What really killed HTC.

[anon(9918034)]

I know I'm not alone in this category, the customer service for me is what has killed HTC. The launch of 10 was horrific, and so disorganized. Which was a bummer cause the HTC 10 was an amazing device cripple by a company who doesn't care about the consumer.

I won't get I to the story to deep. My experience was so bad that at one point had the personal cell number of one of the executives, I ended up getting a 10 free along with the iceview case. This was back in May of 2016.

Fast forward to March 2017. My 10 took a spill, and since I went through HTC I was covered by UH-OH. I get on the support site and chat with a nice person who helped me out, this was the best experience I have had with customer care.

I send my phone back and it was signed for on the 17th, by the 23rd I hadn't received an email about my new phone being sent. I call talk to a guy, explain everything and he confirms that it was received on the 17th. I ask why my replacement hadn't been shipped. His answer was all of HTC was 100% out of the 10. They had no more period even if I had tried to call and buy one he assured me I would be told they were out.

I call back ask if I can buy one and if they have them in stock. The lady tells me yes they are in stock. I explain and she informs me that the UH-OH replacement devices are it refurbished and they are out of them. I explained that I was told during the initial set up it's either refurbished or new.

I call back the next day and talk to a guy who then tells me they are new phones but it's a different stock than what the public is sold. Informs me they are waiting for parts to finish building the phone. To call back on Monday.

Check my repair status the next day and my phone has been shipped and I will have it in 2 days. According to the order they checkes my phone in on the 23rd even thou it was signed for on the 17th.

Clearly not one single for person has any clue want actually happens. This is the same type of thing that happened before. Each person you talk to has a different answer and people just flat out make **** up. I believe this is what is killing the HTC brand, they make great phones that are sold by morons.

As soon I got my replacement it was immediately up on swappa and I will never buy another HTC phone. I will do my best to persuade people away from a brand who only cares about getting you to open your wallet.

 

[belodion]

You say elsewhere you can't bring yourself to sell it: https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=781467

Did you change your mind?
I've never owned a modern HTC, but the 10 for example seems a highly desirable device, though a tad expensive for me.
I'm sure that there are customer service complaints about all the manufacturers....and praise too.

 

[anon(9918034)]

You say elsewhere you can't bring yourself to sell it: https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=781467

Did you change your mind?
I've never owned a modern HTC, but the 10 for example seems a highly desirable device, though a tad expensive for me.
I'm sure that there are customer service complaints about all the manufacturers....and praise too.

I did change my mind after really thinking about it. Browse the HTC forum during the launch period plenty of pissed of people. It was the reason I found my way to AC. See if I was the only one experiencing my situation, the answer was no.

 

[Adam Matlock]

It was suicide. HTC killed HTC.

 

[Golfdriver97]

I think HTC has lost touch on what can bring them back to being a mover and shaker of Android OEMs.

I think what they need to do is design 2 phones, one with respectable specs and price it modestly, the second to be aimed at the flagship level. Market the phones till there is no tomorrow.

 

[oneeyecarpenter]

I too had a bad customer service experience a few years ago with HTC. Even so, I did buy the m9, and am now patiently waiting to get the latest update. Hopefully soon, as T-Mobile shipped theirs two weeks ago. But, my next device may be a Pixel, but just happened to be made by HTC. Had someone else made it, I would still be interested. HTC has made a fair amount of bad choices over vegetarian last few years, but in fairness, they have been pretty decent on updates overall. Well, time will tell, just what I end up buying, but I do like HTC Sense way, far better than Samsung skins. Before Pixel, I was set on Nexus, just for security reasons.

 

[LeoRex]

But, my next device may be a Pixel, but just happened to be made by HTC. Had someone else made it, I would still be interested.

The thing about HTC's involvement is that it's limited to being a ODM manufacturer. Google called the shots, Google does the customer service and support, etc. HTC to Google here is the same as Foxconn is to Apple... they are given the specs, they put the pieces together, etc. HTC's issues haven't really been their manufacturing arm, their problems have always been all the crap attached to that... the strategic decisions, marketing, support, etc. Google tapped the best thing about HTC and cut away all the derp.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

I just think HTC kinda lost their marbles.

The last seriously great device they made was the One M8. Compared to its immediate competitor, it was seriously good in a lot of ways, mainly losing with its camera.

The HTC 10 is good too, but the competition has caught up and even surpassed in areas. The 10 does have the distinction of superb headphone audio, though.

That makes HTC's 2017 even more cloudy, as they've somehow decided to ditch that audio pedigree in favor of something else, which I find to actually be a downgrade.

 

[Ry]

For me, HTC never made a compelling phone since the G1.

 

[bnice]

What killed HTC was all the lawsuits that Apple use to crippled them. Go back in time and you can see they have not been the same after the lawsuits. HTC was on a up rising. HTC Evo was one of the first phone to go large screen with many other HTC phones knowing for their design quality above the rest of the competition at the time. Apple crippled them, took the antenna designed from them or cut some type of deal and they have never fully recovered since.

 

[Morty2264]

I just think HTC kinda lost their marbles.

The last seriously great device they made was the One M8. Compared to its immediate competitor, it was seriously good in a lot of ways, mainly losing with its camera.

The HTC 10 is good too, but the competition has caught up and even surpassed in areas. The 10 does have the distinction of superb headphone audio, though.

That makes HTC's 2017 even more cloudy, as they've somehow decided to ditch that audio pedigree in favor of something else, which I find to actually be a downgrade.

I agree - the M8 was a stellar product.

 

[Tsepz_GP]

Yeah, HTC customer support has always been wonky.

I have never owned an HTC but got close to it in 2011, I was deciding between the Galaxy S2 and HTC Sensation XE (Beats Audio phone).

I was set on getting that damn Sensation XE, I loved it's Design and the interface looked awesome.

Spoke to HTC South Africa on their FB Page at the time, and they told me the phone was coming, but shortly after that they went totally silent, suddenly all networks were out of HTC stock (all Android Phone models) expect WP ones that were just selling badly, the networks themselves had no idea what was going on with HTC at all, I then chose to go with the Samsung, long story short, HTC was silent for about 6months for no apparent reason down here in that period and suddenly came back to life when they came out with the One X.

Anyway, from that time onwards I chose never to go with HTC.

 

[Doug Demagistris]

Here's an interesting point and poll about whether or not HTC has lost its mind when it comes to smartphones this year. Thought you guys might be interested.

Weekly Poll: Has HTC lost its mind when it comes to smartphones? | Droid Turf

 

[mohit9206]

Let's look at what killed HTC atleast in my country from my POV
1. Crappy low end phones
With Motorola making compelling entry level phones with Moto E and G series, HTC was happily trying to sell $200 phones like Desire 630 with SD400 chipset in 2016.
2. Mid range phones
These were standard mid range phones but with flagship prices.
Example being One X9 being sold at same price as OP3.
3. Flagship phones.
Decent phones like M9 and 10 but overpriced at launch. Same price as Samsung and Apple but much lower brand value.
So htc not being able to sell any phones at any price point because of them thinking people will buy our crappy low end and mid range phones because of the HTC logo.
So as a person above said, it was suicide. They killed themselves because of their arrogance.

 

[bembol]

Marketing. Lack of it. got what we really wanted, North America got the dumb down version.

They didn't improve what put them on the map, the One M7. I remember the Asian market got what we really wanted while North America got the dumb down version.

 

[anon(10181084)]

The chief editor a Serbian computer magazine defined htc in 2013 in one sentence like this:
"excellent engineers, illiterate management, mute marketing sector".

 

[eshropshire]

It was suicide. HTC killed HTC.

I fully agree, I bought Several HTC Rezounds for my family in Nov '11. Was HTC's new flagship, big promotion and expensive. One of the few LTE phones on the market. I was lucky I got a great Black Friday deal on the Rezonds, but I know many others who paid the full price. I received ONE update from HTC in June of 2012 and then they wrote off the phone. After that I was done with HTC. My fault for buying into a company that would not support their phones for more than 8 months. Never again.

I also think they were crazy with the release of the M7 in 2013, the USA version did not have micro SD card support. They said it was not possible, but then turned around and released the phone in Asia with micro SD card support. Several years later they might of got away with this, but not in 2013. They corrected this the following year in the M8, but by then many had already moved on.

 

[GreenMonkeyGames]

HTC IS DEAD. Even their VR subsidiary will prob be bought out or go bellow up with the current competition.

 

[ffejjj]

Loved the Evo, loved the Evo 4g LTE, loved the M7 until I had it replaced with a red tint camera. Was my last htc

 

[eshropshire]

Any company that would sign an exclusive agreement with Sprint for their new flagship in 2017 deserves what it gets. Yes you can buy it on Amazon but non carrier phones are niche products in NA.