IMPORANT NOTE: (Placed at top of this post because with the progress we are now seeing I feel the purpose and use of this thread has changed and this is now an important point to clarify).
Back-light flickering Vs Screen corruption
The fact is, I think these two issues have been getting confused by people since launch.
I am 100% confident that the screen corruption will be software and will be fixed. The flickering back-light issue however, I believe is likely to be hardware.
In the interest of separating these two issues, and for clear conversation about them I suggest the old vhs player effect be referred to as corruption and the flickering back-light be referred to as flickering. If everyone who reads this sticks to that convention we have our first step towards separation of the two issues.
I have described both to HTC in great detail and hope that they understand the two separate issues and will communicate we me about both.
----------------------------------------History of this thread------------------------------------------->>>
I am a proponent of HTC and have faith in their intention to resolve the screen flicker issue. I have been worried about this screen flicker situation however. The main issue I have is that all communication from HTC thus far has been that they are looking into the problem and have no answers yet. That is perfectly reasonable, I'm sure they're making every effort.
The worry is that after 28 days a user is no longer entitled to a replacement, just a repair. This seems very unfair given the circumstances, i.e. We are being asked to wait for a resolution but have no indication of how long that will take and may all be looking at lengthy repair time rather than replacement.
With the advent of HTCdev, many users want to (or already have) root their phones but have to agree to void their warranty to do so, this just adds to the urgency in getting a resolve.
As an owner of several UK businesses I have been able to gather a number of names of people willing to embark on a class action in order to obtain a court order forcing HTC to make a pledge to replace all handsets that are outside the 28 day replacement period in the event that it does turn out to be a hardware fault. None of these people is legally obliged to be included in this class action. By agreeing, they are simply stating an intention.
I have not posted this here as I wanted to get enough people on board to embark on this project before bringing it to the wider community.
I decided today that it was time to take things to the next step and contact HTC UK Ltd and ask for such a pledge.
Today I have spoken with Robert Collins, the Customer Experience Manager for HTC Europe. Robert seems to be a reasonable man, he has agreed to look in to this for me. Robert was driving when I spoke to him so he got a member of HTC staff to call me back and take the details of the situation from me. This has happened and I am now waiting for a response.
The idea is not to become aggressive with HTC or demand any action to resolve the fault, the aim is simply to get them to pledge to replace the handsets that are outside the 28 day period if, AND ONLY IF, the issue turns out to be a hardware problem.
This feels like a reasonable request since we are currently being asked to wait until they have identified the problem.
So why am I posting? Well, I would like to invite any EU members here to add their names to the list. Please just state that you are an interested party and would consider joining a class action. Please don't discuss the merits of this thread, the legal implications or anything else other than your interest. Please also state what EU country you are in as I have not yet taken any official legal advice so it may only be possible for UK members to become involved.
I expect the outcome of this to be that HTC UK Ltd, and hopefully other international branches of HTC, will make such a pledge but I am, in principle, willing to embark on a legal recourse if necessary.
The most important point for me to get across here is that the intention is NOT to start a fight with HTC unnecessarily, the best outcome for everyone would be to obtain the pledge as described and go on enjoying our devices while they work on the problem.
This has also been posted over at MoDaCo - Please DON'T put your name in both threads
UPDATE: I have had another call from Robert Collins. He assures me they are taking the situation in hand and are eager to make sure their flagship device remains among the best on the market. He stopped short of saying a pledge would be made but indicated that he understood the issue with the 28 day return/refund/replace period and wanted to ensure sales etc are not effected by the issue. He asked me if I was in direct contact with all signators and I responded that I wasn't but that if a written pledge was provided to me that I would pass it on to all concerned via the same networks through which I obtained the names. I also told him about this thread and the one on MoDaCo.
I have to say Robert Collins and HTC have been incredibly responsive to my communications and in my opinion, the pledge I have asked for will probably be made. Let's hope so!
IMPORTANT: Please copy and paste the list and add your name to it.
UPDATE: 25 Apr
I have just had a call from Robert Collins at HTC. He is preparing a statement to send to me. It seems like the goal may have been achieved although I don't know what the statement says yet and wouldn't want to speculate unduly.
UPDATE: 26 Apr
I have just called Robert Collins again. He is just about to go into a meeting to discuss this very point and will have something to me by late morning/early afternoon. He said he will call me to confirm I have received it.
UPDATE 26 Apr - left up as it feels dishonest to remove it but now surpassed by another update below
HTC are pathetic, It's time to get serious over this.
The statement emailed to me was...
Dear Charlie,
Good Afternoon,
HTC is committed to delivering a high quality product and great experience for all our customers. Some minor quality fluctuations are not unusual in consumer electronic manufacturing and there have been a few, isolated reports of this issue. However, HTC will address each reported issue. It is HTC's policy in Europe to provide in-warranty repair and support for device defects and malfunctions for two years and HTC is committed to delivering a quality experience without exception. We would encourage customers to contact our Call Centre for individual support. For details of opening hours please see our website at www. HTC.com
Regards
HTC
Furthermore, Robert Collins had said he would call me to ensure I had received his statement, he didn't, neither would I, given the lack of any meaning and my likely reaction. In stead, he has, in my opinion, hidden behind a protective barrier by asking someone else to send me this meaningless paragraph of text. Because he didn't call I actually thought the above was an email coming a result of my communication with HTC support until I called him to chase the email. This is staggering, he may as well have simply said "contact support" when I first spoke with him rather than feigning interest.
It is clear to me that HTC are not taking this issue seriously and have no interest in users difficulties. Their email as good as says that we should all return our devices.
This is, in my opinion, a calculated decision to allow the faulty units to continue to be sold as it will be cheaper and easier to repair them once they have worked out the problem than it will be to deal with it in a conscientious and pro-active manor.
So where are we, HTC accept it is a known problem and it is common enough that all the staff at chat AND phone support now seem to know about it but they don't know if it's hardware or software, there is no information about time scale or what they intend to do in the event that it is hardware. I am of the opinion that this is a hardware issue, if something in software were causing the screen to flicker it would be all handsets and we would have seen some kind of pattern by now, I believe the bulbs for the back-light simply flicker intermittently with the effect being more visible on certain colours.
My advice to you all is to return your handsets, not for replacement, but for refund, and to await further news. If not, in my opinion, you face the possibility of being left with one option, repair at some unknown time in the future once they know what is causing it, in a long queue and facing possible shortage of parts. Don't forget, you've all got the new cut down sim cards now which are useless in most other handsets as well so ask your carrier to send you a new one!
I am very sorry people, I have let you all down. I was led to believe by Robert Collins that some meaningful statement would come of this.
I am trying to get some decent UK press coverage of this, they deserve it. I am not one to cross, they would have been better off teling me they were not interested in my list of names from the off and redirected me to support. It's a red rag to a bull now.
I also had a bit of a battle on my hands dealing with T-Mobile. They did not want to accept my handset as a return simply because "this is not a known issue" parrot style, like he was reading it of a screen. What's that got to do with it anyway? I am within my 28 day statutory return period. This leads me to believe it is very much a known issue and they are loathe to accept returns on it because they know they are going to loose a lot of money.
UPDATE AGAIN - 26 Apr - A U-TURN on my part
I have just had a call. This
is a game changer. The head of customer service for HTC just called me from Denmark, it's 9.30pm there! He was very apologetic about the email that was sent to me and explained that from their perspective a statement for distribution to everyone couldn't be very personable or individual. He also agreed that it wasn't informative and regretted that. He told me they DO KNOW WHAT IS CAUSING IT and they are working on it night and day. He was extremely humble and pleasant to talk to. I explained my exacerbation over waiting 2 days for someone to write 2 lines saying contact support and told him I had ranted on the internet and told all the signators to return their devices and he said that's exactly what he would have said, no one should have a sub standard device from HTC. However...
And This is the good bit. He is going to get proper info from Taiwan for me with updates on progress and information about the fault, he assures me they now know what it is too. I made sure he understood that there are 2 faults, I called them screen flickering and screen corruption and described them both as at one point he was talking about the corruption on the task bar and then subsequently in the camera and video's etc and I was talking about a flickering back-light bulb so we should get info on both.
I know we've been here before and I ended up looking a pillock but this really feels different. He rang me and suggested sending me out information which is specifically about this issue and not just canned responses that mean nothing. He said it would be great if I would post that information online but that it was up to me, I think he was worried I'd feel like I had to stand up for them or become an evangelist but I know what he meant, I really believe he just honestly wants to pass on information to help his customers. We'll see what comes of this, I have his mobile number and he said I could text him any time. He said he hoped he could get some info tomorrow but clearly didn't want to commit to that at 9.30pm, I can't argue with that.
This feels like the HTC I know and love again.
UPDATE AGAIN - 27 Apr
Message received just now: approx. 1700 British Summer Time (GMT+1). The two issues he mentions are the screen corruption and back-light flickering.
First of all thank you for your reply earlier today. The content and descriptions were very valuable and I have taken the liberty to share your findings with my colleagues in Taiwan.
It remains a priority for HTC to continue to investigate and work to resolve all reported issues, including any potential hardware or software updates related to your case and to those of any other customers who experience problems. Currently, we are not in a position to provide you with a final conclusion regarding the two issues that you have reported, however we are taking your feedback seriously and have a dedicated team of people investigating the root cause of those issues. We are more than happy to provide you with further updates when we have them however, before we do this, it is critical that we have all of the facts. HTC remains laser focused on delivering a high quality experience to our customers without exception and we appreciate your continued patience whilst we work quickly to address this issue. We anticipate being able to provide a more detailed update early next week. In the interim we encourage any customer who believes that they have a faulty device to contact HTC directly for resolution.
I like "laser focused" and "dedicated team"...
I think we're getting somewhere here, very promising.
Update - 2 May...
Just had a call from Robert Collins at HTC. Apparently they know what's causing it and are working on a fix. 1.29 is not an attempt at fixing the flicker but another update is coming soon. I let them know about the Mandarin or Cantonese text in the French locale in 1.29 yesterday (posted by Simone on here) and they have passed this on for correction. I also mentioned the rapid fluctuation in CPU frequency when the ONDEMAND governor is used and they ate looking at that too.
They will let me know when there is more to tell.
As far as updates go, I have returned my branded Tmo device and gone for an unbranded device. Tmo said to me to expect 1.28 by the end of May, where that leaves Tmo branded owners for 1.29 and beyond I don't know but it seems pretty hopeless for Tmo owners right now. I would personally return any device eligible for return to Tmo, then walk into carphone warehouse and they'll match what ever deal you were on with Tmo and give you an unbranded phone. I should add that this last part is my advice and is not something HTC have said.
Update(ish) 15 May...
Not really an update...
In the interests f fairness, I did get a heads up about the 1:29 update but by the time I'd noticed the message it was old news. Just to reassure you guys that this source hasn't dried up, just nothing new to say on flickering. I think some interesting news will come in the not too distant future.
(Final?) update - 21 May
I know that it has been said many times already but I just had a reply from my contact at HTC (he's been off for a few days) confirming that 1.29.xxx.11 will recalibrate the screen over the course of a few days. I had no reason to disbelieve anyone else's info but to hear it from the horses mouth (from my perspective) is more final.
Let's face it... 3 updates in quick succession, so many positive changes, all promises kept, HTC F****in' nailed it. Eat your heart out Samsung!
I know HTC are as grateful for to us for reporting in detail, patience and loyalty as we are with them for the resolution, so thanks to all of you too!
I know some regions will still be waiting for this fix but you can rest assured that the light is not only at the end of the tunnel, but is blinding and approaching fast.
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If you feel that you benefited from the time I spent creating pressure, and then communicating with HTC, keeping them, and you, updated on the screen flicker issue, and
if you can afford it, please buy me a pint, or multiples thereof!
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