Comment by dhughes | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dhughes | Hacker News Reader

I dropped my phone, yes a fall of two feet onto fluffy carpet is 'dropping' but really come on! Later on when I looked the screen was blank.

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.

Interestingly enough, I dropped my iPhone 4 two feet onto a HARD surface. The backplate shattered.

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.

>Virgin Mobile stonewalled me the whole time, told me to take to to Apple.

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.

Damn man, that sucks. I'm obsessively careful with my phone/comps because of that very reason. But no matter how careful they still fall occasionally. Falling in a manner you described shouldn't break a phone, it's just not realistic that that sort of jostling won't happen through normal use.

Good for you for at least giving them some negative feedback.

This is exactly how they handled my 14 day old Nexus One hardware issue as well.

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 wonder if something like a squaretrade warranty helps create an abstraction layer between you and the manufacturer in situations like these. (yes it does cost extra though)

That's my understanding of their process. Though their business model has advantages of scale similar to other forms of insurance, I really doubt if it's enough to over come overhead with electronics. I'd bet their business model in more complicated though, they must be extracting value somewhere else. Unless the extended manufacturer warranties are hugely profitable and that susceptible to undercutting.

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