Help Caution: HTC warranty - mandatory repair charges

HTCrap · Sep 20, 2011

Hello. More ranting/ words of caution about HTC global warranty service I'm afraid.

My HTC desire headphone socket stopped working, followed by the camera and then it stopped booting. I sent it to HTC in the uk and after 3 days I noticed on their tracking site that I was being quoted 80 quid for a 'level 6 plastic repair, not including lcd'. This, it seems, was to repair my screen which has a small crack in it.

Calling today, they said that it was policy to send the phones out in the quality they left the factory, and so I MUST have my screen repaired before they will conduct the warranty repair which I sent it in for.

If I don't accept, then I either need to pay them to send it back to me, broken, or give them permission to destroy it!

It seems to me their extorting me out of 80 quid for an over-priced repair that I do not want (possibly in order to recoup some cash for the thousands of warranty repairs they are facing for busted HTC phones?)

Completely disgraceful and another lost customer.

I'm also gonna be telling everyone I can: "do not buy an HTC phone!"

Shame, cos I used to be a real subscriber.

thank you for listening!

SiHa · Sep 21, 2011

Absolutely disgusting!

"ooh that makes me angry, I think I'll throw the phone down!"

mecanician · Sep 21, 2011

I've just had my headphones socket replaced by HTC (UK),and I couldn't fault them picked the phone up on Thursday by UPS courier got it back the following Monday.If there was one criticism I sent it in the original Desire box but got it back in a bog standard white box .But its not the end of the world!!!

speedycolzalez · Sep 21, 2011

mecanician said:
If there was one criticism I sent it in the original Desire box but got it back in a bog standard white box .But its not the end of the world!!!

This would be my only criticism of them too. Other than that the service was faultless. But then my phone was in perfect condition at the time

HTCrap · Sep 22, 2011

mecanician said:
I've just had my headphones socket replaced by HTC (UK),and I couldn't fault them picked the phone up on Thursday by UPS courier got it back the following Monday.If there was one criticism I sent it in the original Desire box but got it back in a bog standard white box .But its not the end of the world!!!

So that's just it - I had the motherboard replaced in mine by HTC at the end of August and had the same great experience you describe (including the box - v annoying - but keep it in case you need to send it back!!). Wind forward 3 weeks and the experience is completely different. I was suspicious when I called up this time and the person on the phone started reeling off small-print about charges if they found issues not covered under warranty. They didn't say they'd force me to fix anything non-warranty they could find. It's been 2 days since I called them to complain and noone has called me back and they refuse to put me through to the people who decide.

Something has changed. For the worse.

HTCUN7S · Jan 10, 2012

I have been stung!

I thought I loved my HTC desire.

I refused to give up and buy an iPhone even though I'd already had to return a handset because of software problems. I was given a refurbed handset that had very minor scratches.

6 months later the same software problems as described above:
camera app stopped functioning, audio socket stopped working, earpiece stopped working, msg and ring notifications would change themselves.

I excused all this and thought I loved my HTC even more when the HTC "Global Warranty Service" said they would send a courier to pick it up and have it fixed all free of charge if I hadn't done anything to cause the damage. I knew I hadn't cause I loved my HTC.

3 days later I have the same tracking notice saying "hold for quotation". They want

SUroot · Jan 10, 2012

Did you contact them and tell them its in the same state they gave you it?

Michael WG · Mar 6, 2012

BIG WORD OF CAUTION FOR HTC WARRANTY AND REPAIRS:
1. you have to ship the cell to them as they are present in few countries. Then at their own discretion, they will decide if you will support the shipment fees for their lack of offices for service nearby.
2. they plainly lie. They claimed a broken screen on my device but there is NO sign of it anywhere.
3. they do everything to claim your warranty expired (they even have a database with the sale date to their distributors, months before actual purchase at the store, and expect you to prove you are not an elephant).
Oh how I regret not going for another phone in the first place!!! Any serious company would gladly repair or replace the defective phone with no hassle if it broke in 6 months of purchase. Based on my experience, do not expect HTC to do so. I feel ripped off by them.

swellybro · Mar 10, 2012

I had similar issues with the htc repair centre in the UK.

Sent my phone back 4 times in all.

I was having a problem where the volume key would appear to be constantly pressed. Once this happened the search key and the centre trackpad key would stop working.

The 1st and 2nd time they only performed a factory reset and sent it back after a few hours or a couple of days same problem.

3rd time they replaced the screen (there was nothing wrong with the screen!) problem reoccurred. This time promised that a senior engineer would examine the phone when I sent it in.

4th time they sent the phone back to me with a photo stating water damage and that my warranty was no void, if I wanted to get a quote then I could but if I sent it back to the repair centre then I would be charged shipping etc...

So...

I ordered the torx screwdrivers from ebay for approx

Rastaman-FB · Mar 12, 2012

to be fair to the op, if you send in a phone that looks like its been dropped then they will charge you for it.
the repair system is for everything and the vol could have died cos you dropped it.

not backing htc here but most warranties are thrown out of the window when there are visible signs of damage

T_800 · Mar 14, 2012

I did have problems with my Desire. Twice sent to repair. First it was due to the continuous re-boot problem. Second time it was camera, indicator lamp and head phone socket. However I did not send to HTC repair directly.

I live in the UK and one of the websites (I hope its moneysupermarket), advised to go to the seller for warranty rather than the HTC repair center. So went to my local O2 shop, where I bought my Desire (PAYG) and told the problem. They gave me back the original box, battery, SD Card and SIM back, took only the phone packaged it in their own O2 repair box and sent it to the repair center. O2 repair tracking told me what was happening to the phone and in 4-5 days I had my phone back with all the issues sorted out in their own repair box.

I wasn't charged anything for both the repairs and did not lose the priginal box. The ownership was left with O2 rather than HTC to get the issue fixed. O2 should be having a professional contract with HTC repair center, due to which we can avoid all the hassle. That's my experience.

togger161 · Mar 14, 2012

In the UK your contract is with the company you had the phone off, not HTC.

werwerwer · May 8, 2013

Togger is correct. Take the phone back to where you purchased it.

The Sale of Goods Act is very clear in that it is the seller's responsibility to rectify faulty goods. That includes goods which don't deliver on the seller's promises or are not durable (last a reasonable amout of time). Warraties only ADD to your legal rights (they can not be reduced by what a seller writes in any way).

Take back to the seller and DO NOT be fobbed off if they say you have to go to the manufacturer. The law protects you for up to 6 years (yes, I did say 6 YEARS) depending on what is reasonably expected for the goods.

AND TO STRESS THE POINT, these rights granted by law still fully apply even if you are given NO WARRANTY AT ALL.

For example, I believe it is easily argued that a

Help Caution: HTC warranty - mandatory repair charges

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