UPS lost my phone after warranty repair
Discussion
To summarise: UPS lost my phone after a warranty repair and HTC won't give me a replacement as they are "waiting for parts".
Timeline of Events:
10/08
Problems with phone reported to HTC repair procedure started (phone won't charge)
11/08
Collected by UPS
12/08
Delivered to repair centre
13/08
Email to confirm device received at repair centre
14/08
Email to say phone awaiting shipment to be returned (assume it has been fixed although doesn't actually say that)
18/08
Picked up by UPS
19/08 1:48am
UPS tracking shows "Merchandise is missing. UPS will notify the sender with additional details."
19/08 ~11am
No news from HTC so I contact HTC online chat. They raise with escalation team and say will be up to 8 days for UPS to investigate
28/08
Contacted online chat and find the investigation did not start until the 21/08
01/09
UPS tracking updated "Damage to package contents was reported. We will notify the sender. / We're investigating the damage claim."
02/09 9.40am
Called HTC - Guy tries to contact repair centre
02/09 4.45pm
Email received to say still waiting for response from repair centre
Had a week on holiday so didn't chase any more until:
14/09
Called HTC - No response from repair centre - raised with escalations team. Advised to call back tomorrow
15/09
Called HTC - Still waiting for repair centre
16/09
Called HTC - Replacement should be sent out today will be with me in 3-5 days
18/09
Called HTC - Previous advise was wrong it would actually be sent in 3-5 days
Called Three - Asked if they could do anything with a bit more weight, came back with that I should hear from HTC on 22/09 that it is being sent. Credited a month of my contract back to my account for inconvenience.
24/09
No news so called HTC - No further update on system since 18/09 - Apparently there is low stock and they are waiting for parts to make me a new phone. Hoping that they arrive next week.
I suggested that they must be able to get stock if they tried hard enough and that surely their insurance with UPS has paid them enough to provide a replacement or that they were trying to do something on the cheap with refurbished phones. Told no we are making you a new phone etc.
Asked to speak to a manager - none available. Asked how long they had been waiting for these parts, told they thought it was a few weeks. Being flippant, I asked what the parts they were wait for were and exactly how long they had been waiting for them so far - went off to speak to the escalations manager (yes, the unavailable ones
) - we cannot disclose what the parts are or how long the wait has been sorry.
To end, told that they should have a report tomorrow morning (25/09) that will have further information about when the parts will be available.
Is it time for a pre moneyclaimonline letter? if it is email or snail mail?
How much do I claim for? The phone was selling for ~£450 on Amazon when I started my contract last Nov and Car phone warehouse have them for £350 at the moment. Plus my time chasing them up?
Cheers
Timeline of Events:
10/08
Problems with phone reported to HTC repair procedure started (phone won't charge)
11/08
Collected by UPS
12/08
Delivered to repair centre
13/08
Email to confirm device received at repair centre
14/08
Email to say phone awaiting shipment to be returned (assume it has been fixed although doesn't actually say that)
18/08
Picked up by UPS
19/08 1:48am
UPS tracking shows "Merchandise is missing. UPS will notify the sender with additional details."
19/08 ~11am
No news from HTC so I contact HTC online chat. They raise with escalation team and say will be up to 8 days for UPS to investigate
28/08
Contacted online chat and find the investigation did not start until the 21/08
01/09
UPS tracking updated "Damage to package contents was reported. We will notify the sender. / We're investigating the damage claim."
02/09 9.40am
Called HTC - Guy tries to contact repair centre
02/09 4.45pm
Email received to say still waiting for response from repair centre
Had a week on holiday so didn't chase any more until:
14/09
Called HTC - No response from repair centre - raised with escalations team. Advised to call back tomorrow
15/09
Called HTC - Still waiting for repair centre
16/09
Called HTC - Replacement should be sent out today will be with me in 3-5 days
18/09
Called HTC - Previous advise was wrong it would actually be sent in 3-5 days
Called Three - Asked if they could do anything with a bit more weight, came back with that I should hear from HTC on 22/09 that it is being sent. Credited a month of my contract back to my account for inconvenience.
24/09
No news so called HTC - No further update on system since 18/09 - Apparently there is low stock and they are waiting for parts to make me a new phone. Hoping that they arrive next week.
I suggested that they must be able to get stock if they tried hard enough and that surely their insurance with UPS has paid them enough to provide a replacement or that they were trying to do something on the cheap with refurbished phones. Told no we are making you a new phone etc.
Asked to speak to a manager - none available. Asked how long they had been waiting for these parts, told they thought it was a few weeks. Being flippant, I asked what the parts they were wait for were and exactly how long they had been waiting for them so far - went off to speak to the escalations manager (yes, the unavailable ones
) - we cannot disclose what the parts are or how long the wait has been sorry. To end, told that they should have a report tomorrow morning (25/09) that will have further information about when the parts will be available.
Is it time for a pre moneyclaimonline letter? if it is email or snail mail?
How much do I claim for? The phone was selling for ~£450 on Amazon when I started my contract last Nov and Car phone warehouse have them for £350 at the moment. Plus my time chasing them up?
Cheers
Charlie1986 said:
So why are you claiming? are you out of pocket and can you prove it ?
Sounds like there customer service is crap did you not go through your provider?
I can prove I have sent it to them and not received anything back. They also don't appear to have much idea or confidence about when I would be getting a replacement.Sounds like there customer service is crap did you not go through your provider?
When I looked for a number on Three's site to call about it the problem I was directed to HTC directly. Which I'd just taken it into the store now as I'd have somewhere to go and moan in person.
pits said:
Hmmmm, have you tried ringing it? It's what I do when mine gets lost, usually turns up though
Not sure if you are being serious? If you were going to steal phones it's a clever point to do it as the phone has had a factory reset as part of the repair and no simcard in etc.Durzel said:
Make sure you claim for emotional distress too, I mean a mobile phone is a basic human right.
Phones are expensive and should not get lost. If they do it should get sorted. I use mine a lot for work. Losing the apps on it would actually cost me money. I'd be upset in this scenario (in practice I know have an old Iphone that I keep for when I've been clumsy and dropped mine)....
OP, I had the same issue but with my iPhone.
Came to collect it, (swapped for a new phone there and then) then 10 days later I noticed £700 (from memory) coming off my credit card from Apple.
Myself and Apple together checked the ref number and it was "at UPS warehouse" said not my fault that they've make a mistake and not delivered it by now, Apple agreed and gave me the monies back straight away to be fair.
Something ridiculous like 6 months later, the said iPhone came back to me at the office! The whole thing was a nightmare to sort.
Came to collect it, (swapped for a new phone there and then) then 10 days later I noticed £700 (from memory) coming off my credit card from Apple.
Myself and Apple together checked the ref number and it was "at UPS warehouse" said not my fault that they've make a mistake and not delivered it by now, Apple agreed and gave me the monies back straight away to be fair.
Something ridiculous like 6 months later, the said iPhone came back to me at the office! The whole thing was a nightmare to sort.
surveyor said:
Durzel said:
Make sure you claim for emotional distress too, I mean a mobile phone is a basic human right.
Phones are expensive and should not get lost. If they do it should get sorted. I use mine a lot for work. Losing the apps on it would actually cost me money. I'd be upset in this scenario (in practice I know have an old Iphone that I keep for when I've been clumsy and dropped mine)....
Anyway, the response from the random update generator today was: that my replacement phone is being built and this started on the 23rd and it should be with me by the end of next week... I won't be holding my breath
V8A*ndy said:
StuTheGrouch said:
Why are they building you a phone? They aren't made to order, there should be thousands of these things in stock
It will probably be a recon and they havn't got all the bits.
They seemed quite offended by this accusation and tried to assured me that it was because HTC no longer supply the One M8 and it would be new.HTC customer service is pretty good but their repair center is horrifically bad and there is virtually no communication between the two. My girlfriends M8 was sent for repair and she heard nothing back for over a week and no update on the status, she phoned HTC and they got no response from the repair center, she ended up tweeting them to finally get a response from the repair center nearly 3 weeks after they received it, they had fixed it but hadn't bothered to send it back out.
Go for twitter and you'll get a response, they'll likely replace it with another refurbished phone.
Go for twitter and you'll get a response, they'll likely replace it with another refurbished phone.
This is HTC's problem not yours because they dispatched the phone to you via UPS, so they need to sort it out not you, and either find your phone that has been 'lost', or supply you with a replacement model.
If you're not having any joy with the HTC repair centre then perhaps email Mr Philip Blair who is the Executive Director of HTC UK, and make your complaint known along with the names of the employees that you have been dealing with, his email address is philip_blair @ htc dot com and make sure you fill in the blank spaces!!!
If you're not having any joy with the HTC repair centre then perhaps email Mr Philip Blair who is the Executive Director of HTC UK, and make your complaint known along with the names of the employees that you have been dealing with, his email address is philip_blair @ htc dot com and make sure you fill in the blank spaces!!!
Enough about HTC, that's not your problem. Get on the bell to Three's Executive Department or their twitter (or whatever people use these days to get attention) and have them sort it out. Your contract is with Three not HTC. HTC is their problem. I'd be giving Three 14 days to sort it out or you'll be taking out another contract elsewhere and give them the option of paying it, terminating your own or have your HTC back to you in a working state before then.
To conclude this, somewhat out of the blue, a replacement phone arrived yesterday. 
What added to the surprise was that HTC phoned in response to a customer service survey that morning and they hadn't had any further updates since the 24th, so there's definitely a massive lack of communication from the service centre!
What added to the surprise was that HTC phoned in response to a customer service survey that morning and they hadn't had any further updates since the 24th, so there's definitely a massive lack of communication from the service centre!
Not unique to HTC.
My Samsung S3 got lost in being fixed. After many steps it eventually escalated all the way up to board level before I finally (and out of the blue) received an S4 Active as a replacement (I'd agreed quite some time previously that I'd have an S4 Active as they were out of S3's for exchange at this point).
It took three months.
The moral of this story is *always* take it back to the shop where you got it from, even if all they then do is send it off for you. With the shop you have reasonable expectations for how long things will take and rights (under the SOGA etc) and so can *demand* things. With the manufacturer (and their official repairers) you have no actual rights, they can take as long as they want etc.
My Samsung S3 got lost in being fixed. After many steps it eventually escalated all the way up to board level before I finally (and out of the blue) received an S4 Active as a replacement (I'd agreed quite some time previously that I'd have an S4 Active as they were out of S3's for exchange at this point).
It took three months.
The moral of this story is *always* take it back to the shop where you got it from, even if all they then do is send it off for you. With the shop you have reasonable expectations for how long things will take and rights (under the SOGA etc) and so can *demand* things. With the manufacturer (and their official repairers) you have no actual rights, they can take as long as they want etc.
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