11:35, said:

Hi,

Just a warning to people who are thinking of buying a phone made by HTC - My 6 month old Touch Pro 2 stopped working (microphone fault), and I sent it off for repair, and HTC want to charge me £320 to have it fixed. They have quoted for a new motherboard, new LCD (old one is perfect) and new plastic case (again, old one is perfect).

Thing is, im absolutely certain that it wasnt water damaged - its never left my person since ive had it, and no accidents have occurred.

They are saying that it got wet on the basis of a sticker in the phone turning pink (They emailed me photo of it) - attached. In my opinion, that sticker is too sensitive, as it must have gone pink from either natural moisture in the air, or perhaps from by breath. Or it was never white in the first place...

I have written a recorded delivery letter to both their head office, and to their UK repair centre, which should have arrived yesterday (Thursday 1st Oct) at the latest. I have explicitly asked them to acknowledge receipt. I am awaiting this now.

Has anyone else had experience of the UK repair centre refusing to repair a under-warrenty phone? did you get anywhere?...............................................

This is scary, the exact same thing has just happen to us. Phone microphone wouldn't work, rang the technical desk, they did some test over the phone, nothing worked they said mail it in. We did that the next thing we get is a bill for £374, saying it was water damaged. I then spent 2 weeks agruing with the rubbish contact centre and was sent a photo of the famous red dot.

To cut a painful and long story short a new phone was delivered yesterday with a 'we checked further and no water damage appeared in the phone'.

Be careful HTC repair centre come across as a bunch of cowboys who try it on and hope that many cave in and pay up. Crooks.

I made HTC aware of this thread, it helped a lot thanks knowing someone else had recieved this treatment.

Edited by doleawg, 06 November 2009 - 07:37 AM.

[penze]

OMG.....im going thru the same incident with HTC abt motherboard problem and they want me to pay for it.please can someone send me the HTC headoffice contact