"Inside" information about HTC's repair procedure

[rickytenzer]

Hey guys,

I recently sent in my N1 for repair because it was randomly rebooting. It's definitely a hardware issue as it occurred on many versions of Froyo, 2.1 and CM. I was under the impression that it was a written rule that rooted = not in warranty. I was already set on the fact that I would likely be paying $200 for a new motherboard.

Spoke to an HTC rep today to see what the status of my repair was and as it turns out she dealt with escalation, aka she was one of the "higher ups".

She informed me that rooted = not in warranty is NOT true. They have 4 checks for their warranty:

1) Physical damage
2) Water damage
3) Tampering with the warranty sealed parts of the phone
4) Testing the phone's integrity with a software "test"

In short, even if your phone is rooted, if it passes test #4, and the problem remains, it is deemed a hardware issue and your phone will be repaired free of charge.

I may be wrong, but this is what the rep told me today. If anyone has any confirmation negating this information, feel free to share.

All I know is that I'm extremely happy about the prospect of saving the $230 or so it would've cost me!

 

[cmcm]

Does this also include unlocked bootloaders?

Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

 

[rickytenzer]

Does this also include unlocked bootloaders?

Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

I don't want to set myself up here, but I'm 99.9999999999% sure that you can only root by unlocking the bootloader (aside from the tricks that have recently become available for us).

So, yes, I was referring to unlocked bootloaders as well. In HTC's sense (no pun intended) I'm sure that by root they imply unlocked bootloader.

 

[bullyfrog]

Not sure about item 4

4) Testing the phone's integrity with a software "test"

I sent mine in and they wanted to hit me with a new motherboard. They were insisting that I had a third party ROM installed and when I asked for evidence, they sent me a picture of my unlocked boot loader.

Prior to sending it in, i had re-flashed back both my recovery and ROM to stock. Was even able to receive the OTA update.

If they did such a software "test", they should have shown that evidence to me instead of a photo of my unlocked boot loader.

 

[rickytenzer]

Not sure about item 4

4) Testing the phone's integrity with a software "test"

I sent mine in and they wanted to hit me with a new motherboard. They were insisting that I had a third party ROM installed and when I asked for evidence, they sent me a picture of my unlocked boot loader.

Prior to sending it in, i had re-flashed back both my recovery and ROM to stock. Was even able to receive the OTA update.

If they did such a software "test", they should have shown that evidence to me instead of a photo of my unlocked boot loader.

Sorry to hear that. Like I said, this is all from the rep's mouth. I have no idea if she's being truthful, but that's exactly what she said.

 

[bullyfrog]

Yep i hear you. Anyway you were very fortunate they repaired it FOC for you

 

[musashiken]

Well we're talking about different countries' HTC service centers here. Could be different sets of SOPs.

So users in one country may face fantastic service while users in another are screwed by the service there.