Over the weekend, I encountered a curious issue with my Hero. On Friday, the device was not bricked, but might as well have been. It had been running all day, but in the afternoon it would not download an app from the market. Further exploration revealed that it had no network reception whatsoever in an area where I regularly get 5 bars. I tried to run the phone and phone app went into forced close. I powered cycled the device, and every single app and process force closed on the reboot. I pulled the battery and rebooted again, and again, every app and process hit a forced close. All attempts to run my installed apps also resulted in forced close.
The first question Sprint TS asked me was if Shazam or Task Killer was installed. The answer was yes, I'd installed both. According to Sprint TS, both of these apps are incompatible with Sprint's version of the Hero. We uninstalled them, but the phone continued to force close every process. The tech's advice was to document the incident with an event number, take the phone to the Sprint store, have them back it up, perform a hard reset, reinstall the contacts, then reinstall all apps one by one. I did it their way, they reset the phone, and it's running fine again.
Afterword, the tech approached me with a printout of the event ticket. He pointed to the notes about Shazam and TasKiller, and asked me (in a tone that I don't want to exaggerate, but that I can only describe as condescending and annoyed), "Why on Earth would you install these?". I responded, "why shouldn't I?" He said the Hero has known issues with those apps, that they absolutely should not be installed, and had the phone not recovered properly, it would have nullified my warranty due to negligence on my part.
I asked if Sprint had posted this info on their website, notified owners, or made this information available in any way. He replied that that was not his concern. I asked him without some warning or indication from Sprint, how I might possibly know of any possible problem or risk from downloading and installing an Android app from the Android Market to my shiny new Android phone that Sprint sold me? He repeated that this was not his concern. I asked him to show me a document, website or any written reference stating that these were problematic apps. He had no such reference. I maintained that absent of notice or documentation from Sprint or HTC, there was no negligence whatsoever on my part. We agreed to disagree, and I went on my way.
I know the tech was a jerk, but oh well. I'm much more concerned with whether or not anyone else has experienced issues with these apps. According to Sprint, I am not an isolated incident. Has anyone experienced similar issues?
The first question Sprint TS asked me was if Shazam or Task Killer was installed. The answer was yes, I'd installed both. According to Sprint TS, both of these apps are incompatible with Sprint's version of the Hero. We uninstalled them, but the phone continued to force close every process. The tech's advice was to document the incident with an event number, take the phone to the Sprint store, have them back it up, perform a hard reset, reinstall the contacts, then reinstall all apps one by one. I did it their way, they reset the phone, and it's running fine again.
Afterword, the tech approached me with a printout of the event ticket. He pointed to the notes about Shazam and TasKiller, and asked me (in a tone that I don't want to exaggerate, but that I can only describe as condescending and annoyed), "Why on Earth would you install these?". I responded, "why shouldn't I?" He said the Hero has known issues with those apps, that they absolutely should not be installed, and had the phone not recovered properly, it would have nullified my warranty due to negligence on my part.
I asked if Sprint had posted this info on their website, notified owners, or made this information available in any way. He replied that that was not his concern. I asked him without some warning or indication from Sprint, how I might possibly know of any possible problem or risk from downloading and installing an Android app from the Android Market to my shiny new Android phone that Sprint sold me? He repeated that this was not his concern. I asked him to show me a document, website or any written reference stating that these were problematic apps. He had no such reference. I maintained that absent of notice or documentation from Sprint or HTC, there was no negligence whatsoever on my part. We agreed to disagree, and I went on my way.
I know the tech was a jerk, but oh well. I'm much more concerned with whether or not anyone else has experienced issues with these apps. According to Sprint, I am not an isolated incident. Has anyone experienced similar issues?