My new nexus one is a lemon, what to do?

vonhoene

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May 27, 2010
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The good news is a got my shiny new Nexus One last week. After a long debate I settled on the Nexus One because it works with my existing carrier (Cincinnati Bell Wireless) and I got a 200 minute/unlimited text/unlimited data plan for $35 a month. The bad news is I got a lemon. It reboots at least 2-3 times per day at random. I've called support and they agree it's a hardware issue with the phone. At this point my options are:

1. Send the phone in for repair. They said turn around time is about a week and a half. I still have my old flip phone and since I didn't switch carriers I could move the sim card over and use that until it gets back. My concern though is if they can really find the problem and fix it and what that will entail.

2. Get a replacement phone. They'll ship me out a 'refurbished' phone, then I send my defective one back to them. The upside is I won't have to switch back to my old phone at all, but I'm still getting a refurbished phone.

3. Send my current phone back for a refund and just buy a new one from Google. Since I'm inside the 14-day return window, this option is available to me. The upside is I get a shiny new phone, hopefully a defect free one this time. The downside is I have to pay $45 restocking fee. $45 isn't that big of a deal to me, it's more the principal of it that bothers me.

4. Say FU to google, send my current phone back for a refund and buy something else, i.e. the Incredible or EVO. I like the Nexus One but I'm sure I'll these just as much. I'll also save $329 on the initial purchase but my monthly bill will jump from $35 to $79 or $89. This means if I keep the phone longer than ten months (which I probably will), this will end up costing me more in the long run.


Any thoughts?
 

icebike

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Apr 8, 2010
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Well, you send it back to HTC for repair and the CAN'T find the problem you will get a new phone. So that makes option 1 the most attractive if you can live without it for a week.

But a Refurb will indistinguishable from new and carry the same warranty. So if in a rush go that way.
 

Krak-a-Lakn

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Interesting dilema.
I think I would go for Option1. Discrete trouble shooting is a thing of the past. You can be fairly sure they will replace the main board. So, the guts of the phone will be new. That should take care of the issue and you get your shiny new case and touchscreen back ;)

Maybe someone who has received a refurbished phone can state what the quality is?
 

cmhnexus

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I had a defective Nexus One (wouldn't recognize the SIM), and I shipped it back to Google. They waived the restocking fee (it arrived broken), and I bought a new Nexus One. The new one is perfect.

I just have to wait for them to evaluate my old device to make sure I didn't damage it, and then they'll credit my card.
 

icebike

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Interesting dilema.
I think I would go for Option1. Discrete trouble shooting is a thing of the past. You can be fairly sure they will replace the main board. quality is?

Huh? Didn't you just contradict yourself withing the space of two sentences? :eek:

They will not discrete trouble shoot and replace the mainboard, they will see that the problem exists and send him a whole new phone.
 

Krak-a-Lakn

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Huh? Didn't you just contradict yourself withing the space of two sentences? :eek:

They will not discrete trouble shoot and replace the mainboard, they will see that the problem exists and send him a whole new phone.

Myself being a former bench tech, discrete trouble shooting is when you replace individual components on the boards. Now, labor is too high. It's more cost effective to replace an entire board. I don't see the contradiction.
 

icebike

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Myself being a former bench tech, discrete trouble shooting is when you replace individual components on the boards. Now, labor is too high. It's more cost effective to replace an entire board. I don't see the contradiction.

The contradiction is "that labor is too high, It's more cost effective to replace THE ENTIRE UNIT".

New one to customer.
Old one to refurb in China.

And if main board was the problem it wouldn't even get refurbed. Grab the screen for spare parts, and trash the rest. Even a $4/hr Chinese employee's time is too expensive to waste fiddling with boards.