back to article HTC's UK repair centre suffering long delays, confusion

HTC has admitted its UK service centre is failing to repair and return handsets on schedule, but tells us the problems will soon disappear thanks to its new service centre. Until then some HTC customers are being asked to wait almost two months for fixes that were promised in 10 days, and they are the lucky ones. Others report …

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  1. Giddy Kipper

    Bill, don't you mean ...

    ... Google got it horribly wrong in trying to provide support for the Nexus One

  2. Tim #3

    So...

    Anyone know which manufacturers actually do provide a cost effective and timely repairs facility? Tis a very important thing for me to consider when buying a new phone.

    1. Ed
      Go

      Apple?

      Apple will normally just replace your iPhone on the spot if you can get to an Apple Store. They've done that for me for free a couple of times - once in warranty and once for free out of it. They've also replaced it when I smashed the glass, which I think cost about £130.

      Their extended warranty isn't that expensive - £61 for an extra year. I haven't got it - risking it!

      You can walk into an Apple Store (with an appointment) and be out of there with a replaced iPhone in 5 minutes. I don't think any other manufacturer does this, do they?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        £130...

        So more than the phone actually costs to make?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: £130

          Okay Mr downvoter, £130=$210.

          http://www.slashgear.com/iphone-4-components-cost-187-51-say-isuppli-2992005/

          In my book that leaves over $20 a phone to pay the subcontractor with the suicidal employees.

          Even if it did cost more to make, are you seriously that much of a fanboy that you think £130 is a good deal to replace a bit of glass?

          I've seen four different iphone4s with smashed screens in the last week. One was dropped from a height of 2 feet, and was in a closed leather fold over case.

          I've never broken a screen on any of my non-Apple touch screen phones, and I'm a clumsy oaf. Gorilla glass might be scratch resistant, but it seems to be brittle as hell!

    2. Ed
      Go

      Apple

      Oh, and apparently if you aren't near an Apple Store, Apple will send you a new iPhone before you have to send yours back to them.

      Also, you can apparently get Apple Care from the US for about half the price from people on ebay, which works worldwide.

  3. Captain Haddock
    Thumb Up

    Word of the day

    Celerity

    1. Joe 35
      Thumb Up

      Celerity

      Celerity - a perfectly cromulent word

  4. John Hadfield
    Thumb Down

    It's not the wait. It's the service....

    HTC arranged UPS to collect my phone on the 28th April. On the 06th May HTC's 'tracking' tool had not shown any update so I used the UPS tracker to find out that "All merchandise discarded UPS will notify the sender with details of the damage".

    On contacting UPS directly they were able to tell me that my phone had been stolen (I'm assuming along with a number of other faulty phones!) but as HTC was the customer, they would be contact them to sort out a claim. This was done on the 09th May.

    HTC can/will tell me nothing at all, only suggesting that more often I call the slower their 'escalation team' will be able to deal with it.

    I've waited around for calls for a 'Customer Care' team that don't materialise and quite frankly I'm rather put off. I've told everyone how great my HTC Desire is (in fact I bought two) and this quite frankly ruins all that.

    They don't seem to understand that I'm not ringing to demand my phone be replaced instantly, just that a few hundred quid's worth of hardware has vanished and I *need* to know what the process is. If they tell me it's two weeks, I can wait - they just won't tell me anything.

    18th May - HTC's tracking tool still says my phone is in transit and I've had NO communication from HTC at all about what is/will happen.

    Total garbage for customer service. Not a clue.

    An Apple next time? Probably not, but Samsung are looking good!

    1. StanLaurel
      Thumb Down

      Similar Issue with HTC Desire HD

      HTC had my phone (Desire HD) for two weeks with a screen problem.

      When it arrived back from repair yesterday I was dispapointed to find that it was still faulty and all they did was flash the phone.

      UPS are collecting the phone today for the second time and I have been told that HTC could have it for another 20 days. The phone was 5 weeks old when the fault began. Who knows by the time this is finished HTC might have the phone longer than I have had it.

      So sorry I did not go for Samsung Galaxy S.

  5. Strewth_uk
    FAIL

    HTC - Quietly Devious

    These guys are bare faced liars. I have been fobbed off for nearly two months.

    I need my phone for email, for my business. TWO WHOLE MONTHS.

    I'm no Apple Fanboi, but when I swapped my wife's faulty iPhone it was completed in 2 Minutes, not 2 Months.

    HTC have lost me as a customer.

    Check out people's angst here: http://on.fb.me/kBzqUK

  6. Jamie Kitson
    Thumb Down

    Old news

    I blogged about my trials with HTC repairs in May - July 2009:

    http://blog.jamiek.it/search/label/htc

  7. Elmer Phud

    World plus dog?

    "Smartphones used to be premium products, with a price and level of service to match. A decade ago your correspondent dropped his Ericsson R520 "

    'Used to be' is right, now they are no longer rare there are loads of them being dropped in the bog, poked too hard, throw across a room in anger or frustration. Now that they are common as muck you won't get the same level of service anyway when even iPads are almost being given away with Cornflakes.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    What makes it worse...

    ..is that companies like T-Mobile give you a replacement phone when your smart phone is away for repair, but they give you a crappy normal phone which means that you're paying for smart phone services (like always on internet) that you can't use, and if you've got an android then all your contacts are stored in the cloud and not on the phone or the sim so when your phone is away for repair you lose all your contacts

  9. The Jay
    FAIL

    Ahhh it made the news...

    I sent my Desire back to them about 3-4 weeks ago, which was collected, "repaired" and promptly returned back around 10 days later. However, the repeated crashing (reknowned in the HT02-07 serial numbers) continued an hour after turning on the "REPAIRED" device.

    A couple of angry emails to HTC, they collected my phone again... the tracking stated it was being delivered for a week, I checked the tracking on the UPS website and it was claiming to be delivered. Another angry email to HTC support and I get it back saying it was delivered, but they have this 20 day back log.

    I send a VERY angry message then (accusing them of not even looking at my phone originally), only to be told my phone has been moved onto a priority list. Now when I check on the tracking, my phone is in testing... Could it be they told the truth, or have they just bumped the status? We wait and see, however I'm doubtful.

    It's more annoying that I forgot to reset my phone before I sent it... Oops.

    Samsung next time.

  10. Dave Evans 1
    Pint

    My R520...Ahhhh

    I had almost forgotten my R520. It was the first phone I purchased myself, after being made redundant (always had a company phone before). Not only was it the first UK Bluetooth phone, it was also the first GPRS one. I remember wowing my fellow geeks with monochrome WAP pages loading in seconds from the BBC news site.

    Ahhh those were the days....

    Many thanks for the happy reminiscing

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not wrong...

    I reported an issue with icons vanishing from folders for apps that are stored on the SD card in Froyo when you reboot the phone. I know this is an Android fault, but thought I'd report it to HTC as they might be able to do something about it in their launcher, or maybe pull their finger out and push the gingerbread update out (assuming the problem is fixed in gingerbread). Basically this is caused by the launcher caching the icons when it starts, unfortunately it tries to do this before the OS has finished mounting the SD card, so all the apps on the card get the default Android icon.

    They were convinced the issue was with my SD card (which came with the phone). Logic which escapes me as the card works fine once the OS has mounted it. They asked if I had another to swap it over with to test, I said no. So they said they would send me one.

    That was in March...

  12. Steve 26
    Stop

    No complaints from me

    They fixed my overheating HTC Desire in 7 days including outbound and return delivery, can't complain about that really. Ok, I can, it is a known problem with a batch of phones and the honest thing to do would to have issued a recall.

  13. Andrew Jones 2
    Thumb Up

    re: SD Card

    @AC 12:15.

    They may be right about the SD Card -

    My Desire worked fine for a few days until I tried to shut it down.

    It would sit saying it was shutting down for over 20 minutes before I would give up and pull the battery - it would boot up fine, and seemed to run fine but always had an issue when it came to shutting down.

    A quick Google and several posts on XDA and I learned that this is problem with cheaper SD cards.

    I am happy to report that since the SD card has been changed to a SanDisk 16GB the phone runs flawlessly and does shutdown and bootup much faster than it ever did (it's around 10 seconds to shutdown now)

    I hope this helps.

  14. Peter Bond
    WTF?

    Let's all take a deep breath

    No reason to think things won't improve once the new service center has bedded in and any spares inventory problems have been fixed.

    I sent a Desire Z back to HTC UK on March 14th - a couple of the keys had started to stick - and got it back on the 22nd, good as new, all work executed under warranty.

    A friend on the other hand has just got her six month old MacBook Air back after a four week trial with Apple that would have tested the patience of a saint.

    Should HTC be having these problems? No. Does any company have perfect customer service? No.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    2.2 wildfire update....

    ...broke dhcp by putting a _ in the hostname of the device. I contacted HTC who told me to send the phone back. Not sure how that would help since I presume they'd just reflash to the latest (dhcp breaking) build. Setting a static ip works, but until the fix is sent OTA for the hostname (if it ever is) I guess a lot of Wildfires are going to go back and forth.

  16. NoDosh
    Pint

    Oh dear

    My NexusOne is currently awaiting collection after UPS failed/forgot to collect it yesterday. To be fair to HTC, they warned me it would take 20 working days to be assessed and were happy to agree that it was suffering from the well documented on/off switch fault without demanding that I do soft, hard and semi-flacid resets while spinning widdershins.

    Where I may have gone wrong is in buying a Wildfire as my backup phone while the All Powerful NexusOne is away on its holidays. Still, at least it's not an SE X10. They really ARE woeful

    :sigh: Perhaps I should have tugged on the Jobsian Weiner after all. No, no, no! What am I talking about! I shall man-up and suffer the indignity of a less than premium smartphone experience, safe in the knowledge that I, and millions like me, are all in-duh-viduals.

    Pint? I suspect I'll be needing one.....

  17. Joe Carter
    Happy

    Three

    As a contrast I reported a fault with my phone (Desire GPS reboot issue) to Three on Friday. On Monday there was free special delivery envelope and packaging. I got it back (a replacement) today. Awesome service!

  18. JaitcH
    FAIL

    HTC could complete customer frustration by ...

    using an Indian call centre to handle complaints.

  19. jhemus

    Disastrous customer service

    I loved my HTC Desire, but it's been in for repair for nearly six weeks and that's unacceptable for a key business tool. HTC should hold its head in shame. I've blogged about it here:

    http://insigniatalks.com/2011/05/htc-shows-why-words-and-actions-are-essential-for-effective-crisis-communication/

    Jonathan Hemus

  20. Jimik101
    Thumb Up

    Making Amends?

    HTC sent me an email today offering me an item from their online accessory store (up to the value of £50) to apologise for the delay with my repair. They've only actually had my phone since last week and said in this update that it will be returned, repaired, to me on May 25th (total of 11 working days days - they originally said 10). Assuming they keep their word, I'm very happy with that. I didn't even complain in the first place!

  21. The Jay

    Not bad!

    Same here Jimik. I had a call from 'Daniel' in their service team apologising for it, and informing me it'll be redelivered by 25th repaired, with £50 accessory credit.

    As long as my phone bloody works, fair enough! They sorted themselves out quicker than expected.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    HTC's repair centre and customer service is a joke!

    Another HTC fanboi falls flat on his face.

    My phone’s been in 3 times, still has issues, I sent it in this time after being promised a swap. It’s been 20 days, I’m still waiting!

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My HTC experience

    Well what can I say.

    Phone got picked up on the 16th of April as dust gathered underneath my screen, on the 19th of April I had a quotation saying dust underneath the screen isnt covered by warranty.

    I asked HTC to explain why do I need to pay £150 to replace the screen and touchpad when they were functioning and all I wanted was dust to be removed.

    After 2 to 3 esclations nobody could give me an answer.

    I then authorised the phone to be repaired as I was getting desperate, but to this date i.e 26th of May

    a) I still have no explanation from HTC why I needed to pay for a brand new screen and touchpad

    b) My phone is still with HTC ?!

    But then today I was told I was getting a new Desire HD.

    However, I still paid for a something that nobody has explained why ???!

    The customer service reps do seem to try and help but it always seems to be the esclations team that cant decide..

    Totally frustrating experience!

  24. edgrace
    FAIL

    blunder after blunder

    Something has definitely gone horribly wrong over at HTC- my phone went away for repair in mid April and after a LOT of chasing I got it back last week- without its battery, which was the final straw. I called up and when they told me they couldn't say when a replacement battery would be shipped out I hit the roof and complained in scathing terms on the HTC UK Facebook page.

    A few hours later I got a call informing me that I would be sent a new phone by way of compensation. Unfortunately they are still unable to tell me when this will happen, and judging by the FB page there are customers who have been in a similar situation since January.

    I think this warrants further investigation from The Reg. I am amazed at how badly they are handling this situation.

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