2015-06-04

I was young and dumb once too.

I often found myself driving outside my range of skill and talent. I also understood that falling is part of learning to walk. Or drive, as it were. There was an instance where I suffered the brunt of someone else's inexperience. It wasn't fatal, no one was injured, so this isn't a horror story - just one of those times where the universe just kinda tugs on your reins a little to let you know who's still in charge. I had just come to a stop after driving through a fun little industrial section near where I lived at the time. It was a rather.. spirited drive. I was stopped, waiting for the light to change, so I could make a left turn. I looked up in my rear view mirror, and I saw two kids in a Mazda MPV. Like slow motion, the driver had a panicked look on his face, and you could tell his cheeks were puckered, both hands on the wheel, wide-eyed, and mouth agape mid-word I'm sure I shouldn't repeat. And his passenger had the same face, but with the lack of a wheel to grab onto, was all flailing arms, trying to find something to brace against. Then came the sound. SCREEEEEEE-And then the impact-CRUNCH. Somewhere in there, I had told my passenger to hold on to something. The damage to my truck was minor. Crunched my tailgate a bit. It still closed. I pocketed the insurance money in favor of movies or a good time or something, I'm sure.

But it's funny how lasting an impression such a small moment can have on your life. To this day, whenever I get the impression that the person behind me is approaching a little too rapidly, or isn't paying attention, I look up in the rear-view mirror, and still see those two kid's faces, and flailing arms, and I wait for the crunch.

2015-03-16

Phone woes.

For those playing along at home...

I have an HTC One. An OS update over a year ago left my camera with a purple/blueish hue in every photo I took in low lighting. Initially, I visited my local Sprint store about this issue, and they said it was HTC's fault, my problem, and left me with a dead end, unless I wanted to "upgrade" to whatever their flavor of the month was. I didn't.

I had been complaining about the coverage in the area I work in for about a year via twitter, getting responses from @sprintcare, several times, that the network is fine, take your phone into a store and have it checked out. In January, I started getting even WORSE coverage at my workplace - MAYBE 1-2 bars of 3G coverage, despite the detailed coverage map from Sprint claiming to be providing not one, but TWO levels of 4G coverage in my area. It was suggested that it was the fact that I was in a building that I was getting poor signal, but even in the parking lot, my reception was unchanged.

Very early in February, there was another OS update. This horked all sorts of things. Swype input took between 15 and 30 seconds to look up each word. Even short tests were painfully tedious to compose. The camera was still terrible. Reception was even worse. So I got super verbal on twitter - the only place I've actually gotten any decen kind of response from Sprint. My local store is full of upsells and I don't know's.

Finally, I get a response: a @sprintcare representative requesting that I DM them contact info and times, they want to talk.

Awesome!

I explained the issues that I've been having:

1) Service where I work is terrible. Wifi isn't available, and I only get 1-2 bars of 3G at best, even outside.

She explained that there had been work being done to the local tower, and that it was nearly complete, however, very soon, they would be starting work on the nearest 4G tower, and that for a month or two, only 3G would be available, and that the recently repaired 3G tower was going to have to bear the entire bandwidth burden while the 4G tower is down.

Woah! An answer! That's acceptable. It's frustrating, but I was finally given an actual answer, and while the answers aren't what I want to hear, they are reasonable. Alright. I can accept that.

2) Since the OS update, swype inputs take a long time, and there's some other random silliness about the phone that is nothing short of infuriating when combined with everything else.

She didn't have an answer about this, but because of the third issue, you'll see that it didn't really matter.

3) The purple hue in the camera since the first OS update over a year ago.

She looked into it, and found that this was a known issue with my model of phone, and they would be happy to replace my phone under warranty.

But my phone is out of warranty.

Well, your insurance will cover the replacement.

But I don't have insurance on my phone.

Well, the manufacturer can repair it for you for a fee.

I didn't break it - they did.

She managed to get someone from HTC on the line to explain the issue, and fill her in. The HTC rep said that they would pay to ship my device to them to see if they can repair it, and they would cover the cost of repairing it because I am such a loyal customer (This is my second HTC device, and I bought this one in 2013).

All of the arrangements were made over the phone, until She sent an email with a UPS label in it, and said package my device so it will be safe to ship, and send it on over. It should take 7-10 business days to get it back. I did.

In the interim, the @sprintcare representative tried to line up a loaner phone for me, but I ended up just using my old HTC 4G (which actually is a terrible phone).

On February 13th, I got an email from HTC stating that they had looked at my phone, and it was going to cost me $90 to repair. Fortunately, they had a check box that allowed me to "dispute" the repair fees, and I explained why it was their burden to bear, not mine.

On February 14th, I got a phone call from HTC stating that they were going to cover the cost of repairing my phone.

On February 18th, I got another email that they had received my device, and were beginning repairs on it.

I didn't hear anything else until March 4th, when I got an email stating that my device was getting ready to ship. 13 business days after they received it. UPS sent me a notice that they received the package from HTC on March 6th, so it didn't ship for another two business days!

Originally, it was scheduled to be delivered on March 11th, but UPS delivered it on the the 10th.

I was so excited to get my phone back! I rushed home, and opened up the box, pulled my phone out, and powered it on. - PLEASE ENTER SIM CARD -

Uh.. what? There's a sim card in there! Isnt' there? I poked the little hole next to the sim card, and out popped the empty sled. WHAT!? Where is my SIM card?

I found the number to HTC's support line, and gave them a call. Dude that answered confirmed that when they receive a phone with a SIM card in it, they just pop it out and toss it. Why? Get my SIM card back! Nope. Talk to Sprint, and get a new one.

Well, that's some fine customer service you've got there! Not only are you flippant, and completely apathetic about my needs as a "loyal" customer, you don't even think it's your problem. No one ever told me to remove my SIM card, they just said to send it with the provided UPS label, and I did. This sin't my fault.

I had a twitter exchange with @sprintcare, and I included @HTCUSA in the conversation, but never got a response from them about it. @sprintcare said to find a Sprint store in my area, and they should be able to help me get sorted. I found the closest Sprint store to my work, and paid them a visit. They searched through a stack of SIM cards, but couldn't find any that would fit my device. They suggested that I go to a Repair Center because they would have a better selection od SIM cards available. The Sprint store close to my house was a Repair Center, so I thought I'd stop by after work on the way home, and that would be the end of it.

Nope.

I walked in the store, which was FULL of Sprint people, and had only a small handful of customers in it, put my name down for help, and proceeded to wait more than 15 minutes for my name to be called. Once I was called, the distracted attendant couldn't stop making eyes, and jokes with her co-workers long enough to hear me give her the information she just requested. Once I managed to get her attention long enough to describe the situation, she was confident that she could solve it: $49.99 for a new SIM card.

Uh. Nope.

Then, for a full five minutes, we proceeded to have a circular conversation in which I explained to her that I was not told to remove my SIM card prior to sending it to HTC, they discarded my SIM card, and told me to contact sprint, which I did, and Sprint told me to go to a store to pick up a SIM card. "Yes, for $49.99." No. For no cost at all. "Well, you can pay for the SIM card, or go back and talk to HTC." They sent me here. "Okay, that's $49.99." Nope.

Infuriated by this, my fifth visit to the most worthless occupations of an industrial building posing under the guise of a customer service location I have ever seen, with an unbroken record of having never received anything helpful from any of the occupants of the store, I got on twitter, and hailed @sprintcare to ask them what was up with this response. They said there is no charge for SIM cards. They asked for the store location; hopefully to bust some heads. They then said they would send me a SIM card. 2-3 more business days.

It should be in the mail when I get home today. The 16th of March. A 7-10 business day repair has now worked out to be a whole month, and some change.

Oh, and on March 8th, HTC sent me an email asking for my feedback on their support. Can't wait until this is all over so I can get that started.

Update: The SIM card DID come today, and is now in my phone. The phone takes beautiful low-light photos, like it used to, and the HTC backup seems to have restored what it claims to save, and I am now transferring back into my phone all of the photos and data that was important to me to have on my phone. It all seems to be resolving fairly well, despite all of the pain, and the woefully optimistic claim that it would be finished in 7-10 business days.

For what it's worth, I am completely satisfied with Sprint's social media team - a few key members did a fantastic job of helping me figure out what to do, and how to go about getting my phone repaired, and they were very accommodating.

Sprint's in-person customer service, in the store that I visited, was terrible. Unless I forget, I do not ever want to have to go in there for anything again. Hopefully, I can find a local store that is as accommodating as their social media team.

I am only partially satisfied with HTC's customer service. Their social media team is worthless, and unresponsive. The woman that helped me arrange to send my phone back, should have told me to remove the SIM card (I've never sent a phone in for service before, so how am I supposed to know?), and the dude that I talked to about it being missing should have at least tried to be more accommodating than flippant.

But I am glad to have my phone back. And so far, the most recent update isn't terrible.