HTC One A9 pre order , shipping wait room

[Jon_Doh]

Let me add a little perspective. Although it is disappointing when a product we are all looking forward to receiving is delayed at least HTC sent out an email apologizing with a 25% off coupon on accessories. Now, contrast that to Apple's attitude on the first iPhone. It too sold out and those of us who had pre-ordered were told nothing. When it didn't arrive I called Apple to check on my order and their basic arrogant attitude toward me was "we're sold out - tough stuff". I still wanted one and was able to order one by phone from AT&T fulfillment.

It's easy to kick HTC when they're down, but frankly between them and Apple HTC has always shown me they care about their customers whereas Apple takes customers for granted and just assumes they will always be there because of their "vastly superior iPhone". Let me give tow contrasting examples of customer service I've received from these two companies. I called HTC recently about my M7 to schedule a repair for the proximity sensor. The long and short is that the rep didn't tell me my phone was out of warranty and she couldn't help me, but instead said "let's see if we can fix your phone and avoid you having to send it in." And she did just that. My experience with Apple, and part of the reason I no longer buy their products, is that if your phone is one week out of warranty and you don't have Applecare they tell you they can't help you.

It doesn't bother me the A9 will be delayed. I'll have mine next Thursday and I'm fine with that. But having owned a number of products from the fruit company and being treated poorly every time an issue arose makes me appreciate a company like HTC who has gone out of their way to give me excellent customer service. And that's why I remain loyal to them.

 

[Roosterman]

Am I the only one that LoLed at them selling out "2000" pre-orders. That's a pitiful number and not exactly something to brag about. I'm pretty livid that I haven't received a email about my silver pre-order and that my deep garnet pre-order is going to ship in December...very poor supply management. HTC really dropped the ball this time considering their customers who actually pre-ordered were probably their most loyal supporters. We should've been catered to, instead of dealing with terrible management and the sour taste left in our mouth.

What would have been an adequte # for this test? Take into account several factors. Your sales have been plummeting. That you are drastically changing your design paradigm and are fairly sure you will be savaged by the press about creating nothing but a clone. Then feed by the press, the trolls will all come flying out from under their bridges to continue the savaging. However, you still have to make a stab in the dark how how many to have available. Your marketing people come up with 2000 over a 72 hour period. That would be just about 28 units per hour to sell out. Sounds good considering the total departure from what we have been doing and the anticipated butchering in the press. Low and behold, 2000 sell out in 48 hours, or less. That comes out to nearly 42 per hour or about 50% above what is expected. This is when you realize you've made a serious problem and have to ramp up production to meet the demand because other preorders are flooding in.

Since you think it is just a joke to have 2000 units available for a 3 day preorder trial in a relatively small country, what is the correct #? I would suggest you get your resume buffed up and submitted to HTC. They will obviously be needing a new CEO and with your soothsaying abilities, you should have the inside track.

I'm not going to defend HTC and how they handled this. They have obviously failed to communicate and set expectations. They made statements that they couldn't back up and should have tried getting out in front of it before they did.

 

[bhatech]

Let me add a little perspective. Although it is disappointing when a product we are all looking forward to receiving is delayed at least HTC sent out an email apologizing with a 25% off coupon on accessories. Now, contrast that to Apple's attitude on the first iPhone. It too sold out and those of us who had pre-ordered were told nothing. When it didn't arrive I called Apple to check on my order and their basic arrogant attitude toward me was "we're sold out - tough stuff". I still wanted one and was able to order one by phone from AT&T fulfillment.

It's easy to kick HTC when they're down, but frankly between them and Apple HTC has always shown me they care about their customers whereas Apple takes customers for granted and just assumes they will always be there because of their "vastly superior iPhone". Let me give tow contrasting examples of customer service I've received from these two companies. I called HTC recently about my M7 to schedule a repair for the proximity sensor. The long and short is that the rep didn't tell me my phone was out of warranty and she couldn't help me, but instead said "let's see if we can fix your phone and avoid you having to send it in." And she did just that. My experience with Apple, and part of the reason I no longer buy their products, is that if your phone is one week out of warranty and you don't have Applecare they tell you they can't help you.

It doesn't bother me the A9 will be delayed. I'll have mine next Thursday and I'm fine with that. But having owned a number of products from the fruit company and being treated poorly every time an issue arose makes me appreciate a company like HTC who has gone out of their way to give me excellent customer service. And that's why I remain loyal to them.

Honestly Apple has better customer care and all companies try to emulate them. Sure there are always instances for individuals who had better experience with some other company. I'm pretty sure there are horror stories with HTC customer experience as well. Thing with HTC is they are already dying and feel like they keep digging a deeper hole with every small misstep. Like the price hike, I mean do they had to change the price so quickly? Every review concentrated on how it looks like an iPhone and price increase instead of talking about what the phone can do. Personally love HTC phones but I feel they make a lot marketing blunders over and over again, and never seem to learn.

 

[phelme]

HTC can't even get a pre-order right. No one is getting them yet that pre-ordered? It's not like this phone is in high demand.

In the U.S. carriers rule, of course they received theirs first. Wouldn't be surprised if AT&T demanded it.

 

[Etyrnus]

Just got email from AT&T, mine is shipping between Monday and Wednesday. Carbon gray.

 

[maverick96]

Just got email from AT&T, mine is shipping between Monday and Wednesday. Carbon gray.

Stores have them in stock. Why not just go to store and get it?

 

[Etyrnus]

Stores have them in stock. Why not just go to store and get it?

I don't have a store convenient to me right now, otherwise I would.

 

[maverick96]

I don't have a store convenient to me right now, otherwise I would.

Aahh. Gotcha.

 

[Theseux]

Got a chance to see the phone (carbon black) at the at&t store today and while it looked nice, I sort of didn't like it. I think it's the screen to body ratio that bothered me. Even though the fingerprint scanner is in the front it felt like there was a lot of non-screen black in the front. It also didn't feel all that symmetrical and it was all the more apparent because they had an iPhone 6s next to it (and I don't like iPhones). The phone is indeed slim and the materials feel nice, but it felt unnecessarily too tall for its screen size. I'm now more at ease with my recent decision to cancel the preorder.

 

[Jon_Doh]

Got a chance to see the phone (carbon black) at the at&t store today and while it looked nice, I sort of didn't like it. I think it's the screen to body ratio that bothered me. Even though the fingerprint scanner is in the front it felt like there was a lot of non-screen black in the front. It also didn't feel all that symmetrical and it was all the more apparent because they had an iPhone 6s next to it (and I don't like iPhones). The phone is indeed slim and the materials feel nice, but it felt unnecessarily too tall for its screen size. I'm now more at ease with my recent decision to cancel the preorder.

It's taller than the S6, which has a slightly bigger screen. I agree it looks out of proportion with the huge bezel at the bottom. If they needed to put their logo on the front then they should have put it on the fingerprint scanner and reduced the height. Several reviewers have commented it felt slippery to them, it didn't to me, but it didn't feel right in the hand either and it seemed that it was the slimness that made it feel that way. Sometimes phones just don't feel right in the hand. The Samsung Edge didn't feel right when I held it, but the S6 did. Anyway, mine should be here next Thursday and I'll have 30 days to decide if it's for me.

Editing this to add something I forgot to mention. The display. For an AMOLED display I didn't think it was remarkable. In fact if I didn't know it was AMOLED I would just assume it was a standard LCD display. It lacked the vividness and crispness of the Samsung Galaxy's displays. But again, I want to see for myself under the kind of lighting I use. The AT&T store didn't have the best lighting in the corner where the HTC's were displayed and the Samsung was up front near a big bright window so maybe lighting played a factor.

 

[jmkhenka]

I dont know why people are getting so angry at HTC.
I ordered a Iphone 6s. It took 6 weeks for it to get delivered. Not a single word in the meantime and all questions was "we get more deliveries soon, meanwhile your place in line are XX".
And one day it got delivered.

HTC is doing alot more then samsung or apple ever have done for delayed orders.

 

[jmkhenka]

Honestly Apple has better customer care and all companies try to emulate them. Sure there are always instances for individuals who had better experience with some other company. I'm pretty sure there are horror stories with HTC customer experience as well. Thing with HTC is they are already dying and feel like they keep digging a deeper hole with every small misstep. Like the price hike, I mean do they had to change the price so quickly? Every review concentrated on how it looks like an iPhone and price increase instead of talking about what the phone can do. Personally love HTC phones but I feel they make a lot marketing blunders over and over again, and never seem to learn.

That's only because HTC marketing has almost no budget compared to Samsung or Apple. They spend hundreds of million, if not billions, of dollars on marketing. But once you have paid hard cash they are not much better then anyone else. Apple has great service in the US but everywhere else you have to go through carriers or mom and pop stores and they are not better for Samsung or Apple then for HTC. Often use the same repair shops even.

 

[Habiib]

I dont know why people are getting so angry at HTC.
I ordered a Iphone 6s. It took 6 weeks for it to get delivered. Not a single word in the meantime and all questions was "we get more deliveries soon, meanwhile your place in line are XX".
And one day it got delivered.

HTC is doing alot more then samsung or apple ever have done for delayed orders.

Because it's HTC. I've never seen a company get more hate in my life. The double standards with the HTC hate is comical. As you mentioned other companies do the EXACT same thing that people run HTC down for, yet they're quiet as a mouse about it. HTC is being very transparent about this entire process and no one wants to acknowledge it or give them the benefit of the doubt.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[bhatech]

Because it's HTC. I've never seen a company get more hate in my life. The double standards with the HTC hate is comical. As you mentioned other companies do the EXACT same thing that people run HTC down for, yet they're quiet as a mouse about it. HTC is being very transparent about this entire process and no one wants to acknowledge it or give them the benefit of the doubt.

Posted via the Android Central App

Because Apple is dealing with millions of orders unlike HTC. Either way it's only a matter of days so shouldn't be big deal but HTC could have still handled it better. And cmon no one hates HTC just for the sake of it, every one loved them at one point and still people want them to succeed. Sure they are not mainstream company like Samsung or Apple but the geeks used to love them until they started shooting themselves in the foot recently. Lot of people still hope they bounce back and win back people's heart.

 

[Roosterman]

I just got back from checking it out at att. I've been considering a cancel to go with nexus 5x. Coming from a nexus 5, I want to keep raw android or very near it. I have to say I'm impressed with the a9. Even with the security attachment I liked the feel. The response of the UI was great. Seemed very fast. I will be waiting till December for the red to be available.

 

[bit Jockey]

I found manuals for the AT&T, Sprint and multiple carrier versions of the One A9 on the HTC US site in the support section.

You can browse the content on web pages, or download the complete user manual as a .pdf

Gives me something to do while waiting for a December ship.

 

[A Davis]

So many are upset about the battery, processor, or camera and im over here thinking about canceling because it doesn't have an IR blaster lol, with young children in the house this is a everyday necessity. Hopefully that feature will return to the higher spec models and i can hand the A9 down to my wife.

 

[llluminus]

HTC PR is in blunders right now. They failed to live up to their promises and informing their customers of delays. All we want is accurate and honest information. Instead of revealing the numbers, they should've just given the simple statement of, "pre-orders for the A9 exceeded our expectations and we are working diligently to make the A9 available for future orders".

 

[thejesse]

HTC PR is in blunders right now. They failed to live up to their promises and informing their customers of delays. All we want is accurate and honest information. Instead of revealing the numbers, they should've just given the simple statement of, "pre-orders for the A9 exceeded our expectations and we are working diligently to make the A9 available for future orders".

What promises? I was never promised a date with my pre-order? Can someone show me where HTC promises November 6 shipping? Not some rumor from a blog, something from HTC.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[thejesse]

Called HTC support this morning. They cancelled my deep garnet order and will send me a code to order another another color at the original pricing.

Posted via the Android Central App