Help HTC One Insurance/Warranty discussion

Manufacturer warranty is one year (U.S.) for defects. So if a proximity sensor goes, battery or other componet you are covered.

I went with best buy coverage. I've never had insurance on a phone before, but the lady told me they will replace the phone even if you just ding it up. Pretty much everything is covered and you can drop it at anytime. It's nice to have that piece of mind. If I scratch the screen or ding a corner, I can take it in and have it replaced. With the way this phone is built, I doubt there will be refurbs.

Morning All

Have been having right issues with my phone (all explained on another thread) but got to the stage where I had to admit defeat and send it off for repair!
Got a mail from HTC this morning telling me that the issues with my phone were not covered by the warranty and they sent me the following quote for repair;

• HUTCHISON, FRU,Main Board,HUTCH,English-WWE,GBR,HTC,UK(IE),Silver,w/SIM Lock,M7#UL_B128L3720-T11

Second try - TapaTalk is so buggy!

That looks like a mainboard replacement. If they are refusing warranty that means that they believe that the problem is due to the phone being used in a way that's not covered by the warranty - let's call that "mistreated" for short. So did they say what they think has been done and why they believe this?

That's the first thing to clarify, because once you know that you know what you have to refute. The mainboard is hardly an exposed and vulnerable component, so apart from moisture damage it isn't easy to see how the user damages it without leaving other visible signs. And if I recall correctly you've never rooted, so they can't blame that (which would be nonsense, but not unheard of from a service centre). So you want to know what they claim and what their evidence to support the claim is.

As Marc says, stay calm and polite - going ballistic may be tempting, but isn't likely to be effective.

I bought my HTC phone from T-Mobile and I am on prepaid and no insurance.

If my phone died of natural causes within 1 yr, do I call T-Mobile or HTC?

Update!

Spoke with HTC re my quote for repair and it basiclaly boils down to corrosion! I thought this may be the case but was praying that they wouldn't pick up on it, silly me eh!
It arose through jogging. I have an arm phone holder and the sweat from my arm seeps into the material of the phone holder which in turn causes condensation within the phone holder, which in turn infested my phone with moisture!!
I was at a loss as to why the phone still workd ok unitl I shut down Nike+ app but to be honest as I knew it might be this I didn't really have a leg to stand on. HTC also advised that the longer I left the phone, the worse the corrosion would get!
Tried every option with both HTC and 3 UK to see if there was any way round paying for this repair, there wasn't!! Had 20 months left on my contract so really didn't have any other option than coughing up and forking out

I am trying to visualized how you put your phone in the arm holder. Is it facing up? If it is under your arm, then I can see why.

What about people that live in the tropics where humidity is in the air all the time.

Sent out my htc one today for repair how long dose it normally take? and i forgot to put my proof of purchase in dose that really matter as well?

To put it in on the email but the woman on the phone didn't say anything and i dont think it should be a problem since they could look up if the phone is stolen? ill just wait n see what happens

I've had my One replaced multiple times under warranty through T-Mobile, who insists HTC refurbishes all refurbished replacements. I've had two broken power buttons, one that wouldn't connect to data, one that had blotches of black paint on the silver aluminum, and my current replacement doesn't respond half the time when I touch the bottom right 1/4 of the screen. I have another replacement on the way. Has anyone else had trouble getting a like-new warranty replacement?

BluBrett said:

I've had my One replaced multiple times under warranty through T-Mobile, who insists HTC refurbishes all refurbished replacements. I've had two broken power buttons, one that wouldn't connect to data, one that had blotches of black paint on the silver aluminum, and my current replacement doesn't respond half the time when I touch the bottom right 1/4 of the screen. I have another replacement on the way. Has anyone else had trouble getting a like-new warranty replacement?

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Are you aggressive with your phone? I have my HTC One and the only thing I see is the Beats Audio paint at the back bottom slowing coming off. I have no case. I just put it inside my cloth pouch with Velcro.

The best deal I "had" was thru my regular insurance, thru a "Personal Articles" policy with State Farm. Sadly, because too many people were "accidentally" dropping their phones in the toilet whenever they wanted an upgrade, State Farm no longer covers phones. :-(

It seams appropriate that I'm listening to James Taylor sing Steamroller Blues as I write this.

This goes back to January, when I decided I'd had enough of the purple tint on low light photos on my Sprint One running stock, so I arranged to send it back to HTC. During the approximate 2 weeks I was without "my precious" (as my kids like to call it), I suffered using one of my kids' old Samsung Exclaim. When I got the phone back, everything was working perfectly. Then I took it to Best Buy to have an Invisible Shield reinstalled. Bad idea, as they broke the lens cover while installing it. I considered sending the phone back to HTC for repair, but ultimately decided to get a replacement through Asurion. Fortunately, Best Buy manned up and covered the cost of the replacement.

After getting the replacement, I found the manufacture date to be April 2013. After several weeks, I began to notice - you guessed it - purple appearing in my low light photos. Sigh....

I went back and forth between Sprint and Asurion, with each party saying it was the other's responsibilty. I called HTC, and explained my dilemma, and they offered me what they call "VIP" repair service. They were to send me a FedEx label, which i could use to overnight the device to them in Houston. They would then put the repair to the top of the group (I think they referred to it as Special Projects Team 3), and get it repaired within a day. They'd then overnight the phone back to me, meaning I'd only be without the phone for 3 to 5 business days, tops. Sounded great, so I set this up. This was on March 6th.

Within 30 minutes, I was beginning to have my doubts. I got a call back from the rep at HTC I had spoken with, who advised that they were out of the parts that would be needed for the repair. He hoped I had not shipped the phone back at that point, and advised me to hold off until I heard back from them. He thought it might be only a few days, but in his words, he "didn't want my phone sitting on a table there at HTC, waiting for parts." I agreed to hold off.

Meanwhile, I received a UPS label, which didn't appear to be an overnight shipping label. I called back, and somehow my original ticket was closed, and a new one was opened up. Then, I received a FedEx label for the old ticket, as well as UPS and FedEx labels for the new ticket. I only printed off the FedEx label for the newer label, and waited.

After a week, I called back to see if the parts had arrived. The guy I spoke to said he didn't see them, but he would call me back the next day. No call, so the day after that I called back...this went on for several days, until finally last Saturday (March 22nd), I was told to go ahead and send the phone in - that either they'd have the parts to make the repair, or they could swap it out for another device. I shipped the device in on Monday, 3/24, and the website showed it had arrived on 3/25. Wednesday, and then Thursday...no change on the website. Still showed "device received." Finally on Thursday, I called, and was told then that it had just been checked in for repair that day (Thursday)! I called back yesterday, and was told that it appears there are no parts, and no replacement phones available.

My case has been passed on to a resolution group to see what alternatives are available. I told them they could make me very satisfied if they could just swap this out for the new One (M8), She told me she'd pass this along.

Probably a pipe dream, but it would be nice (and somehow fitting) if I could find myself holding a new One by this time next week! I'll update when I hear back from HTC....

I don't think you'll end up with a brand new M8, but don't be shocked by the resolution you do get. Someone at a high level in HTC seemed to have found a new word about 2 months ago - "customer".

I always said - and ran my cellphone stores under the philosophy - that the best advertising is better service than anyone else gives, as long as you still make money. (I wouldn't give phones away for free, but I'd make small repairs for cost. And back then - over 10 years ago - I was the "cloud" for my customers' contact lists.)

Seems that HTC is stealing my idea - give great service and you'll get more loyal customers.

Here's what I included in my survey. I think this sums it up pretty well. Not expecting to hear anything back, but if I do, I'll be sure to update:

I contacted HTC on March 6th about making a repair to a replacement HTC One I had received from Sprint. This involved replacing the camera module due to purple tint being added to low light photos. I had sent this in for report for a previous device, and was concerned about having to be without it again for two weeks. The rep I spoke with set me up with what he called VIP service, which would involve sending me a FedEx overnight label. Once the device reached HTC, it would be expedited into the repair process, and overnighted back to me, so that I would only be without the device for 3 to 5 business days at the most. I agreed to this.

Within 30 minutes, I received a call back from the rep, and he asked that because they didn't have the replacement parts in stock, to hold off on sending the device in until they called me back to let me know the parts were there. Then, I received a UPS label, not FedEx, and it wasn't an overnight one. I called back, and they told me I would get a 2nd label from FedEx. They then advised that they had to close that ticket out, and a 2nd one had been opened. This meant I had to now search through all the emails to get the correct label to match the correct ticket number.

After a week, I hadn't gotten a call from HTC, so I began calling back, almost on a daily basis, to see if the parts had arrived. I NEVER got a return call from HTC. Finally, I think on 3/21/14, I was advised to go ahead and send the device in, and they'd either have the parts, or a repaired replacement they could ship back out to me.

I used the FedEx label to overnight the device on 3/24. The website showed that the device had been received on 3/25, but the site hadn't updated by end of day on 3/27, so I called to check on status. That day, I was told that it had only been checked in to the repair facility that day (3/27). I called back on 3/28, and at that time was advised they weren't sure what was going on. At that time, the rep told me they were going to send this to what I think was a resolution department, to. what they could do to resolve this. At the time, I advised that I would be totally satisfied if they could just send out a replacement of the new HTC One (M8). She told me she'd add that to the request.

I never heard back from that department. I continued to call each day, and was advised on Monday, 3/31, that the phone was in testing. By Wednesday, the website indicated that the phone was ready to be shipped, but it was not by FedEx, but rather UPS 3 day. I didn't get my phone back until Friday. 4/4.

I have used HTC devices almost exclusively, going all the way back to the HTC Hero, continuing with the original EVO, EVO 3D, and EVO 4G LTE. I also try to talk up support for HTC with my friends, recommending the devices. I'm at the point that I will be unable to do this in the future. I feel I was misled continuously throughout this month-long process of trying to get my phone repaired. I would appreciate getting a response back, preferably from this resolution team that my situation was supposedly referred to.

Update:

Never heard anything on this from my survey, but I posted this on their Facebook page, and had a response in 15 minutes! The next day, I heard back from them, and they are sending me a brand new, HTC One............


Case! I really wasn't expecting even that, so I guess that's nice, although I doubt I'll use it. It's the double flip case.

The front camera lens of my HTC One M7 has been collecting dust after it was repaired last year following a broken screen. I sent it back for repairs twice, but the problem persists so HTC offered me a repair exchange.

I'm concerned firstly that since the replacement will be refurbished, it may have other problems (I don't have much faith in HTC's repair process at this point). Also concerning is that for whatever reason I may not be able to unlock the bootloader on the replacement.

On the flip side, my phone has some minor scratches so hopefully the replacement will be in better shape.

Any words of wisdom if I should go ahead and do this or live with not being able to take selfies.

It's really up to you. Usually refurbished units they send out are in pretty good shape. You are still going to be under the original warranty, so imo I would roll the dice. Worst case you have to make another exchange unless you don't use that camera.

I thought it was worth updating my first and last dealing with Worth AVE Group. I purchased their Insurance just a few days after getting my One. and on June 6th I took the AT&T OTA update for Sense 6. Well the phone took the update fine and rebooted and never came back on. It has no lights and hooking to the PC or charger does nothing. The PC does make a sound but the driver fails to install and theirs nothing in device manager.
I sent in my claim and got a response on the 9th saying they needed more info. I explained again what happened and here's their response.

Date of Loss: 06/06/2014
Policy Number: 2012 **** ****

Dear Policyholder,
We have received your claim regarding your item (s); unfortunately we cannot afford you coverage at this time due to the following reason(s):
Mechanical Breakdown: We will not cover a loss caused by mechanical breakdown. If a fire or explosion ensues, we will pay for that loss.
If you have any question regarding the handling of the claim, please feel free to contact us at (800) 620-**** Ext. **** or by email at claims.support@worthavegroup.com.


Sincerely,

Shena Lawson
Lead Claims Adjuster
Worth Ave Group
1337 S. Western Rd.
Stillwater, OK 74074
(405) 533-**** (P)
(405) 334-**** (F)

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So I guess I just wait for the device to catch fire or explode so I can get a replacement.

Needless to say I can't recommend doing business with Worthless AVE Group....

End of Rant