The wording in the headline may not be, you know, exactly what HTC said – but it might as well be.
After the folks over at Crave UK woke up to a broken screen — which they swear isn’t their fault, as the device had just been sitting on a desk charging — full of inky purple rage on their Nexus One , they shot a call over to HTC support. After investigating the device, HTC sent back a response: they were stumped.
Probed for more information, HTC’s support guy allegedly told them “Putting a phone in a tight pair of jeans and sitting down would usually cause that kind of damage,” and that “People sometimes forget that they don’t go in pockets.”
I somehow have a hard time believing that HTC’s official stance on pockets is that they’re bad news – instead, this sort of seems like something a support guy made up off the cuff for the sake of having something to blame. As someone who worked tech support for a few years and has blamed many a weird problem on the technical equivalents of pixies and boogie men, I salute you for your ingenuity, Mr. HTC Support Guy.
Yeah, that’s a good one! A cell phone not meant to go in pants pockets.
“its a phone, its supposed to be worn on your ears at all times!”
Personally, I can’t really think of an explanation as to how it could’ve cracked by just lying in the table. Perhaps Crave UK is lying or a ninja cracked it on purpose.
I agree with you completely. I dont understand it and so the solution is ninja. :)
Ever since the Original Touch Pro/ diamond htc has suffered from these type of issues. Not as drastic as this one but i personally have gone through multiple htc models due to standard pocket containment.
“and sitting down” do you guys not read? Electronics aren’t made to sit on.
It’s like sitting on a flatscreen thats placed on a desk and not understanding why it fell over. “Putting a flatscreen on a desk and sitting down on it would usually make it fall over and cause that kind of damage”
OMG THEY THINK SCREENS AREN’T SUPPOSED TO BE PUT ON DESKS!!
You mean I can only have a Nexus if I wear slacks?! Quite a creative response however.
This is indeed the company line. I had similar damage done to the screen of my HTC Fuze (Touch Pro) after keeping it in my front pants pocket. The screen didn’t break, but an oily residue became visible under the screen. When I called HTC, they told me that damage caused by having the phone in my pocket isn’t covered by their warranty.
After that incident, along with some other issues with the phone, I’ve thoroughly been disappointed in the quality of my Touch Pro. My old Cingular 8525 seemed much more rugged. I never had any problems with the screen.
Fail
…
peep this vid!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgJ5i-7oRLA
wtf-how is that video related to the post?
promoting ur band through tech blogs?
dude, u suck!
And your band kinda sucks too.
(you deserve what you get for posting here)
I am in the habit of putting my mobile phone in my pocket and sitting down, but I never had any problem because of this. The HTC phones are big no as putting their phones in pocket and sitting down with phone would damage the phone and after knowing this majority of people wouldn’t buy this phone provided they are informed about this problem initially.
I can’t believe people wear pants tight enough to break a phone.
That’s the thing. I don’t wear tight pants. I wear normal loose-fit jeans or dress slacks. And my phone still broke while in my pants. And I’m a skinny guy. I just think HTC made a few devices that weren’t rugged enough, particularly the Touch Pro. I know at least a half a dozen people who had a Touch Pro and got another phone because they were constantly experiencing one type of problem or another.
it would break if you put it in your hip pocket
where would you carry a nexus one in the summer if not in your pocket? in your belt-bag? purse? come on, like your keys and wallet the phone goes to pocket.
also. in many legislations they will have to pony up and replace it. a phone goes into pocket.
I seriously hope whoever was talking to the support guy didn’t just let him get away with saying cell phones aren’t made for pockets…..
When I asked a T-Mobile rep if the Nexus One is safe to carry in a pant’s pocket he responded:
_Justin W: It depends on what exactly you are doing with the phone in your pants pocket. If it was just sitting there motionless it probably would not crack, however if you are doing heavy jogging or stair-stepping the device would move around and may be subject to physical pants-pocket damage.
_Justin W: Is there anything else we can assist you with today?
eli sanchez: what about just walking with it in your pocket
_Justin W: It really depends. The devices are normally build pretty strong however like any electronic if it is knocked or hit int he wrong spot at all it can cause physical damage if not protected.
Also, I contacted HTC with my question and here is the response:
New Response From [ Kacey (North America Support (Tech)) ]
Hello Eli,
Thank you for contacting HTC. I would be more then happy to assist you with this.
If you were to purchase just a case then it would protect everything but the screen. So still if you kept the phone in your pocket then it would still run the risk of damage to the screen. As well I would imagine that it could be quite uncomfortable after a while. Ultimately the safest option via Seido would be to get an Innocase and the Innocase holster (this would be carried on your belt). The Innocase fits around the phone with a cut out on top of the case to let the Innocase Holster grip it securely. See the link for a close up of the Innocase Holster http://www.seidioonline.com/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=HLHNX1ASC . Once you have the Innocase on the phone it then slides into the Innocase Holster with the screen portion towards the velvety back so that the backside of the phone is on display. This helps out in the event that you bump into a counter it doesn’t cause any damage. There is usually about a 1 mm space between the phone’s screen and the velvety backing on the holster.
You can always contact our accessories dept. as well for Nexus accessories as well. Seidio online is merely a personal recommendation. I hope that this gives you a few options to find what best suits you.
I want to thank you for contacting HTC. In order to help improve our service I’d like to invite you to take a survey at http://survey.htc.com/worldwide.
Sincerely,
Kacey
I got my nexus one the first week of march, I barely have completed a month with the nexus one. Ever since I first got it I started to have problems with my touchscreen. I contacted HTC first via e-mail. They replied to me with a couple of troubleshooting exercises as well as a website where they had more suggestions on how to try and fix my problem. I followed their step and the phone seemed to work, but it only worked for about two days before it went back to acting up and i was having the same issues with the touchscreen. I had to do this almost 1-2 times a week, where I had to reset the phone or take out the battery, wait about 15 seconds, then put it back in and reboot the phone.
It became really ridiculous for me to have to go through this trouble with a “smartphone”, if i can even call it a “smartphone”, it seems to have a life of its own where it works only when it wants to. So finally all fed up with this phone, I called HTC and they suggested we do what they call a “swap”. Their employees in customer service were great, I didn’t have a problem speaking with either one of them. I did have a problem with the time that it took just to try and open up a ticket to my issue. I was on the phone with them for about 45 minutes (during lunch break) and the lady kept apologizing because their system was so slow that it took about 10 minutes just to enter my address. Then another ten minutes to enter my phone information. The point is that the time kept building up until my lunch break was over and I had to get back to the office.
She then said that I can call back later and just to mention my name and someone else will finish the ticket for me because they needed my cc information. I was in shock because whenever I had to get a replacement phone I never had to give my cc number. If they didn’t receive the phone that I was suppose to send back then they would send a bill to your house, isn’t that how it works? So this lady tells me that my cc is on file for a hold of $529! She said that amount will not get charged to my card if there wasn’t any non warranty damage on the phone. They asked me to review the phone at that moment for physical damage, a cracked screen, fire hazard, or water harzads. I said “NO” the phone is in tact, in good condition, I just have a month with it. That afternoon I called back, and finished my ticket information with another gentleman who took care of me.
I received my new phone and didn’t have a problem with the new one. I sent back the one with the touchscreen problem. Then I receive a call telling me that there was a scratch on the top left corner between the power button and the volume button. They said that it can void the warranty and get charged $529. Are you kidding me? I sent you the phone the way I received, I followed your instructions on how to send it back. I have no idea who did that scratch on the phone. I don’t know how they handle the phones when they receive them. Maybe they damaged it when they received it themselves! And they’re trying to blame it on me. Maybe one of their workers dropped it and decided to blame it on me.
What should I do about this? Is there a way that I can defend myself from this accusation?