HTC Repair Policy

upallnight

Had a revealing conversation with Peter at HTC repair this afternoon. My granddaughter's phone has stopped working after 4 months and they refuse to repair it because it has signs of water ingress. I argued that the fault may not be due to water damage and would they not check for that? He replied that if a phone shows sins of water ingress they would not repair it EVEN IF the fault present could not have been caused by water damage.
So now you know what phone NOT to buy!!!!!

gjchester

upallnight wrote: »

Had a revealing conversation with Peter at HTC repair this afternoon. My granddaughter's phone has stopped working after 4 months and they refuse to repair it because it has signs of water ingress. I argued that the fault may not be due to water damage and would they not check for that? He replied that if a phone shows sins of water ingress they would not repair it EVEN IF the fault present could not have been caused by water damage.
So now you know what phone NOT to buy!!!!!

To be fair all mobile makers (and a lot of other elecctroncs makers) have this policy too.

The problem is two fold, one is it;'s not only the initial liquid thats the problem, salts in the water can dry out in the mobile creating all sorts of issues, such as corrosion or shorting all of which may not show up till much later than the time the phone got wet, and the other issue is people just don't think. You would not use a laptop in the wet but we think nothing of using a £500 phone in the rain.

The liquid ingress stickers came about due to people using phones in the rain and then claiming they were broken, when the cause was the user damage due to the rain, as a result makers started putting water ingress stickers on them. Sometimes they are tripped by other means but once tripped then it voids any warranty regardless of the fault or reason they were tripped.

Sorry its not better news.

visidigi

gjchester wrote: »

The liquid ingress stickers came about due to people using phones in the rain and then claiming they were broken, when the cause was the user damage due to the rain, as a result makers started putting water ingress stickers on them. Sometimes they are tripped by other means but once tripped then it voids any warranty regardless of the fault or reason they were tripped.

Sorry its not better news.

The bit in bold...that's the problem, the manufacturers have clearly put the water ingress indicators in unfair locations if ambient moisture can cause it to trigger. e.g. In high humidity countries these indicators must go off all the time.

I personally think there should be a proven and consistent process for applying these indicators, and certified by an independent body as being fair and reflective of a situation where an item has experienced significant water ingress.

The HTC policy, and all others is VERY poor. I'm not sure how well they would stand up in court over it either.

HTC are falling on their backside because they forgot that a customer should be looked after otherwise they don't come back. They invested in new designs for old kit, not in the customer and its care.

gjchester

visidigi wrote: »

The bit in bold...that's the problem, the manufacturers have clearly put the water ingress indicators in unfair locations if ambient moisture can cause it to trigger.

Your right, it comes from people abusing handsets then claiming faults they have self induced in the majority of cases. If it wasn't for people taking phones out in wet weather there would have been no need for them.

However doesn't change the fact once triggered almost all warranty claims will be rejected as the OP has found out.

AngryShopper

Same problem with my daughter's HTC Wildfire. The chap in the T-Mobile shop said that using the phone in a kitchen or bathroom, or even having sweaty hands can trigger off the marker, and as it's a manufacturer warranty T-Mobile can't do anything about it.
Interestingly I called T-Mobile sales and - unsurprisingly - they said I should not have a problem using it in any room in the house, so long as I did not drop it in water. Clearly one rule for selling and another one for aftersales.
Oh and ANYTHING creating condensation in the phone (e.g. walking from a warm house into a cold street) COULD also trigger off the marker.
This must be one of the best/worst catch-all clauses ever.

Martin, feel a campaign coming on?

grumbler

AngryShopper wrote: »

...
Oh and ANYTHING creating condensation in the phone (e.g. walking from a warm house into a cold street) COULD also trigger off the marker.

LOL.
Basis school science says that you have to walk from a cold street to a warm house to create condensation, not vice versa.

That said, my Desire spent hours with me in the bath (not in the water of course) and the indicators remain pristine white.