ONE YEAR ON…..
It’s now a year since my original blog post and all the problems I had with HTC.
Sadly I’m still getting comments on this post as it seems they still have all the same problems with their aftercare 12 months later. Some of their behaviour is clearly bordering on illegal and the company seems to bury its head in the sand.
Late last year my phone started playing up again, which judging by most of the posts they always do this after their repairs, so eventually I bit the bullet and bought an iPhone. Despite my cynicism about Apple and being bored by many people telling me how “amazing” they are, I took the plunge as I knew I didn’t want a Blackberry or a Samsung and there was no way I’m going near HTC again.
I haven’t looked back. I love the phone, not because it’s Apple, not because it looks nice but because IT ACTUALLY WORKS!
Many of my work colleagues still have their HTC phones and they still moan about the things I moaned about on my Hero. Here’s a summary of the main problems:
- Lack of memory on the actual phone, yes I know you can add a memory card to it but the phones still keep running out of space for apps.
- The lag, oh the annoying lag. ‘Click…. and wait, click…. and wait.’ Not sure if this the HTC phone or just Android. The Android tablets we test with at work are just as bad for this.
- Phone reception. The iPhone 4 was publicly lynched by the media for it’s poor reception, compared to my Hero it’s amazing.
- Battery life, my Hero barely lasted all day and that was without using the music player or surfing the net. The iPhone lasts at least double the lifetime of my Hero with heavy usage.
All of the above are problems when the phone works….
For those of you who are still having problems with HTC, here’s a link to the official Consumer Direct website.
Do keep posting comments below, if no one complains nothing will ever change. Good luck, you’ll need it.
WARNING – THIS POST IS A RANT
Every now and then, you have to deal with a company who are just so incompetent that they make your blood boil and eventually you feel as if you are being unreasonable just for expecting the service from them they are offering.
Many years ago I bought a phone by HTC, it was the SPV M700 and I really liked it. After a few years it was becoming so slow as the buttons were so unresponsive (well, it was running Windows Mobile so what do you expect?) that I decided an upgrade was due. Naively I thought I’d stick with HTC and got the Hero which at the time seemed like a top of the range phone. God, it was slow, but the new Android system was pretty cool and when they release the 2.1 update this would sort things out. This was due to be released in Jan 2010 so it was only a few months to wait….. wrong……!!!!!!!!!!
HTC were so slow to release this, and now we know why. The phone isn’t capable of running it. The update was finally launched at the end of June 2010. For a week my phone was super fast, “at last I had a better phone than an iPhone!” I said. Within a week the screen stopped responding and the phone developed a life of it’s own. Below is a video (one of many on YouTube of the problem loads of people have been having.)
I contacted them after trying for a few weeks to fix the problem myself by uninstalling apps and doing a factory reset. After calling them numerous times, each time being told to do a factory reset again, they relented and took the phone off me in August.
They’ve now had my phone for 3 weeks and although it’s been fixed (apparently) for nearly a week now they still haven’t shipped it to me.
This morning I rang and asked to speak to someone from their complaints department and actually spoke to someone who was honest with me. He stated they have been flooded with repairs and can’t cope. But why was I so angry? On Wednesday I was told my phone would be with me the next day, on Friday I called to ask what was going on and the guy was so short tempered with me telling me it UPS’s fault for not picking it up. Today I was told I may get my phone back this week, I may not. They are so overloaded they just don’t know. So it’s not UPS’s fault as I suspected.
HTC products are great when they work, but when things go wrong, they really go wrong. They spend so much time creating new phones, they forget about the aftercare. A 6 month old phone is not a consideration to them anymore…. “repairs???? updates???? pppffffttt!!! Just get a new phone!” is their attitude. Do they not live in the real world? These things aren’t cheap.
I had a similar experience with Motorola a few years ago and promised never to buy one of their phones again. It was repaired 3 times and each time it came back with the same problem. Do Motorola even still make phones?
HTC are not going to be around for too long either, a quick search on Google shows how many problems their latest handsets have got, they can’t cope with Android. Their repair service is appalling, their customer service is appalling, any other brand you can get repaired in either a Carphone Warehouse repair centre or Apple store whilst you wait, HTC literally takes a month or more.
So in total, I have been about 3 months now without a fully functioning phone. If you include the wait for the Android update, it’s been 9 months. Since the update I have been able to use it occasionally, but mostly to try and fix the problems with it. I’ve now decided it’s time to look around for a new phone. I can’t afford it, but HTC are too incompetent. When the phone is repaired i’ll send it off for recycling where they will give me £90 for it. Where do I go now, do I sell-out and follow all the sheep with Apple, or go retro with a Nokia? Neither seem appealling, but both are preferable to another HTC.
By the way, does anyone have the HTC UK CEO’s email address or phone number? I’d like to have a chat with him or her.
UPDATE: Finally got the phone back. So far so good, it works. Still determined that I will never buy HTC again.
htc one gets stuck in airplane mode been back to htc 5 times been rebooted fixed 2 new one 2 all utter rubbish still cant turn it off and on again without being stuck in airplane mode customer manager called today full of empty promises and sorrys and i completely understand they want the phone again to repair WHEN ARE THEY GONNA GET IT THE UPDATE DOES NOT WORK told them not happy with that wanted to speak to the person above him he said there is nobody other than the MD strange managment structure told them not happy about sending it off again and being without my phone but thats all they can do what complete rubbish what happened to treating people as people and not following a script NEVER NEVER again will i buy a htc take your money and screw you over if theres a problem what happened to looking after your customers my phone still faulty problem UNRESOLVED
I am glad that I am not the only one who is pulling my hair out with HTC.
I bought a HTC One X when it came out and within 4 months, the USB port became troublesome, and another month later, it gave up the ghost and stopped functioning entirely. I rang HTC’s support line and was told that they would collect the device and repair it. So far, my phone has been couriered back to HTC another 2 times, and each time the phone has come back, the USB port has continued to malfunction. They must be spending at least £10 a pop each time the phone has to be couriered, so I just can’t understand why they don’t just replace the phone, or fix it!
hi Derek, it happened to my One X too and they changed the main and sub board and everytime it comes back, it goes back within a day or two with new problems.
and to make the frustration, the customer service people would give lip service and conflicting answers to the repair status. worst they answer back and are defensive. they are from the Singapore service centre.
I have had my HTC Incredible S (which is not so incredible) phone for just over a year now after signing up for a 24 month contract which costs me 32 pounds a month. At first I loved my phone, it was perfect. Then I started to have problems with it constantly restarting. I took it in to the shop and because I had insurance it was swapped for a second hand but in perfect condition phone… A few months later I had problems with phone calls, and now I can only answer/make calls if I have the person on speaker phone. Today, I went to plug my phone in to my electricity socketts upstairs to charge it, as i put the charger in the wall a loud bang happened and a spark flew from the charger. I was very concerned about this and horrified that I could have been seriously hurt, after this incident, my phone now won’t charge and a message comes up saying to switch to an AC connecter or something, I am unsure what this is? But I am very unhappy with this.
HTC…what a regret in having it!
phone is lousy and so is their customer service! take it as a blessing in disguise, it didnt explode in bed or in your pocket!
Hello,
I recieved an replacement phone from HTC and this phone is worse than the orginal HTC wildfire I complained about. As i had to keep putting the phone on loudspeaker fir people to hear me that was causing me headaches and earaches. Plus quater of screen wasnt working, now with the. replacement even if I put it louddpesk people can bateky heR me actuallu can’t her me at all unless its on loudspeak and talk directly into Mic shouting. Lol its funny bebecsuse I thought thays the whe point of replacrments phone arent thru mean6 to be working. Wow. I fine the whole resemt thing dont work. So i want he phone now to be replaced with a different model apart from wildfire because obviously sonething us up with that device.
Chantelle Francis
goodness and I asked for a replacement after the 3rd repair! mine has its main and sub board change and battery too. still defective…
Just a quick note to tell you about my htc experience . its a htc titan with windows . its been for repair 4 times (4 different problems) .
Its now been away for 2 weeks as UPS lost my phone on the way to the repair centre . so after a long drawn out process with htc they told me this load of crap .
Well sir we think your phone is now in the repair centre but we are not 100% sure so what we are going to do is build you a phone from spare parts that we have in the repair centre and hopefully if it works you should have it by monday . This company just tells lie after lie and theres nobody you can speak to thats honest . even trading standards say what they are doing is legal .
hey mark!
seems a mirror image of what I had and from Taiwan! maybe its a company policy…
am not a person used to being lied to! am approaching our consumer protection group!
Not so lucky for me. HTC X One been in and out of their service centre (Singapore) often but the last 3 weeks been an eye opener. Sent it in 3 times and everytime there courier will failed to pick up or fail to deliver. everytime it comes back it would be faulty and be sent back again! frustration thing is everytime you enquire about the repair status, they will give a delivery time and it fails to deliver. upon enquiry, they will give you conflicting answers. so obvious, we feel like a fool! whwne they cant answer your frustrated quiries, they will promise a call back which never happens. upon calling them, you can never find the supervisor. last but not least, we have no other means of complaint except its website and service centre. seems we are pretty helpless!
Hi.
I am now having problems with my HTC Incredible S. Since ” Updating” the firmware as recommended by their message on my phone, it is now so slow it’s useless.
I went to a local shop, where I know the guy is a techie and he showed me loads of posts on forums saying the same thing, I now have to pay £15 for him to try and install the previous firmware. I don’t have loads of apps on my phone and it’s not bloated.
Customer call centre told me to do a factory reset, and that would fix it. I didn’t think it would as I’m a PC tech guy, but I did as they requested and it made NO difference. I did also email the customer service and tech people, and I have not had a reply back from Either of them.
What with the bullshit phone support, and no replies from emails I just find this so incredibly arrogant. This is my first HTC purchase, but I can assure you it will be my LAST HTC purchase.
I’m quite sure the very top man knows nothing about what’s going on with his or her company, and you can bet the shareholders don’t know anything either, otherwise they would jump ship.
hey all just to add to the praise for HTC thought id add my sentiments. My HTC one x, flagship HTC phone at the time of purchasing, said farewell to the world less than a year from purchase. Although I constantly back up my data due to a trip to India for a cousins wedding there were so many pics taken didn’t get a chance. Now I didn’t expect the best smart phone to fail within a year. so when I asked HTC would they attempt to recover data the answer was a flat out no. After a stimulating conversation with customer service what ive been told is we’re sorry but we wont try and recover data, we wont pay for you to send it to an independent repairer/date recovery agent and if you do you’re warranty will no longer be valid, oh and yes it was flagship phone and yes we sold it as the bees knees and yes it shouldn’t have stopped working so …… sorry!!!
does any one know a corporate contact ad in uk???
Thanks
Aman
My case…
I used the charger to my Tab to charge my htc sensation xl beats audio,the next morning,it became very hot and stopped working,some hours later,when i tried to plug,it showed htc at the middle,and four stars at each angle,and still very hot…
Please see how you can assist.
Thank you.
They seem to give their phones names which don’t represent their performance in anyway…. Mine was the Sensation and I can tell you it deffinatly isn’t sensational! I think I had 4 or 5 repairs for mulitple software faults, every time I was asked to factory reset which was not only redundant but really annoying for Apps etc.
I tried fighting for a new phone, I was told htc are such a small company that they don’t have access to their phones… They are sent from where they are manufactured to a distribution centre which other company’s take them from and they don’t have access…. What!?. Also they don’t offer a replacement after a certain about of repairs as people take advantage.. Hmmm…
All they will offer is to repair repair… Repair!! After living with one that had annoying issues I dropped it whilst jogging and smashed the screen, got a new one on insurance and this one turns off when you try to do anything with it!
I think the customer care manager got bored of me and wouldnt return my calls when I wanted to report this phone fault
After speaking to someone else they offered me..guess what… A repair! I told them not to worry and that I was going to get another phone that deffinatly wouldn’t be another HTC!
They seem to want to help you in customer services…but the help they offer seems redundant. I’d much rather pay abit more for an iPhone and have the great after care they offer FACE TO FACE.
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