[Q] How was your experience with HTC repairs and support? Facebook page created! - G2 and Desire Z Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi everyone,
So I have to share my horror story with you all for you to understand how customers can be royally messed with.
This is not a "get back at them" thread but mostly a place where we can post our stories with issues we had and where I can direct you to a Facebook page where everyone can go make their stories public and so we can make them increase their standards of customer service and warranty.
So here is my story with HTC:
N.B. None of our phones are rooted and only her's was SIM unlocked via a code we purchased.
So since December 2011, my girlfriend (Phone B) and I (Phone A) have both been using HTC Desire Z sold by Bell Canada. I am a Bell user and she is a Rogers user. Mine was bought under my contract and her's was bought by someone else who got a contract to get the phone but sold the phone brand new and gave me the receipt.
So we had been using our phones without any problems until I started experiencing issues in July 2011. The screen was not responding and I had to send it (A) for repairs. It was returned and was used without any issue until the next problem popped up (keep reading).
In December 2011, I decided to send my girlfriend's phone (B) since she had been complaining that her earpiece was crackling. So in December, I sent the phone.
I leant her my phone for the time her's was under repair. One night, my phone froze when she loaded a PDF. It restarted fine but the next morning, it was stuck at the HTC screen (A).
I called Bell. In Canada, it turns out carriers are responsible for handling the warranty so they consider that if you are not a customer under the carrier, you can't avail yourself of the manufacturer's warranty. This makes absolutely no sense but just another way of licking up customers with their companies.
I called HTC USA (as HTC doesn't have any offices in Canada) and fought for an hour until they transferred me to a repair unit. With them, they told me that the phone was still under warranty and gave me a work order to send to the subcontractor responsible for repairs.
I sent phone A for repairs. In the meantime, phone B was returned. We sent phone B for repairs unlocked and they returned it locked (new IMEI). I paid to get it unlocked and my girlfriend started using it. She told me that it rebooted every 2 minutes. I took a video of it and it is pretty ridiculous. With a Rogers SIM, it reboots every 2 minutes, without a SIM, it reboots every 15 or so. I'm now going to have to send phone B for repairs again and cross my fingers that it doesn't fail again.
Now the pièce de résistance is coming up. I just received a call from the repair company and they are asking 200$ to fix phone A. They consider that a phone under warranty with a work order and sent because of random software failure needs 200$? What is this?
Posted my story on the HTC Canada facebook page and guess what? INSTANT DELETE! Because of this, I started my own Facebook page. We are customers, I bought not 1 but 2 phones from them and look at what they do!
So here it is, the facebook page where all of you should post your stories:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/HTC-Ce...751052?sk=wall
If it gathers wind, we might finally get some real help from HTC. I was a BIG fan of them. Until they fix this mess, NEVER again will I buy or advise anyone to buy their products!
Thank you and sorry for the long post.
Show some support and share your stories, the more posts there are, the more likely they are to help us.

Wow that sucks sorry, but if your these forums why not do all the software fixes yourself?

Yeah I totally understand your point of view. I rooted my Dream in the past and now the Galaxy Nexus but my girlfriend's, I thought, didn't need to be rooted.
Plus, when they are under warranty then I don't see why risk bricking it (if you're good enough, it shouldn't happen) but now that they will be out of warranty, I will root and unlock them for sure.
The only problem is when being repaired, they are updated to the most recent firmware so it makes it a bit harder to root.
Apart from that, the phone that is stuck on the HTC screen is S-ON and is not USB debugging since she had factory reset it herself. Makes it inaccessible from my knowledge right?
The other one is still under warranty and is the one that is rebooting constantly. I don't know whether I'm better off rooting it and installing another firmware or having it corrected by them. It should work out of the box no? Am I being unreasonable for expecting my phones to work? I am also not the first one to experience this, plenty of threads seen on this and other websites...
Anyways thanks for your reply.

HTC Netherlands did a great job for me!
The power-button was not working anymore after the phone fell on the ground. I told them that I want it to be fixed, if it was not getting too expensive. They fixed it and did not charge a penny!

Yeah pven, I guess we should be unbiased and present both sides, fairer that way.
But my case is particularly bad. I ended up rooting her phone and installed the most recent build of cyanogenmod. It rebooted once since but another issue has appeared. When she presses the power button, it locks the screen but sometimes it is actually powered off and needs to go through a short boot process to get back to the home screen.
Also, the phone had been sent to repair the speaker. Turns out they changed the whole board and the speaker isn't fixed. I'll have to put it back to stock ROM, put the original hboot, and unroot it in order to send it back to get it repaired twice.
Surprised she doesn't want to give up on it... after all that has happened, I wouldn't be surprised if would simply forsake HTC altogether... She had an HTC Touch Pro 2 and didn't really like it either so I'm out of options...
As for my DZ, the situation is being corrected with HTC and their contractor. I'm hoping for positive news but it seems it would be going my way. I have a bunch of emails from HTC support that has it going my way at least (them saying it's covered but not for out of warranty damage and a faulty board is not out of warranty damage).
Bottom line, I will think twice before buying a non-nexus device. My Gnex is working like a charm! Too bad the unstable software out-shadowed the amazing hardware of the DZ.

Oh man, this is interesting, i have got my htc phone repaired in China, and all those workers act really nice

Related

[Q] can i send a rooted phone back to sprint?

I had to cash in my insurance policy on my htc evo, due to a shattered touch screen (it actually works) and a NON-functioning microusb port.. I received the new phone in the mail (it had the new ota update preinstalled, ) and they told me i have to send the old one back in 10 days....
fyi: I have a backup of the stock rom saved on my sd card as well.
My question(s) are:
Can i just send the ROOTED evo back with the stock rom? Will they even attempt to turn it on?
Is there a way to unroot without using a pc (i cant connect to pc due to malfuctioning microusb port)?
I obviously don't want to pay the 500 dollar fee for not returning the phone... so any thoughts or ideas?
any input would be greatly appreciated (i only have a few more days left to send it in). Thanks!
Yes, you can return it rooted and I doubt if they'd check, but I'm not certain. Beaides, you've already got the replacement in your possession. Of course, I recommend that you unroot your device and flash a RUU. You can download one of the zip RUUs from my signature. Keep in mind that if you have a radio that is newer than 2.15.00.11.19, you're going to have to downgrade to it or a prior one if you plan to use the unrevoked S-ON tool.
pecking & swyping from my EVO 4G (XDA Premium)
You can use wireless ftp to get the files to the SD card. You won't be able to run the RUU but you can flash a stock rooted image, then unroot and s=on from unrevoked (if you used unrevoked) You can also download wireless ADB to run adb commands as required.
Last week i had to return my evo to sprint and just got a refurbbed one.mine was rooted and i custom painted the battery compartment(i dont like the red).but i took it to a non-corporate repair center that does "light repair".they didnt even check for root access,ordered my phone,and i had it in 4 days due to the fact that evo's are on a backorder status.i just stuck my nand backup on there and let it ride.if in fact you have to take it to a corporate repair center,they may check for root, so be careful.it just depends on the store
You are sending your phone to Asurion, not Sprint. Asurion doesn't care if its rooted or not, its pretty much trashed anyway.
if you are taking your phone to a Sprint store, or doing an exchange with sprint, then yes, ABSOLUTELY unroot your phone. It literally takes 5 minutes, and could save your warranty from being voided.
sitlet said:
You are sending your phone to Asurion, not Sprint. Asurion doesn't care if its rooted or not, its pretty much trashed anyway.
if you are taking your phone to a Sprint store, or doing an exchange with sprint, then yes, ABSOLUTELY unroot your phone. It literally takes 5 minutes, and could save your warranty from being voided.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have taken my phone several times in the past month (many replacements were defective) to Sprint rooted and all and there was no problem.. The tech was even surprised to see that I had Gingerbread on my phone. Now, if a tech has a stick up his/her behind, then you may run into a problem. But in my experience, there hasnt been an issue.
mestizo122 said:
I have taken my phone several times in the past month (many replacements were defective) to Sprint rooted and all and there was no problem.. The tech was even surprised to see that I had Gingerbread on my phone. Now, if a tech has a stick up his/her behind, then you may run into a problem. But in my experience, there hasnt been an issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well then you got lucky. To the rest of us who deal with sprint stores with dumb technicians, we don't want to lose our warranty. It literally takes 5 minutes to unroot, its stupid not to do it.
mestizo122 said:
I have taken my phone several times in the past month (many replacements were defective) to Sprint rooted and all and there was no problem.. The tech was even surprised to see that I had Gingerbread on my phone. Now, if a tech has a stick up his/her behind, then you may run into a problem. But in my experience, there hasnt been an issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Sprint store people wouldn't even touch my rooted phone. The connection is bad in Charlotte, NC lately for no specific reason other than "network problems". I didn't know if it was my phone or something else. Well, I unrooted it so they would look at it. There was nothing wrong with the phone so I got it back and left. For reasons that escape my understanding, I just updated to the newest OTA. Now I'm stuck rootless until people more talented than myself figure out a way around this. They won't care at all about returning the phone rooted. My first EVO got messed up and after submitting the claim online at about 4:30PM, I had the new phone at my door by noon the next day.
mestizo122 said:
I have taken my phone several times in the past month (many replacements were defective) to Sprint rooted and all and there was no problem.. The tech was even surprised to see that I had Gingerbread on my phone. Now, if a tech has a stick up his/her behind, then you may run into a problem. But in my experience, there hasnt been an issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also had no issues bringing in a rooted phone (my wife's). It wouldn't charge via the usb port, and they just replaced it. No questions asked.
I also sent my rooted phone into Asurion (cracked screen) and no issues there (of course we all agree this is OK).
I would unroot it to be safe not sorry.

Need help! desire always rebooting. warranty

I'll try to explain as best as possible. Im from portugal and i bought my desire (second hand) in ebay uk in february. When i recieved the phone I opened the box and I saw that there wasnt a invoice, not from the purchase between me and the seller but between the seller and the store where she purchased but also do not know if it was mandatory to include and also the thing that was least bothered at the time.
The phone came branded to t-mobile but i s-off and rooted, so it was not a problem.
The problem is that a few months back here the phone starts to reboot itself. I had to take the battery to stop. But starting from yesterday has worsened a lot, anything I do, the phone restarts and does nothing but this, sometimes he even starts but after entering the PIN, it restarts again. I know its a hardware problem more precisely the motherboard, right?
Already contacted the support of HTC in my country but they tell me to go to the store where purchased, and then they send it for repair. And this is a big problem because as you know I live in Portugal and I can not go to the store where the phone was purchased. Then they told me that I could send to the repair center in my country, out of warranty. Once i have investigated further the identity repairs in Portugal, I saw lots of complaints services, such as unresolved issues, products that come worse than when they were, high prices, etc. Anyway, I better not try their services.
The only solution is to buy another mobile phone, or is there a light at the end of the tunnel? I love this phone and I do not like the idea of ​​having to buy another much more cheaper because I can not buy an equal or similar at the moment. And I'll be very frustrated when using it, after having the experience of using a Desire.
Thank you.
P.S: btw, who does the repairs in Portugal is the Arvato Services.
Anyone?....
try cyanogenmod - it's a faultless ROM.
If the issue persists then you may send it in for repair since I doubt there's anything else for it.
Sounds like the problem I had with my first Desire. It finally was a hardware problem and I got it replaced via my warranty.
In the first couple of weeks everything was fine but then it became really instable and rebooted in loops. Sometimes it run flawless for some hours and then again rebootet and rebootet. Partially even while booting, it restartet again. It became unusable and I had to send it in. Sorry to tell you that.
It was checked and replaced by Arvato Germany

Is it possible to fix my HOX without warranty?

Hi guys,
2 weeks ago problems were started to appear with my HOX screen.
One little burn black pixel in the top right screen.
And a orange color sign in the button left corner of the screen. (gets worse as my device getting hotter)
I called HTC customer service in UK,
They told me that since im from Israel there is no official lab of HTC here, so I need to ship my device to Greece.
The thing is that my HOX is hacked and RELOCKED, i changed roms etc...and I told it to the guy in the customer service.
just to check if it still fine (after all thats a hardware problem and not software)
He told me its cancel the warranty and they cant fix the screen for me... only if ill add something like 400-600 euro for they to change the proccesor.
Its really sucks!
I paid so much for a high-end device and I need to have this issue's?!
why samsung s3 dosent need to face those kinds of problems? (not to mention that samsung have a offical lab in Israel and they dont need to send it to Greece!)
Anyway another israeli friend told me that he also was in the same situation like I, and he send hes device without telling hes device was jail break. They fix it!
Apparently its not HTC themself in greece, he got latter with the device after they fix and everything was written there in greek and a name of a company was something diffrent.
nothing about HTC.
So i guess they just fixing without really cheak if the phone was hacked. Maybe they dont care.
its just another company that works with HTC.
The thing is I already told the guy in the customer service that the phone is hacked and I gave him my IMEI nummber.
It means that there is no way back? they know not that my specific phone is hacked in their computers?
Or can I call again as ''another customer'' tell them my problems is the screen without mention the jailbreak, and send my phone anyway to Greece.
What do you guys think?
I am already with stock rom and the phone is RELOCKED.
I'll make it short for you.
If you can talk to the retailer you might have yourself a chance. Given that you are in Israel. Scratch that.
The 2nd option and the best one is s-offing your device than changing your phone's state as "LOCKED". Anyway, this isn't possible because there is no public way to achieve this. So, either your have to wait or forget this option. By the way, I don't know when we might get s-off or even if it possible (software wise).
Here now we get to the 3rd option:
First, no a customer service can't and won't be able to invalid your warranty just by talking to him/her.
Second, it will depends on the person who checks your phone in HTC. If he/she is lazy or an easy good natured person. He or she will fix it. DONE. For your information, if they connected your phone to a computer and the boot loader is "RELOCKED" they have an app which will indicate your phone as ROOTED/WARRANTY VOID. Also, I think HTC charges money if you wants to return your phone back to you (in case of warranty is voided).
You might be wondering why HTC asked a lot of money, they need to change your motherboard to lock it(Stupid HTC policy to be honest & they can lock it by other means).
Last option you have, is to find a good service center whom will replace only the screen for you. This will cost you less than what HTC will ask for.
note: I am ignoring the sgs3 part.
Good Luck
There is an oficial lab and importer in Israel. Google for Touch Group. They are located in Hertslia pituah
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

Bootloop issues on 13B....Due to motherboard

As most of you know its an issue with phones with a serial of 505 and H/W Rev 1... Didn't know it would happen on Verizon or not... Well i can confirm it. Was browsing YouTube and it randomly froze. Now all it does it bootloop. Verizon was cool to deal with on the issue and didn't try to claim it wasn't a problem.
Surprised no one has asked or said anything...
That sucks. I got a 507 serial, so I hope I will be spared. But it will be difficult if you paid off the phone and are not associated with Verizon anymore. Then you have to mail the phone to LG, and I heard their repair service is pretty spotty.
Still under manufacturer warranty. I am thinking of buying out the phone and going to Googles project fi. Verizon is getting too expensive and big for their britches....
I have a 505 but I am still on he original firmware. I think it is the 10B. Is it the firmware version that causes the problems? I have delaying the update since I got the phone in November.
Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk
wekurtz74 said:
I have a 505 but I am still on he original firmware. I think it is the 10B. Is it the firmware version that causes the problems? I have delaying the update since I got the phone in November.
Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
100% sure the answer is no - firmware has nothing to do with it. I had a 505 since the day it was released and I was still running 10B too when the dreaded bootloop issue hit my device a couple of weeks ago. I know others who were running upgraded firmware on Verizon and they got the bootloop issue too.
Yup i got the issue of it bootlooping. I got my replacement every time i do alot of thi gs on my first g4 it will freaze and reboot then a bootloop for a bit
Happened to me in Thursday night. Got my replacement today. I was on rooted 13B on 505
dman1049 said:
Still under manufacturer warranty. I am thinking of buying out the phone and going to Googles project fi. Verizon is getting too expensive and big for their britches....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been kickin around the idea of switching to project FI also because Verizon is so damn expensive. But I still have my unlimited plan with Verizon, also I am concern with poor coverage.
I also just got mine back from warranty repair this weekend,
The coverage is a little less abundant than Verizon. I noticed I've used less data since going to project Fi. I don't feel like I need to get my moneys worth out of my plan every month.
My Verizon LG G4 505x/v1.0 hardware "pre-order" hit the bootloop issue today. It started with a random reboot while I was going to lunch, another reboot a minute later, then 30 seconds of straight vibrating, then... dead. I've gotten it to show a battery symbol when plugging it in since then, and now it does the same bootloop everyone has mentioned. I've started a replacement via Best Buy's Geek Squad, otherwise I have to mail the phone out to LG, wait for them to assess it, then send me one back. It's already 5-7 days because they're backlogged... which makes me wonder if tons of these have started failing or if stock is just low because the V10 came out a while back.
Does anyone know if Best Buy or Verizon can connect (JTAG method?) to the old phone and extract data from internal storage when it's stuck like this?
LG g4 verizon stuck in bootloop. Pretty much the same thing, I was using an app and it froze and now is stuck.
After a few phone calls Verizon is replacing the device. It was painful though. I had to play dumb and act like I was doing everything "tech" support asked me to do. Even though I already tried everything.
Now the question is with my phone being rooted will they still replace it. Ive had to do a warranty replacement a couple years back and didnt have a problem. Ill update everyone.
This happened to mine about a month ago. I don't know what the serial number was on it, but I got it at Launch. My wife's G4 started having this problem on Friday and her serial number starts with 506. VZW is shipping another.
eastmesawhat said:
LG g4 verizon stuck in bootloop. Pretty much the same thing, I was using an app and it froze and now is stuck.
After a few phone calls Verizon is replacing the device. It was painful though. I had to play dumb and act like I was doing everything "tech" support asked me to do. Even though I already tried everything.
Now the question is with my phone being rooted will they still replace it. Ive had to do a warranty replacement a couple years back and didnt have a problem. Ill update everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sent mine back, it was rooted so we'll see if Verizon charges.
Temporary fix that might work for you guys
I decided to see if I can get my data off my phone using any means necessary and I do mean any means necessary. I was able to get my data off my phone by baking the motherboard. I've included a crappy YouTube video that I made in order to show you that it does work. Hope this helps people out that want to get their data off the phone before they throw it away.
youtu.be/MPDVynnH0zg

Bootlooping not sure if caused by me or the hardware fault?

Model H815, bought the device at launch. From UK.
So a couple weeks ago I was messing around with rooting and all that, managed to flash a bad file and ended up in a boot loop. Fixed it using LG Bridge, flashed all the right files and was running a rooted device fine.
Then maybe a week after that whilst just using the phone normally, it freezes, the speakers make a weird buzzing noise and then the phone turns off. Ever since it has been bootlooping. I tried fixing it using LG Bridge again, using the 'Update Error Recovery' option with the device in download mode, it says it was successful but the device still bootloops.
Not sure what to do? Will LG replace the board if it is a hardware fault even though the bootloader is unlocked? I may have also taken the phone apart with the intention of baking it, but never did. Would they be able to tell that I did that and then not repair it?
How much would a repair cost if for some reason it wasn't covered? What's the best way to get it repaired? I got it on contract from O2.
Also, if anyone knows where I can buy a motherboard that would be great, as I'd rather just repair it at home instead of sending it off to LG not knowing if they are going to charge me or not.
Thanks in advance.
It is caused by hardware fail, not by you.
Some people admitted that LG repaired their phone with unlocked bootloader, no luck for me, trying to argue with them.
They'll give you a number to SBE (Their 3rd party repair service), again few people admitted that they repaired their phones for freaking free. No luck for me as well here. They've said "It's unprofitable for them to repair it". I actually think they are retarded, thats a quote of first 2 sentences from their response to me: "hank you for your email. If your handset is still in warranty we would ask that you contact LG customer services for further advice, as we only carryout non warranty repairs on behalf of LG. If your handset is out of warranty by date unfortunately we may be unable to offer a viable repair solution." - WTF is that?
Lastly there is no official place where you can buy a mobo, asked LG about 2 weeks ago - no response...

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