[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TangBiz:
Has anyone been able to dispute a repair charge and does anyone know if there would be charges if the power button was not working?

I just want to share my story and am wondering if investing $400 of repair charges on top of a $530 phone is worth it.

4/7/10 - Purchased N1 (Compatible with 3G on AT&T U.S.) from Google Webstore.

6/7/10 - Begin having 3G data & phone signal loss in New Orleans. Contacted AT&T and was told they were having tower issues in the area. Spent one week using 2G instead.

6/13/10 - Went to AT&T store to check on service. Got a brand new SIM card that worked on another phone. At this point, carrier issue has been ruled out

6/14/10 - Phoned N1 support, performed a master reset and then got transferred to HTC for warranty support. It was either replacement or repair. Chose replacement option.

6/17/10 - Received replacement phone and shipped my original phone back to them the very next day.

6/23/10 - Received email for a $196(!) repair quotation. Phoned into HTC support and was told that it was a customer induced motherboard damage. I asked for more details on the damage & charge, and customer service said that they need information from the "warehouse" and get back to me. Never heard back from CS.

7/10/10 - New replacement phone shut off by itself and could not be powered back on.

7/11/10 - Called N1 support and performed master reset which did not work. Got transferred to HTC support but a case cannot be opened because the previous case was still outstanding. The customer serivce rep confirmed that the case notes stated that I had called for more information, and they were supposed to get back to me. I was told that I need to talk to a supervisor for further support and they do not work on weekends.

7/12/10 - Called HTC support and spoke to a supervisor. Basically she told me that my options are

my options are either to pay the $196 and close the case or wait up to 48 hours to get the details back from the "warehouse". Either way, no replacement can be processed until the previous case is closed. I was told that there is no way to:

1. Get the open case closed temporarily so a replacement for my current issue can be dealt with.

2. No other person beyond the supervisor(s) I can talk to.

3. No way to escalate to the wareshouse to speed up 48 hours needed on getting the previous repair details.

4. No one can do anything else for a customer who is going through an exception situation.

5. No clear instructions on how to dispute a repair quotation.

All customer service reps sounded pleasant but HTC has procedures that do not support customer satisfaction. Here are somethings that I find completely unsatisfying. Neither phones have been rooted, tempered with, dropped, or water damage on neither device.

1. First let's talk about 2 defective phones.

2. Sending repair quote to customers demanding payment without more information is unacceptable.

3. Blaming customer for self-induced damange while there is a known 3G issue for the N1.

4. Not getting back to customer on repair details is also unacceptable.

5. Not being able to open more than one case is absurd. In my situation, we're dealing with 2 different issues but for some reason, one is related to the other in the system.

6. Where is the repair charge dispute process documentation?

7. The is no exception to the "normal" escalation process is a huge gap. Basically I was told that after the supervisor level, it goes to the "warehouse". No one can talk to the wareshouse without going through the 48 hour escalation process.

8. Tell customer that damage maybe water related when the battery has no record of such.