As many of you may know, Desire HD has been one of the most sold HTC Android OS based Smartphone in the shortest period since it was launched last year. One of the reasons for that is probably, and mostly because of its humongous 4.3” LCD screen which has been advertised and reviewed as a Super LCD (recognized as a S-LCD, equivalent to Super LCD) which is supposed to have a similar performance in a viewing angle and a battery life to Samsung’s Super AMOLED.
While I was shopping for an Android Smartphone, I was considering purchasing between Samsung’s Galaxy S and HTC’s Desire HD. What caught all my attention was Desire HD’s humongous 4.3” Super LCD screen as it was advertised on the official HTC website and many other information websites on Smartphones. So I went ahead and bought a Desire HD. I am not well educated with the Smartphone technology stuff and all so I didn’t notice the different between Super LCD and the regular TFT-LCD at first until I was outside under sunlight and was not able to tell what my phone’s screen was showing, while my friend’s Galaxy S was fully capable of showing the screen without so much trouble.
I wasn’t the only one who felt the same way and one of the consumers called HTC to inquire if the LCD screen on Desire HD is really Super LCD as advertised. What the representative said was quite shocking because it turns out that Desire HD just has the regular TFT-LCD.
A lot of consumers felt that the phone was falsely advertised and contacted with HTC about getting refunds for a false advertisement, but HTC made it sound like consumers were the ones who confused themselves by claiming that the term “Super” in Super LCD of Desire HD simply means that the size of the LCD screen is super big but not the kind of LCD HTC was advertising as a rival to Super AMOLED. Also HTC is insisting that they are responsible for neither confusions nor refunds for this incident. But there’s already a case where a wireless phone service provider promised and offered a full-refund to whoever purchased a Desire HD for a false advertisement in Denmark.
In the midst of all these problems, there was a conflict between consumers and a representative who is in a bit high position (supposedly his position is a General Manager, not just a regular normal call center counselor) at Customer Service Department of HTC Korea named Mr. Kim. While consumers were complaining about no-refund on this incident policy to Mr. Kim, he said something like.. “If you don’t like what we are offering, why don’t you just sue us?”. In hospitality industry, as a man in position of being in charge of Customer Service department, this kind of reaction should never be allowed nor present at all cost.
So with all the problems present, I’ve personally contacted HTC Taiwan and HTC Korea about the incident and asked them for an official statement to apologize for this false advertisement to current consumers of Desire HD’s in Korea to begin, corrections in advertisements of Desire HD’s, better Customer Service quality in Korea.
They denied that they falsely advertised the kind of LCD in Desire HD and all they were saying was that Super LCD of Desire HD has nothing to do with the kind of LCD screen and it just means the size is super big. They also refused to make an official apology statement. Yet, they have changed the ads, specifications of Desire HD on their official websites… and so on. It’s just cheap.
And plus, HTC’s new Incredible S has Super LCD as well and despite the 0.3” difference, the quality of two screens look awfully different. Has HTC researched and developed a new Super LCD within about half a year? Huh?
I’ve spent so many days fighting against HTC through phones, internet, emails etc just to get an official apology but it seems that I have failed to accomplish most of my goals. Maybe I was too soft on them. I’ve thought about a lawsuit but suing someone in South Korea isn’t just that easy like I would have done it in the United States. That’s why I am going on a “NO HTC Campaign” and spreading the words around the world so one day, HTC can realize consumers have powers and are not that stupid anymore to just accept what a company has to say.
Consumers have “lawful consumer rights” to know the correct information on products, be educated about consumer rights, organize a consumer organization to fight against the company, and participate to give advices to company and so on.
To this point, I’ve recommended Desire HD as one of the best android Smartphones to get and it is, I think, still true. Many people have purchased Desire HD just because they trust me that much and I’ve recommended this phone so strongly. But the quality of customer care at HTC degrades the performance of Desire HD and I really with that I would not have recommended HTC products. From this point, I am not going to buy any HTC related products whatsoever and I also am going not to recommend any HTC related products to people around me and hopefully everyone around the world.
I’m just a consumer who wanted to buy a decent smartphone with all the information I knew and wanted to be happy about it, nothing more and nothing less.
I was feeling sympathy for you untill I googled SAMOLED vs SLCD and found many many informative comparasons between the two (many actually comparing SAMOLED desires with SLCD desires), and in all the ones I have seen SAMOLED is better in power consumption and in veiwing angle, but SLCD is not far behind in terms of normal use clarity.
As with crapple dont fall for company propaganda, and ALWAYS do your own research.
I wont be boycotting HTC, as I like many of their devices including the Desire but I wont automatically purchase their latest device either.
[email protected] said:
...its humongous 4.3” LCD screen which has been advertised and reviewed as a Super LCD (recognized as a S-LCD, equivalent to Super LCD)
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I'm not familiar with Korea but here in the UK HTC have never advertised the screen as being S-LCD, no reputable website has ever advertised it as such, no competent reviewer has ever claimed it's S-LCD.
Here is the Engadget article on the announcement of the Desire HD, it also contains a copy of HTC's press release - neither describes the screen as S-LCD.
If you have purchased a Desire HD from a website or retailer that has claimed the screen is S-LCD, then that's a matter you have to take up with that website/retailer.
But it's nothing to do with HTC themselves, they're not responsible for mistakes made by third parties.
Ill take your engadget review (the competent reviewer you mentioned) and raise you an engadget review. WITH VIDEO
AMOLED Desire Vs SLCD desire.
http://dailymobile.se/2010/09/14/screen-comparison-amoled-vs-slcd-htc-desire/
my concern is that...
It had been officially advertised on HTC website as a Super LCD...
A lot of users including me have evidents to prove so....
I don't know what to do..
All I wanted was a sincere apology.. that's all.
@hungry81: what's any of that got to do with the Desire HD?
@[email protected]: seek legal advice?
So you are a guy you say is listened to by many on these forums about getting the Desire, yet you did no actual research and just toed the company line before you bought one? Huh? Wtf are you trying to sell here? HTC makes some great phones. In my experience, I've been able to go to wireless stores and test drive/compare phones before I buy them. Maybe you should do the same before complaining about falling for corporate advertising like some idiot yuppie.
Perhaps you were looking at the NA Desire HD which DOES have a SLCD?
I don't remember the Desire HD launched in Europe being advertised as SLCD? or am I mistaken?
I remember before I bought a DHD I've done heaps of research on it to know what I'm getting and what to expect. Anyway, I bought it from this store here in NZ: http://www.einfo.co.nz/shop/product_info.php?products_id=20720
As you can see it is advertised as a S-LCD screen, and it was like that everywhere I looked including the official site. It didn't say S-BigDisplay, it said S-LCD. If it were meant to mean something else they should of pointed it out.
I've used the phone before I bought it to make sure I like it but I wouldn't know the difference between S-LCD/TFT.
I will bring this into future phone considerations, HTC is great but I will explore the options.
Is there some way of checking the screen type? I ask because I might try to get a refund...
scottyd035ntknow said:
So you are a guy you say is listened to by many on these forums about getting the Desire, yet you did no actual research and just toed the company line before you bought one? Huh? Wtf are you trying to sell here? HTC makes some great phones. In my experience, I've been able to go to wireless stores and test drive/compare phones before I buy them. Maybe you should do the same before complaining about falling for corporate advertising like some idiot yuppie.
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@scottyd035ntknow
Can you not read what I wrote up there? It was officially advertised as a Super LCD on the OFFICIAL HTC WEBSITE and was also ADVERTISED AS A SUPER LCD ON A TELEVISION FOR FOUR MONTHS.
And when I bought my phone was just right after it was launched in Korea. At the official press conference and the showcase it was also introduced as a Super LCD.
So you are saying it's my fault to trust a company who makes some great phones according to you?
Now what kinda bull**** are YOU TRYING TO SELL HERE?
I AM VERY SORRY I COULDN'T GO CHECK OUT A PHONE THAT WAS NOT EVEN OUT YET AT THE STORE BY THE TIME I HAD MY DESIRE HD.
When I went to a phone store to check out that Desire HD which was not out by the time I went to the store, they gave me a brochure of it saying that it comes with a SUPER LCD.
I've done my fair share of research so don't even bring up "You didn't do yo ****" bull**** here now.
HTC Korea admitted and corrected the ads but hasn't apologized about the fact that they deceived a lot of consumers and that is why I have posted a thread here.
Maedhros said:
Perhaps you were looking at the NA Desire HD which DOES have a SLCD?
I don't remember the Desire HD launched in Europe being advertised as SLCD? or am I mistaken?
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I've checked with HTC Taiwan (supposed to be like a headquarter I guess) and they said it's no Super LCD in any technical terms. Super just means that the size of LCD is SUPER BIG.
It's just a regular TFT-LCD.
In addition, there was a case in Denmark where a wireless service provider gave out a full refund for the false advertisement of HTC's Desire HD's LCD.
Idk why a service provider would give out a refund but in some part of this globe they acknowledge the problem and take the full responsibility for it I guess.
scottyd035ntknow said:
So you are a guy you say is listened to by many on these forums about getting the Desire, yet you did no actual research and just toed the company line before you bought one? Huh? Wtf are you trying to sell here? HTC makes some great phones. In my experience, I've been able to go to wireless stores and test drive/compare phones before I buy them. Maybe you should do the same before complaining about falling for corporate advertising like some idiot yuppie.
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Quick question. @scottyd035ntknow
Can you even tell the difference between SLCD and the regular TFT-LCD with your bare eyes?
So you can tell that the other screen is consuming less power just by looking at two LCD's right?
WTF are you trying to sell? HUH?
And by that bull**** you are saying, if I can't trust the ads, reviews, press conferences, your bare f-ing eyes, and so on, who should I trust then?
Please tell me how so I don't have to go researching on a phone for a week before I press that pre-order button on the official online phone store.
Or you can go f yourself.
I think people put htc in a very high pedestal, I mean what can you expect from a company who sell you phones with dust under the screen, glued and taped parts inside the phone and whats worse, breaking and flexing in some of their high end offerings, you also have inconsistent build quality from their different plants located in taiwan, shanghai and shenzhen.
Oh I forgot all what matters is that cheap die cast aluminum unibody, which htc fanboys are so hanged up with because it means quality, I only buy htc if it is dirt cheap.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk
I doubt they did anything to intentionally misleed anyone. As far as an apology they can not under any circumstance offer an apology unless they loose a law suite. If they apologized that apology would be used against them.
Now as for the people who bought the phone. I can look at a Droid X and say eww that screen is washed out and say no thanks I can look at a fascinate and go wow that looks great and then make a decision to buy a thunderbolt because its good enough and I like the features.
The bottom line is you shouldn't need them to tell you the screen looks good you should be able to see for yourself and make a decision based off of that. You are the one who made the mistake.
Buyers have rights but also buyer beware. Also if that screen was good enough before you knew it wasn't slcd then it was good enough stop complaining.
Also I doubt the will get in trouble unless they had a - in there or used slcd or s-lcd.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
greenstuffs said:
I think people put htc in a very high pedestal, I mean what can you expect from a company who sell you phones with dust under the screen, glued and taped parts inside the phone and whats worse, breaking and flexing in some of their high end offerings, you also have inconsistent build quality from their different plants located in taiwan, shanghai and shenzhen.
Oh I forgot all what matters is that cheap die cast aluminum unibody, which htc fanboys are so hanged up with because it means quality, I only buy htc if it is dirt cheap.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk
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glad my phone didn't come wrapped in duck tape and dusty lol
THIS MESSAGE is about: HTC Corporation Lacks Global Managerial Cohesion
NOTE: THOSE WITH TWITTER 140 ATTENTION SPANS, SKIP AHEAD.
From what I've read here I have a few comments and observations:
1) I don't know the org chart of HTC as a global corporation, and how spread out they have become in their primary functional areas of R&D, product design, programming & UI development, localization & carrier customization, parts & sourcing, manufacturing & assembly, packaging, wharehousing & distribution, customer support, warranty support, sales & marketing, international branding, regional branding.
2) I say this from the perspective of knowing, for example, that Apple has divisions in France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Africa, Greece, all over the world -- and they are, to the best of my knowledge, almost independently run and operated from Apple America... with Presidents and corporate structures, and often completely separate warranty handling processes from country to country.
3) So too I have experience first hand how HTC has, in its growth spurt, been experiencing regional differences in operational quality -- and I would add - competence. For example: When the original unlocked HTC Desire (GSM) was being sold in April of 2010 in UK and Europe and India, many many people had pre-orders PAID FOR and theye were in queue for these orders to be shipped to them initially end of March 2010, then date pushed to beginning of April 2010... But then something very shifty occurred:
At this time last year the HTC Desire (first version) was such a hugely in demand phone, that HTC'd supply chain did not have enough inventory in the supply chain to feed all the demand. And HTC made a very terrible decision. In order to kiss-ass and satisfy T-Mobile UK, whose walk-in customers were asking for this phone left and right, but yet T-Mobile UK was OUT OF STOCK, HTC authorized the huge (i mean gigantic) diversion of the shipment of phones wharehoused and being trucked in for fulfillment of UNLOCKED PRE-ORDERS which had been paid for as early as February and March -- to be re-routed and trucked in to T-Mobile UK stores... In so doing, they pushed vague messages to major distributors in UK like Clove and handtec, who had thousands of customers so excited to get their unlocked phones finally -- describing some uncontrollable delay that would cause another 2 weeks before the unlocked phones would be shipped.
Customers and distributors figured this out very fast, collectively, and HTC should have paid a price for this in terrible PR, but they managed to skate by because they did push out the unlocked inventory one week later rather than 2 -- and even though in total they were one month later than promised, customers were so thrilled by the phones and their workmanship that the storm went away.
4) But what this speaks to is managerial operational dysfunction at HTC, in at least some regional operations -- and Europe is a HUGE primary region for HTC customers and has been since at least 2003, around the time these forums started with the very first HTC smartphone, the XDA (for those of you who never knew how and why these forums were named XDA)
Let me now state for clarity: I LOVE HTC phones. For me, the product design is gorgeous, and has been leading the industry for years, since 2003... And I am on my 5th HTC smartphone in a row in 7 years time. So I "come in praise of HTC", not to spite it. HTC CHINA, where the magic happens, clearly has known what they're doing for years. MY QUESTION IS: as they have grown, and inevitably have needed to open more and more regional offices in other countries, how well have all these operations been integrated into one corporate culture with a unified operational code? MY ANSWER: NOT VERY WELL AT ALL.
I think that last year's really quite successful "YOU" branding campaign for HTC -- its first ever -- had two purposes. The first was obvious: To present to the world, and to consumers, its NAME and face -- which had long been buried as the unnamed brand behind T-Mobile's and other carrier's phones... And with the meteoric resurgence of Motorola and their droid franchise of phones, HTC -- a king of smartphones -- was suddenly dwarfed and marginalized. To stay alive they had to become known to consumers, not just carriers. That was their primary aim.
However, I would argue that purpose #2 was to provide a unifying glue for the international string of operations that comprised "HTC" in all the affiliate countries. I think the very fact that we see these abberations speaks to elements of autonomy which were vestages of a company run not as a consumer brand company but as regional distribution hubs only -- and that all of this has abruptly changed --- and thus the "YOU
campaign and "quietly brilliant" would bring unified branding -- and brand discipline -- to all of these perhaps semi-rogue operations, tightening them up into a singular culture worlwide, with a consistent brand experience wherever consumers went, but also wherever managers went too.
5) Further supporting the wild aberrations in quality control of how HTC operates/ doesn't operate as a uniform company in all regions of the world (IT DOESN'T -- AND THAT'S WHAT SPEAKS LOUD AND CLEAR IN THIS THREAD), I just went through 3 months of battling with HTC AMERICA's Warranty Division over their initial refusal to honor their warranty obligations on my HTC Desire -- while it was still under ONE YEAR old -- and with my phone having a TWO-YEAR warranty. I accused them, correctly so, of not honoring their UK Warranties (where I purchased the phone). They insisted they do. I said "No, you don't. You don't even know the TERM of the warranty"
"All HTC products have a 1 year warranty"
"No, you're wrong, and clueless about your own corporation. I am reading the warranty right now, and I have the worldwide care pamphlet here as well which I am going to PDF and send you -- which is ridiculus because YOU should have it or go to your own company's website and download it from the web -- if you know how... It says very clearly it;s a TWO YEAR WARRANTY --"
"Well we've never seen that"
"Well have you ever considered that warranties can vary region to region?"
** I was speaking to the senior level executive at HTC AMERICA at their corporate headquarters at Bellevue Washington -- they don't even know how their own global company works.
I have detailed this fully in another thread (you can search for it), but I never followed up the final chapter of it. It's a waste of time. I have a summary statement after dealing with all if these entities within HTC America: Warranty Repairs in Stafford Texas, Warranty Escalations in Indianapolas, Supervisor and head of the Warranty Escalations Department in Indianapolis, who was appalled by the behavior in Texas and fast-tracked my repair, but also with senior executive level corporate customer complaints for HTC America in Bellevue Washington, who also assured me the problem would be handled, apologizing for the handling.
It was nevertheless flubbed yet again, with HTC Corporate failing to send the actual email authorization to HTC Escalations in Indianapolis, who had to give Stafford Texas the go ahead to perform the work (which is all completely absurd to begin with because it was under warranty and this was a defective USB port which was widely reported and easily googled "HTC DESIRE microUSB port"). Thus, an already delayed under-waranty repair was delayed just sitting there in what was supposed to be a top-escalated state, first-in-queue fix and fed-ex back, instead gathering dust for over a week until I called to see what was going on.
I couldn't believe how many cross-checks could be fouled up, and yet they were. Finally, that day, the device was repaired and I was told it was in labeling to be fed exed out that same day, as it had been pre-approved for OVERNIGHT delivery. I was so excited to go to my service bureau next day to get the device. But it didn't arrive. nor the next day, or the next, or next or next or next or next or next. But 7 days later I get the FED EX GROUND shipment, despite Head of Warranty Operations Escalations Department in Indianapolis (a really nice, and really competent person who was on the short end of the stick of OTHER people's F*ups, including Bellevue's, and Stafford, Texas). She was so embarrassed. On the phone at the end of our call she said "I have good news, here is your Overnight FedEx tracking # they've just sent me"
But Texas Warranty center, in a final act of total clutziness, entered Fed Ex ground.
6) I apologize for the long message, but to me it is a different way of approaching the problem cited in this thread:
From what it sounds like, the problem is isolated to Korea and the way it was advertised there offcially in HTC stores, on websites, in TV ads. And, based on what others are saying, it seems to be an aberrartion from the norm - where it was NOT advertised that way elsewhere.
CONCLUSIONS: I am sorry to say that I agree with other person that you will not get an apology because it would be a legal admission of wrongdoing; and that is a legal liability that would immediately make them in breech of so many things -- there is no way they are going to voluntarily put themselves in that position.
This is why they will lie to you and then chnage their ads. It is despicable and deplorable. But in this case -- and I know this is a horrible thing to hear -- you have only a few choices: a) you will not get what you want, that is unless you want to devote your life to this for the principle of it, and allocate about $100,000 minimum in legal costs to bring about litigation for false advertisement or fraud or deception IN KOREA. I strongly advise you not do this. b) you do as you have said you will do: punish with your pocketbook, and refuse to buy their products anymore. And given you are an opinion leader, you take down the business that would come from colleagues of yours, ripping it away from HTC.
NOTE: I understand that what this LACKS is moral satisfaction: When someone smugly tells you "if you don't like it, you can sue us", you want to smack them in the face for such arrogance and disrespect for a customer. And I know exactly how it feels. You want them to FEEL the loss of your business.
Well, look, they may not. They probably won't.
But thus is what I told the honcho at Corporate at HTC, expecially after the 3rd and 4th screwup:
"Listen, may I ask how long you have worked for HTC?"
"3 years"
"Okay. ... And in Stafford it was 2 years. And in Escalations is was 3 and a half years. I don't mean this with any attitude at all, but I doubt very seriously that you can find very many people, IF ANY, working there at HTC AMERICA who have been working there longer than I have been buying your phones, 7 years. You see, I know your products way better than you do. And you need to understand how disrespectful it is to have some automaton in Warranty Repair in Texas read off of a screen, get my RMA wrong, and tell me my phone has had its seal broken and I tell them no it hasn't, and they sternly tell me yes it has and we have pictures -- only to then say "what was that RMA again" --- and I tell them again, and then they say "I was looking at the one under yours; how can I help you"... and you need to start understanding you better respect your customers because HTC has just a sliver of marketshare now, and it is very expensive to create a new customr, and a lot cheaper to keep an existing one. So when your operation saves you a nickel and dime and you treat people the way you have been, you're losing customers, and that is not a growth business. And if you would permit me I would like to add this one fact to that:
At the start of 2010, when the droid came out and the Nexus One came out, I saw the stats and breakdowns of Android devices, and I just figured that with HTC having invented the first touchscreen smartphones, that they were probably ranked maybe #3 or so. They weren't. They were wany down maybe #8, and a tiny fraction. I was very astounded. So I really think you should give thought to what I am saying. ...."
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So, I just want to say that despite the flood of product models HTC has every quarter -- and despite the fact that I still love their phones, I am getting a bad taste in my mouth. And HTC China better wake up -- they better get a handle on their international operation, because they don't have a handle on it right now, that is for certain.
One last comment: Blow off the jerks who come onto these threads and scold you with "you shoulda done your homework". I've been at these forums now a good # of years -- a lot of the people who've been here longer have left, they've moved on since the site changed hands. But this type is very familiar. Whether on this forum or any tech forum. They're a breed of know it alls you;d like to just squash with your shoe like a cockroach. They add no value. They're just around to **** on other people - and they generally take great delight in it. Do your best to ignore them. They usually can't stand me -- and believe me the feeling is mutual.
/quicksite
[email protected] said:
I've checked with HTC Taiwan (supposed to be like a headquarter I guess) and they said it's no Super LCD in any technical terms. Super just means that the size of LCD is SUPER BIG.
It's just a regular TFT-LCD.
In addition, there was a case in Denmark where a wireless service provider gave out a full refund for the false advertisement of HTC's Desire HD's LCD.
Idk why a service provider would give out a refund but in some part of this globe they acknowledge the problem and take the full responsibility for it I guess.
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well, yeah, cuz in some parts of the world people continue to consume their business in a professional fashion, which in the usa,this concept will most probably fade away with att buying tmobile ... still , this cant help but remind me about the bad screen/ good screen on the glacier ( which is a variation of dhd for tmo), still,tmo accepted their bad ( dont know exactly if in htc name to or not) and exchanged it for me... twice !!! thats why one gets his 14 to 30 days right to return a sub advertised or deffected device that shoudnt of passed QC ... of course,if htc is that sneaky with their loyal fanbase, they should be asheamed of them selfs, but that doesnt mean they are less the innovators they are ... imo !
Thank you very much for your thoughtful tip..
I've had my eyes sucked into the monitor while reading your post... so true and so ..empathetic... it feels like I was that consumer in your post.
My head is just too occupied with my work and this cherry to top off. I may need to re-think my strategy here... or quit.
But I appreciate your concern and help. Thank you.
hungry81 said:
I was feeling sympathy for you untill I googled SAMOLED vs SLCD and found many many informative comparasons between the two (many actually comparing SAMOLED desires with SLCD desires), and in all the ones I have seen SAMOLED is better in power consumption and in veiwing angle, but SLCD is not far behind in terms of normal use clarity.
As with crapple dont fall for company propaganda, and ALWAYS do your own research.
I wont be boycotting HTC, as I like many of their devices including the Desire but I wont automatically purchase their latest device either.
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I was about to side with you on the assessment of S-LCD till you dis'd Apple. The iPhone 4 LCD is the best there is for common LCD tech and, according to me simply looking at my iPhone 4 and SAMOLED equipped Samsung Focus, has just as good of viewing angle. My HTC Inspire (Desire HD) has excellent viewing angle but it isn't as good as my iPhone 4.
[email protected] said:
...
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I did a cursory comparison of my HTC Inspire (AT&T Desire HD) and my HTC HD2. The HD2 has a common LCD (non-TFT) and the Inspire is suppose to have a S-LCD (TFT, IPS). I pulled up the same picture on both units and they look very much the same. The Inspire has deeper and richer colors, but both units look the same in viewing angle. There is no difference in the viewing angle that my eye can detect.
For reference, a TFT LCD is the best type of LCD. The iPhone 4 uses a TFT LCD and is the same as a Super LCD or IPS type LCD. My opinion would be that the Inspire has a common LCD (non-TFT) as it is almost identical to the known common LCD (non TFT) of the HD2.
I wish you well in your campaign and hope you are successful.
Related
So, as someone living and working in China, I've been super excited following up on the Xiaomi Phone. When they released the price as 2000 RMB (about $310 USD), I knew it had to be fake, or there was some serious funny business. The numbers just don't add up.
Engadget recently had a review of the Xiaomi phone and had it benchmarking near the Galaxy S 2 in several tests, so I think it makes sense to compare these two:
SGS 2 Advantages: Super AMOLED screen; 4.3 inch screen (vs 4 inch); forward facing camera; 1080p video recording (vs 720p); onboard storage (16 GB vs 4 GB); slightly smaller footprint.
Xiaomi Advantages: Price; processor speed (1.5 Ghz vs 1.2); battery (1930 mAh vs 1650); GLONASS and GPS tracking; highly customizable UI out of the box.
In China, the SGS2 retails for about 4300 RMB (about $670 USD). So how does a phone which is in the SGS2's ballpark retail for less than half the price?
It gets even more peculiar. Here are some questions Xiaomi hasn't cleared up(or at least I haven't seen their responses yet):
1) Xiaomi uses a Qualcomm processor and a LCD screen from Sharp (Japanese import). So they can't be using local parts to save costs, how are they able to offer the phone at only $310?
2) Local competitors like Huawei and ZTE who have much more experience in manufacturing (and much more leverage with suppliers) have yet to produce a phone remotely like this. Also, their closest local competition in terms of specs is something like the Huawei Honor, a single core phone that retails for about $400. Yet Xiaomi, which has never produced hardware before is getting better deals than these guys on components? Samsung also does component development in-house, but Xiaomi is getting better pricing than Samsung?
3) Xiaomi was originally a software developer. How did they pull a piece of impressive hardware like this out of nowhere?
4) Why retail for $310? They could sell it for $500 and it would still be way cheaper than an SGS2. Hell, I paid more than 2000 RMB for the crappy 2 year old Nokia I'm still using over here.
My Chinese is OK so I've been trying to read more on the Xiaomi forums, but I haven't really gotten any new information, other than there's something like 300,000 preorders already. I figure there's got to be some serious funny business going on. Probably:
a) ridiculous free loans and/or development assistance from the government to built up national prestige; or
b) copying another phone's internals verbatim; or
c) fake components of some kind
It looked really smooth in the Engadget video, so I'm inclined to be believe it's option A. Good for consumers I guess, but probably lousy if you're a Chinese taxpayer. Any ideas on why the price is so low?
Smaller companies tend to do these kind of things.
However I'm interested as well.
I believe that it's one part 'a' and another that generally huawei and zte have primarily been marketed for export (to SE Asia, India, EU) but the government is really trying to subsidize local start ups to fight imports (like HTC, Sony, etc...) and get Chinese to spend their money on Chinese things. But if a Chinese phone were 3000 RMB and a Korean or Japanese phone was also 3000 RMB, no one would get the Chinese phone for obvious reasons.
so basically you just made up a thread without any evidence and full of speculation accusing Xiaomi not being legit.
india are making ARM Cortex 9 phones with 4 GB for only $35
if they can do it, so can china
lol
Mmmhmm .
I don't why people have so much comments , no offence though .
Forever living in my Galaxy Ace using XDA App
I support you , and do your know meizu'M9 or MX?
hehe
it is good for everyone. thank you!
AllGamer said:
india are making ARM Cortex 9 phones with 4 GB for only $35
if they can do it, so can china
lol
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Seriously?
cdesai said:
Seriously?
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yes, there is a post with the pictures and spec here in the forum
aprox 5 days old
it's made for the india school system
Hi it's my first post and I have no exact figures to support this other than a simple comparison to another industry.
I remember hearing from someone that the mark up on mobile phones (this was a while ago) was a few hundred percent. Remember that it doesn't cost 800 dollars to make a phone and the people that usually make it in third world manufacturing companies or places with poor working conditions only get paid a few dollars an hour to make your 800 dollar phones.
our
My comparison industry is optometry. The following information comes from someone I know who is an optometrist:
"Frames like Gucci and Prada cost $3 per frame to make. In the stores you pay $500 dollars to buy them. That is an insane mark up. However they can't retail it cheaper because of an agreement in place to prevent the devaluation of the brand."
I am sure the same thing happens in the cell phone industry.
Just thought that this might put the legitimacy of the phone in perspective.
Thanks for your time.
andao79 said:
So, as someone living and working in China, I've been super excited following up on the Xiaomi Phone. When they released the price as 2000 RMB (about $310 USD), I knew it had to be fake, or there was some serious funny business. The numbers just don't add up.
Engadget recently had a review of the Xiaomi phone and had it benchmarking near the Galaxy S 2 in several tests, so I think it makes sense to compare these two:
SGS 2 Advantages: Super AMOLED screen; 4.3 inch screen (vs 4 inch); forward facing camera; 1080p video recording (vs 720p); onboard storage (16 GB vs 4 GB); slightly smaller footprint.
Xiaomi Advantages: Price; processor speed (1.5 Ghz vs 1.2); battery (1930 mAh vs 1650); GLONASS and GPS tracking; highly customizable UI out of the box.
In China, the SGS2 retails for about 4300 RMB (about $670 USD). So how does a phone which is in the SGS2's ballpark retail for less than half the price?
It gets even more peculiar. Here are some questions Xiaomi hasn't cleared up(or at least I haven't seen their responses yet):
1) Xiaomi uses a Qualcomm processor and a LCD screen from Sharp (Japanese import). So they can't be using local parts to save costs, how are they able to offer the phone at only $310?
2) Local competitors like Huawei and ZTE who have much more experience in manufacturing (and much more leverage with suppliers) have yet to produce a phone remotely like this. Also, their closest local competition in terms of specs is something like the Huawei Honor, a single core phone that retails for about $400. Yet Xiaomi, which has never produced hardware before is getting better deals than these guys on components? Samsung also does component development in-house, but Xiaomi is getting better pricing than Samsung?
3) Xiaomi was originally a software developer. How did they pull a piece of impressive hardware like this out of nowhere?
4) Why retail for $310? They could sell it for $500 and it would still be way cheaper than an SGS2. Hell, I paid more than 2000 RMB for the crappy 2 year old Nokia I'm still using over here.
My Chinese is OK so I've been trying to read more on the Xiaomi forums, but I haven't really gotten any new information, other than there's something like 300,000 preorders already. I figure there's got to be some serious funny business going on. Probably:
a) ridiculous free loans and/or development assistance from the government to built up national prestige; or
b) copying another phone's internals verbatim; or
c) fake components of some kind
It looked really smooth in the Engadget video, so I'm inclined to be believe it's option A. Good for consumers I guess, but probably lousy if you're a Chinese taxpayer. Any ideas on why the price is so low?
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I'd get the M9 or M9x ( or something.. Quad Core? HELLOOOOO )
I don't see why someone would get a device ONLY for Miui, most phones out there have a build of MIUI.
You really think that $600 phone costs $600 to make?
The markup on electrical goods from brand names can be over 200%
My point is not really related to the idea of a markup, I KNOW all cell phones have a dramatic markup, and I read not long ago an iPhone 4 costs about $180 to make, while they retail for something like $600 out of contract.
I'm more interested in a) How did this company come out of nowhere with this sort of hardware? and b) They don't NEED to sell it for 2000 RMB for it to be a hit. They could have sold it for $400-450 and it would have still been a hell of a lot cheaper than a Galaxy S 2.
That, coupled with the fact that the big guns in China (Meizu, Huawei, ZTE) are not even in the same ballpark with specs or price, is really weird.
If i can demo one and it works well, i'll definitely pick one up, but there must be some serious funny business behind the scenes.
Why must there be funny business?
Well, you can build a cheap phone if you want.
The question is: can you sell it cheap?
Operating costs, brand advertisement etc. They have no problem there, they just build a phone having no ad space on western media.They can do it, they are smart enough.Plus: we enthusiasts are their advertisement plan, we buy it for cheap, all our friends will buy it.
It's a win win scenario.My 2 eurocents.
andao79 said:
My point is not really related to the idea of a markup, I KNOW all cell phones have a dramatic markup, and I read not long ago an iPhone 4 costs about $180 to make, while they retail for something like $600 out of contract.
I'm more interested in a) How did this company come out of nowhere with this sort of hardware? and b) They don't NEED to sell it for 2000 RMB for it to be a hit. They could have sold it for $400-450 and it would have still been a hell of a lot cheaper than a Galaxy S 2.
That, coupled with the fact that the big guns in China (Meizu, Huawei, ZTE) are not even in the same ballpark with specs or price, is really weird.
If i can demo one and it works well, i'll definitely pick one up, but there must be some serious funny business behind the scenes.
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The issue is risk. Do you risk spending $300 on a new unknown brand or do you spend $450 on a noname brand when you can get a well known brand for $600?
There is obviously going to be a greater curve of buyers the lower the price you go and finding the balance is where your marketers need mettle. I think the current price is going to be very good to get users into buying the phone. Obviously, if they can become the new HTC, their markup is going to increase hugely.
My concern is going to be: at ~$300, what is the customer service going to be like? HTC's is mediocre here in the UK, but if Vodafone, Orange et al resell this phone, it's going to be VERY attractive to us as the carriers are held responsible until end of warranty.
russ18uk said:
The issue is risk. Do you risk spending $300 on a new unknown brand or do you spend $450 on a noname brand when you can get a well known brand for $600?
There is obviously going to be a greater curve of buyers the lower the price you go and finding the balance is where your marketers need mettle. I think the current price is going to be very good to get users into buying the phone. Obviously, if they can become the new HTC, their markup is going to increase hugely.
My concern is going to be: at ~$300, what is the customer service going to be like? HTC's is mediocre here in the UK, but if Vodafone, Orange et al resell this phone, it's going to be VERY attractive to us as the carriers are held responsible until end of warranty.
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Just to clarify, the retailer is responsible until you have had a reasonable amount of use out of it irrespective of warranty
The law doesn't care about warranties, they're in the best case an agreement that the device will be repaired without the need to take legal action, and in the worst case used to illegally convince consumers they have no rights.
Take my Sensation, afaik it has a 12month warranty.
Say the screen dies after 18 months, I'll be demanding O2 repair or replace it otherwise I'll be contacting trading standards as being a phone provided on a 24 month contract I should be able to expect it to last at least 24 months and more especially considering the price when new.
I love being a consumer in the UK
Xiaomo said:
I support you , and do your know meizu'M9 or MX?
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yes~ Meizu much better than xiaomi
kerwin_pig said:
yes~ Meizu much better than xiaomi
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WHY DID YOU DIG UP OLD THREADS
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
I dropped my Sensation and the glass cover of the screen smashed so I sent it back for repair which I fully expected to pay for. What I didnt expect was for them to also charge me for a new Mainboard. I called to query this and was told that the the bootloader had been changed, they had to replace the MB to lock it again in order to provide me with a warranty for the repair.
I explained to them that I thought this was nonsense and I was not fussed about a warranty and just requested that the screen was repaired.
As the phone was dropped, I wouldnt have thought for a minute that the phone would be fixed under warranty so what is their beef?
Was there not a press release from HTC saying that they were going to remove S-On from new devices? Does anyone have a link to this?
I'm now left with the option of paying £260 for the repair or have it returned for £23 which I'm thinking of doing then selling it on ebay.
Pretty gutted and disappointed at HTC
They weren't going to remove S-ON, they have offered the ability to unlock the bootloader. 2 VERY different things
It does seem a bit rubbish they've done that, though. They shouldn't care what else is up with the phone if all you want to do is pay for the repair of the screen
Ah, that makes sense.
Yup, I'm pretty upset to be honest that they've got me over a barrel regarding repair.
de-v8 said:
Ah, that makes sense.
Yup, I'm pretty upset to be honest that they've got me over a barrel regarding repair.
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I'm sorry to say that this isn't really anything new. My experience of HTC customer care in the UK is that they are absolutely awful from start to finish. At one point I swore I would never buy another one of their devices, but briefly owning an Acer and a Samsung revealed problems too.
If you search you'll find various complaints on XDA from people who have sent in phones with one problem only to find they have another on arrival despite careful packaging (the screen is suddenly broken, it is suddenly water damaged etc).
It might just be whoever HTC uses to do servicing and warranty work in the UK and not HTC themselves that are the problem. I don't know enough about this so I am only guessing, but I would suggest it might be worth trying to get hold of someone in HTC Europe/Worldwide and asking them to intervene on your behalf. Just emphasize that you only want to pay for the screen to be repaired and that if some gorilla has broken the main board whilst trying to replace it, that simply isn't your fault (I'm guessing that's what has really happened). Try emailing a tech site like Crave for some publicity? If HTC are insisting on charging everyone who sends in a phone with a broken screen which also has a custom ROM on it for a new main board.....well, that's just plain wrong isn't it?
My sentiment exactly.
I'm not expecting a warranty, although it would be alarming to get the unit back fixed to find another fault.
Surely the whole point is that I've requested a repair that I'm happy to pay for, they're demanding on a much bigger and unnecessary repair to fulfil it.
WRONG
I don't really understand why the firmware would need to be locked to guarentee a screen repair anyway? And why wouldn't they just flash new firmware to the existing phone - why would the main board need to be changed? People flash back to original firmware here all the time. It just doesn't smell right to me, but once again, I am FAR from an expert on the subject. You could just call their bluff and ask for the phone back and pay the return fee.
If you're in email correspondence with them and they haven't already done so in writing I'd ask them to put into writing why replacing the screen requires a new main board; why does new formware have to be flashed to the device to guarentee a hardware repair? Why can't the new firmware be flashed to the existing main board? I'd also exlpain as politely as possible that you are disatisfied with their explanation and ask them for a point of contact directly with someone at HTC to act as an ombudsman, or just tell them that you'll be contacting HTC directly to ask them to interevene.
Sounds like pure scam. It would be equivalent to dropping off your car for a windscreen repair and being told you need a new injection system because the exhaust has been modified. If you don't pay for the new injection system they can't fix the windscreen but you can have your car back unrepaired for $100 fee. Obviously the mechanic would be in court for fraud very quickly if someone took it to the police.
What we have here is some dodgy individuals preying on the general public, I can say this is not typical of HTC service in my country at least. I wonderful if they would even change the mainboard or simply flash an ruu and claim they had done so. Don't know what legal recourse is available in the UK but you should at the least report the matter to HTC global. These scumbags are after all damaging the reputation of the HTC brand and I'm sure that if they receive a number of complaints they will have to do something about the situation.
Sent from my Acer Iconia A500 using Tapatalk
Same story over and over...
http://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=...id=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=bad+htc+customer+service
bonesy said:
Same story over and over...
http://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=...id=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=bad+htc+customer+service
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After reading some of those I'm glad I live in a country where that kind of behaviour is illegal under consumer protection laws. Looks like I was wrong when I said that sort of behaviour isn't normal of HTC worldwide. It appears the only reason HTC behave here is that they would get murdered by the legal system, not to mention the negative publicity attached to that.
Sent from my Acer Iconia A500 using Tapatalk
dr.m0x said:
After reading some of those I'm glad I live in a country where that kind of behaviour is illegal under consumer protection laws. Looks like I was wrong when I said that sort of behaviour isn't normal of HTC worldwide. It appears the only reason HTC behave here is that they would get murdered by the legal system, not to mention the negative publicity attached to that.
Sent from my Acer Iconia A500 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
It's really weird because we have a pretty robust Sale of Goods act over here, but even that doesn't sem to count for that much these days. In theory goods have to be fit for purpose and, in theory, last a certain length of time - if not, a consumer should be able to return the item for a refund. These days however, even in retail stores, if something fails outside of 28 days many places insist on having it repaired. Online retailers often insist that one sends a phone back to the manufacturer for repair if it fails after a month which simply isn't right.
We're also fairly well known for putting up with higher prices in the Uk than other parts of Europe and the rest of the world. It's bizarre, but we just seem to take c**p from our retail sector here in the UK, whether it be cars, phones or tvs.
You'd think bad publicity would force the likes of HTC to really raise their game, but it just doesn't seem to (although, unfotunately, the fact that de-v8 has actually managed to get hold of HTC customer support more than once IS an improvement; way better than my experiences in 2008/9).
Tech journalists over here don't help us either. So many just hype the hell out of everything and get on board with the marketing claims manufacturers make about a new chip or a CMOS sensor and don't point out obvious discrepancies or flaws. Well, sometimes they do so belatedly by saying 'oh yeah the HTC Touch Pro always was dog slow because the VGA res. screen and TouchFlo always was too much for the SoC. Of course, a year earlier they had claimed it change one's life for the better ; )
Obviously this doesn't help de-v8 as his scenario is slightly different as it was a paid repair in the first place, but he's clearly being fleeced.
Should have replied sooner.
HTC offered me a full repair free of charge. It pays to stand your ground!
Sent from my HTC Sensation using TapAtalk
Hey all,
Owned this watch for three days now and, while I love the look and industrial design, I was shocked to find a hairline crack in the glass right around the 6 o'clock position.
There is not a scratch on the case - not one - and the device has not been dropped. This is my third Samsung smart watch and I own a handful of reasonably exotic automatics/mechanicals. I'm not new to owning nice stuff on my wrist.
On a call to Samsung customer support, they said, without even having seen the watch, "That's physical damage and won't be covered under warranty." Three days old, not a mark... and my new watch is severely compromised. Here's hoping I just got a bad piece of Gorilla Glass and this not represent the first of many glass failures.
I'm hoping Samsung steps up to the plate and looks after this directly as Best Buy does not have the inventory to exchange my defective watch but, from their initial reply, I'm not too confident. I wish they had elected to use sapphire glass - like ALL nice watches rather than Gorilla Glass.
PICTURE ATTACHED.
So sad. First I had to give up my stunning Note 7, now this...
Holy crap. Brutal. Let us know how that works out - good luck!!
Sounds like you're going to be taken care of, though you might be without a watch for a longer period of time then you'd prefer. Perhaps the lesson for everyone is that its worth considering buying an extended warranty, which can be purchased within 30 days of sale. Best Buy has a pretty good one for $70 with no deductible. Square Trade also offers them starting at $55 with a deductible.
Samsung has stopped communicating via their Facebook Customer Service team after making a statement promising to "escalate" the matter.
Looks like they are not very proactive in resolving customer issues in a positive way. Very disappointing given all the support I've given Samsung. I've voted with my wallet in their favour from TVs to SSDs to portable devices. And now they don't step up.
axial_pro said:
Samsung has stopped communicating via their Facebook Customer Service team after making a statement promising to "escalate" the matter.
Looks like they are not very proactive in resolving customer issues in a positive way. Very disappointing given all the support I've given Samsung. I've voted with my wallet in their favour from TVs to SSDs to portable devices. And now they don't step up.
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Did you purchase the watch directly from Samsung or third party seller or store?
Ryland
Ryland Johnson said:
Did you purchase the watch directly from Samsung or third party seller or store?
Ryland
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Best Buy
axial_pro said:
Best Buy
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Then the responsibility lies with Best buy and not Samsung. That is GOOD news as outlets tend to be a lot more helpful than Samsung sales or Samsung importers.
You must return your watch to Best buy and insist upon a replacement. It is difficult to asses from the picture but that does appear to be a crack and not the result of a ding. I can see no point of impact that has caused the crack and surmise the problem could be one of pressure caused by a badly placed crystal.
Its always going to be a battle with this sort of thing. I hope you speak with the manager of Best buy and the watch is replaced.
Let us know how things develop.
Ryland
Ryland Johnson said:
Then the responsibility lies with Best buy and not Samsung. That is GOOD news as outlets tend to be a lot more helpful than Samsung sales or Samsung importers.
You must return your watch to Best buy and insist upon a replacement. It is difficult to asses from the picture but that does appear to be a crack and not the result of a ding. I can see no point of impact that has caused the crack and surmise the problem could be one of pressure caused by a badly placed crystal.
Its always going to be a battle with this sort of thing. I hope you speak with the manager of Best buy and the watch is replaced.
Let us know how things develop.
Ryland
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I agree that Best Buy is the cleanest and simplest means of resolution. However, they have no stock to facilitate an exchange. I was also considering that Samsung may actually be inclined to satisfy a loyal customer given their current corporate challenges.
Further to that angle, I thought they may be genuinely concerned that this crystal spontaneously broke. Were it my product, I would want to understand the failure immediately.
I'll keep XDA abreast of the process.
axial_pro said:
I agree that Best Buy is the cleanest and simplest means of resolution. However, they have no stock to facilitate an exchange. I was also considering that Samsung may actually be inclined to satisfy a loyal customer given their current corporate challenges.
Further to that angle, I thought they may be genuinely concerned that this crystal spontaneously broke. Were it my product, I would want to understand the failure immediately.
I'll keep XDA abreast of the process.
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Click to collapse
That's a problem.
Samsung is a beast of a company, they are so large and diverse they probably had a hand, forgive the pun, in the manufacture of our underwear and shoes! When a business the size of Samsung grows so mega large an awful lot of what we call customer service goes out of the window.
I am one of 'those' customers who went through the Note 7 fiasco TWICE so I have first hand experience of just how poor Samsung is with customer care. The intentions in Korea may well be decent but they appear to hold zero influence of the global importers so different countries importers operate in different ways or don't operate at all!
In this country Samsung itself sub contracts all imports! Never heard the like of it before! Meant hell trying to sort out the Note 7 problem.
It is a real pain when we wait and wait for a product to hit the stores only to find we have a problem. I would again suggest you return your watch to Best buy within the return time and wait it out for new stock. A cracked screen has rendered your watch useless in any case so return it. Problem will be IF Best buy say the problem is customer caused or they send it to Samsung who will certainly say that regardless.
I do think Best buy is your only hope of resolving this matter.
Oh and BTW I don't think either Best buy nor Samsung give a hoot if they loose a loyal customer, plenty more where they came from..... Its a brave new world eh!
Ryland
I just ordered one from best buy online the other day, and it's already shipped, so they have stock at their warehouse.
Ericthegreat777 said:
I just ordered one from best buy online the other day, and it's already shipped, so they have stock at their warehouse.
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Best Buy Canada does not. The Frontier has even been removed from their website.
i have exactly the same issue, after 2 weeks
I have exactly the same issue after 2 weeks, Did Samsung come to the party?, if not what did it cost to get it repaired?
Cheers,
Gary
axial_pro said:
Hey all,
Owned this watch for three days now and, while I love the look and industrial design, I was shocked to find a hairline crack in the glass right around the 6 o'clock position.
There is not a scratch on the case - not one - and the device has not been dropped. This is my third Samsung smart watch and I own a handful of reasonably exotic automatics/mechanicals. I'm not new to owning nice stuff on my wrist.
On a call to Samsung customer support, they said, without even having seen the watch, "That's physical damage and won't be covered under warranty." Three days old, not a mark... and my new watch is severely compromised. Here's hoping I just got a bad piece of Gorilla Glass and this not represent the first of many glass failures.
I'm hoping Samsung steps up to the plate and looks after this directly as Best Buy does not have the inventory to exchange my defective watch but, from their initial reply, I'm not too confident. I wish they had elected to use sapphire glass - like ALL nice watches rather than Gorilla Glass.
PICTURE ATTACHED.
So sad. First I had to give up my stunning Note 7, now this...
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Click to collapse
axial_pro said:
Best Buy Canada does not. The Frontier has even been removed from their website.
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I'm not sure what you're looking at but they certainly do have them on their website and in stores, even on sale.
http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...rt-rate-monitor-sm-r760ndaaxac/10488762.aspx?
Tel864 said:
I'm not sure what you're looking at but they certainly do have them on their website and in stores, even on sale.
http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...rt-rate-monitor-sm-r760ndaaxac/10488762.aspx?
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My post was five months ago, dude. I would indeed expect that the inventory situation has evolved.
In Turkey glass replacement costs as much as a new watch.. It means it is NOT covered with guarantee AND they do not do it.. they just want you to throw it away.. bastards..
In case anyone is considering buying their phone (or any items) from this criminal company, I just want to emphasise the dangers of buying from them. I've been through 7 months of hell in an attempt to get my Samsung S7 Edge back from them. It seems they are never going to send it back to me. £500 down the drain and lots of anger and distress.
This is the story:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/58ab865ff434950bc4fe0860
And a previous thread looking for advice on XDA: https://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/help/received-phone-screen-fix-looks-t3506196
As they are priced very competitively, it may be attractive and tempting to bite the bullet and buy from China. That's why I bought the S7. I felt confident in a Samsung product. If the item works flawlessly and never fails, you are going to be happy. But if anything fails you will lose out big time as they ARE NOT willing to help in case of faulty equipment. Instead, their strategy is to exhaust you with non-answers until you simply give up. I am not rolling over though.
Stay far far away from this company.
I can imagine your troubles and exactly imagine how exhausting this may be. However one overall valid rule in buying from China is that the tempting cheap price in the beginning may be very expensive afterwards. This is just a risk you need to be willing to take. Your experience is not limited to eglobal or anyone else but applies to this part of business in General. Also, it is a bit harsh to call them "criminals" though I can fully follow your point of view and conclusion.
I was living in China for some time and it is just common in their understanding that you buy things as they are. There's generally no such thing as warranty. Once the business is concluded everyone goes its own way. There's even no service line built up that a distributor has anyone in contract for repairs. This is just the practice over there and it meets our high level service expectations on the other end of the world. I don't think they want to cheat you but they just don't know how to deal with that all along with their boss requiring that no business should be done with loss (which limits the budget for such handling).
All those shops coming up recent days they are just trying to get a small piece of the cake. They even don't get their products from the manufacturer but through third party shops whom they cannot turn to out of the reasons mentioned in case of any problem. And to be clear: I am absolutely against those businesses and aside of some known sellers for Chinese phones I would never buy anything of value from such websites / ebay / Amazon.
So you ship your phone to your Warehouse and it goes with the next batch to China (most probably someone takes it flying there to avoid the paper work for import) and over there they are trying to find a small shop who may be able to do this or not. After that it goes the way back it came. Seriously, don't expect too much. They're already doing more than maybe most of such shops would be doing.
However, if I'm not mistaken eGlobal is despite many other sites with a UK company behind. The people are pretty much the same but you would be able to take legal action as UK law and - most important - Court applies. In the end you would be able to seize their Warehouse if a judge finds your claims are true. Unfortunately especially in UK such Limited companies are easily shut down and re-opened under a different name.
To sum it up: Buying from such Chinese sources goes always without any liability and warranty from seller and you should be prepared for total loss in worst case.
andiling said:
I can imagine your troubles and exactly imagine how exhausting this may be. However one overall valid rule in buying from China is that the tempting cheap price in the beginning may be very expensive afterwards. This is just a risk you need to be willing to take. Your experience is not limited to eglobal or anyone else but applies to this part of business in General. Also, it is a bit harsh to call them "criminals" though I can fully follow your point of view and conclusion.
I was living in China for some time and it is just common in their understanding that you buy things as they are. There's generally no such thing as warranty. Once the business is concluded everyone goes its own way. There's even no service line built up that a distributor has anyone in contract for repairs. This is just the practice over there and it meets our high level service expectations on the other end of the world. I don't think they want to cheat you but they just don't know how to deal with that all along with their boss requiring that no business should be done with loss (which limits the budget for such handling).
All those shops coming up recent days they are just trying to get a small piece of the cake. They even don't get their products from the manufacturer but through third party shops whom they cannot turn to out of the reasons mentioned in case of any problem. And to be clear: I am absolutely against those businesses and aside of some known sellers for Chinese phones I would never buy anything of value from such websites / ebay / Amazon.
So you ship your phone to your Warehouse and it goes with the next batch to China (most probably someone takes it flying there to avoid the paper work for import) and over there they are trying to find a small shop who may be able to do this or not. After that it goes the way back it came. Seriously, don't expect too much. They're already doing more than maybe most of such shops would be doing.
However, if I'm not mistaken eGlobal is despite many other sites with a UK company behind. The people are pretty much the same but you would be able to take legal action as UK law and - most important - Court applies. In the end you would be able to seize their Warehouse if a judge finds your claims are true. Unfortunately especially in UK such Limited companies are easily shut down and re-opened under a different name.
To sum it up: Buying from such Chinese sources goes always without any liability and warranty from seller and you should be prepared for total loss in worst case.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
I will definitely look into taking legal action. I have friends who are willing to help me out.
I'm now at a point where they pretended to agree on sending me a replacement phone which was "fully functional", but now that I accepted, they claim it needs to be tested and refuse to give me a timeframe.
They are just trying to wear me out mentally. It has been going on for almost 6 months now, but I just become increasingly determined to take them down.
Disgusting people.
R u referring to the "eglobaldogitalcameras(.)com(.)au site? I "almost" ordered from them because they were so cheap...i ended up just renewing contract via another carrier...as i was also concerned about horror stories i heard buying from ebay and other China sites that send flagship samsung and htc smartphones from china or hk to rest of world..
Yesterday morning my phone of the past 14 months decided to drop dead for no good reason. Called Samsung, and they told me I either have to send them the phone for repairs (that could take 2-4 weeks) without a loaner or I could take it to one of their stores. Their closest store to me is their location close to downtown LA about 15-20 miles away from me. Before leaving, I tried to call them in excess of 20 times, and they never picked up. Took a chance and drove there in the middle of rush hour traffic on Friday night to be confronted by absolute buffoons.
They said it's either the battery or the motherboard. Fixing the motherboard isn't worth it, but I could replace the battery for $45 and that may or may not fix the problem. Took a chance and went ahead with battery replacement because based on their description, this was likely a battery issue. My gamble - my loss.
Did I get a call\email\holla\anything?? from them once they found out the motherboard was dead? Nope. Did they ever answer their phone? Nope. Drove back there today in the middle of a very busy and exhausting day just to find out those losers couldn't fix the phone.
The moral of the story is this.... you as a customer mean absolutely nothing to Samsung. Zero customer service. They leave their phones off the hook just because those lazy bastards simply don't give a **** about you, your time, your inconvenience, but they have the audacity to charge you for paperweight.
A company that has a problem with combustible phones, couldn't do any better with customer service!??? maybe? Why would I continue to bash apple and iphone when they have stores nearby, offer loaners, better product, and better customer service? Why would I buy another product from a company that doesn't stand behind its products and treats its customers like ****. Have had S1, S3, S5, and S7E....No more Samsung for me!
wait, don't you got 2 year warranty like everyone? so you don't give a sh** about battery fault or motherboard fault or anything else, just take it to them, and get repaired, no questions what is dead, you don't care..
and never ever heard of that kind of repair shop where you being asked what to replace.. wtf.. that is their job to find out what is wrong, fix it, and test it..
Yup, it's kind of hard to keep slamming Apple when they stand behind their phones, repair them for you and update them the same day the update is available. No waiting 180 days for an update to the next version of the OS and no waiting for security updates that may or may not ever come. I've loved Android and I have really liked many of Samsung's phones in particular, but I think my Android and Samsung days are getting close to being done. There is no rhyme or reason as to why the phones do what they do sometimes, no rhyme or reason as to how badly the battery deteriorates over very little time and no reason why most of these Android vendors simply turn their backs on a flagship phone once it is released because the next latest and greatest thing has arrived. I never thought I would say this, but I think I'm on my way to iPhone Land after my contract with this S7 Edge is up on my carrier.
digitall1982 said:
wait, don't you got 2 year warranty like everyone? so you don't give a sh** about battery fault or motherboard fault or anything else, just take it to them, and get repaired, no questions what is dead, you don't care..
and never ever heard of that kind of repair shop where you being asked what to replace.. wtf.. that is their job to find out what is wrong, fix it, and test it..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung has a 1 year warranty, and this was their official repair shop (see if you can call them):
3150 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 206, Los Angeles, CA 90010-1305
Phone: 213-637-0191
TheIgster said:
Yup, it's kind of hard to keep slamming Apple when they stand behind their phones, repair them for you and update them the same day the update is available. No waiting 180 days for an update to the next version of the OS and no waiting for security updates that may or may not ever come. I've loved Android and I have really liked many of Samsung's phones in particular, but I think my Android and Samsung days are getting close to being done. There is no rhyme or reason as to why the phones do what they do sometimes, no rhyme or reason as to how badly the battery deteriorates over very little time and no reason why most of these Android vendors simply turn their backs on a flagship phone once it is released because the next latest and greatest thing has arrived. I never thought I would say this, but I think I'm on my way to iPhone Land after my contract with this S7 Edge is up on my carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They used to be different than apple. SD cards, replaceable batteries, easier maintenance, unlocked boot-loaders, etc. What's the appeal now? They do the same shady things apple does except that they don't have the backbone of Apple's customer service. After all the note7 disasters, you'd think they'd learn their lessons...nope. They charge top dollar for devices that simply lack quality.
I'm shopping around for a new phone right now, and it's tough switching to iOS. I've despised iOS for a long time, but I might have to get it over with.
pvc_ said:
Samsung has a 1 year warranty, and this was their official repair shop (see if you can call them):
3150 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 206, Los Angeles, CA 90010-1305
Phone: 213-637-0191
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
aha, in US they got only 1 y warranty.. shame..
here in europe 2 year warranty is for all, samsung, lg, sony, etc, etc, except crApple off course.. only 1 y for them..
and that is totally shame for any official repair shop! doesn't matter is it samsung or some other brand...
repair shop must do their job, not offer what to repair.. it's just stupid, funny, insane, and thanks god not possible in europe..
in here customers have more rights i think... and repair shops (of any brand) just do their job
pvc_ said:
They used to be different than apple. SD cards, replaceable batteries, easier maintenance, unlocked boot-loaders, etc. What's the appeal now? They do the same shady things apple does except that they don't have the backbone of Apple's customer service. After all the note7 disasters, you'd think they'd learn their lessons...nope. They charge top dollar for devices that simply lack quality.
I'm shopping around for a new phone right now, and it's tough switching to iOS. I've despised iOS for a long time, but I might have to get it over with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you despise IOS why don't you get a Pixel or wait for the new one? Instant updates and I assume better customer service than Samsung.
The problem is Samsung is sourcing a local company for the "privelage" of them being their official stores/service centers. In the UK I think it's CPW. In my country it's MemoXpress. All Samsung stores are run by said company for that country. They aren't Samsung at all. Same goes actually for Apple in my country. There is no Apple Care here, just some chain of stores called PowerMac who has a deal with Apple to be their local tie-up company.
So basically, whatever Android brand you go to in the US, with the exception of Pixels perhaps, that's what you'll get too. You can file complaints against Samsung though. I remember a case where CPW was unwilling to honor a warranty, the guy contacted Samsung directly who then told CPW to honor the warranty.
Meh while i feel your frustration it happens everywhere with every product.
Not just Samsung, Apple too, any product you find.
Some times you get stores that pride them-self, managers that give a ****, and other times you don't. Its luck and area and just a draw of bad luck if it doesn't go your way.
Focus your anger on making an official complaint to HQ, as other have stated you have gone into a repair shop, They cannot quote you to fix something they have no idea about.
The device has to be diagnosed then quoted and given the choice to repair if you are liable to pay.
This is not just the practise in mobile phones, any repair job goes down this route.
chanchan05 said:
The problem is Samsung is sourcing a local company for the "privelage" of them being their official stores/service centers. In the UK I think it's CPW. In my country it's MemoXpress. All Samsung stores are run by said company for that country. They aren't Samsung at all. Same goes actually for Apple in my country. There is no Apple Care here, just some chain of stores called PowerMac who has a deal with Apple to be their local tie-up company.
So basically, whatever Android brand you go to in the US, with the exception of Pixels perhaps, that's what you'll get too. You can file complaints against Samsung though. I remember a case where CPW was unwilling to honor a warranty, the guy contacted Samsung directly who then told CPW to honor the warranty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, you are right. Samsung has a "contractor" for their aftersales support, or official store in almost every country. Say for me here in Bahrain, Bin Hindi, which is holding the sales and servicing of all Samsung's, they really have a superb service. My wife had splashed her S6 before and Bin Hindi repaired it at no cost and efficiently. Maybe you can contact the "main" Samsung directly and file a complaint so they will take action for the erring "contractor" as it is surely this kind of company affiliated with Samsung will ruin its reputation.
digitall1982 said:
aha, in US they got only 1 y warranty.. shame..
here in europe 2 year warranty is for all, samsung, lg, sony, etc, etc, except crApple off course.. only 1 y for them..
and that is totally shame for any official repair shop! doesn't matter is it samsung or some other brand...
repair shop must do their job, not offer what to repair.. it's just stupid, funny, insane, and thanks god not possible in europe..
in here customers have more rights i think... and repair shops (of any brand) just do their job
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Europe (at least in Portugal), Apple only gives 1year warranty. BUT the store has to give 2years. So, Apple gives 1Year, the Store gives another year (at their expenses).
How can so many people defend Apple, when they take everything from you? Hmmm, they charged the highest price possible for repairs or hardware, and do it at their own shop by the hour too. Their products are never DIY like Android phones. You really play around with an Iphone and they complain about it. You are forced to take your Iphone to a shop to fix. So do not twist things around and try to persuade others to switch. So sick of the Apple fans trying to get us Android users to switch or PC users to switch. There are problems with Apple products just as much or the same as other products. The only reason Apple support is better because they enjoy taking more money and getting it easier. If vampires are real, it is Apple.
If you ever look at Best Buy website for unlocked phones. There are so many, many more Iphones listed as already used and refurbished than any other phone for sale. That does not mean Apple is better, it means more people are not enjoying the phone and taking it back, which to me is bad, not good.