A letter I recently sent to Sprint (with a few more identifying details):
In what can only be deemed luck so exceptional I should have bought a lottery ticket instead, I've received 4 consecutive defective HTC EVO 4G LTE devices within my 14-day return period at a local Maplewood Sprint store before being told today after my final exchange at around 12PM to leave. The devices had an assortment of hardware defects, all of which were limited to the screen (although one had a remarkably crooked internal camera lens as well). In all cases, the representatives assured me they could see the issue and offered a replacement. Each time I felt incredibly guilty for making the exchange. Statistically speaking, of course, it is also extremely unlikely for consecutive devices to display obvious defects, especially in my 6 years of experience with flawless HTC-manufactured devices. And yet, this is, incredibly, the case for me as vouched for at the time by each rep I approached.
Each device had a different set of flaws. Each flaw is easily noticeable in specific, common viewing conditions. I easily noticed each without looking for it within a day of owning the phone. The first device came out of the box deeply-discharged and required minutes to charge to a bootable state. Once booted, it displayed a thick line of discoloration stretching up the screen most easily noticeable when viewing anything of relatively solid dark color. The second device exhibited bright light leak and a crooked internal camera lens, the third displayed a large number of stuck/dead pixels, and the fourth displayed 1-2 dead pixels and bottom bright-phase light leak. The last was an exchange received in-store, where I immediately pointed out the 2 problems with the fresh device after trying it out there. Although I've never experienced anything like this before, I talked to members of online forums who assured me that their devices did not display such issues (with picture proof) and that my particular Sprint store must have received a batch of defective devices for which quality control was notably absent. According to a Sprint rep who talked to the manager, "Yeah, turns out it's actually a known problem here that this phone tends to have screen problems and dead pixels and stuff a lot." I was somewhat dumbfounded by this for various reasons, but let it slide.
At the time of the final exchange, a man who I assume is the manager came out of the back room and told me the following (I've tried to recapture his words as closely as possible): "I'm sorry for the issues you're having, but it's time I put a stop to this. You've been wasting our time and blowing through our inventory. No other customers have reported issues this many times. You'll have to go elsewhere for any other services, because this store will not do anything more for you." I then asked him whether or not he looked at the phone or believed the issues to be imaginary (I have picture proof for one of the issues, and a stuck pixel is obvious even to the untrained eye against various colors). He claimed that regardless of the issues, I should take it up with HTC, the manufacturer of the devices, instead of wasting his time. (Contacting HTC is good advice, and I've already started to pursue this recourse.) Regardless, he went on in response to my questioning as to why my defective device couldn't be returned or exchanged. "With that many consecutive issues," he retorted, "you'd have to be literally scrutinizing every device and trying to come up with...you know, anything. It just doesn't happen." Now, this particular statement confused me, since other reps had verified the defects I pointed out and one even said "it makes a big difference" when he compared devices 2 and 3 for light leak. The stuck pixels were obvious to another rep, who looked at device 3 displaying dark backgrounds. I'd taken each device home after receiving it, expecting it to be fully functional after a cursory glance revealed that the previous issue had vanished. I took a few more minutes to compare the final device in-store, however, where I discovered and immediately pointed out its two defects.
Although I can somewhat understand his position, I am extremely dissatisfied with the manager's rudeness and his order to leave the store (I've never been ordered to leave a store before -- though I've never encountered such an incredibly, blatantly rude manager, either). Before this order was issued, however, I told him I was slightly dissatisfied by the implications of his statements like "it doesn't happen" and "you have to be literally scrutinizing every device trying to come up with for...you know, anything," to which he responded in accusatory fashion rather than in apology or even dismissiveness, "no, you're the one who said that. I didn't say that. It's your opinion." The use of ad hominem, non sequiturs, and other fallacious argumentative tactics coupled with an extremely rude tone certainly do not befit a professional in his position. In the entirety of my University career, I had yet to encounter an individual of this particularly foul behavior within a professional setting. It was an eye-opening -- and spirit-crushing -- experience.
What's more, he attempted to make me leave before returning my active device or memory card. Furthermore, in what could only be viewed as an act of spite from my standpoint, he took my SD card which I had placed on the rep's counter prior to returning device 3 (no such external memory card comes with the LTE) and proceeded to thoroughly erase all information on my physical memory card without my knowledge or consent. He then withheld my phone (with card) from me until I was forced to explicitly request he give them back. I lost hundreds of pictures and captured video since my last backup, in addition to the backups of my text messages and various downloaded music and documents since I purchased the memory card years ago. This is a destruction of data and digital property performed behind my back on my own personal storage device on my own phone which I had to request he return to me before being kicked out.
In sum, the manager would not listen to my evidence or reasoning or answer any of my questions (with anything but accusations, that is) and instead rudely forced me to leave the store without returning my active device or wrongfully-cleared SD card to me. After being forced to request my property back and leaving extremely hurt and confused, I realized I've never been so wounded and personally humiliated by a company before in my life. This mistreatment, contempt, and bullying of the highest order were not warranted or necessary. A refusal of service should be given (if it must be given at all) with a concise, reasonable explanation free of accusation or malice. Accusing a customer of "blowing through stock" and "wasting his time" (I never even requested to see him) with real, obvious hardware defects he dismissed as "literally scrutinizing every phone" based on imaginary statistics that "it doesn't happen" (even though it obviously did) is absolutely uncalled for, especially given Sprint's publicized promise to accept returns if it's "not quite the right color red," to say nothing of significant, noticeable hardware defects. I have few qualms with the fact that a manager is knowingly and willingly supervising the sale of a series or batch of devices known to be defective in high numbers; however, I do take major personal issue with the fact this individual refused me service in such a horrifying manner and treated me with behavior the likes of which I never imagined, in addition to clearing all of my personal data from my own external storage card and withholding my phone (and card) while asking me to leave. All without apology, and I am still without a reasonably defect-free device. Given the unprecedented plight to which I was subject at this store, I came in this morning a dissatisfied HTC device owner, but left with such personal trauma that now calling myself a dissatisfied Sprint customer would be a laughable understatement.
In what can only be deemed luck so exceptional I should have bought a lottery ticket instead, I've received 4 consecutive defective HTC EVO 4G LTE devices within my 14-day return period at a local Maplewood Sprint store before being told today after my final exchange at around 12PM to leave. The devices had an assortment of hardware defects, all of which were limited to the screen (although one had a remarkably crooked internal camera lens as well). In all cases, the representatives assured me they could see the issue and offered a replacement. Each time I felt incredibly guilty for making the exchange. Statistically speaking, of course, it is also extremely unlikely for consecutive devices to display obvious defects, especially in my 6 years of experience with flawless HTC-manufactured devices. And yet, this is, incredibly, the case for me as vouched for at the time by each rep I approached.
Each device had a different set of flaws. Each flaw is easily noticeable in specific, common viewing conditions. I easily noticed each without looking for it within a day of owning the phone. The first device came out of the box deeply-discharged and required minutes to charge to a bootable state. Once booted, it displayed a thick line of discoloration stretching up the screen most easily noticeable when viewing anything of relatively solid dark color. The second device exhibited bright light leak and a crooked internal camera lens, the third displayed a large number of stuck/dead pixels, and the fourth displayed 1-2 dead pixels and bottom bright-phase light leak. The last was an exchange received in-store, where I immediately pointed out the 2 problems with the fresh device after trying it out there. Although I've never experienced anything like this before, I talked to members of online forums who assured me that their devices did not display such issues (with picture proof) and that my particular Sprint store must have received a batch of defective devices for which quality control was notably absent. According to a Sprint rep who talked to the manager, "Yeah, turns out it's actually a known problem here that this phone tends to have screen problems and dead pixels and stuff a lot." I was somewhat dumbfounded by this for various reasons, but let it slide.
At the time of the final exchange, a man who I assume is the manager came out of the back room and told me the following (I've tried to recapture his words as closely as possible): "I'm sorry for the issues you're having, but it's time I put a stop to this. You've been wasting our time and blowing through our inventory. No other customers have reported issues this many times. You'll have to go elsewhere for any other services, because this store will not do anything more for you." I then asked him whether or not he looked at the phone or believed the issues to be imaginary (I have picture proof for one of the issues, and a stuck pixel is obvious even to the untrained eye against various colors). He claimed that regardless of the issues, I should take it up with HTC, the manufacturer of the devices, instead of wasting his time. (Contacting HTC is good advice, and I've already started to pursue this recourse.) Regardless, he went on in response to my questioning as to why my defective device couldn't be returned or exchanged. "With that many consecutive issues," he retorted, "you'd have to be literally scrutinizing every device and trying to come up with...you know, anything. It just doesn't happen." Now, this particular statement confused me, since other reps had verified the defects I pointed out and one even said "it makes a big difference" when he compared devices 2 and 3 for light leak. The stuck pixels were obvious to another rep, who looked at device 3 displaying dark backgrounds. I'd taken each device home after receiving it, expecting it to be fully functional after a cursory glance revealed that the previous issue had vanished. I took a few more minutes to compare the final device in-store, however, where I discovered and immediately pointed out its two defects.
Although I can somewhat understand his position, I am extremely dissatisfied with the manager's rudeness and his order to leave the store (I've never been ordered to leave a store before -- though I've never encountered such an incredibly, blatantly rude manager, either). Before this order was issued, however, I told him I was slightly dissatisfied by the implications of his statements like "it doesn't happen" and "you have to be literally scrutinizing every device trying to come up with for...you know, anything," to which he responded in accusatory fashion rather than in apology or even dismissiveness, "no, you're the one who said that. I didn't say that. It's your opinion." The use of ad hominem, non sequiturs, and other fallacious argumentative tactics coupled with an extremely rude tone certainly do not befit a professional in his position. In the entirety of my University career, I had yet to encounter an individual of this particularly foul behavior within a professional setting. It was an eye-opening -- and spirit-crushing -- experience.
What's more, he attempted to make me leave before returning my active device or memory card. Furthermore, in what could only be viewed as an act of spite from my standpoint, he took my SD card which I had placed on the rep's counter prior to returning device 3 (no such external memory card comes with the LTE) and proceeded to thoroughly erase all information on my physical memory card without my knowledge or consent. He then withheld my phone (with card) from me until I was forced to explicitly request he give them back. I lost hundreds of pictures and captured video since my last backup, in addition to the backups of my text messages and various downloaded music and documents since I purchased the memory card years ago. This is a destruction of data and digital property performed behind my back on my own personal storage device on my own phone which I had to request he return to me before being kicked out.
In sum, the manager would not listen to my evidence or reasoning or answer any of my questions (with anything but accusations, that is) and instead rudely forced me to leave the store without returning my active device or wrongfully-cleared SD card to me. After being forced to request my property back and leaving extremely hurt and confused, I realized I've never been so wounded and personally humiliated by a company before in my life. This mistreatment, contempt, and bullying of the highest order were not warranted or necessary. A refusal of service should be given (if it must be given at all) with a concise, reasonable explanation free of accusation or malice. Accusing a customer of "blowing through stock" and "wasting his time" (I never even requested to see him) with real, obvious hardware defects he dismissed as "literally scrutinizing every phone" based on imaginary statistics that "it doesn't happen" (even though it obviously did) is absolutely uncalled for, especially given Sprint's publicized promise to accept returns if it's "not quite the right color red," to say nothing of significant, noticeable hardware defects. I have few qualms with the fact that a manager is knowingly and willingly supervising the sale of a series or batch of devices known to be defective in high numbers; however, I do take major personal issue with the fact this individual refused me service in such a horrifying manner and treated me with behavior the likes of which I never imagined, in addition to clearing all of my personal data from my own external storage card and withholding my phone (and card) while asking me to leave. All without apology, and I am still without a reasonably defect-free device. Given the unprecedented plight to which I was subject at this store, I came in this morning a dissatisfied HTC device owner, but left with such personal trauma that now calling myself a dissatisfied Sprint customer would be a laughable understatement.
