Database Info

ATT Fuze Behaved Badly, Getting Replacement

My mother called me today to tell me her ATT Fuze (running completely stock rom and radio) commited touchscreen suicide. I acted up since the day she got it but it started freaking out badly this afternoon.
Symptoms:
> The phone would call random people in the middle of the night, usually whoever was the last called person during the day it will mysteriously redial at some insane hour of the morning leading to confused call-backs from people going "are you ok? you called but didn't say anything...."
> The phone didn't ring when someone called - people would call her house and say they just left a message on her phone because she didn't answer despite it was sitting there with full bars, never rang, and showed no new voicemail alert until several hours later.
> The Start menu would be stuck in the open position leaving her unable to navigate anywhere on the screen and when that occurred the navi-button would not respond to any directional movement - only clicks to the center.
> The contacts list and calendar randomly opened whenever they felt like it whether or not she touched them or was even near the phone (I've witnessed this happen when no one was within arms reach of the phone and it was just sitting on the kitchen table.
Her device was never dropped, abused, or handled harshly in any way. She took it to her local AT&T store who dismantled it (removed battery, sim, and memory chip) and blew it out with canned air before putting it back together only to have it do the same behaviors all over again with no improvement.
The guy at the counter said "we'll have your replacement tomorrow ma'am" - and that was BEFORE he called into AT&T Warranty Support to get the RMA setup. The Warranty Support person told her that AT&T would send her a brand new replacement unit (not a refurbished unit) via overnight FedEx at their expense, they are giving her 14 business days to get the data/programs/etc... off her current phone and into the new phone and then AT&T will cover FedEx overnight return shipping for the defective handset. They aren't charging her a penny.
Something tells me that some department at AT&T really wants to get their hands on her phone. Maybe there is something they know that they aren't telling us? We're thinking either they pushed some kind of OTA update that failed or they know something is wrong with some of these units that they haven't admitted to the public? I've never heard of them waving all of the replacement fees and providing a brand spanking new device instead of a refurb.... Something smells fishy about their level of urgency for this....
She's bringing her current phone and her laptop to me this coming Saturday so I can sync it one last time, try to install MyMobiler so I can remotely interact with it without futzing with the touch screen, and maybe get most of her stuff off it and into the new one so she can ship it back. I'm going to try and get a complete rom dump too to compare with mine and see if there is anything different between the two. I'll post an update as soon as her and I go over it.

yeah, they treat everyone that way. Unless it comes in a brand new box, then it's a refurb. So don't feel great haha. I'm on my 3rd refurb because ATT is a tool and won't send me a working refurb.

They swore to her that her replacement would be brand new, never opened, still sealed in the box. I'll see if their terminology definition is the same as mine when she brings it over to my place on Saturday for the great data-swap. I'll be sure to post detailed updates. Maybe somehow her problem could answer someone elses issues... we can only hope.

Thats strange man..if my phone started doing that I'd start thinking it was possessed..throw some holy water on it and pray it doesn't short out lol. This is one experience I've had with AT&T over a phone replacement...mind you this wasn't a TP but the process is in no doubt similar.
AT&T (Cingular then) told me over and over again once that a replacement RAZR would be brand spanking new. I ended up getting a refurbished phone twice, both of them weren't working correctly and I sent them both back until I received a brand new phone.
After receiving the refurbished phones and I called them back complaining, they said they "couldn't guarantee" a brand new phone...it was "whatever they had to send off" that they would send off to me. *cough BS cough* But the third time was a charm, working brand new phone. This may not be your case though.
AT&T has always paid for overnight phones with me and paid for return shipping on bad phones. I guess its just their policy or I'm just lucky lol.

[RANT] What's wrong with HTC's repair service center?

I had to send a broken Nexus One for repair, and they received my phone on June 22nd
On 23rd I received the quote for the cost of repair, and I paid it right away
But since then I have not received anything or any update from them. I have been calling customer service at least once a day to track the status, but all they can say is they are working on it
I mean come on, it's almost 2 weeks now and I don't even get updated once?
One representative told me the average turnaround time for repair is 5-7 business days, I call that BS
Anyone else experienced the same thing recently? Or is it always like that?

ctbear said:
I had to send a broken Nexus One for repair, and they received my phone on June 22nd
On 23rd I received the quote for the cost of repair, and I paid it right away
But since then I have not received anything or any update from them. I have been calling customer service at least once a day to track the status, but all they can say is they are working on it
I mean come on, it's almost 2 weeks now and I don't even get updated once?
One representative told me the average turnaround time for repair is 5-7 business days, I call that BS
Anyone else experienced the same thing recently? Or is it always like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sent a Blue Angel to them a couple of years ago and had it back in 4 days i guess it boils down to whats wrong and how much work they have and same as you i was not kept informed so thats still the same

lufc said:
I sent a Blue Angel to them a couple of years ago and had it back in 4 days i guess it boils down to whats wrong and how much work they have and same as you i was not kept informed so thats still the same
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They told me that they need to replace the motherboard and that's it...I'm starting to wonder if anything happened to their system because they said they have been receiving lots of similar calls

I've had nothing but problems with HTC's repair center, I sent in my Kaiser due to several issues. They suggested I send it to them in the original box and needed to give them a credit card so they could charge a fee to diagnose the problem.
Weeks went by and they could not provide a status then one day I get a package delivered with the phone missing the original box and the phone wasn't even packaged for shipping, it was rattling around without even bubble wrap on it.
There wasn't a single note stating what work the performed or if they even charged me. I called and they couldn't tell me anything more than the phone was working within normal guidelines. The D pad was almost falling out the hinges wouldn't keep the phone closed and that was normal.

It's now the 3rd week and I still haven't received my phone
They escalated my case twice but the only thing they can tell me is that the phone is under testing...for the past 2 weeks
What the heck do they need to test for 2 weeks?
I'm going to ask for compensation if it doesn't arrive within this week.

I just got the new desire. The problem i got with the phone is that it discharges electricity and i keep getting zapped by it. So i called up the hotline and was told that i could get a 1 to 1 exchange because it was within 14 days of purchase. So i like a stupid fool brought the phone to the service centre expecting to get it replaced. But that was not the case upon arrival, i was told that it was up to them to decide if they would exchange it. So i had to go back and come again 4 days later as i did not have a spare phone with me. After sending the phone in and waiting for 6 days to get it backthe phone was still giving me problems. So i called up the hotline to find out what was done to the phone. But halfway through the call i had to hang up as i could not stand speaking to that person who could barely speak propper english. I next sent an email to htc. Their reply was that to fix the phone zapping me with electricity was to reflash th ROM. Why the heck would you reflash the ROM for a hardware problem? Now 1 week after getting my phone back i am still trading emails with htc and they can only reply 1 email a day! This is taking forever.
HTC really needs to improve its service centre, helpdesk and email support. This is the last time i am ever getting a htc phone. If you want to see the email conversation between me and htc let me know and i will copy and paste it here.

I don't have a lot of problem with the customer service quality, but I do have lots of problems with the way they communicate between departments
It is now the 20th day since I initiated the repair, and I still don't see the day I would actually get my phone back
I have called the customer service everyday, sometimes multiple times a day, but they have absolutely no way of getting a hold of my phone
Everytime I called, the status of my repair is always "the phone is under final testing". Final test my ass! What the hell are they testing? Some kind of stress test that takes 3 weeks?
They tried to escalate my case but that didn't do sh!t. I tried to contact the repair team directly but guess what they told me, they don't have a phone number!
So what they only do is send email to the repair center about the situation, and I highly doubt they actually check the email at all
I don't know how much I need to wait any longer. What other organization can I contact to help my situation?

Since u got you the google nexus one, have you tried contacting google? Its a long shot but it might work.
I guess you are from the US than if you are not getting **** customer service. I am from asia where english is not the first language of many countries. In singapore where i come from, htc hotline is outsourced to either china or taiwan. You get people who can hardly speak english even if their life depended on it. Mention a few key word and they would reply you like they are reading off a script. Its damn sad that the call centre sucks like this. I never had to deal with the call centre or service center when i was using the touch pro2. Now after this i think i am going to give up on htc and switch to motorola

thongster27 said:
Since u got you the google nexus one, have you tried contacting google? Its a long shot but it might work.
I guess you are from the US than if you are not getting **** customer service. I am from asia where english is not the first language of many countries. In singapore where i come from, htc hotline is outsourced to either china or taiwan. You get people who can hardly speak english even if their life depended on it. Mention a few key word and they would reply you like they are reading off a script. Its damn sad that the call centre sucks like this. I never had to deal with the call centre or service center when i was using the touch pro2. Now after this i think i am going to give up on htc and switch to motorola
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea I live in the US and the representatives on the line are all Americans...
I did try talking to Google...but unfortunately they are only responsible for the sales, so there is very little they can do about repairs

How much did they charge you for the repair. My girlfriend just drop her Droid Inc and the screen crack. I called there repair service to see how much a new screen would be but there closed

Qbfinest83 said:
How much did they charge you for the repair. My girlfriend just drop her Droid Inc and the screen crack. I called there repair service to see how much a new screen would be but there closed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about that...my phone's screen seemed to be fine according to their diagnostic
I think a screen replacement is around USD90?

Things are getting even more ridiculous.
I called 2 days ago on Saturday, and to my surprised they told me that it was finally done with all testing stages and was ready to be shipped.
Delighted, I confirmed with them that I should either receive it on Monday or Tuesday.
This morning I called to obtain a tracking number, and guess what...
IT WENT BACK TO TESTING!
This is in no possible way acceptable. It is already the 4th week since I sent it back for repair, AND THEY ARE STILL TESTING IT! They even pulled it back from the package just to test it again!
WTF is wrong with them? Are they on crack or something? Do they just randomly pick a order, delay the order just to piss the customer off? Because there is absolutely no way to get a hold of them?
Please everyone, I need some advice here.

ctbear said:
Things are getting even more ridiculous.
I called 2 days ago on Saturday, and to my surprised they told me that it was finally done with all testing stages and was ready to be shipped.
Delighted, I confirmed with them that I should either receive it on Monday or Tuesday.
This morning I called to obtain a tracking number, and guess what...
IT WENT BACK TO TESTING!
This is in no possible way acceptable. It is already the 4th week since I sent it back for repair, AND THEY ARE STILL TESTING IT! They even pulled it back from the package just to test it again!
WTF is wrong with them? Are they on crack or something? Do they just randomly pick a order, delay the order just to piss the customer off? Because there is absolutely no way to get a hold of them?
Please everyone, I need some advice here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What i did was to go to htc website look for the feedback and ***** about them. After more than a week of trading email they are finally going to send someone to pick up my phone and deliver a loan phone to me. Not sure how this is going to workout this time.

AT&T complaint

If this is not an appropriate place to make a complaint about a carrier, I apologize and understand if this post is locked, moved, or removed.
I have a Tilt 2 which recently and suddenly began not sending or receiving on its USB port. The phone would charge, but no data would move. In fact, neither the computers nor the phone itself even made notice that a device had been connected. I also noticed the battery discharging abnormally fast. So fast that even with the phone off, the next day, it would not power on. I called AT&T to get the phone replaced as it's less than a year old.
I was put through the ringer, as expected on a first call. I was then forwarded to business tech support where I was met with a seemingly slightly more intelligent person, who obviously had no experience actually using a Windows Mobile device, but had no issue reading from a guided instruction on using a WM6.1 device, for a phone using a WM6.5.
This person then contacted HTC and put me in touch with them, where I got the most intelligent person I'd spoken to all that day (an I work in a call center myself). After software removal and resinstallation as well as option swapping, I was told to take the phone to a store to see if it was both my laptop running Device Center and my desktop running ActiveSync in conjunction with the 4 cables I used, including the stock one, were at fault... I was told if they were, that the phone needed replacement.
Fine.
The next day, I discover the aforementioned battery drain to the point of no power on. I take it to the store, where they are unable to test it as it won't stay on (due to complete discharge), and am instructed to call AT&T's warranty line. I spent the next 12 minutes on the phone with the warranty rep, who, through my description of the problem, decides the best thing to do is to REPLACE THE BATTERY... I asked the rep something to the tune of 'So, are you saying that a failed battery would cause the data port not to work, when the phone is receiving power through the same cable as the data would be going through?'
To which I am replied something like 'Well, sometimes...' at which point I pulled the phone away from my head to avoid screaming at this person. I do not like being treated like an idiot. I have been using WM devices since 2003, and HTC's since 2007. It would be obvious to anyone on these forums that what this phone is doing is a hardware failure. It's been reported multiple times in the Rhodium forum that this is occurring to all forms of the Rhodium.
Anyway, the rep confirmed my information and told me to expect this battery in 2 days. Upon checking the email confirmation, it's an extended battery. Adhesive bandages for broken necks.... Once I got home, I called again and laid out my contempt for this process and negation of the word of the manufacturer. This person connected me to the warranty line and I was greeted by someone who could actually comprehended the problem and did not attempt to point fingers after accusation had been made.
I will be receiving a replacement soon. But I must say, the 2.5 hours spent talking to the collective uninformed reps at AT&T makes me think twice before buying a new device ever again. On the other hand, the singularly knowledgeable rep at HTC was a pleasant surprise. In my line of work (appliances), the relative show of knowledge and comprehension skills far exceeds anything I've encounted in the whole of the company I work for.
Bravo, HTC. Shame on you, AT&T.

Er... could this all have been avoided if you had contacted HTC in the first place? Because that's what your post sounds like. (Just curious!) Or did your warranty only apply though AT&T?

The warranty was through AT&T, per the HTC rep. If there's a manufacturer's warranty as well, I would have much rather went with them.
As a side note to the fiasco, the replacement battery made it to me. I called and was told to keep it.
Here's the best part:
It's an extended battery. The downside? No replacement back cover, so it won't fit in the case... Way to go, AT&T...

Your story is one of the reasons I found myself moving to Big Red last year. My TP2 (RHOD500) has not seen any of the issues mentioned here.
If you want to read about my "adventure" in AT&T-land, check out this thread from my Tilt days.

Returning a bricked/dead captivate...but heres the real issue

I searched over the XDA forums but I couldn't find anything similar to this.
Basically, I had a perfectly working Captivate. I got it from Rogers through a hardware upgrade. Long story short, it got a scratch on it and I wasn't too pleased. It wasn't a big deal to me or anything but if I wanted to sell it in the future it would definitely devalue it significantly. My cousin didn't care though, so I sold it to him. I ended up getting another Captivate as sort of a gift from a friend who had a bunch of gift cards to Future Shop or some store (I paid the difference).
Problem is, my phone is now completely bricked. I followed the tutorials here very closely, they were awesome. The phone is rooted as well. I was using odin try to flash the phone but it never succeeded. The first time I was able to get passed the download screen, and then to some menu and the phone got to the rogers load screen, but then after that it failed. Since then the phone would get stuck at the computer with the cell phone screen. That wasn't a problem to bypass and get to the download screen (there were 2 combos you could use: put in battery/volume down/power or plug in USB/Battery/both volume buttons and power/release volume up). The final attempt happened when using odin I used the proper 512 pit file and the correct PDA file. The phone was recognized by my computer and showed up in Odin (com3). I clicked start, the blue progress bar appeared on the phone and it looked like it was going well. Then all of a sudden the screen turned bright blue and just stopped completely. Then it turned off. And now its completely unresponsive. No combination of batter/USB/power/volume button works at all, it's dead.
Long story short, I spoke with a Rogers tech. He tried to help me out but couldn't do anything. He told me that he'll ship me a new Captivate which I received. He also asked me for my IMEI number, and I gave him the number of my original phone that I sold to my cousin. I'm not sure why I gave him that one, I had the original box in front of me and I just read that, plus I thought that this number is like my ID with rogers or something, I don't know.
Anyways, this phone that I have, because it's a third party phone, rooted, and completely dead, can I send it back or should I just pay for the phone they sent me? Should I take the risk and send it back? My cousin said we can just replace the sticker that has the IMEI number from his phone with my phone, but I don't know about that. If we did that, and Samsung found out, what's the worst that could happen :x Sounds shady...Plus, would Rogers care if the phone I send back is not the original one that I got through them, even though it is a captivate that is with Rogers?
I'm afraid that if we replace the sticker, sure if Rogers looks at that to make sure its my original phone it would get passed them since you can't even turn my phone on...but once it gets to Samsung, can't they look at the internal IMEI number and if they compare that to the sticker....owned?
Thanks

My vote would be to send in the bricked phone. The Rogers tech guy knew that your phone was bricked, so sending in a bricked phone shouldn't be a problem.
If they ask you why it has a different IMEI number than the one you gave them, just explain that you grabbed the wrong box.

Not with rogers but I changed my mind on which of our three I wanted to return to at&t after talking with them and providing my imei number. I originally wanted to warranty mine but decided to send in the wifes because her screen was developing a strange clarity issue. Never heard anything from them on the issue. I would definitely not recommend you trying to swap stickers.

Do NOT tamper with the IMEI number (sticker swapping included). Tampering with it is illegal...

Swapping the sticker will not change the contents of the files inside of /efs which have the IMEI both in plain text and encoded.

Ah thanks for the replies everyone, that was so quick.
I guess my main concern is that if Rogers looks at the IMEI number on my phone sticker, and realizes that its not the same as my original phones that I got through Rogers, they'll send it back. Is that the case, or does my warranty transfer over to my new phone? I'm not even sure if this is a warranty issue though since its definitely passed the 30 day period. Is there a warranty deal that Samsung specifically has with its customers, specifically pertaining to bricking as a result of software upgrades?
Or is this not as much a Rogers issue as it is a Samsung issue? I wish I understood how the process worked...for all I know, my phone has already been approved for shipment to Samsung, so as soon as Rogers receives it, they just send it over to Samsung and they don't care about those details pertaining to a persons Rogers account.
But I'm sure a lot of people are in the situation where they no longer have the original phone they received from their provider, and purchased one from a third party dealer, and something happens to it...what is their condition?
James, I think the reasoning for wanting to switch the sticker was because Rogers knows that the original phones IMEI number is as such, and because they can't turn the phone one they would probably just glance at the number on the label, and then send it off to Samsung. So I was wondering maybe I should call Rogers and tell them I gave them the wrong number? If I do that then, again, would they say that because the phone I"m sending in is not the original one they can't send a replacement and so I'd have to pay for it?

newter55 said:
Not with rogers but I changed my mind on which of our three I wanted to return to at&t after talking with them and providing my imei number. I originally wanted to warranty mine but decided to send in the wifes because her screen was developing a strange clarity issue. Never heard anything from them on the issue. I would definitely not recommend you trying to swap stickers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, that was a great help. Did you have to send it back in your original box for your phone?

The way it works here is you return your phone in the package they sent the refurb in. Just the phone, no cords, battery, etc.

Integrity.

problem? said:
Ah thanks for the replies everyone, that was so quick.
I guess my main concern is that if Rogers looks at the IMEI number on my phone sticker, and realizes that its not the same as my original phones that I got through Rogers, they'll send it back. Is that the case, or does my warranty transfer over to my new phone? I'm not even sure if this is a warranty issue though since its definitely passed the 30 day period. Is there a warranty deal that Samsung specifically has with its customers, specifically pertaining to bricking as a result of software upgrades?
Or is this not as much a Rogers issue as it is a Samsung issue? I wish I understood how the process worked...for all I know, my phone has already been approved for shipment to Samsung, so as soon as Rogers receives it, they just send it over to Samsung and they don't care about those details pertaining to a persons Rogers account.
But I'm sure a lot of people are in the situation where they no longer have the original phone they received from their provider, and purchased one from a third party dealer, and something happens to it...what is their condition?
James, I think the reasoning for wanting to switch the sticker was because Rogers knows that the original phones IMEI number is as such, and because they can't turn the phone one they would probably just glance at the number on the label, and then send it off to Samsung. So I was wondering maybe I should call Rogers and tell them I gave them the wrong number? If I do that then, again, would they say that because the phone I"m sending in is not the original one they can't send a replacement and so I'd have to pay for it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, since your manufacturer warranty is through samsung and that has nothing to do with who sold you the phone, i'd consider giving them a call.
I damaged my IMEI and forgot to make a backup of /efs. I called samsung and explained to them what the deal was. They sent me a postage paid label to ship them my phone and they ended up fixing it for free. They tear it all down, make sure its no physically damaged and fix the software. They actually ended up replacing the mainboard. They also charge nothing to evaluate the phone and give you a price to fix it if found out of warranty.
The only reason why I considered this was because I read here on XDA one guy doing the same after he did what you did (bricked his rooted phone from a bad flash). He had the same result.
So, before you go and get yourself into some trouble with rogers by sending them a phone with the wrong sticker on it, consider the alternative.
At the very least, call them and correct the IMEI. They may tell you to take a hike, but that's the risk of flashing your phone.
Also, I bought my phone from amazon and enrolled in the insurance. I ended up having to send my phone back to amazon as I bricked it within the 30 days (I was straight up with them and they over nighted me a new phone). I had to call in and tell ATT the new IMEI. They really did not seem to care that I was giving them the IMEI from some other phone.
Also, I believe that if you do not return the phone to them within a specific time that they just charge you full price for the phone. You wont goto jail but your wallet gets owned.

Beware the Asus Service Center

I thought it important to share this experience.
Background:
I purchased my tablet in Sept 2012, unlocked it, and after awhile, settled on a CleamRom version that hit the sweet spot and left it that way for 3 years. Recently I got curious about the current custom ROM's and, forgetting what I used to know, screwed up and soft-bricked the tablet. I recovered it by pushing the stock firmware back onto it, but that process relocked the tablet.
I tried the unlock tool for weeks but just kept getting the dreaded "network connectivity issue" error. I contacted Asus customer support, and to my surprise, they (EmmaZhang) tried to help. She said they reset something at the Asus database and to try again, unfortunately I had the same result.
I was told to get an RMA and send the tablet in (N American service center, Grapevine, TX), and with some reluctance, I did as advised. After about a week or so, I got an email with an invoice for $341 to replace the motherboard and I had to pay or they would send the tablet back. I had packed the tablet extremely well and was sure there was a mistake. Weeks of back and forth emails ensued, I won't get into the level of frustration I experienced with the different and frankly ignorant responses I received from them but I was told that the tablet would not boot to the OS, and the only way to proceed was to replace the motherboard, and I was constantly urged to pay the invoice amount or they would send the tablet back. I was also told emphatically that they do not help with unlocking a device (what's up with that EmmaZhang ?) Eventually, they got tired of my protests and sent the tablet back.
Guess what? The tablet boots just fine, it's exactly as it was when I sent it in, and to my surprise, the unlock tool worked first time, and I am happily running ZombiPop with 9000 Quadrant scores. What is my take on this? The level of incompetence and/or lack of communication would have to be so high that I can't believe it. I can only believe that this was a deliberate attempt to defraud me of $341, and I wonder how many times they've done this.
Believe want you want, but again, I thought it was important to bring this experience to light.
Moderator Edited

Post edited - selling is not permitted on XDA.

I've had similar happen with ASUS notebook repair. There are plenty of horror stories to be found on the net about that.
I sent in a notebook because of a defective LCD and they replaced the LCD with one that had a deep gouge in it. As if it had been sliced with a knife.