[HTC 10 Questions & Answers] austinchao98:
I water damaged my HTC 10 and filed and Uh-Oh warranty claim. Unfortunately, It's not going too well (see log below).

I'd love to hear about your Uh-Oh experience, good or not. I'm curious to see if my experience is an unusual one.

7/22 - Claim initiated. I go with the authorization hold method: they place a $600 authorization hold, and overnight the phone to me ASAP (at least, that's what they promised to do in the T&C I signed). Upon receiving my replacement phone, I mail the broken phone to them. After they receive and inspect the phone, the hold is lifted.

7/23 - Hold authorized. For personal reasons, I had to put the hold on a debit card. Brief research revealed that it works just as well, except they actually withhold my money from me instead of simply placing a pending charge to a credit card. No problem, I'd have my $600 back in no time, right?

7/25 - I should have received my phone today, but the repair/swap tracking indicates it hasn't even been sent yet. Out of curiosity, I make a call to customer support. I get a young Indian lady whose English isn't perfect. She got pretty irritated when I asked her to repeat what she was saying because I couldn't understand her. I explained the issue, and she scheduled me for a repair within the next 24 hours. I rolled with it, because I thought that just meant a repair employee was going to look at my case.

7/25 - I called customer support again, because I quickly realized that she had no idea what I was talking about, and vice versa. I clearly understood this support guy, and he opened an escalation case for me. Great, someone was looking at my case. I was successfully lulled into a sense of security, which I soon realized is the sole function of HTC customer service.

7/28 - I get an email from the escalations team. In essence, they said that they were working on it, and they were closing the escalation case. No details, dates or promises. They did say I could "Rest assured that we will work on this for us to ship the phone as soon as possible." Although agitated, I foolishly 'rested assured.' and let it slide. I was leaving for vacation that day anyway, and I had accepted I was taking my frustrating temporary phone with me.

8/2 - After checking daily on the swap status and still no progress past 'request initiated,' I accepted the fact that I would have to take this nonsense with me on vacation. I contact customer support again via online chat - I'm pretty frustrated at this point, but I remain patient and calm to the service employees. The support guy reopened my escalation case, and noted they would be contacting me within 48 hours.

8/6 - After receiving no contact from anyone at HTC, I take it upon myself to take initiative and contact them via online chat (no phone service where I was staying). Of course it was Sunday, and our very busy friends in the RMA department don't work on weekends. I was told to contact during the week if I wanted answers. I decided to call them when I returned home.

8/7 - 3:00 pm - I called customer service, and after explaining my situation for the millionth time, the support lady attempted to get info from the repair department, but they were all 'on a call'. She promised that she would call me within the hour with answers.

8/7 - 5:00 pm - No call. I begrudgingly accepted responsibility for initiating contact again. I explained my situation and how escalations have been no help. I mentioned the many empty promises customer service has made over the past two weeks. My case is transferred to a new 'case manager'. He has a voice that radiates assurance and sounds like sweet molasses. He exercises (exceptional) active listening and empathy skills, and assures me he'll call repairs to find out what's up. He promised that he would call me by Wednesday (8/9) whether or not he had answers.

8/10 - No call, and the final straw