Considering a New Cell Phone? How About a PR Company? Here ...

Last August as a ?Founder? of Solavei?and Leader of the Presidential Team, before they launched to the general public on September 21, 2012, I purchased a HTC One S ? which I was told was the best Android phone on the market. ?At first I was very happy with it. ?With the Solavei cell service (using the same network at T-Mobile) I could use my new phone in places that I was not previously able to get reception with Verizon using an iPhone 4.

Before long, my HTC One S began failing me. ?I?d go to make a call and it wouldn?t work ? I had to frequently reboot the phone throughout the day just to make calls. ?Many times calls would go directly to voicemail without ringing ? and I would not get the voicemail until I had rebooted the phone. ?I?ve called HTC several times, but they said the only thing I could do is to send it in for repair ? and then I?d be without a phone for 2-3 weeks. ?That obviously won?t do.

Today I was almost forced into sending it in ? or trying to. ?After setting my alarm last night, I woke without one this morning to discover my phone was dead. ?Would not boot up, would not accept a charge. ?Nothing.

The only way I had to contact HTC was a phone number on their website ? but I had no workable phone. ?The only email address I could find was for their PR company Waggener Edstrom Worldwide right here in Bellevue. ?I promptly emailed them asking for help. ?I got the dreaded and useless automatic reply email ? that included a consumer link to contact info that did not exist. ?Later I received an email saying that the email address I had written to was reserved for ?accredited media? ? I?ve never really understood what that statement means, but do know that media has been my business for many years ? and that I have helped WagEd promote many of their clients over the years. ?(But of course, when I need help they turn their back on me).

Then after my 3rd email to them and explaining that I am ?accredited media? ? and their 3rd useless and painful automatic reply, I got the following email (notice there is no real email address or phone number in which to respond)

Hi Joe,

Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately, this email is reserved for questions not related to customer service. Thanks for letting me know that the link in our reply does not work, have you tried this one?

Please try the above link to reach HTC customer service, and if that doesn?t work please let me know and I will do my best to escalate your request.

Thanks,

Elena

?

Elena Caldwell

Waggener Edstrom Worldwide

225 108th Avenue NE. #600

Bellevue, WA 98004 USA

www.waggeneredstrom.com

?

This email definitely was not helpful and did not make me feel any better about the problems with my HTC cell phone. ?Yes, I am looking for ?special treatment? ? I HAVE to have a working cell phone and am not happy with my HTC phone. ?I want a refund so I can buy a phone that is actually reliable ? like the great cell phone service from Solavei.

Thanks to a fellow Solavei member who answered my call for help on the Solavei dashboard, I finally found a link to call HTC on the web ? and without a phone ? which was good because I didn?t have one. ?Once I went through the waiting process the person from HTC gave me instructions on how to do a hard reboot. ?It didn?t work. ?Then she said the only thing they could do is to have me send it in for repair. ?GREAT ? so I send in the $500+ phone only to not have a phone for 2-3 weeks and then get the same crappy phone back again ? ?Only it wasn?t even that good ? she said that I will have to call back tonight because ?their system was down and they could not create a return ticket?. ?Nice.

The long and the short of it is that both HTC and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide are too big to provide even adequate service. ?This seems to be a very common occurrence these days ? but is no excuse and not acceptable. ?My vote is to avoid HTC cell phones and Waggener Edstrom public relations all together. I know I won?t ever buy another HTC product in my lifetime and won?t be hiring Waggener Edstrom any time soon either. ?You might want to consider the same.

Note: ?I will keep posting about this and letting people know about my crappy experience with HTC until they decide to buy back this really lousy (and expensive) HTC One S cell phone. ?They can email me at Joe(at)BellevueBusinessJournal.com but cannot call me because I do not have a working phone ?.

Source: http://bellevuebusinessjournal.com/2013/02/25/considering-cell-phone-how-about-pr-company-here-two-companies-avoid/

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