I spent three minutes explaining to a guy at the Genius Bar how, despite the problem not repro'ing then, that it still did usually occur.
He went in back with it for five minutes and then came back to tell me they'd replace it free of charge.
Now, that's customer service.
A couple of years back my MacBook Pro started having bad graphics artifact problems compounded by overheating - it looked like the graphics chip was going to bite it any day. I called Apple, and I shit you not, within twenty-five minutes of picking up the phone, I had received authorization to get it replaced. Not only that, they were going to replace my 2 year-old non-unibody MBP with one of the (at the time) brand-spankin' new unibodies.
Since the MBP was pretty heavily customized, I couldn't go get it swapped at an Apple Store, they wanted me to send it in. When I balked about the downtime, they simply shipped the replacement machine out to me and let me return the old one once I got it.
Now that's customer service.
And before someone makes the argument that Apple sells extremely high-margin items and thus can afford good customer service... HTC sells the same type of product at the same price points. Not only that, I've consistently gotten great customer service from Amazon, who is decidedly a very low margin business.
HTC sells similarly capable products at lower price points and with a less deluxe finish. I know because I saved hundreds of pounds by going for an HTC desire instead of an iphone. But don't take my word for it, It's a well known fact that apple's profit margins dwarf those of other manufacturers.
I originally purchased my iPhone ~2 years ago. After about a year of abuse (certainly not the fault of the manufacturer), I had a phone with a smashed and no longer functional screen, microphone, wifi issues, etc. etc. Even the mute button no longer functioned.
Eventually I went into an Apple store, intending to purchase a new iPhone 4 (~$1,000USD here without subsidizing). The sales guy asked why I needed a new phone - had I used an iPhone before? I explained what had happened and showed him my shriveled hardware.
He disappeared out back and returned with two boxes. One contained a phone identical to my own - a white 32GB 3GS. The other had a brand new iPhone 4. He explained to me clearly and objectively that while he was happy to sell me a new phone, he could also replace my current phone for a quarter of the price. He explained that Apple was happy to do this as this was roughly similar to their cost price, and that some of the phone itself is salvageable (ie for precious metals).
I loved that they presented my actual options to me in a no-bs way. I loved that they wanted to make sure I wasn't spending an extra ~750USD on something I didn't need.
Both Apple and HTC clearly want to retain their customers for the long-haul. Sadly, it seems HTC are yet to understand it takes work to do so.
I've had other complaints with them, though. I bought my 17" MBP to run WinXP (all my software is winXP), which they advertise as being fully supported. Running it through Boot Camp works great, but Apple made some.. frustrating design decisions, such as not having a dedicated delete key, or publicly releasing downloadable driver like every other hardware manufacturer, and not updating them for that matter. I know I know, it's my own fault for wanted to run XP on a Mac, but since they advertise the capability I assumed they would do at least as good a job of it as an average XP-supporting comp manufacturer.
Contrast to my Asus netbook, for which the power adapter pin fell apart after a few weeks' use. I called the support line, who more-or-less accused me of deliberately breaking it myself and said I'd have to send everything back, netbook (with my data on) included, and they'd see whether or not to charge me. Cheap device, cheap service.
Called HTC support and the first question I was asked mere seconds after calling was "Did you drop it?" so me being an honest person said yes. Apparently that's bad being honest and in this situation it meant any damage was my fault no matter what it was. The phone was still under warranty.
I argued with them for a month it was under warranty and the phone can't be so delicate that dropping it like I did caused the problem. The stalemate ended when HTC threatened to send it back to me charging me a fee for looking at the phone. I said fix it since it didn't make sense having a six month old $600 phone and not be able to use it!
There was absolutely no effort to help you it's just by the book you are wrong, it's all your fault no chance, warranty be damned.
Then after they repaired it they asked me to complete a "how did we do" survey and I ripped them a new arsehole I let them know exactly how I felt about their service. Then the calls started coming wanted to talk about the incident but it didn't involve me getting my money back. They called everyday and I know it was HTC because the first call I answered which was an HTC representative and all the others which I didn't answer were very odd no name, no number calls - I never saw such a thing.
Anyway I've owned cellphones since 1996 and this Google Nexus One/HTC Passion crap is the worst phone I have ever owned and the HTC service is just as bad.
Oh and the phone is still not fixed it's acting weird.
Virgin Mobile stonewalled me the whole time, told me to take to to Apple. There being an Apple store in the same mall as the Virgin kiosk, I did.
The Genius at the Apple store listened carefully to my complaint, took my phone off to consult with some folks in the back room, and came back with a brand-new one. Told me that it shouldn't have happened and here's a replacement, but be more careful because they're not gonna replace it like that again.
Now, I found out later that replacing the backplate is hella-cheap ($15 delivered from cnn.cn for example), but the fact that Apple would just straight-up listen to me, believe me, and replace the phone in-store like that?
I'm not a Mac fanboy (I'm the only Windows user in a Mac office), but I'm an Apple fanboy, and this is why.
That's because the physical phone is between you and the manufacturer. That includes the warranty, unless you purchased special insurance through Virgin. I wouldn't expect the carrier to provide you with a new phone. This is all in your contract.
That said, I think the expectation and problems like yours are rampant enough that most carriers are in fact offering some kind of "no hassle replacement" insurance for the handset. As the front line in the cell phone business, the carriers hear it from the customers in cases like these.
Good for you for at least giving them some negative feedback.
I think they incentify the CS reps to avoid replacements or repairs with rewards. It shows in the service, it is like dealing with used car salesmen.
I plan to honor my initial promise of never trying another HTcC device, but I get weak in the knees from high end tech and they seem to be leading the android race the most aggressively right now,
Bah.
[1] http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/my-experience-with-htc-nexus-one...
Honestly, the upcoming HTC Evo 3D looks smashing. At first I groaned. I mean... 3D?!?! WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!! And i still think the whole "record your own 3D HD videos" is absurd.
But the rest of the way it uses 3D, and the new HTC Sense (on top of 2.3) is just reallllly cool. And with 1.2ghz dual core, it's a beast.
I have a nexus one. I bought it when it still came with an OLED screen. The screen eventually started having color issues. I just dealt with a pinkish screen up until a few days before my warranty was up. I contacted them, and without a hassle they sent me a new nexus one, and had me ship back mine after it came (putting a 500 dollar hold on my credit card just in case I tried to keep both devices or something).
New device worked fine but the power button was a bit iffy. Contacted them again and told them my power button was really hard to press. This was AFTER my warranty period was up (but only a couple days after I received the new phone), but the customer service rep put me on hold for a bit, and my request was approved. I got sent another new phone, and I shipped off the "old" one once I received it (with the same credit card hold situation). New phone was perfect, and I still have it and working great.
I had to deal with having to do two phone wipes and all that, but I felt pretty good about the whole thing. Cost me nothing but the time to prepare the phones for shipping and getting the new phone back up to speed.
1) If you have some sort of malware it will live in the SD card to keep from being killed by a factory reset.
2) If you have a bad SD card it can crash the system by doing something the system does not expect.
Also, I'm using the "old" SD card and battery from the defective phone in the new phone without incident.
Too bad we don't have the HTC diagnostics on this problem as well. While I feel for you and your poor customer service, no doubt somewhere buried in the bowels of the company there is some guy or gal who has to figure out the root cause and get them to change the phone.
However, I think that every company has the potential to suck you into the customer service black hole. In such cases, it's a matter of persistence (which this guy definitely had in spades) and a bit of luck finding that customer service rep that cares enough and can actually do something about your problem.
Now that the problem is fixed --albeit very late-- continue to let them know how dissatisfied you are. I'd be shocked if they didn't care and felt the need to do something extra.
But as you say I'm persistent. And I have a sort of sense of duty to bring attention to people that fall through the cracks. Obviously almost ludicrous in this context, but something I practice in my political day job(s).
Anyway, HTC generally listens (as evidenced by the recent locked bootloader controversy) so complain on the Internet and hold them accountable.
HTC's replies to the users having problems are not very reassuring. They just ask the user to contact htc.com/support and explain the issue.
