Mark Bridge writes:
Well, I wasn't expecting that.
Here's what happened. Following my online rant about the customer service I'd received when I suffered a problem with my HTC One, I wrote to Carphone Warehouse.
This was, I felt, pretty straightforward.
I explained the problem, reminded the company of its legal obligation and asked them to fix the phone. Next, I checked on the company website and sent my letter by recorded delivery to the address for "any complaint that's not about insurance": PO Box 375 in Southampton.
And then I sat and waited for an answer. And I waited. And waited.
After a couple of weeks, I'd heard nothing. Very disappointing. I checked the Royal Mail website to see if my letter had been delivered. Yup. Signed for by Ray.
So I prepared my legal case against Carphone Warehouse. I wasn't naive enough to expect a brand new phone after a year... but I did expect the camera to be fixed. I needed to know how much to claim, which meant finding out how much HTC would charge me.
The simplest way, I thought, was to phone HTC's customer service number. The person who answered my call was familiar with the problem - not a common thing, he said, but he'd had a few - and told me it would be covered by the manufacturer's warranty as long as there was no sign of misuse.
I asked how long the warranty lasted, expecting the answer to be 12 months. "Two years", I was told. What? Yes, two years. And a courier could collect my phone tomorrow, if that was okay.
Sure enough, a courier collected my phone as promised. A week later my phone returned. Fixed.
Did I discover what actually caused the HTC One purple camera problem? No, although the 'overheating' theory seems plausible. Did I ever get an answer from Carphone Warehouse. No. Over a month later, I'm still waiting. That's very disappointing. Would I recommend HTC? Based on their product and their customer service, I definitely would.
And yes, I could have contacted HTC first and not had the hassle with Carphone Warehouse. I wouldn't even have minded if the Carphone sales advisor had told me to contact HTC because they'd fix my phone for nothing. Instead, I'm feeling let down by my chosen retailer. I think they've let HTC down, too.