Database Users

My HTC Desire HD misadventure

Hey everyone! I bought a DHD with in february and so far I have been incredibly frustrated with it. Here is a letter I have sent to HTC explaining my frustration.
" Hi,
I've purchased an HTC Desire HD with Telus back in mid-February. I really loved the phone at first because of the really nice screen and also because of how quick and responsive it is. Unfortunately it did not last so long.
Case 1:
So after about 3 weeks of use the loud back speaker on it stopped working. So I went to my Telus branch and under their first 30 days phone replacement policy they gave me a brand new HTC Desire HD. I was happy to get a brand new one and I only thought of the first one as a fluke. But unfortunately it doesn't seem to be.
Case 2:
So barely a week after receiving my second HTC DHD, I get complaints from everyone I call, telling me they can't hear me. So back I am at my Telus branch and we determine that the mic on the phone is defective. This time I am 5 days past the exchange policy expiry date so they send it out to you folks for repair. I wait about 2 weeks and then get a call for pick up.
Case 3:
This brings us to yesterday (April 4th). I put my alarm on my phone to get up for work the day before that. I wake up late for work that day and wonder why my alarm didn't ring and turns out my phone crashed during the night. I tried powering it back on without any success. I take the battery out and put it back in and the phone came on displaying full battery. It stayed on for about an hour before crashing again except that time there was nothing I could do to turn it back on so I brought it back to telus once more, and again, they are sending it for repair.
Frankly I would expect much better out of a 500$ phone. I was strongly debating between this phone and the samsung galaxy s. I chose the DHD for HTC's better track record at updating devices but I would've picked a phone stuck on android 2.2 over a phone that's always broken.
I'm sure a story like mine is of rare occurance but it is an embarassing one nonetheless.
I'll leave it up to you to make me decide if I should ever bother with another HTC phone again.
Thank you. "
Now I've posted this mainly to vent off a bit but also to ask you guys if any of you have had such a terrible experience with an HTC phone.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

Wow, I can hardly believe you've had such bad luck with two handsets, I am sure your experience is not typical and personally I would feel that you would have grounds to ask for a refund not a repair.

I am really surprised as I am comming from Bell Samsung Galaxy S. I replaced my phone 4 times for hard ware issues.
Eventually in response to a complaint made to CCTS bell agreed to take the handset back and give me a free upgrade to phone of my choice but I decided to buy a Telus Desire HD outright.
My expirience with HTC was never bad...so if you buy something else don't get the samsung phone

Haha funny you say that Telus is releasing the nexus s and the galaxy s fascinate 4g tomorrow and I was considering getting one of these 2 as a replacement should telus offer me a new handset.
I just Googled ccts. I'd never heard of them before but I will contact them if I'm not satisfied this time around.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

It's ccts-cprst.ca ....if you search for Samsung galaxy SD card failure...you should see ppl trying to get a class action lawsuit going against samsung
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Samsung can be a pain to deal with...

I just wanted to get this out there because I'm curious how common this is. Having previously owned a Nexus One, HTC support was excellent and replaced the phone twice under warranty, no questions asked. Unfortunately, I've had a hard time dealing with Samsung.
I bought my Nexus S on the day of release in December 2010, and had no major problems with it until May of this year. It's the best phone I've ever owned. In May, the screen started becoming unresponsive so I called Samsung and they said I could ship the phone in for repair and they would pay UPS ground shipping each way. I live near San Francisco, so this would be 5 days each way to Plano, TX where the repair facility is located. No problem, I figured, as long as I get my screen fixed. For the meantime I purchased a new Nexus One on Amazon since I would be without a phone for at least a couple weeks. So I sent in the Nexus S, it took them a week to repair the phone after receiving it, so I was without my Nexus S for three weeks.
So I get the phone back and... bam... screen still doesn't work right. it's nearly completely unusable. Turns out they updated the software, tested it as working, then sent it back. I called Samsung again and after escalating to level three and being on the phone for an hour, they agree to do two day shipping each way and replace the screen components. This is fine with me, as long as the phone gets fixed. I sent the phone in again, and while they two day shipping helped, it was still two weeks that I didn't have my phone.
I get the phone back, and of course, the screen STILL didn't work right. It was so bad I couldn't even type out a text. So I call Samsung again, escalate to level three, and pressure to get the phone switched out. The support rep agrees, and says he has to put in an appeal to get the phone switched out. He said he'd call me back within the next few hours with the result of the appeal, which he did, and my request was approved. So I send the phone in again, two day shipping, and it takes about 5 days to be processed and for a refurbished phone to be sent back to me. Unfortunately, then sent it back ground, so it was 5 business days before I got the refurbished phone.
Once I got the refurbished phone, it did have a few nicks and dings, but it worked perfectly, just as my previous Nexus S had prior to May. The funny thing was the refurb was sent to me already running Cyanogen, which leads me to believe they don't QC their refurb phones very thoroughly, but it was okay since everything seemed to be working as it should. But then a couple days later I tried to use the headphone jack and it didn't work at all. It was completely dead. Go. F'in. Figure.
So I called Samsung again, the level one rep agreed to send the phone in for repair, but he couldn't do anything faster than ground shipping and I didn't feel like wasting more time on the phone. The repair facility received the phone yesterday, so we'll see how it goes. I assume a headphone jack will be easier to repair than the screen was.
I guess what irks me the most was I paid $570 (after taxes) to buy the phone outright, and here I really haven't had it since June when I first started to send it in for repair. I've had to waste my time and their time for a problem that should have been fixed on the first occurrence. Thank god I bought a new Nexus One for the meantime. I would also like to mention Best Buy was no help during any of this either. When the problem first started, they kept saying all they could do was work with Samsung to send it in to the repair center, except I would have to pay half of the shipping. That's just crazy to me, but not surprising.
One last thing I can say is everyone I have talked to at Samsung has been friendly. Level 1 and 2 are obviously offshore, while three are within the United States, but it didn't matter, all were equally friendly and seemed to do their best to help me. They just don't seem to have the power to do much other than send a shipping label for repair.
Sorry about the long rant, but I am obviously a bit frustrated by the whole situation. Fingers crossed when I get the phone back in 10 or so days (my estimate) it will be fixed and functioning properly.

I live in Brazil and here the Samsung support are even worse. But what can i do if they have the best phones?
I hope you get your phone back and fixed without any other delay.
Thx for sharing.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

yes samsung support is horrible i dealt with them very often, and they will not replace / fix the phone for you if it was already fixed once

I live in america and we don't deal with samsung. if my phone breaks (which is has twice) we go to the Sprint store and both times my phone was exchanged in store. No problems here.

p-slim said:
I live in america and we don't deal with samsung. if my phone breaks (which is has twice) we go to the Sprint store and both times my phone was exchanged in store. No problems here.
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I live in the United States too, but when you buy your phone in full, you don't get supported by a carrier. I would have thought Best Buy would assume the role of carrier in this situation, but that wasn't the case.

desertflyer said:
I live in America too, but when you buy your phone in full, you don't get supported by a carrier. I would have thought Best Buy would assume the role of carrier in this situation, but that wasn't the case.
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That means you must have tmobile. If it's a sprint phone you can take it to the sprint service center
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

T-Mobile actually has excellent customer support, but they do not sell the Nexus S. Regardless, I just use T-Mobile's network. Simple Mobile is my service provider.

I live in India, My phone had a motherboard issue and they had to replace it. They told it would take 7 days. But i was without my phone for three weeks. If i had paid money for the new motherboard instead of claiming warranty i would have got it in 3 days.
Samsung service sucks.

desertflyer said:
I live in the United States too, but when you buy your phone in full, you don't get supported by a carrier. I would have thought Best Buy would assume the role of carrier in this situation, but that wasn't the case.
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Sprint will repair a phone for free if you have insurance or for 35 dollars if you don't. Doesn't matter if its on or off contract. Screw dealing with the manufacturer.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

In the uk you should be covered under warranty for at least the first year and it is the place of purchase that has to deal with your returns, dont you have this support in the US?

thecoogster said:
In the uk you should be covered under warranty for at least the first year and it is the place of purchase that has to deal with your returns, dont you have this support in the US?
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It depends on the state, but most don't have rules on warranties. Samsung offers 1 year parts + labor, but Best Buy (who sold me the phone) only have a 30 day policy. So basically I have to live with Samsung's support.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

thecoogster said:
In the uk you should be covered under warranty for at least the first year and it is the place of purchase that has to deal with your returns, dont you have this support in the US?
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This. I would never go through what you're going through if I can avoid it. Seven bucks a month is so worth it.
Sprint has been kick ass in this regard too. I once brought in my EVO to a repair center to get a hot spot screen replaced and they did it no questions. Another time I went in and asked for a replacement battery door and they just gave me one with no issues. I love Sprint man.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

Samsung have "finished" repairing my phone as of today. Here is what they updated the support ticket with:
Original Problem:
TECHNICAL INQUIRY - AUDIO/SPEAKER/SOUND/VIBRATION - DEVICE SOUNDS INAUDIBLE
Problem found:
RINGERTONE INAUDIBLE/NO ADJUST
Solution:
S/W UPDATED - REPLACED COMPONENT
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Keep in mind the problem was a non-working 3.5mm jack. Needless to say, I have zero confidence the problem is fixed.

desertflyer said:
Samsung have "finished" repairing my phone as of today. Here is what they updated the support ticket with:
Keep in mind the problem was a non-working 3.5mm jack. Needless to say, I have zero confidence the problem is fixed.
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Wow. That sucks.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

I got my Nexus S back Monday and it's fixed! I'm running MIUI on it now. Now that everything is working, I'm remembering why I love this phone. Thanks for letting me vent.
Sent from my Google Nexus S using XDA App

Phantoms headphones issue?

I have phantom headphones in CM7.
This just came out of nowhere. Everything worked fine an hour ago.
All of a sudden the headphones icon is blinking. The phone thinks it has headphones connected, so it's blocking sound to the phone speaker. But there are no actual headphones involved.
Restarting didn't stop it.
I didn't make any system changes today. There's nothing physically in the headphone plug.
But my phone is suddenly useless as a phone because it thinks headphones are being plugged in and out every second.
Anyone got any idea what the hell is going on?

I reflashed CM and the problem is still there.
I reflashed stock 2.2.1 and the problem is still there. So it's definitely an out of nowhere hardware issue.
And this phone is a warranty replacement that I just got 3 days ago. Awesome.
Does HTC have ANYONE actually doing quality control?
And now T Mobile is sending me yet another refurbished phone. So I get to spend another night reloading all my stuff and tweaking settings. [sarcasm] Awesome. [/sarcasm]

Skipjacks said:
I reflashed CM and the problem is still there.
I reflashed stock 2.2.1 and the problem is still there. So it's definitely an out of nowhere hardware issue.
And this phone is a warranty replacement that I just got 3 days ago. Awesome.
Does HTC have ANYONE actually doing quality control?
And now T Mobile is sending me yet another refurbished phone. So I get to spend another night reloading all my stuff and tweaking settings. [sarcasm] Awesome. [/sarcasm]
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that happened to me too and i just cleaned out the jack and rebootet and bingo. dust and gunk get in there and give you hell. and ive heard bad things about refurbished phones but ive never been able to tell the difference between that and a new one with ones ive had. it probly depends on the place it was its refurbed at.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

Can you give me more details on how you cleaned it out?
I've picked at it with a tiny screw driver, put a headphone plug in it and spun it around, and hit it with compressed air.
Nothing seems to make the problem go away. Did you have some kind of awesome technique?
And T-Mobile is losing major credibility with me over this issue. I just bought the phone at the end of August. This is already my 2nd bad one. The T-Mobile guy on the phone told me there would be processing charges for BOTH phones on my next bill after the guy in the store who processed the exchanges specifically told me there would be no cost. And now I'm apparently waiting until November 16th to get the 2nd replacement after the guy in the store told me I'd get it today (next business day) and that's after it took this broken one a week to get to me after the guy in the store told me I'd have it the next day the first time.
When I got to the supervisor at T-Mobile she made it 10 times worse by trying to up sell me the warranty and exchange program saying that's the only way she could have this fixed by tomorrow.
I'm like "It was supposed to get fixed by today for no fees or charges according to the guy who processed the exchange. Now you're telling me you've added fees after the point of sale? And now you want me to agree to another $15 a month so you can get this fixed tomorrow? It was supposed to get fixed TODAY for no fees! I just bought the phone 2 months ago and I'm already waiting on a 3rd model due to the extreme lack of quality control on these POS's. Now you want me to spend more money? Are you high?"

i know!! they tried that crap with me and i said im not waiting a week for your f*** up and walked out. then called htc and they took care of everything because im still under warranty. dont deal with money hungry salesman holding phones hostage for $15 a month.
but i used the same technique as you except i put rubbing alchohol on the swab to clean the contact better. *dont use a jack ass amount of alcohol though*
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

Well that didn't work. I'm sure there's a short in the electrical system. The battery drains like water through a colander ever since this problem showed up.
But I think the short is internal and not right at the plug. (Which is odd because if I plug in a headset it works fine. I just don't want to carry a headset with me wherever I go.)
The best solution I've found so far is just to turn off the "Display headset icon" in the cyanogen settings so I don't have to look at the damned think blinking, then just use my phone as a text only device until the new one comes on Thursday.

yeah but it sucks that your battery is draining still..but im sure you can tough it out till tomorow
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

smokeuout said:
im sure you can tough it out till tomorow
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It's torture!
Absolute torture! The CIA should realize they don't have to water board terrorists because of this. They can just take away half the functionality of their smart phones!
I mean it! I'll talk! I'll say whatever they want me to say! Just make my phone work!
Or...send me another borked one. I'm good with that too because I'll trade it as an even exchange for a 4G Slide, give it to my wife, and upgrade her account with a Sensation that I will take.
I think the thing that annoys me is that the one that just broke has the good emmc chip and the good screen. But this random stupid problem. Now I have to play the "Do you get what you paid for or do you get garbage parts" lottery again. And even if I get the good parts I can never rely on the device again because it's reputation is killed with me.
Update: And i came in 50/50 in the new phone lottery. Bad screen but good chip.

Its a sad reality many live with ( look at us complain about our high end phones, we have it so tough...lol)
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda premium

smokeuout said:
Its a sad reality many live with ( look at us complain about our high end phones, we have it so tough...lol)
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Well when you put it in perspective like that I just sound whiny.

4th replacement for an atrix, AT&T can't get it right

My gf and I both have atrix phones and I'm on my 2nd one. it's been fine so far, it runs ICS etc etc
well, she is on her 3rd one and this one is having problems already
1st one the digitizer stopped working
2nd one speaker wasn't working
3rd one the notification bar keeps disappearing. factory reset does not fix it
I don't want to root her phone or anything so she wants to keep it stock (and she should)
We talked to motorola and they told us to factory reset. told them we did, and they pretty much said do it again... wtf #1
after I told her to call AT&T and they told her the same thing. We told them it was already factory reset once about an hour ago, and they said to take it back to the service center and get a 4th one.... problem is, she can't this week because this was her only day off. (I guess they forget we can't keep going back to the service center because we work) they also suggested when we get the 4th one to play around with it for about an hour at the place so we know it works.... seriously?
3 phones and 2 of them broke within a week (the notification bar happens about 10 mins after starting the phone)
does anyone have any suggestions on this problem we're having? We can go back and get a 4th one, but jeez... 4 phones? I think it's time they give her something else
Thanks for the suggestions everyone

Hmm... it seems like you just have bad luck.
What you could try to do is ask AT&T to give you both new Atrix 2's free of charge.
You can explain how it's not your fault that all of this is happening and that they should value that you are their customer.
It's worth a shot and I think you have a good chance at convincing them to do this. You'll probably need to sign a new 2-year contract though.

I would tell AT&T you are tired of Motorola and the problems with the phones and aske for a Skyrocket to replace them with. Worth a shot if you want to upgrade and get away from Motorola.

Mine was sent once cos digitizer stopped working, then month later I had random reboots even on stock. They send me new one and its fine. I dont mind as long as they offer replacement.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

hey bro i work for att and its because when you get a replacement they send you the ****tiest of the phones they have .. they will be refurbished and they will be ones they cant re sell . call and tell the your six mos in your contract and that a rep said you were eligible for an exception.

twayneo said:
hey bro i work for att and its because when you get a replacement they send you the ****tiest of the phones they have .. they will be refurbished and they will be ones they cant re sell . call and tell the your six mos in your contract and that a rep said you were eligible for an exception.
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My first Atrix never worked out of the box. Sent in for repair, didn't work. Sent in again, worked for a week, something else broke.
Got a NEW replacement from Motorola after much *****ing and escalating to BBB & executive customer service and have not had any problems yet, except it came with a non-working factory battery that was replaced after two months of being ignored.
I'm hesitant to buy another Motorola because their support team makes it a nightmare to get your phone fixed or replaced.

twayneo said:
hey bro i work for att and its because when you get a replacement they send you the ****tiest of the phones they have .. they will be refurbished and they will be ones they cant re sell . call and tell the your six mos in your contract and that a rep said you were eligible for an exception.
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yep. had 4 Atrix already... the more att replaced my phone, the worse it got.
New atrix -> bluetooth audio stream keeps disconnecting --> Moto said, go get it replaced because it should not do that...
1st replacement -> refurbished... same problem... called Moto again and att service center --> go get it replaced.
2nd replacement -> refurbished... same bluetooth problem, with additional random reboot. i check phone to look at time, press power button -> reboots.... a lot... --> replacement time... but wait... "we cannot replicate the problem" says att service center representative, "thus we cannot replace it"...
me: it is "RANDOM"... they played with it for 5 mins and could not replicate the problem..
att service center representative told me to call att replacement center who said "why wouldn't they replace it? all we're going to do is the same thing they would, which is replace the phone".. att service center: "our policy is, if we cannot replicate problem, we do not replace"
with much frustration, finally got a hold of someone higher up who was willing to replace phone...
3rd replacement coming from so called higher up -> refurbished... status bar disappears... cannot answer calls, bluetooth problems, wrong battery gauge... out of att options... last option, send it in for repairs at Moto... will be getting phone back tomorrow.. will see how phone works... crossed fingers, it would work as it should...

Yeah, the motorola phones boast a lot of features, but even with the motorola razor in the past, I remember disliking it due to unreasonable security restrictions and random bgs.

i have been with att for many years and dealt with alot of **** and like our friend the att rep said its a refurbished device so it had problems before so its bound to again, see i got the atrix with the 99 cent deal and after one with one problem i called moto and att and i got a new atrix to replace my old one, which had a chip in the fingerprint reader and no rubber around the camera lens, call and beg plead and lie it works every time lol take it from someone who has been through 20 phones in 4 years if its the phone they provided you with they will replace it, alos only 3 or 4 out of that 20 i actually broke the rest were refurbs and refurbs of a different make and model, good luck OP you should get it right eventually

It isn't just Motorola. I have had the same problems with HTC, Sony, and Nokia. My son had 4 iphones replaced. It is a refurb problem. Just keep complaining and eventually you might get one that lasts.

i have just received back my phone from motorola... and guess what... FAIL! my phone has not be repaired! they did not input the problem i told them about so all they did was flash the software.
I'd been on the phone with them for a good 3-4 hrs to get my phone replaced/repaired. In order for motorola to "replace" the phone, they need to verify with ATT that the phone had been replaced at least 3 times. They need the Serial no. or IMEI no. of the phones that had been replaced, and they cannot guarantee that I will receive a new phone. problem is, I do not keep the serial numbers/IMEI numbers of the phone I get, so I advice you guys to write it down or something just in case stupid things like this happen

I replaced my atrix 4 times because of a ****ing nice issue. People hear me like im in a tunnel .... garbled and far away. I still don't have it right but I kept it since it fell in water. It works perfectly because I pulled battery immediately but I can't return it because the white dot is now red.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

same here. my digitizer went bad, refurb had messed up contacts for sdcard and wouldn't see it. Next refurb the screen was not aligned good, could see light bleed around the edges. I fixed the contacts on the second one and sent the last one back. Oh yea the phone also had the drop bluetooth problem, but that seems to have been fixed after flashing.
About puked when i first turned on the phone on and saw all that att bloat crap on there.

sdlopez83 said:
I replaced my atrix 4 times because of a ****ing nice issue. People hear me like im in a tunnel .... garbled and far away. I still don't have it right but I kept it since it fell in water. It works perfectly because I pulled battery immediately but I can't return it because the white dot is now red.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
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hmm, i never knew what that white dot signify. thought it was some kind of special phone if it has a different color.

[Q] Buzzing, possibly blown earpiece speaker

I've had my RAZR M for about 2 months now, so far, its been a fantastic phone!
Over the past few weeks, the earpiece speaker quality has been degrading, up to the point now where its got a severe buzz to it, almost like the speaker is blown. I have to turn the volume down when making calls just to hear the person on the other end clearly without distortion.
Anyone else have this problem? Is the speaker available anywhere as a replacement item? I'd rather not go through the hassle of getting it repaired/replaced by Verizon (I hear they give refurbished phones as replacements, right?).
Thanks!

Sorry I didn't see this post before,
Yes I have the same issue, exactly!
Been meaning to take it in to have it looked at but haven't yet, have you done anything about it yet?
I used to be able to tap the back of the phone with my hand to get it cleared up but even that isn't working any more.

Ha ha... I had this same issue on a straight out the box M... which also made me get a replacement which also got me root and an unlocked boot loader... I knew I wasn't unmoral and had some values................
Sent from my XT907 using xda app-developers app

Mine got so bad last week that I took it back to Verizon.... Told the rep what the problem was and he just put in the order for replacement..... Never even cared to listen to it. I know it's a reconditioned one but it only has to get me to October for my upgrade.