Bad customer service

[JoannW]

Hi, I have a HTC Desire HD phone, I had an issue with the touch screen not working. Every other aspect of the phone seemed to work. I could not check my messages but I could see the number of msgs that I was getting and if the phone rang I could not answer it. The screen was on but no touch abilities. I took the phone in for repair and being 3 days out of warranty I agreed to pay $100 to repair it and if it cost more they were supposed to contact me and I could agree to pay more up to the cost of the balance owing. The phone came back from your repair company Futuretel (I believe that was the name of the company). When Telus called to tell me the phone was back from the repair company she said it was not fixed and couldn't be. She said the report she had stated the phone suffered from water damage and the main motherboard was damaged and made it non repairable. She also said it said the moisture indicators inside the phone showed it was water damage and went on to say that a phone in the bathroom while showering can cause it, or if you sweat a lot and it is in your pocket that can cause moisture to build up inside the phone and damage it. All sounded far fetched to me but what would I know. After some research online and watching videos of that type of phone being disassembled my husband decided to take it apart. When he examined the moisture indicators that were supposedly showing water damage they were still white and not pink, therefore not showing water damage. After ordering a $30 part from the internet (touchscreen digitizer/lcd assembly) and installing it when it arrived, the phone worked perfectly. We did not try to disassemble the phone immediately after it was returned to us because we accepted the lies that were fed to us by the Telus worker that was on the phone that day. We used the SIM card in an older, very unreliable phone, also from Telus for a few months and then decided to order the new touchscreen part. I would like to know why we were told the phone had water damage to the motherboard when it clearly did not. I would like to know why we were told the phone was non repairable (there was no option to replace anything given to us, just a straight up "the phone is no more good" BS. Was the company just trying to get us to pay the balance of the phone off ( around $260 I think) and buy another one from Telus. Is that some sort of deal Telus has with Futuretel, to tell customers their phones are no more good and can not be fixed? If my husband who has no electronic repair background could buy a $30 piece and fix it, why would a electronic repair company not be able to solve this big mystery of what was wrong? Why would they say the water indicators showed water damage when there was no such thing?  When I talked to a representative on the phone he said he would clear the remaining balance of the contract ($140 by this time) and close the contract and just have service charges from then on. He must have just told me that stuff to get me off the phone as none of this was done. When I called back the woman I talked to said he could not do any of that and she would take one month of charges off to basically reimburse for the cost of the new digitizer. This also was not done. The lies keep piling up. I've been a Telus customer for years, currently with two phones. I just want to give a heads up to anyone out there that may have had a phone issue that was "unrepairable". Apparently it is not always the case and Telus will do nothing to compensate you for the agravation caused by the issue. Maybe they just want you to buy another phone.
 Thanks for reading this.

[SuperFred]

Hi, that's a strange issue, one thing is sure, the people in the store can't open your device, so I guess they were not aware of the water damage issue. I was working in a store before (not Telus) and depending on your device, it may be cheaper to get a new one at some point. I don't understand why you were charged 100$ if they didn't fix your device, I can understand a shipping fee maybe but not much more than 30$. Do you have a receipt for this? I'm sure that Telus will be able to do something about it if you still have a remaining balance for your HTC device. Hope this help a little.

[JoannW]

Sorry about the confusion, we agreed to pay up to 100 and anything after that they would contact us for approval. We weren't charged for repairs because they said it was water damage and was not repairable at all. As tho the phone was now a paper weight. We were told the report from the repair company said the water indicators showed water damage to the main motherboard. Which obviously isn't true as we just replaced the part that wasn't working (touch screen digitizer) and the phone works fine. Also the indicators were white still, which I believe means they are fine and not showing any moisture damage. Although telus itself didn't check the phone themselves they seem to use a poor quality repair company for their phone repairs. We accepted the offer to clear a months payment to compensate for the cost of the part but they did not follow through with it for some reason. Thanks for your reply.

[rmanky]

Well now I am concerned. I had a defective HTC One that also went to Futuretel in Burnaby. It's never been wet or damaged, simply a defective motherboard. The device doesn't stop vibrating, even if powered off and after factory reset. I sent it away 8 days ago and haven't heard anything yet... I'll heed your warning. Telus's authorized dealer here (Andre's) rips people off, even to send in a warranty device its $60 (!). It was the place Telus referred me to, so I utilized them and was choked about the cost. Telus later reimbursed the entire fee the retailer charged, so A+ to Telus in that regard! I hope Futuretel doesn't try to pull any fast ones.