UPS lost my phone after warranty repair

[FRMATT]

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

[FRMATT]

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.

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.

[FRMATT]

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)....

Regardless of what the product it is, it wasn't cheap! And I wouldn't expect to just be left without it for an unknown amount of time through no fault of my own.

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

[FRMATT]

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.

I suggested this on the phone, well that they were waiting for someone else's to break so they could make me one! 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.

[FRMATT]

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!