[Hero, G2 Touch General] bonneHero:
I was a little inspired by the thread below and so I decided to share my horror story with you all. Interestingly some of the names in that story are the same.

xdaforums.com /showthread.php?t=789525

For your reading pleasure I have copied here a letter I wrote to Peter Chou, CEO of HTC (and others). The surnames have been removed to protect the guilty.

I will provide updates when I get them.

Dear Mr Chou,

I'm a computer programmer and open-source enthusiast. I have been very impressed by HTC's line of Android-powered phones. They combine the power of the latest smart phone technology with the flexibility of open-source software. I watched for months as various companies released various phones in search of the right phone for me. Many of the offereings by other companies just didn't fit the bill. I eventually settled on the HTC Hero because it was finally a phone that would do everything I wanted and I could also write programs for it myself. Since then I have immensely enjoyed the experience of the phone and have recommended HTC to many of my friends (who generally listen to my advice). I went out of my way to buy this particular phone because I was convinced that HTC was a good brand and that this was the right phone for me. I live in Australia but I bought the phone while I was overseas in Europe since it was not on sale yet in Australia. My recent experience with your global warranty repair centre in the USA has shaken my confidence of your brand and I have stopped recommending that my friends buy HTC phones based on the poor level of customer service I have experienced. My problem with getting the phone repaired under warranty is ongoing and as of today I am still without a fully functional phone. If you could take the time to read the details of my complaint below and suggest a remedy for my problem that would be greatly appreciated. After more than five months battling with the warranty centre I feel they are not able to resolve my problem.

I first sent my phone for repairs to HTC on the 6th of May 2010 and it is still not repaired or replaced as of today the 7th of October 2010. I have had five months without a fully functional phone. I have spent five months waiting for correspondence from the repair centre and been forced to call many times when it was clear they would not contact me. Briefly, my phone had two problems - one of which was fixed and one wasn't. The phone was returned to me and I then contacted HTC to tell them they had only fixed one problem. They then spent two months trying to figure out how to arrange to have Fedex pick the phone back up so it could be fixed a second time, it was with HTC for a month and was then eventually retuned with the original problem still present. After a further six weeks of being promised that replacement phone would be sent I have not received it and I am constantly told by your staff that I should just wait a few more days.

There were multiple points of failure in your systems which have led to me still being without a phone and I'll outline them below. At the end of this email I have detailed all of the correspondence I have had with HTC so you can see just how much trouble this has been for me. I have spent a total of 10.5 hours on the phone with your staff over the last five months and they still have not fixed and returned, or replaced my phone. These calls have cost me dearly in international call costs as well as lost time having to stay up at night waiting for your staff to get in to work. I expect better of an international company like HTC. I especially expect better than what I got after I paid so much money for a phone that I haven't been able to use for five months.

My phone is a GSM HTC Hero with S/N HXXXXXXXX6 (however the main board was changed during the repair process, so this may have changed).

Here I will list the failures of your warranty system, and attached is a detailed description of all of the events surrounding this issue.

1. HTC Australia doesn't cover warranty on phones bought outside Australia. For pure convenience alone this is absolutely appalling.

HTC Australia imports identical phones to mine (GSM HTC Hero) and sells them here. It is just unbelievable that they don't cover warranty repairs on identical phones bought overseas. This complicates postage and communication with the service centre immensely. Instead of making a local call during normal hours to check the status of my repair I have had to call international at great expense and in the middle of the night.

2. HTC Warranty repair centre in the USA can't make international phone calls.

Since I am forced to use an international repair centre to get my phone fixed it should be entirely reasonable that the centre should be able to communicate with me. The "policy" that international calls are not allowed basically means that I can't be contacted by phone to be told of the status of my repair. Despite the fact that my phone has been under warranty repair status for over three months, this policy has not been modified or changed for my special circumstance. It is just unacceptable that I am forced to use an overseas warranty centre, but that centre is not allowed to call me.

3. Staff at the HTC Warranty repair centre don't all know about the ban on international calls.

Multiple times when talking to phone staff at HTC I was told I would get a call back. Very few staff realised that they could not call me back because of the ban on making international calls. As a result of this I have been left waiting for days multiple times waiting for a call I was promised to receive. Once I finally found out that international calls were banned I had to remind the staff each time I spoke to them that they couldn't call me back and that they would have to email me back instead. Most of the time this caught them by surprise.

4. HTC failed to contact me during this entire five month ordeal.

Ignoring the couple of automated emails I got at the very beginning telling me that the RMA had been setup I received a grand total of ONE email from HTC in the first three months during the first two repair attampts. I was told EVERY SINGLE TIME I spoke to them on the phone (at least 28 times) that I should expect an email in the next few days telling me about the status of my repair. I received a total of ONE email, and ZERO phone calls the entire time. I would not care so much if I was told that there was no way for HTC to contact me, but every time I spoke to someone on the phone I was told to expect an email in the next few days and none ever came. This is simply appalling customer service. This is the kind of neglect that you expect from low-quality brands who don't care about their image. This is the kind of thing that drives customers away. How hard is it to send me an email? How hard is it to set a reminder for someone to check the status of my repair and contact me about it? Is it really that difficult? This point absolutely infuriates me. Every time I called customer service I reminded them that they had never sent any of the emails they said they would and all they said was that they were sorry and that I should just keep waiting. Absolutely unacceptable. Just appalling behaviour.

5. HTC did not fix my phone the first time.

There were two problems I reported on the first RMA and only one of them was fixed. It is clear that the warranty repair department did not read the instructions properly before they began working on the device.

6. HTC did not contact me before they sent the phone back the first time.

If HTC had contacted me before they returned the phone I would have asked them to check that both problems were fixed. Instead they shipped the phone back to me without any notice, and subsequently it was returned with one problem still present (and immediately obvious).

7. HTC did not fix my phone the second time either.

After spending three months on the phone with the HTC staff the phone was returned unrepaired! That is breathtaking incompetence!

8. HTC staff do not understand how to use Fedex.

This is a serious issue. For two months I waited for the "pre-paid label" which I was meant to be sent so that I could return the phone for a second time at HTC's expense. Not a single person I spoke to understood how Fedex worked nor how HTC's return shipment system worked. It took two months to send me what is essentially a filled out Fedex waybill. The kind that any business has in the stationary cupboard. At first I was told to expect a pre-paid label by email. After several phonecalls and a few weeks of waiting that never came. Then I was told that, no, I was going to receive a paper pre-paid label via post. Again that never came. Then I spoke to someone who had the bright idea to get Fedex on the phone so we could all work it out together. After 3 seconds on the phone with Fedex the HTC staff member realised I was not in the USA and hung up on Fedex. The label still never arrived. After about three weeks of calling I was told that actually, no, since I was overseas I wouldn't be sent a pre-paid label and I would have to pay for it myself. I protested to this appalling level of warranty service and it was agreed that I would be sent a pre-paid label. Still it didn't arrive. I called numerous times and asked for the Fedex account number so that I could just fill out a waybill myself, but I was told that wouldn't work (of course it would). I was told numerous times that I should expect an email any day, but no email ever came. I was lied to constantly by people who did not know how to do their job. Fedex is one of the most simple and convenient services on the planet. If you want something shipped to you or shipped to someone else you call them and they come and pick it up. If you don't have the right paperwork they will bring it with them. What I finally received months after my initial request was a stock-standard Fedex waybill with the HTC address filled in and the HTC account number filled in. If HTC was not so unbelievably stupid they could have just given my the account number on day 1 and I could have called Fedex and had it picked up that day. Instead I had to spend two months on the phone with idiots who don't know how to use the most convenient service in the world. You should fire the entire call centre staff and the entire packaging/receiving staff in your US warranty centre. They do not know how to ship a package overseas, and that is their job!

9. Your warranty repair centre moved locations and I was not told.

Between the creation of the second RMA and the arrival of the Fedex waybill you moved your service centre from Houston TX to Stafford TX. Fortunately the waybill had the correct address, but had I returned the phone using my own methods it could have ended up going to the old address! At no point was I contacted to tell me that the address had changed and that I should ship my phone to the new address. Another failure in your system.

10. I was not told to include an FCC form with my shipment.

The staff at your call centre did not tell me in any of the conversations we had that I would be required to fill in an FCC form to send my phone to the USA. Fedex knew all about it, but your staff were completely clueless. My phone was delayed in its return shipment by a week because it was held up at customs waiting for me to fill in a form. I should have been told about this, and your staff clearly have no experience dealing with international warranties.

11. Your call centre is not in the same state as the repair centre.

The staff at your call centre, who I've been on the phone with for over 7 hours are not even in the same state as the people fixing my phone. Between the 16th of July when my phone was delivered by Fedex to HTC and 6th of August when HTC finally found it noone at the call centre could tell me where my phone was or if you had it at all. It was impossible for someone at the call centre to walk over and find out where my phone is, and it was impossible for the supervisors also. The staff who have the job of fixing my problems have absolutely no way of knowing what is going on because they are not in the same building as the job that needs to be done.

12. Your call centre staff are not allowed to call the repair centre.

Absolutely baffling, is that the call centre staff along with their supervisors are not even allowed to call the repair centre! After I have been calling up for three months I found out that noone I have been speaking to can even talk to the people who are meant to be fixing my phone! They are only allowed to send emails, and once they send an email they are not allowed to check if they get a response. They have to wait for someone on the other end to send an email back. This is a black hole. How the hell can someone get something done if their communication is only one way? How can you possibly make a job like mine, that has taken three months, a high priority if you can't yell at someone? I have been yelling down the phone in the nicest possible way to your staff and they can't even pass it on! Absolutely appalling business practice right there.

13. The "supervisors" are not authorised to do anything at all I have escalated my call many many times and every time I speak to a supervisor, I may as well be speaking to a brick wall.

They have never offered to fix my problem, they have never offered to do anything but send an email to the repair centre and wait. I have even been promised direct email responses by more than one supervisor and received only one. What is the point of having a supervisor with no authority? They can't call the repair centre. They can't offer to send me a replacement phone. They can't fix my phone. They can't even tell me where my phone is. Your supervisors are completely useless, in fact worse than useless because they have taken up so much of my time and done nothing for me at all.

14. Your policy of 24--48 hours between arrival and scan-in is pointless.

I was told that you have a policy that all phones will be scanned into the system between 24--48 hours after arriving at the service centre. My phone arrived on the 16th of July and was scanned in on the 6th of August. That's 504 hours! What is the point of having a policy of 24--48 hours delay when it takes 20 times longer than that in reality?

15. There is never anyone senior to speak to at the call centre.

I have, on numerous occasions, asked to speak to someone senior. I have been put through to a “supervisor” many times but these people, as described above, have no authority. The more senior managers, I am told, are rarely there and so I have never been able to speak to one. I have to stay up late to call due to the time difference, but even if I stay up til midnight (which is 10am at the call centre) there is still never a senior management person to speak to. This is unacceptable. If the supervisor staff can't fix my problem then there needs to be someone else at hand who can.

16. After more than six weeks I have still not been sent a replacement phone

As an international phone company it should be part of your core business to send people phones. I have been battling with your company for five months to get my phone replaced and when finally it was agreed that a replacement would be sent, after six weeks I am still waiting. This is more rank incompentence.

I think I have quite thoroughly shown that your service centre/call centre in the USA is in an appalling state of mismanagement. I am without a functional phone for five months and counting, I have spent 10.5 hours on the phone paying international call rates with your staff trying to get my phone fixed and you have just shown incompetence at every level at every stage. At no point was I offered a solution which would fix my problem. At no point was I given any confidence that my problem was about to be fixed. At no point was I convinced that your staff which I spoke to so regularly had any idea about the warranty repair process they were meant to be helping me with. At no point did I receive any of the communication I was promised. Email is free and I find it just atrocious that I was promised so many emails and received only one. I have no confidence that anyone at HTC cares at all about getting me a working phone back in my hand. It is just a shocking state of affairs when a service company like your repair centre can't even communicate with its customers.

I am still waiting for the delivery of my replacement phone.

I am also awaiting your response.

Sincerely,

Me

Appendix: Record of events and all correspondence between myself and HTC USA Global Warranty Centre

I will outline the various events in time below and included a brief comment from each of the phone calls I had with HTC. I have also included the length of all of the international calls I have had to make during this period.

• October 2009 I purchased the phone outright (unlocked), a GSM HTC Hero while overseas in Europe. I brought it back to Australia and used it as my primary mobile.

• 4th May I diagnosed my phone with two problems. One where the trackball light would not go off and another where the usb connection would not work. I did a factory reset and the problems persisted.

• 4th May I called HTC Australia to check it in for warranty repairs but I was told that they could not fix it because it was bought overseas, despite the fact that HTC Australia sells the identical product here. I was told I had to call a global warranty centre to get it fixed

• 6th May (15 mins) Called HTC and spoke to HTC global warranty centre in the USA using their "freecall" number which is not free for me calling from Australia. I opened an RMA with them and they explained to me the process. I would pay for the shipping to them, and they would pay for the return shipping. I might be charged a $20 global warranty fee for the privilege of having my broken phone fixed under the warranty that I had already paid for when I bought the phone. I was told I'd receive the RMA confirmation and address via email. I was also told that the repair job itself came with a 3 month warranty.

• 6th May received RMA confirmation USMXXXXXXXXX-XXXXX via email.

• 7th May I shipped the phone to HTC via UPS at my expense.

• 12th May received HTC Global Warranty Service Invoice for $20USD via email

• 15th May received Fedex tracking number via email 4XXXXXXXXX49 Item was picked up on May 13.

• Up until this point the process was fairly swift and I was left feeling rather satisfied that my phone was fixed so quickly.

• 18th May received phone back via Fedex. I switched the phone on and immediately realised that one of the problems had not been fixed. The trackball light still remained partially illuminated as originally described all the time. The USB connection now worked.

• 18th May (20 mins) Called HTC to speak to them about the problem that was not fixed. They said they would create a new RMA, send me an email about it with instructions on how to send it back. They also said that since it was already fixed under warranty once that I would not have to pay for the return postage and I wouldn't be charged any further warranty service fees. I was told I'd receive a "pre-paid label" via email which I could use to get Fedex to come and pick up my phone at the expense of HTC

• 24th May (13 mins) Called HTC because I had not received any emails regarding the RMA or prepaid label.

• 24th May received RMA confirmation number USM1XXXXXXX524-XXXXXX3 via email

• 28th May received a Payment receipt for order TELXXXXX0 for $20USD via email. This was completely unexpected since I was told I wouldn't have to pay a second fee.

• 29th May (15 mins) Called HTC about the second $20 fee email. I was told it was probably a mistake, but the person on the phone couldn't be sure how many times my credit card was charged. Very discouraging.

• Consequently I have discovered that I was only charged once.

• 1st June (10 mins) Called HTC again about the pre-paid label. It still hadn't arrived and I had received no email correspondence about it.

• 2nd June (8 mins) Called HTC again about the pre-paid label. It still hadn't arrived and I had received no email correspondence about it.

• 7th June (30 mins) Called HTC again about the pre-paid label. It still hadn't arrived and I had received no email correspondence about it.

• 8th June (20 mins) Called HTC again about the pre-paid label. It still hadn't arrived and I had received no email correspondence about it.

• 11 June (20 mins) Called HTC again about the pre-paid label. It still hadn't arrived and I had received no email correspondence about it.

• 16th June (32 mins) Called HTC again about the pre-paid label. It still hadn't arrived and I had received no email correspondence about it. I spoke to Samanth on the phone and supervisor Krishana X.

• 22 June (20 mins) Called HTC again about the pre-paid label. It still hadn't arrived and I had received no email correspondence about it. Spoke to Josh who gave me the number for Sprint support (which is irrelevent). Brian X (supervisor) told me that the prepaid label may well be on the way already. But he could not confirm this.

• 23 June (20 mins) Called HTC again about the pre-paid label. It still hadn't arrived and I had received no email correspondence about it. Spoke to Les X. Again spoke to supervisor Krishana X she told me she was working with her special contact at Fedex to get this very special situation fixed. I don't really know why the situation of shipping a phone from one place to another was so special, but she assured me she was onto it.

• 24th June Received email from Krishana X regarding Pre-paid mailing label, saying that the label was sent out to me and should be received within days.

• 30th June Received a filled-in Fedex waybill from HTC. An absolutely standard Fedex waybill with the shipping address filled in and the account number filled in. After two months of waiting for a "pre-paid label" I was sent a stock-standard Fedex waybill which I could have gotten from my stationery cupboard.

• 30th June (7 mins) Called HTC to check the address on the Fedex waybill I was sent (which was different from the address I was sent in the RMA instructions). Tells me that HTC has moved to the new address (4000 Green Briar, Suite 200 Stafford Tx 77477) from their old address. At no point prior to this call I initiated did HTC ever tell me they had moved address.

• 1st July Item shipped back to HTC using Fedex waybill I was sent - tracking number 87XXXXXXXXXX7

• 6th July Phone arrived in USA but was held up by customs because there was no FCC form. The HTC RMA at no point mentioned that I had to provide an FCC form to customs

• 14th July Phone released from customs in USA

• 16th July Phone delivered to HTC by Fedex

• 22nd July (14 mins) Called HTC to check the status of the phone repairs. I was told that the phone "had not been scanned in yet" and that I would be sent an email telling me what the status was within a few days.

• 27th July (29 mins) Called HTC to check the status of the phone repairs. I had received no emails from HTC. Spoke with Eric X (supervisor) and promised he'd walk over and get this done. He said he's part of the new management team, and that things were working much better now than they used to. He still had no idea where my phone was. He told me he'd email me to update me about the status.

• 28th July (12 mins) Called HTC to check the status of the phone repairs. I had received no emails from HTC. I was told supervisors don't come in til 10am and the call centre and supervisors aren't in the same building as the repairs. 10am corresponds to midnight where I'm calling from.

• 30th July (50 mins - midnight til 1am) Called HTC to check the status of the phone repairs. I had received no emails from HTC. Spoke to supervisor Nicole X. I was told there was no way that she could contact the maintenance place by phone, only by email. All she could do was send an email and wait to hear what came back.

• 6th August (60 mins) Called HTC to check the status of the phone repairs. I had received no emails from HTC. Spoke to supervisor Daniella X. She told me that they found my phone and will fix it soon. She said she would send an email update at Tuesday at the latest. She told me that there was no way she could call me back because she wasn't allowed to dial international, and that she could not contact the warehouse directly, and that there was no way that she could promise that anyone would follow up my problem.

• 16th August (35 mins) Called HTC to check the status of the phone repairs. Spoke again to Chad. Then spoke to supervisor Nicole X who told me there was noone more senior in the building yet (it was 10am at the call centre) and that she was the most senior person I could speak to. She said that the phone had not yet been diagnosed but assured me that they had it. She cited the fedex shipment delivery as evidence that they had the phone and could not verify whether anyone at the repair centre had looked at the phone. She told me that someone from management (either Britney X or Brian X) would get back to me in the next day or two about the status of the phone. She said she would send an email to the service centre asking them to send me a new replacement device.

• 17th August. No contact received from HTC. Phone still not fixed or returned. No emails or phone calls received from HTC since 24th June.

• 17th August (35) Called HTC to check the status of the phone repairs. Spoke with Levi. Was put through to supervisor Nicole X. Was put through to the person working on the case - Brian X. Brian told me that their warehouse transition (when they moved from one location to another) caused delays in the repair processes. He says the device was diagnosed yesterday. He will refund the $20 global warranty fee originally paid, send me an email tomorrow with details of that refund and he said the phone will be fixed in two days. He said he will look into getting a new phone sent from somewhere since he doesn't think they have complete phones in stock.

• 18th August. Received email from Brian X stating that the repair centre are still repairing and testing my phone.

• 19th August. Received second email from Brian X detailing the refund of the $20 global warranty fee. Checked bank details later this week and it had indeed been refunded.

• 19th August. Received third email from Brian X stating that the repair is complete and the phone is in testing.

• 20th August. Received tracking number (FedEx 4XXXXXXXXXXX2) in automated email for the return of my phone.

• 23rd August. Received the phone back. I opened the package, switched on the phone and noticed two things:

1. The phone showed identical symptoms to the problem that it was sent in for. It was not fixed!

2. The phone had a sticker on the screen which left sticky residue all over it.

• 23rd August (60 mins) Called HTC about the absolute incompetence they showed in returning the phone a second time unfixed. Spoke to Levi X, who put me through to supervisor Nicole X who again refuses to send me new phone since she says they don't have them. Found out that Krishana X is her boss. Spoke to Brian X who said he will look into the possibility of getting a replacement phone and email me in the next day.

• 25th August (30 mins) Received no email and so called HTC to find out why. Spoke to Michelle and waited on the phone with her while Brian X was coming in to work. Spoke to Brian X who told me he had overlooked sending me an email. He says the problem has been sent over to corporate office to deal with.

• 26th August. Received email from Brian X saying that a replacement phone had been authorised, and it could take a couple of days to find a replacement. He said he would keep me updated via email.

• 1st September (10 mins) Called HTC to find out the status of the replacement phone. Spoke to Chardene X and then was put through to Brian X. He says he sent a request late yesterday to Taiwan and waiting for them to get back to him about the replacement phone.

• 28th September (20 mins) Called HTC to find out the status of the replacement phone. Spoke to April who transferred me to Brian X again. He said he had stopped working on the problem because he thought the corporate office was working on it (I have received no communication from the corporate office). He refued to give me the details of any contact details for the corporate office, because he said that was “innapropriate”. I demaned that Brian get them to contact me directly asap about fixing this situation.

• 5th October (36 mins) Called HTC to find out the status of the replacement phone. I spoke to Cynthia X who told me that Brian X is in a meeting. I was put through to Britney X who is an escalation specialist. She told me she knew nothing about the case and that the details of the replacement phone were not in her system. She said she will get Brian to email me, and she said she tried to get him out of the meeting, but that was “not possible”. I was put through to Krishana X who is Brian's boss. She tells me that I should expect an email by close of business today. She had no further information about the status of my replacement phone.

• 5th October. Received email from Brian X saying that “I can assure you that efforts are still underway to locate a suitable replacement. However, at this time, I have not been provided with any additional information”