Help HTC EVO Lemons. Earpiece Speaker Blown, Glass seperating, and light leakage spreading. Anyone else?

[HtcEvoLemon]

Hello Everyone.

Last week, I switched over several phones from a different carrier to Sprint. For only one reason, I wanted the HTC Evo. I love love the phone, except for build quality, and the following upsetting issues.

The first day I got my phone, I used it 24/7. I swear I hardly slept the first night. Very first night, Using my phone in the bedroom while lying down in the dark. I noticed a very annoying light from the bottom left corner. Shining through, where the glass meets the plastic casing. I kinda said to myself "oh gosh, I can't believe they let this happen." I really did not care though, I realized it was poor build quality, but I was not going to return my phone just because a little light was shining through. I figured it was the LED's.

Well lets fast forward less than a week, just a few days. The light shining through my phone has spread. It is no longer isolated to the left corner, but it now runs along the entire bottom of the phone, where the glass meets the plastic, all the way to the right lower cornered side of the phone. I noticed this spread tonight, again using my phone while in bed in the dark.

Now this became a huge issue for me, the light leakage is spreading. So I jump out of bed, turn my bedroom lights on. And guess what. I inspect the phone really closely, the left corner of the glass is starting to rise up and separate. It actually moves up and down maybe a 1/10th of a mm, but trust me, if you are staring eyeball to phone, you see the glass moving up and down on the left corner. While the top left and right corners of the phone appear to be glued down pretty well. I can just imagine in 2 more weeks, the entire left corner will start to peel off.

Now for the other problem. The earpiece speaker sounds blown out. When the earpiece volume is set to max, it sounds very similar to the horrible sound quality you hear from a blown out speaker. This only resolves if I turn the earpiece volume down.

I need to go on the record and say, I've treated my Evo like a baby since the moment I got it. I have not dropped it, I place it ever so carefully down, and I make sure no water gets near it. I mean come on, I've had it less than a week, this is when you act anal about any tiny scratch, you know what I mean?

My point is, the phone has not been abused in any way shape or form. Clearly my light leakage is spreading, and the glass, although barely noticeable at this moment, is truly and indeed starting to peel up.

I want to make a YouTube video on this, but it's so hard to see the glass separation, you need to be holding the phone in person to truly see the seperation at it's earliest stages.

If I knew for certain my phone would be fine down the road, I honestly wouldn't care about light leakage, however the glass separating is really having me worried along with the earpiece speaker issue. My gut is telling me, this entire glass will peel off If I keep this phone.

Now what? Do I risk it and get another Evo Replacement, or just return all the phones I bought, and switch everyone back to my old carrier.

Please email me if you want to keep in touch. I've never been so excited for a product, only to be so upsett that this kind of flaw gets passed quality control. I mean come on really, you would think the CEO of HTC and Sprint, had these phones for months, and surely used them in the dark. Or the engineers must have noticed. Or maybe this phone was soo tight lipped at the company, that even test engineers weren't allowed to take the phone home, maybe they use blackberries, I dunno.

Quick Edit: Sprint PCS Exec email addresses.
I found these off a website called noevofee.com. It is the email to top Sprint PCS execs including Ceo Dan Hesse.

I just sent them an email letting them know of 3 issues. Earpiece speaker making a blown out noise. Second, the glass seperating, and finally the light leakage.

I also asked them to please replace my EVO with no problems. I also asked them, if I do get a replacement Evo, that they reset my 30 day trial from the day I get the new replacement evo, not the original day I got my first defective unit, or finally give me a full refund with no restocking fee.

If you have similar problems, please send the following people an email letting them know of the exact issues on your phone, and what you want done about it. Just copy and paste into your email address bar.

Daniel.R.Hesse@sprint.com, William.G.Arendt@sprint.com, Keith.Cowan@sprint.com, Paget.L.Alves@sprint.com, John.A.Garcia@sprint.com, Chris.A.Hill@sprint.com, Len.Kennedy@sprint.com, Richard.T.C.LeFave@sprint.com, Sandra.J.Price@sprint.com, Kathryn.Walker@sprint.com, barry.west@sprint.com, bill.white@sprint.com



Problem number 4: I have to add this edit:

After just reading about the grounding issues with the phone from other users, I decided to test my phone for grounding problems. I put the phone on a flat surface, the top 2/3 of my screen becomes non responsive. As soon as I touch the side of the phone, and thus provide a ground through my body, the top 2/3 of the screen then become functional again.

I will try to make a YouTube video later today.

My HTC evo 4g lemon now has 4 problems:
Earpiece problems
Light leakage
Glass separation
Grounding issues

 

[sean76]

You might get Flamed by a couple of chidish members. However, those that have the problem understand. It's affecting a good number of us. I would say, use it for now, enjoy it, and in about 14 days or so go in for a swap on all the phones. If the problem is still present, cancel and move on. Sucks to have waited so long, and then get lemons. But a swap sounds like the right move.

Good Luck, and welcome to the Forums.

 

[Shenaniganz]

So cant a user buy the insurance wait the month or so for a new batch and simply replace the phone for a better unit?

 

[edlex]

Truth is you shouldn't wait to exchange it. HTC needs to see these returns NOW so they will actually do something about it. Companies will never do the right thing on complaints. Only when it hits their pockets and exchanging a phone costs them money. Keep exchanging them until you get a good one. Make them pay for poor quality management. Trust me, when they see a bunch of these come back they will change the quality. Rushing a product to meet demand is no excuse to give people these headaches regarding workmanship. So, to sum up, don't wait, return now and return often, it's the only way to get their attention!

 

[hd.android]

So cant a user buy the insurance wait the month or so for a new batch and simply replace the phone for a better unit?

Couple of clarifications would be helpful here, I think. First, you can replace it under the *warranty* for free, within one year of purchase -- if and only if -- Sprint and HTC find it to be a defect. If it is an annoyance but not a defect, they may not opt to provide returns. At this point, I think they're still undecided/hearing about the issue, so it's sporadic as to who is permitted returns and who is not.

Second, after the warranty expires, you can use insurance to fix, but there is a $100 deductible with the insurance. So, you're out of pocket another $100 for the phone.

 

[Mabster]

So cant a user buy the insurance wait the month or so for a new batch and simply replace the phone for a better unit?

If HTC admits that it's a hardware defect then I don't see why not.

 

[Hrshycro]

Sounds exactly like what mine is doing. I have all of those exact problems, except the speaker was first and the glass happened tonight. The other two Evos just have the glass problem. Going to exchange them now in hopes of getting to exchange them again before the 30 days are up, if the next set has problems too, which they will.

 

[Mabster]

Going to exchange them now in hopes of getting to exchange them again before the 30 days are up, if the next set has problems too, which they will.

You're just attracting bad energy. Way to be positive. You might as well just get a different phone if you think every one will have the same defects.

 

[swagner53]

I returned mine due to light leakage. I have a Hero with a lot of dust under the screen. My wife has had her Droid since release day with no issues. We love android and although the specs and design of the HTC's are great, build quality seems to be an issue. I love the huge screen on the EVO, was tempted to get an Incredible, but with the wait time I think I will just wait for the new Motorola (X, Xtreme, whatever you want to call it).

All said though, I use Sprint at work and manage an account with over 100 cell phones on it. Sprint has been great on the business side and now on the personal side as they took back the EVO no questions asked with a full refund and called me a few hours later to confirm the cancellation.

 

[mbell75]

I returned mine due to light leakage. I have a Hero with a lot of dust under the screen. My wife has had her Droid since release day with no issues. We love android and although the specs and design of the HTC's are great, build quality seems to be an issue. I love the huge screen on the EVO, was tempted to get an Incredible, but with the wait time I think I will just wait for the new Motorola (X, Xtreme, whatever you want to call it).

All said though, I use Sprint at work and manage an account with over 100 cell phones on it. Sprint has been great on the business side and now on the personal side as they took back the EVO no questions asked with a full refund and called me a few hours later to confirm the cancellation.

Alot of people are like me though. Light leakage but zero screen separation and the chances are very good it wont separate. So you could have just returned a phone for nothing more than some light leakage you will never even know is there unless its dark and you are looking for it.

 

[vikingjunior]

Yet Sprint can't keep them in stock, go figure.

 

[fyremn76]

How many threads do u have to open and say the same thing in? We understand that u r having problems with your phone, but one thread pointing this out was enough! How about instead of opening new threads on this topic u take your phone back and exchange it in for a new one to see if the problem was specific to your phone and a few others! If that is not something u want to do then return ur phone and get a different one because then the EVO is not for u! My main point is we don't need 5 threads from u on this same topic!

 

[kellte2]

Squeaky kickstand?

 

[sagedil]

Just fyi. I have a Body Glove. See NO light at night. Why light leakage ALONE is a non issue for me.

And fwiw. That is not the reason I use the Body Glove. Keeps the phone from sliding of my seat in the car. Blocking the light leakage is just bonus.

 

[adseguy]

This stuff happens to every phone and it's hilarious to me. It's a nit pick of every thing that goes wrong with the phone. This isn't too bad though. You should have seen the everythingiphone.com forums with the very first iphone came out. It was all happy faces until the day the phone came out then everyone got dissapointed by: Lack of good battery, headphones not fitting right, bezel separating from glass, home button not engaging, dust behind screen, 2 types of screens were issued at launch and one was WAAAAY worse then the other. I remember these problems and thought it was bad until the iPhone 3GS came out. Remember the dropped calls issue until a patch came out....holy crap that was bad.

I knew a guy on-line that switched his iPhone out over 10 times because he nit picked about tiny little crap. I'm not saying you're one, but I am saying that you are one to complain. It won't be perfect, they never are, but if you don't like it return it. Just wait until iPhone 4 comes out and see the problems. $100 to everyone if their isn't a problem LOL.

To those that are worried about these posts: It's a never ending cycle. This behavior happens to all phones on all carriers even the jesus phone. This phone overall is fantastic. I might have to charge it more then I'd like, but the awesome stuff on it just makes me forget that pretty easily. Good luck to the OP in finding peace in imperfection

 

[HtcEvoLemon]

How many threads do u have to open and say the same thing in? We understand that u r having problems with your phone, but one thread pointing this out was enough! How about instead of opening new threads on this topic u take your phone back and exchange it in for a new one to see if the problem was specific to your phone and a few others! If that is not something u want to do then return ur phone and get a different one because then the EVO is not for u! My main point is we don't need 5 threads from u on this same topic!

Excuse me? I am new to this forum, I just joined android forums, I only made 1 thread, which is this one, and I make updates by doing edits, as you can see up above.

 

[HtcEvoLemon]

This stuff happens to every phone and it's hilarious to me. It's a nit pick of every thing that goes wrong with the phone. This isn't too bad though. You should have seen the everythingiphone.com forums with the very first iphone came out. It was all happy faces until the day the phone came out then everyone got dissapointed by: Lack of good battery, headphones not fitting right, bezel separating from glass, home button not engaging, dust behind screen, 2 types of screens were issued at launch and one was WAAAAY worse then the other. I remember these problems and thought it was bad until the iPhone 3GS came out. Remember the dropped calls issue until a patch came out....holy crap that was bad.

I knew a guy on-line that switched his iPhone out over 10 times because he nit picked about tiny little crap. I'm not saying you're one, but I am saying that you are one to complain. It won't be perfect, they never are, but if you don't like it return it. Just wait until iPhone 4 comes out and see the problems. $100 to everyone if their isn't a problem LOL.

To those that are worried about these posts: It's a never ending cycle. This behavior happens to all phones on all carriers even the jesus phone. This phone overall is fantastic. I might have to charge it more then I'd like, but the awesome stuff on it just makes me forget that pretty easily. Good luck to the OP in finding peace in imperfection

It's the behavior of all phones to have your brand new 200 dollar phone to have the glass lifting on the corner? I've had a cell phone, before they were even popular, got my first one 15 yrs ago, ive had many cell phones since then, this is actually the first time i've had issues with any phone.

I don't think being upset, and going to a forum and talking about this problem is something to put me down for. I thought this specific htc evo forum was designed and open to people to post problems with their phone.

 

[HtcEvoLemon]

You might get Flamed by a couple of chidish members. However, those that have the problem understand. It's affecting a good number of us. I would say, use it for now, enjoy it, and in about 14 days or so go in for a swap on all the phones. If the problem is still present, cancel and move on. Sucks to have waited so long, and then get lemons. But a swap sounds like the right move.

Good Luck, and welcome to the Forums.

I feel very unwelcome, I took lots of time to write a detailed posting, and do updates, and I have people saying I'm making multiple threads, and to go exchange it already, blah blah blah. Isn't this website designed for us to share our experiences?

You were very correct about the childish complaints.

 

[adseguy]

Yeah, share your experience. I have my right to comment as well. What, cause I disagree with you I am putting you down? Come on, I don't know you .

I've had problems with EVERY cell phone I've had haha. I really mean every one too! Nothing too major on my phone, but as soon as it is a problem for me it'll go right back to the company I bought it from. Your threshold for imperfection is a lot lower then mine that's all. Like I said i hope you find some peace with whatever phone you get/keep

 

[mbell75]

I feel very unwelcome, I took lots of time to write a detailed posting, and do updates, and I have people saying I'm making multiple threads, and to go exchange it already, blah blah blah. Isn't this website designed for us to share our experiences?

You were very correct about the childish complaints.

Look at your user name genius. How do you expect NOT to get flamed? Was HTCEvoSucks taken?

 

[clambert1273]

this sounds oddly familiar to a post that got shut down twice yesterday... just sayin...

to the OP.. I think it would be taken as more legitimate from the forum if your screen name wasn't initially picked (and first post) with an obvious bash to the device itself..

 

[Hrshycro]

You're just attracting bad energy. Way to be positive. You might as well just get a different phone if you think every one will have the same defects.

I'm sure they will get some of the bugs worked out, I just don't see it in the next 3 phones will probably get from them. So far 3 out of 3 phones are doing it, so that's 100% lemons. I'll check out my friend's evos today.

 

[HtcEvoLemon]

I'm sure they will get some of the bugs worked out, I just don't see it in the next 3 phones will probably get from them. So far 3 out of 3 phones are doing it, so that's 100% lemons. I'll check out my friend's evos today.

Wait, I'm confused, you already replaced your evo 3 times? They all have the same issue or what?

 

[kiz88]

Have to be sympathetic to the OPers complaint if I paid good money which I did and this happened I would be a tad pissed off myself.

I only paid $200 but still, just saying. Which reminds me sh*t I have to send the rebate in!!!!!!!

Protect yourself with insurance, best $7.00 you could give Sprint. FYI I went thru 19 Blackberry Curves and kept getting new ones as replacements.

Got to love it mine has the grounding issue.

Back it goes!

 

[twilighter]

How many threads do u have to open and say the same thing in? We understand that u r having problems with your phone, but one thread pointing this out was enough! How about instead of opening new threads on this topic u take your phone back and exchange it in for a new one to see if the problem was specific to your phone and a few others! If that is not something u want to do then return ur phone and get a different one because then the EVO is not for u! My main point is we don't need 5 threads from u on this same topic!

In defense of the OP, he/she is not the only person to complain and its more than just a few others. If this many people are having these problems just in these forums, can you imagine how many people are having this problem out of everyone who bought this phone. Look all over these forums and you'll see a lot of the same complaint. I think the OP has every right to complain. If your gonna spend that kind of money on something, it should be perfect when you buy it and at least last a while. I'm glad the OP sent an email, and I'm glad he/she is voicing their opinion. I really could care less if he wrote 10 threads on this topic. Maybe someone at HTC/Sprint would listen and make better phones. Everyone's EVO should work perfectly. Not just some of ours. We all work hard for our money and all of us are paying quite a lot for our phones. It's only fair.