More Quality HTC engineering

[mike freegan]

High Tech Crap have once again surpassed themselves with the Wizard.

My stylus is held in by sticky tape and the paint flakes off, however even worse my good friend Alex's died a few days ago of its own accord. He thought maybe it had just run out of batteries so he plugged the charger in and within seconds it got so hot that it burned him and melted all the internal stickers off. god knows what would have happened if he'd left it.

Just a warning. Sounds like a lawsuit to me :P

[jorge_culv]

Your issues seem atypical--I've been reading through this forum for a few months now and haven't come across a single one where somebody said their Wizard blew up/melted/what have you. Sorry you're having problems, but isn't that what a warranty is for?

[knowsleyroader]

Doubt the paint and stylus are covered by warranty, certainly not the paint as they know its just an issue full stop and would be replacing each and every unit constantly.

[Sleuth255]

I disagree with your assessment. See here (http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=54874).

[mike freegan]

Well when your house burns down, don't say I didn't warn you :P

Doubt the paint and stylus are covered by warranty, certainly not the paint as they know its just an issue full stop and would be replacing each and every unit constantly.

They should do. You'd think for the price these things would be built to the highest standard. They MUST know these things are issues when they start producing these. Either that or they did NO product testing. I don't understand how it passes EC quality control.

If you bought a car and the paint fell off you'd expect it sorting out. I bet the paint won't flake off the Sony Ericssion p990.

If each of us here wrote to HTC/Trading Standards/our service providers we could get a brand new handset each.

In fact, if I start a petition on here that just requires name and email address, and sent it to HTC, threatening to send it to trading standards, how many people do you think would sign it if it meant a free device for each of us?

Because TBH, I'm pretty sick of spending hundereds of pounds on HTC junk only to have it fall apart after 2 months EVERY TIME, not to mention the software issues. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're required by law to replace things like that.

[JNGold]

Because TBH, I'm pretty sick of spending hundereds of pounds on HTC junk only to have it fall apart after 2 months EVERY TIME, not to mention the software issues. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're required by law to replace things like that.

I am really sorry to hear about your issues. However, you must understand that the K-JAM is nowhere near the Casio E-200 as far as quality is concerned. I went through 3 E-200's and the product line was so bad, Casio eventually pulled it off the market and not soon later exited the PPC market altogether.

I am on many forums and have heard relatively few complaint other than the standard stylus-loose issue and maybe just a complaint here and there that the paint on the blue "E" for internet explorer came off. Considering that the Wizard comes from Imate, T-Mobile, 02, DoPod, etc it seems relatively few people have the same issues as you mention. Personally, I beleive either you treat your device harshly or you got one from a bad production batch. I have had my K-JAM for 8 months already, and aside from the stylus being loose nothing else is wrong with the device.

If you are that dissapointed, get on the phone with support and demand that you want a replacement unit. Tell them exactly what you complained about here that you didn't expect such an expensive device to peel and chip. See how that goes.

[mike freegan]

Please read properly.

My device is fine. I was talking about my friend's device. I assure you, I take excellent care of mine.

My point was that there should be safety mechanisms to prevent things getting so hot to the point that they melt and pose a fire risk, no matter how badly you treat it (which he didn't).

The only faults on mine are the loose stylus and the flaky paint -both known problems. My point is that for £400 you shouldn't have to put up with either. I mean, if you buy a cheap, low quality phone for £20 I bet the paint wouldn't flake off, so why do HTC who charge so extortionally for what should be quality products be forgiven for cutting corners and selling shoddy hardware?

Also, it's only because of the gurus on here like Vijay and Buzz that our devices work at all. We shouldn't have to rely on these guys working volentarily to try and patch up the bugs left in by HTC/Microsoft. It's not even like the odd bug; EVERY SINGLE ROM is full of serious errors that HTC know are there and affect even basic functions. I am grateful to buzz/vijay, but it sholdn't be their job to do it. They don't get paid to do it. For the price we pay, you should expect maybe the odd bug, but not some of the ridiculous and obvious errors that HTC sell these devices knowing about (talking more about the BlueAngel/Universal really, but alot of people report Wizard bugs too)

Also, saying a device by another manufacturer is worse does not justify making a sub-quality product. If the paint flaked off you car, I wouldn't try and defend it by saying that the wheels fell off mine so you should be happy. That's ridiculous. you paid alot of money for a product which you should expect a certain quality from.


I think if just a few hundered of us petitioned, threatening to involve trading standards, it might just give HTC a kick up the arse, show them that we won't just put up with this stuff because they can't be bothered fixing it and get them to put a little more effort into ensuring the hardware and software quality of their next device.

Viva la revolution :P

[knowsleyroader]

I disagree with your assessment. See here (http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=54874).

That maybe so but it doesnt change the fact that the paint flakes off.

What would the conversation to support go like ?

Consumer " Hi I bought a device from you and the paint is flaking off. "

Support " Yes but the device will survive should it be dropped in water "

Consumer " Really ? "

Support " Yes. "

Consumer " I didnt realise. Sorry to have troubled you. "

:roll:

[Sleuth255]

right.... I guess I deserved that....

I'm actually wondering if HTC actually makes all the various cases for these devices. Or, do they sell the basic insides as an OEM provider and the end seller provides the rest. This wouldn't apply to Qtek devices of course as these probably would be completely produced by HTC.

Case in point: I'm not aware of paint peeling or loose stylus issues on the 8125. Perhaps somebody can correct me here.

[funman]

now this is funny!!! I have not had any problems with the phone yet. But i would sign if anyone started it. I will stand by my boys in arms hehehehe

but i do think there is a diffrence between a car and phone, that the phone takes alot from being in a pocket or something ( how about we all put car paint on our phones) and a car is made to withstand rain and so fore. But i do think that it should be abit better for the price.

[davidcollins01]

Please read properly.

Also, saying a device by another manufacturer is worse does not justify making a sub-quality product. If the paint flaked off you car, I wouldn't try and defend it by saying that the wheels fell off mine so you should be happy. That's ridiculous. you paid alot of money for a product which you should expect a certain quality from.



I seem to remember the old Citroen BX's cost a lot of money in their day and the paint flaked off... people still bought them though.... and they still worked... not to mention the fact the wheel could fall off and it would work too :) :lol:

seriously though. i agree that the paint flaking is a bit of an issue, and the stylus not seating properly is poor design. I do think however that fighting via a petition for them to replace our devices with equally as faulty devices is a waste of time. Example for this is my friend and I both have owend smart roadsters. they both slightly leaked as with nearly all cabriolets, but he moaned and demanded they fix it (i didnt!)... it went in for the supposed leak fix and came back worse than before and he had to reject the car (upsetting himself at the same time because he really loved that car for what it was). I just dont quite see why i would want to cut my own nose to spite my face right now :)

[thompsd]

Cry me a river, this is what is known as the bleeding edge.

Look what you are holding in your hand, its a miniature PC with bluetooth, wifi, a phone with gprs/edge, a PDA with a full keyboard. This is an incredibly elegant device. Yes my stylus falls out but when I took it apart I was totaly impressed by the elegance of the design, flawed maybe but not the china crap I've seen. Also understand how the supply chain works. HTC contracts out with flex or foxcon or whomever which actually manufacture these, most all electronic mfg do this. So as a mfg you are dependent on the quality of your sub, yes you can and do police them but with a mobile workforce you are going to get quality issues. It's just the way the world works and as was said, that's what the warrenty is for unless of course you flashed a new rom or opened the case and voided it, then tough luck.

[hanmin]

Well, I would agree with thompsd. I mean, HP and others have phones that work much stable, better and the paint doesn't flake off. So, why don't you just go ahead and buy yourself an HP Phone? I'm not sure about your reason, but I just can't affort an HP, and I don't really like the bulky HP (though their recent device looks promising, not sure about the price).

Hey, consider the HTC company is like.. how old? Oh man, give them some slack. I think they are pretty good in putting in so many things into such a small unit and if they aren't that good with their paint job, so be it. However, having said that, I'm still expecting them to be getting much better soon, inside out. Go ahead with your petition thing and good luck.

BTW, how does the 'easily scratched' iPod case ended?

Anyway, as for the fire thing, it is not an HTC issue only. The invincible Apple had laptop camp fire here (http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/ibook-in-flames-film-at-11-177941.php) and the mighty Dell had their contribution on the conference (http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32550).

My advise is, don't leave any electronic stuff left unattented.

[srmz]

@ JNGold

First of all sorry for deviating from the true subject of this thread.

I am glad that you are happy with the build quality of your wizard. Since you have been using your device for 8 months I would like to know if the keyboard sliding mechanism is showing any signs of wear / looseness. I am interested in this because previously I owned the i-mate pda2k (HTC magician) and over few months of use the keyboard became quite loose to the point that it would slide open by its own weight if held vertically.

I am now considering going for the HTC TyTn once this is out. My only apprehension is the quality of the slide mechanism and your comments would be really helpful.

Thanks and Regards

[Andy@Contacta]

Why do you repeat buy HTC if you're having such issues with their devices?

[mike freegan]

My point is, if HTC can do such an excellent job (and it is excellent) of getting so much technology into such a small space, and charge so much for their devices, why not just spend the extra 5 minutes to make sure the paint doesn't flake off? I don't understand why they think they can sell something which is faulty.

It's a device designed to be mobile and carried in a pocket (hence pocket pc/windows mobile). For £400 you are entitled to expect that the paint will be to a reasonable quality like EVERY other phone on the market.

I have just noticed that every HTC device has a whole host of small flaws that could be avoided so easily and at no extra cost, if they just thought about what they were doing. My friend has programmed for Windows Mobile and he tells me that they know its full of bugs and clashing scripts because of a lack of cummunication between departments, but they just release the software anyway, where an extra couple of days resolving the clashes between each application would solve the problem.

I mean, someone's worked really hard making all the hardware fit in the case which is the difficult part, but then not bothered designing or testing the stylus issue, something which is obviously gunna suffer from wear and tear.

I don't want a replacement device, but I just think that if we scare HTC/our service providers a bit with threats of trading standards, and show that alot of us are interested then it might make them spend the extra couple of weeks testing their next device and making sure it works well before they sell it.

I mean, the Sony Ericsson P990 does everything the wizard does, and more, but I bet they made sure the paint doesn't fall off and the stylus stays in. high functionality does not have to mean low quality.

[hondophred]

Err... Can't speak for the p990 but the p800 I had suffered from peeling paint and stylus issues as well (cracking styluses, styluses that fell off) as well as a notorious keyboard design that actually worked until you put it in your pocket and broke the two tiny tabs that held the top of the keyboard away from the screen. So Sony-Ericsson isn't the acme of product perfection you hold them to be.

The only peeling paint I have had with my wizard has been the qtek label on the bottom. Which to me was no great loss.

To me the biggest issue with this phone has always been the software. Which honestly has improved dramatically since the 1.x firmware days.

I knew going in that the wizard had the potential to be a disaster of a phone hey lets see, an innovative package and feature set and new software from Microsoft is quite the triple threat for product mayhem but 9 months into it I have little to complain about.

That may all change tomorrow when the phone decides to self-whimilate or some such thing. but for now I'm content.