Honor 8 warranty repair inquiry

[vtua]

I really liked the Honor 8 as it was working great for 6 months, but it couldn't go more wrong from there. The phone died big time after an hour run in hot weather. I suspect, overheating caused hardware failure. Service team returned it physically damaged (careless removal of back glass cover) and unrepaired. They claimed liquid damage, which voids the warranty. I continue fighting this, as I know the phone was never exposed to any liquid, and requested any substantiating evidences supporting their claim to be shared.

Did anyone have similar experience? Any advice dealing with Huawei customer service would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dpham00]

Not Huawei specific, but In my experience, you will get further with a complaint to the bbb and state ag, assuming that regular channels isn't working.

 

[Morty2264]

I'm so sorry this happened to you, OP. Please keep us in the loop on what happens next. Hopefully they can compensate you in some way for what has happened.

 

[vtua]

Thank you for the replies. The way the story develops doesn't look good. I am being patient with Huawei as it is my first customer experience with the company, but it seems other options for resolving the situation may need to be explored.

I was told that the case was escalated to the complaints department and someone should be in contact in few days via email. Not receiving an email, I called back and they wanted to get the phone back to the service center (in Fort Worth, TX) for "repair". Digging a bit deeper, it turns out the repair means fixing the damage they introduced to the body, but not the hardware. They still stand by the notion of liquid damage, although without any proof. We concluded the call on a promise that someone from the complaints to be in contact.

 

[vtua]

It looks like dpham00 was right—after a month, I am not getting any closer to resolving these issues with the customer service. They keep postponing the timeline saying that they still wait for a response from the service/repair team. Such customer service is simply unacceptable. They would not even get back to me as they promise, and I am tired of keep calling back to get the same message over and over again. It's time to get the BBB involved. I hope and trust they would be able to resolve these issues in a fair and timely manner. And more importantly, increase awareness among the current and future Huawei customers.

 

[dpham00]

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully escalating it outside of Huawei will get things moving for you.

 

[Morty2264]

So sorry to hear that things aren't going well for you, OP! Please continue to keep us in the loop! Hopefully things get moving along for you soon!

 

[vtua]

Huawei chose not to answer the complaint. The BBB has made several contact attempts, but the company has not responded within the timeframe, leading to closure of the complaint as unanswered. I guess the only positive outcome from this is that the BBB will reflect the company's failure to promptly give attention to the matter in the Reliability Report, that is publicly available to consumers.

I called the customer service after receiving this notice from BBB and was told that the ticket is still pending and that the "ASC will try to start taking better pictures of the liquid damage." I will try to engage the AG State Office now.

 

[Morty2264]

Huawei chose not to answer the complaint. The BBB has made several contact attempts, but the company has not responded within the timeframe, leading to closure of the complaint as unanswered. I guess the only positive outcome from this is that the BBB will reflect the company's failure to promptly give attention to the matter in the Reliability Report, that is publicly available to consumers.

I called the customer service after receiving this notice from BBB and was told that the ticket is still pending and that the "ASC will try to start taking better pictures of the liquid damage." I will try to engage the AG State Office now.

Wow, I am really disappointed that they seem to not be taking your claim and the BBB's messages seriously... Hopefully this ordeal will end soon for you.

 

[dpham00]

Huawei chose not to answer the complaint. The BBB has made several contact attempts, but the company has not responded within the timeframe, leading to closure of the complaint as unanswered. I guess the only positive outcome from this is that the BBB will reflect the company's failure to promptly give attention to the matter in the Reliability Report, that is publicly available to consumers.

I called the customer service after receiving this notice from BBB and was told that the ticket is still pending and that the "ASC will try to start taking better pictures of the liquid damage." I will try to engage the AG State Office now.

Wow, that sucks. Keep us informed. Even if the complaints might not get resolved, at least it's on record. And if many people have a problem on record and they refuse to respond particularly to state ag, then state ag might decide to take action.

 

[dpham00]

Wow, I am really disappointed that they seem to not be taking your claim and the BBB's messages seriously... Hopefully this ordeal will end soon for you.

Yeah it is poor business practice to do so. Hopefully they will change in the future.

 

[Morty2264]

Yeah it is poor business practice to do so. Hopefully they will change in the future.

It's so disappointing. If they really want to put themselves on the map, they *have* to deliver excellent customer service. If they push out great phones but sub-par customer service, they will not get the kind of business they're looking for.

 

[west coast]

I bought my Honor 8 in September 2016 and started having issues with the proximity sensors about 4 weeks ago. Auto rotate stopped working, compass app stopped working and the phone did not turn on when done with a call and pulling it away from my face to end call. So, I called Honor and they had me send my phone back to Texas for repair under warranty as my phone had 1 month left on warranty. It was returned to me without repair and a note stating that it had liquid damage. I called customer service and 100% disputed that it had liquid damage, but beyond that it was returned with more issues than it had when I sent it in. The back of the phone is coming off, the camera is completely blurry and the fingerprint id feature under the settings menu is gone. I have a fingerprint reader, but no fingerprint id in the settings menu. So, now the phone is for the most part completely useless.

I have contacted Honor at least 6 times and they tell me that it is being "escalated" but nobody ever gets back to me. The customer service # is just a call center in Mexico and they cannot do anything. They keep saying that they are waiting for info back from the repair center....but they never have any info. They just keep telling me that the phone has water damage and they don't even address the fact that it was sent back to me in a much worse condition than when it was sent in. So, it sounds like my issue is the same as what you are experiencing. I'm assuming that Huawei (Honor) has a policy at the repair center to state that any phone returned has water damage so they don't have to repair them. At this point I don't know what to do.

 

[vtua]

Thank you for the reply. The experience you have described is indeed very much like mine. In my case, it started with a series of strange behavior, like "Charging other device via USB" notification, not responsive "Smart Key", random launch of applications set to be opened with the smart key, and ended with the power button not working, fingerprint sensor issue, and most recently some pictures taken being only partially recorded. The customer service is not helpful at all. One representative tried to convince me that the decision of the liquid damage has been made based on the pictures of the phone that I have sent them. The other mentioned about a humidity sensor being active as the phone was opened (but it seems like they do not keep a record of that). Yet another logic offered was that the service center would rather repair the device than reject for any reason, because it is the only way for them to get paid. I do not know if it is true, but it is also possible that they are not able to keep up with repair requests, so that they choose to reject some. The fact that they introduce additional damage during the service is just so wrong.

At this point, I requested a written resolution on my ticket (which is pending since 7/10/2017), basically an official statement regarding Huawei Device USA position. It is something that the complaints department promised to deliver after the phone was returned from the repair, which was more than a month ago. Yesterday I spoke about this with a customer service supervisor, who ensured that the letter will be sent out by the end of the day, putting the ticket to bed. Not surprisingly, that was not the case, and yet again they are asking to wait additional 48-72 hours. I really have no idea what else can be done at this point. Hopefully the resolution letter may bring some ideas. I also think it would be great if we continue discussing this and, with the help of the community, we may get the things moving.

 

[west coast]

I understand that many people will have damaged their phone from water and claim that they did not. In my case I can say with 100% conviction that my phone never touched water. However, it is my word against the "qualified technician" at Huawei's repair center in Texas. However, these are the same technicians that sent my phone back with further problems. I also find it strange the the customer service center is actually not a customer service center, it is merely a call center located in Mexico with the repair center a 3rd part vendor located in Texas. The customer service center has no authority to do anything, to find any resolution. So, I'm actually not sure why they even have it, other than to provide customers with an address to the repair center in Texas.

I wonder how many other people out there have been told their phone has "liquid damage" and cannot be repaired under warranty. Based on my experience so far, and based on the warranty logistics model that Huawei has in place in the U.S; I am starting to think that the "liquid damage" finding is standard practice for their warranty protocol so that they do not have to fix phones.

I have filed a complaint with the BBB and will start contacting Huawei at every phone number they list until I get someone on the phone. If Huawei wants to actually create a footprint in the United States by selling their products here, they have a lot to do with respect to customer service. They should take a look at when Best Buy first came to China and folded....because they didn't understand the Chinese market. Huawei needs to understand the market here.

I hope others reply to this with their experience.

 

[dpham00]

That's fraud if they are claiming water damage where there is none. In addition to the bbb,i would file a complaint with your state AG and proceed per the dispute resolution clause of your warranty.

 

[vtua]

Based on my experience so far, and based on the warranty logistics model that Huawei has in place in the U.S; I am starting to think that the "liquid damage" finding is standard practice for their warranty protocol so that they do not have to fix phones.

That would explain their sales numbers growth over the last couple of years. Yet unconfirmed, there are reports about Huawei overtaking Apple sales.

 

[vtua]

It may be worth getting an independent opinion from the third party, a qualified professional, who would be able to open the phone and verify "liquid damage."

 

[vtua]

I wonder how many other people out there have been told their phone has "liquid damage" and cannot be repaired under warranty.

I thought it is worth opening a new thread just for this—The device has suffered liquid damage which voids the warranty - Really?

 

[vtua]

proceed per the dispute resolution clause of your warranty

I do not find the dispute resolution clause in Huawei Device USA Inc. Limited Warranty. Am I missing anything?