Nexus One experience started off great but then quickly became a nightmare with HTC.

[mi_canuck]

Um... probably not, because I've instructed HTC to keep the replacement and just refund me... I'll take the $45 hit... I don't care at this point... I thought long about this... I'm done with HTC... to much rish staying with them going forward... I'll reinvestigate Android when a Nexus Two (rumored to be by Moto?) is available (or another hi-res 800/854x480, that supports AWS 1700), and is NOT made by HTC.... right now, such a device does not exist.

 

[pydbl]

Um... probably not, because I've instructed HTC to keep the replacement and just refund me... I'll take the $45 hit... I don't care at this point... I thought long about this... I'm done with HTC... to much rish staying with them going forward... I'll reinvestigate Android when a Nexus Two (rumored to be by Moto?) is available (or another hi-res 800/854x480, that supports AWS 1700), and is NOT made by HTC.... right now, such a device does not exist.

Hi what you did is exactly what I am thinking about doing. Did HTC actually let you do that? I mean it seems that different offices and departments within HTC are very disconnected. I sent the phone to them for replacement/repair. I am not sure if the customer service will give me a refund since, I assume, return is handled by a different department...

 

[Ludo]

Maybe you will get a replacement phone AND a refund !

 

[josesxi]

I know it's long but please read. This is a cautionary tale of buying a new phone when none of the parties involved (Google, HTC and T-mibile) want to deal with accountability.

I ordered my phone unsubsidized for the $530 on January 7th and promptly received it the very next day on January 8th. My phone was working beautifully and i didn't see any of the problems that plagued some other users (ie. spotty 3G). I spent the next few days telling people that had heard the negative feedback and were hesitant in buying the phone about my great experience. That all changed 10 days later.

On the evening of January 10th i was playing a quick game while my phone was charging. After about 10 minutes my screen went blank My battery was at 60% at the time but the phone would not restart, even the battery charge indicator was not lit. I did the usual battery pull gto no avail. So, i let it sit charging for about 30 minutes hoping that would solve the issue. No luck.

Of course Google doesn't have or want the support in place to deal with this and the number on HTC's site just takes you to a general info number. That leaves T-mobile. I promptly called t-mobile technical and it automatically forwarded me to HTC's technical support. Guess they were sick of Nexus Ones users calling and wanted to pass the buck. The rep there had me do the usual battery pull, and hard rest (power on while holding down volume. Still no luck. Phone officially bricked.

The rep gave me the option of either sending the phone in for repairs or putting another $530 on credit hold while they send me a new phone and the packaging to send back the old one. I was still within the 14 day grace period so I just opted for the new phone. The rep sounded pretty new and borderline competent but how hard could it be to screw this up? I quickly received an email from HTC with my ticket and was told that i should get another email with my Fed Ex tracking number. I was also told that i should receive the new phone within 2 business days with the packaging to return my old phone.

By Tuesday January 19th i had still not received an email with a tracking number. Since I called on a Sunday night and Monday was a holiday I didn't think it was a big deal but I figured I'd give HTC a ring again to check on the status. After being placed on hold a few times the rep told me that there was some mistake and that they only had on record that they would send me the packaging to return the phone first. He then told me he rould escalate it and have me sent the new phone along with the packaging to return old one. He then said i should get my Fed Ex tracking number in my email shortly.

On the evening of Wednesday January 20th I still had not received any Fed Ex tracking so I gave them a ring again. The rep told me that the phone had been sent but was unable to give me a tracking number because "someone had incorrectly entered it into the system". I told him that he may have been looking at the correction the day before where they had incorrectly sent a courier with just the return packaging. He again said he would escalate the ticket but seemed to be sure that it was sent out. However he still could not give me a tracking number. Instead he advised calling the next day in hopes that the tracking number would be corrected.

Thursday January 21st, I called back to check the tracking number and was in the middle of the call with a rep when the call was starting to get staticy. I asked him for a direct number and his name. He politely gave it to me and told me to call him back and ask for him directly. I called again and got some other support rep who told me that he was unable to transfer calls and I would have to work with him. Ok, so i proceeded to go through the entire verification and explanation yet again for the fifth time. He put me on hold and FINALLY got me a tracking number. I said my thanks and ended the call. I then went on Fed Ex's site and entered that number just to find that it didn't exist. Argh.

So, i called yet again told this nice lady all the details of my experience with HTC and pleaded for her to help. "Where the hell is my damn phone?!" but phrased in a slightly nicer manner. She entered in the tracking number that i was given and told me "The number he gave you was the tracking number for when you first ordered the phone". If this lady wasn't so apologetically nice I would have put my fist through the line. She then gave me another tracking number which i checked online while she was still on the phone. No dice. She put me on hold again for 10 minutes and when she came back she told me that I was initially put in the system incorrectly. In their system i was supposed to first receive the packaging to send back the old phone and then i would get the new phone after they had received the old one. Shocking...No new phone had been sent yet!

She then said that she would escalate this ticket to have some one correct it. I said Hells No, this would have been the 3rd time it would have been "escalated" with no contact or solution occurring. So, i waited another 10 minutes as she put me on hold to speak to her supervisor in person about it. She came back and told me that i should finally get an email with my tracking number "within 24 hours" and that I should get my phone within 2 business day but to check back Monday January 24th if i still had not received it.

Hopefully this is all finally sorted out but I will update this as Monday approaches. After my initial call it took 5 calls just to find out that they bungled my order and no new phone was on it's way? This is absolutely unacceptable and a colossal failure on HTC's part.

This pretty much sums up the Nexus One launch. Google wants the cachet of releasing their own branded phone but does not want the accountability. T-mobile doesn't want to deal with tech issues and instead just wants new subscribers. And HTC just wants to make the phones but doesn't want to deal with any possible defects or doesn't have a competent infrastructure in place to deal with the surge of problems.

The tiny conspiracy theory part of me thinks HTC is intentionally stalling sending me a new phone so that my 14 day return grace period expires and I'm permanently stuck with no recourse.

Does anyone know of any class action lawsuits against the three parties for the Nexus One debacle?

My advice for those on the fence about getting this phone...look for a different one. Or at least until these three parties get their act together.

UPDATE: Jan 22nd

24 Hours after my last call and i still haven't received the prepaid label or tracking number yet again. I've called up and the HTC rep told me she was going to yet again "escalate my ticket" . I've asked to speak to her supervisor since this is now the 8th call but she conveniently "can't find one around". She claims that my information is "incorrectly in the system and will correct it" again. She then offered to clear out the old order because it is screwed up and re-do it from scratch. Instead of getting the phone Monday I am now looking at Wednesday. This is unbelievably frustrating.

Same thing happenned to me when mine was damaged and tried to send it for repairs. Waiting for a shipping label for two weeks.

 

[mi_canuck]

Hi what you did is exactly what I am thinking about doing. Did HTC actually let you do that? I mean it seems that different offices and departments within HTC are very disconnected. I sent the phone to them for replacement/repair. I am not sure if the customer service will give me a refund since, I assume, return is handled by a different department...

Well I'll be finding out... I was told it got "escalated"... a catch phrase that seems to be thrown around by the HTC tech agents...

If they won't refund me, I'll take the replacement, won't even peel open the shrink wrap, and put it on craigslist or ebay... Sell it as unopened BNIB.

I'll keep you posted...

 

[mi_canuck]

Looks like ditching HTC might pay off.... MotoROI rumored to be coming to T-Mo US...


Motorola MOTOROI almost certainly bound for T-Mobile (thanks, FCC!) -- Engadget

 

[nateo200]

Looks like ditching HTC might pay off.... MotoROI rumored to be coming to T-Mo US...


Motorola MOTOROI almost certainly bound for T-Mobile (thanks, FCC!) -- Engadget

I'm already jealous!

 

[acjei]

daaaaaaaaayum that sux freal...think im gonna hold back on gettin a N1...i can wait til spring/summer time to get a new phone lol (Bravo or motoroi)

 

[dougdroid]

Best of luck to you mi_canuck.

I posted my rant on google's phone support forum too and one responder said he encountered a similar nightmare as me but received a refurbished phone back. I called HTC and the rep spoke to his supervisor that claimed that they were only sending new phones in swaps right now. If i get a refurbished phone I'll probably just eat the $50 restocking fee and cancel the phone entirely. I didn't spend $530 to end up with a refurbed phone after 2 weeks.

You might want to call HTC and see if they are sending you a new or refurbed model.

I still haven't received my shipping label or tracking number yet.

Again, good luck. I hope you don't have the same nightmare experience.

In some cases, a refurbished device can be better than the original but it depends on what the testing system is like and the people doing the testing. A refurbished product is a product which has gone through more tests than a new device and if the original problem is a true failure the replacement and retesting results in a better product.

But I too would rather take my chance on an all new system than try and figure out if they are replacing parts with new or used parts off the shelf which were returned as bad but still passed tests. Intermittent boards should not go back into customer repaired product but vendors still do this. Those parts should go into scrapped or sold only as refurbed devices.

 

[dougdroid]

it really sounds like HTC was not ready to deal with the public directly for support of the N1 or they were not ready for it in the USA. This is new territory for the USA so it'll take some time for these companies to get used to dealing with individuals instead of having a single corporate contract for how things are handled. There's a big difference between a multimillion dollar contract with a telco and a $550 sale with hundreds of thousands of different people across the country.

It sounds like people should be recording their conversations with HTC to retain proof if the mishandling of the support issues. Email gives you recorded proof and corporations are required to keep that but phone calls are not. I hope the issue here gets resolved correctly and it is just mismanagement in HTC and nothing more.

But it does remind me of all the issues OLPC had with trying to sell directly to the public with their GiveOne GetOne program the first year they did that. It got better the second year if that has any meaning here.

 

[Necorum]

I just had a call with someone over at HTC that actually seemed to care. Whether anything gets done, I don't know. But Gina - a person I spoke with last about my case, was seemingly very helpful and emphatic. She at least took the time to verify whether anything else could be done, and mentioned that she took my feedback regarding "Chris Otter" in order to "escalate" the case.

First of all - this "Chris Otter" - don't know if the same 'Chris' that System6 above had issues with - when he put me on hold, it took all but 5 secs for him to get back to me saying "yup, nothing my supervisor can do either"... He then had the NERVE to say "well sir, this phone is *Google's* phone, it's not HTC's phone, we are just tech support. But it is Google's phone" is a quite derogatory tone. He then proceeds to say "sorry sir, I apologize, but... you know... low man on the totem pole... you know...". Very much the snide, smug attitude that System 6 above talks about. So again, dunno if the same Chris, but sounds like it might be.

All this because of the initial tech agent's (Tony or Anthony Templeton) utter failure in giving me the correct, quickest, most inconvenience-less option of getting a replacement. He stated, "this is the quickest way for us to get you a replacement phone" - ie. me sending my unit back, before they send me a replacement. Why I believed him, I still don't know. All I want is a Nexus One that will work properly. So now I'm stuck without a Nexus for a whole week, as they will only be receiving my defective Nexus on Tuesday 1/26. So likely, they'll only ship out on Wednesday 1/27 and IF it's overnight, will get back on Thursday 1/28. But that's only if all goes smoothly. I expect Friday, or who knows, maybe even later the way things are going with HTC. I'm gone on a trip starting Feb 1st (Mon), so at this point, I don't even know if I'll get it back before then.


For all we know, their names are just aliases... So not only did I log my complaints with Gina (who again, was super nice, and took time to investigate other options, and here my complaints about how the previous tech agents handled my ticket), but I also called HTC back at their main hotline number. I logged a formal complaint against both Chris Otter (for his extreme lack of courtesy and professionalism) but also against Tony/Anthony Templeton for this complete incompetence in giving me - the customer - the best and quickest means of getting a replacement device. Who the hell knows if that will go anywhere. But at least I feel better for at least having tried to make it known to HTC the issues that some of their tech agents are causing, and all the while, I've kept my cool, never "lost" it, never even raised my voice or used profanity against any of the agents. I sincerely hope they do record phone calls, because they (whoever they are) at HTC will realise how POOR "most" (not all) of their Nexus One tech support agents are at handling these initial issues with the early adopters.

Note, I'm not angered about the device itself, or outraged about it having issues. I accept the risks of being an early adopter of a new device. But my beef is with the tech support and how my particular case was handled. And it sounds like many people, just from the threads in this very message board - which is but a small % of the Nexus One community, I'm not alone in my disappointment in HTC's tech support.

I even commented to Gina that if I was asked "if I'd buy another HTC product in the future", my response would be "most likely not".

Not to cause a flame war in here but I am Chris and I am as nice as the customer allows me to be. I do anything I can to help you but if something went wrong THERE IS NOTHING that I personally can do.

 

[jazzman09]

Not to cause a flame war in here but I am Chris and I am as nice as the customer allows me to be. I do anything I can to help you but if something went wrong THERE IS NOTHING that I personally can do.

LOL what a coincidence

 

[Necorum]

LOL what a coincidence

I take all the steps that I can to help fix the issue at hand. I dont own a magic wand (yet).

 

[Richmc]

mi_canuck,

I too got hold of a Gina (Anderson) and she does seem to care.

My brother in Iraq ordered an N1 and had it shipped here. When I opened it, the screen was cracked. Still worked fine. They had me send it in and then came back saying it was customer enduced and wanted $69 to repair. She esculated it(still waiting to hear back from a sup). I had mentioned to the earlier rep I talked to that the phone box it self had some damage but the shipping box was fine. That fact somehow never made it in to the notes. After recieving my own N1 I also noticed that there was no sleeve in his box and where my phone was wrapped in plactic, his was not.

Obiviously something happened prior to shipping yet the repair facility is blaming me. Makes me wish I had waited to order mine until his was taken care of.

 

[System6]

In Googles defense this is a common practice, even with dealing directly with Tmobile. I have purchased "brand new" phones from the carrier. 5 days later it was sent back and replaced with a refurbished unit. I raised concerns about it, however it really is the way things are done. Your options are return for refund in the 14 day window or live with it. It sucks but is more of a psychological thing than anything else. The refurb worked better than the new one!

That's not common practice anywhere. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all have 14 day exchanges while Sprint offers a 30.

If you are still in your exchange window and you took a refurb, you got ripped off. I used to work for Sprint and my wife works for another carrier listed and that is simply unheard of.

Now, outside your window when doing a repair or an AE, absolutely.

 

[System6]

I also wanted to add that there seem to be several HTC employees flocking to the site just FYI to all.

I wonder how their employers would feel about them discussing work issues off the clock in a unapproved environment discussing peoples personal experiences with the company.

For the record, Necorum in my "Buyers beware" thread works at HTC and is responding to my thread. He seems nice enough, but I am still not sure exactly who he is. I THINK I know who he is, but lets get something straight here...

Your company sells a defective device, has almost no training on how to troubleshoot the device or make an exchange/repair, gives false information repeatedly and lies to it's customers over and over, and you say "I am as nice as the customer allows me to be...?"

The customer allows you to be as kind as you possibly can no matter how upset they are or what they say. My issue is that NO ONE, and I mean freaking NO ONE at HTC seems to know what is going on, how to handle an issue, or has any power or authority to actually resolve an issue without 10+ phone calls.

Chris, if you are the person I think I dealt with (I could be wrong), that was my 14th call and I was demanding my tracking number as you repeatedly told me you didn't have it and couldn't gain access to it. When I asked to speak to the supervisor, she tried to tell me that tracking information doesn't get populated by UPS until 24hours after the label prints (overnight? lol) and you finally just took the call back from her and finally got me my tracking number.

To be fair, I called with a request and was told sorry, can't help you, sorry I don't know, sorry.... it was only when I started chewing your supervisor out that someone actually located it. I am VERY grateful for your help though if this is when we talked as you were the first and ONLY person to provide me the information.

My patience and kindness were excellent in my opinion for the first 6 phone calls.... after that, it's hard to expect anything more from me.

 

[Necorum]

mi_canuck,

I too got hold of a Gina (Anderson) and she does seem to care.

My brother in Iraq ordered an N1 and had it shipped here. When I opened it, the screen was cracked. Still worked fine. They had me send it in and then came back saying it was customer enduced and wanted $69 to repair. She esculated it(still waiting to hear back from a sup). I had mentioned to the earlier rep I talked to that the phone box it self had some damage but the shipping box was fine. That fact somehow never made it in to the notes. After recieving my own N1 I also noticed that there was no sleeve in his box and where my phone was wrapped in plactic, his was not.

Obiviously something happened prior to shipping yet the repair facility is blaming me. Makes me wish I had waited to order mine until his was taken care of.

Wow bro sorry to hear that. If you said the box was damaged when shipped that should have been in the notes no questions asked.

 

[Necorum]

I also wanted to add that there seem to be several HTC employees flocking to the site just FYI to all.

I wonder how their employers would feel about them discussing work issues off the clock in a unapproved environment discussing peoples personal experiences with the company.

For the record, Necorum in my "Buyers beware" thread works at HTC and is responding to my thread. He seems nice enough, but I am still not sure exactly who he is. I THINK I know who he is, but lets get something straight here...

Your company sells a defective device, has almost no training on how to troubleshoot the device or make an exchange/repair, gives false information repeatedly and lies to it's customers over and over, and you say "I am as nice as the customer allows me to be...?"

The customer allows you to be as kind as you possibly can no matter how upset they are or what they say. My issue is that NO ONE, and I mean freaking NO ONE at HTC seems to know what is going on, how to handle an issue, or has any power or authority to actually resolve an issue without 10+ phone calls.

Chris, if you are the person I think I dealt with (I could be wrong), that was my 14th call and I was demanding my tracking number as you repeatedly told me you didn't have it and couldn't gain access to it. When I asked to speak to the supervisor, she tried to tell me that tracking information doesn't get populated by UPS until 24hours after the label prints (overnight? lol) and you finally just took the call back from her and finally got me my tracking number.

To be fair, I called with a request and was told sorry, can't help you, sorry I don't know, sorry.... it was only when I started chewing your supervisor out that someone actually located it. I am VERY grateful for your help though if this is when we talked as you were the first and ONLY person to provide me the information.

My patience and kindness were excellent in my opinion for the first 6 phone calls.... after that, it's hard to expect anything more from me.

Im just on here to better educate myself about the device and any fix's work arounds you the owners might have. Yes I was the one to find your tracking info.


PS I am also debating buying a Nexus One

 

[System6]

@ Necorum WOW bro... sorry... just re-read my post. Didn't mean to sound like a jerk.

What I meant to say was I wonder if HTC is cool with you being on here, but re-reading my post it sounds like a threat to tell your boss or something.

In the end, you were the "one". You FINALLY made something happen and got me the info, so again, I appreciate all of your help.

Like I have said many times before in this thread, I absolutely LOVE my Nexus one... it is simply an awesome phone! I would recommend one. I have always had a good relationship with HTC and owned many of their phones, but to be fair I never really had any major issues, just questions.

I have had a mogul, a touch, a G1, a MyTouch, and so many others, but the Nexus one isn't only the best HTC handset I have ever owned, it is the best handset I have ever owned period.

It looks like I just got a dud, but so many other people have had such bad service with your company lately. I just hope HTC is doing something to clear up issues and develop a hassle free experience for exchanging, returning, and repairing phones.

 

[Richmc]

Wow bro sorry to hear that. If you said the box was damaged when shipped that should have been in the notes no questions asked.

I called back today since I still hadn't heard back and was told no one in the esculation department worked the weekend. I made sure again that all the infor was in the notes. My brother wants to go to base legal(he is at Camp Vicorty) but I got him calmed down for now. We will see if I hear anything back on Monday.

Oh and Andrews was Gina's last name. Not Anderson.

 

[Necorum]

I called back today since I still hadn't heard back and was told no one in the esculation department worked the weekend. I made sure again that all the infor was in the notes. My brother wants to go to base legal(he is at Camp Vicorty) but I got him calmed down for now. We will see if I hear anything back on Monday.

Oh and Andrews was Gina's last name. Not Anderson.

Yea they only work mon-fri EST also, Everything should be ok

 

[Richmc]

Talked to another rep today and he put me on hold to talk to the esculation team. Came back and said that when I first called in that they should have put it in as a DOA and not a repair. Looks like they are going to be sending out a new phone.

 

[rookie1082]

@Neocrum

Is there anyway you can help me with this situation? I swapped out my original phone... Got the replacement on the 16th. It was in terrible shape and in worse shape than the one I was sending back! Anyway after being denied the request to keep my original, I shipped mine back and HTC (Houston) received my phone on the 25th. They still have not checked the phone in to allow you to close my swap ticket... Therefore I cannot setup a DOA on this replacement device until the original ticket closes. I've spoken with 6 reps... Matt, Tangie, Chrissy (Total liar told me she setup a DOA when in fact she did NOTHING! Said I would receive a new phone on the 26th when in fact she did not even setup anything at all in the system), Kendall, Pamela, and I even spoke with Tim M. from escalations. He personally "sent an email" to Taiwan to have my ticket closed. Right.

Why am I being lied to? And I hate escalated calls. Someone will contact me within 24-48 hours? Really? Because I have had 4 calls escalated and none of the times was I contacted. I mean seriously, I just want to replace the crappy replacement that I got and it seems like a lot of people are dropping the ball all over the place. Worse yet, i'm being lied to by it seems like every rep that I speak to. I couldn't take my phone with me when I visited my corporate office in Germany this past weekend to have it setup by my IT department... Why? Because HTC is lying to me telling me something different every time I make a phone call. I spent 500+ dollars on this device for a defective product... Worse yet, the customer service is not helping any.

I need someone to take care of my situation. Please tell me if you can help me, I can send you a PM. Or you can send me one. Either way this frustrating fiasco has to end. Hopefully with a different ending than me returning my phone alltogether and going elsewhere.

 

[mi_canuck]

rookie... there is nothing you can do man... their little "tactics" of "someone will contact you in 24-48hrs", or "it's been sent to escalations", or "I'm typing up an email right now" is BS... it's simply their modus operandi of getting the customer off the phone as quickly as possible... HTC customer support really isn't customer support... it's a **call center for hire**... they don't know $#!t about the Nexus One, and much less about actually, you know, helping people... They lie... that's what they do best...

 

[rookie1082]

rookie... there is nothing you can do man... their little "tactics" of "someone will contact you in 24-48hrs", or "it's been sent to escalations", or "I'm typing up an email right now" is BS... it's simply their modus operandi of getting the customer off the phone as quickly as possible... HTC customer support really isn't customer support... it's a **call center for hire**... they don't know $#!t about the Nexus One, and much less about actually, you know, helping people... They lie... that's what they do best...

Very frustrating. If I had known this I would have gone with a company that actually helps their customers.