Wildfire S by HTC.. A hate, hate relationship.

So here I am with my second HTC Wildfire S… after 6 months, the same problem I had with the first one started happening again.

HTC Wildfire S. Image from HTC.com

The screen goes black and will not come on… unless I take the battery out, or plug it into the charger… and even then, it goes black again after 5 minutes or less.  This is apparently known to be an issue with the phone. MANY people with this phone have this issue… I would like to point out that my phone was never dropped, nor has it ever been wet. I am very careful with my electronics, being the total geek that I am.

The first time I had this issue with the first Wildfire S… The tech guy at T mobile (who kind of made me annoyed by asking the stupidest questions like “have you charged it?”) was pretty much useless… Things he had me do were things I think my 2 year old grand daughter would have thought of.

Dialog went something like this:

1. “When was the last time you rebooted the phone?” – Daily like I do everyday!  So that would have been this morning, so three hours ago approximately.
2. “Are you sure it’s charged?” – My response in all honesty was sarcastic… This question annoyed me…. Umm no, I am too stupid to think that the cord you all sent me in the cute little box was important for something.. OF COURSE I charged the phone… I do that DAILY… I also told you I just took it off the charger since that is one of the ONLY ways I can get it to turn on…..
3. “It works on the charger?”  – Yes.. I told you that was one of the only two ways I could get the phone screen to actually work when we started this call…. 
4. “If it works on the charger, then couldn’t you just do that to use the phone?” – At this point.. I was overly pissed… Umm.. what’s the point of having a cell phone if it’s got to be tethered to a cord?  Wouldn’t I just be better off to use my home phone and cancel my account with you? *PAUSE ON THE OTHER LINE*

“Hold please, ma’am. ”

Shortly after, a manager picked up the line.  He was pleasant at least.  We discussed the issue I had with my phone… I mentioned the fact that I really wanted my G1 back.  He said “Yes those were great phones, they are not G4 compatible though.”  I almost snarkily replied, “Neither is this one according to your techs… 275 bucks to get a new phone because my old one wasn’t G4 just to get a crap phone that also isn’t G4.” He didn’t have an answer for that, and continued to trouble shoot my phone.

Oh G1.. how I miss you! (Image from tmobile.com)

I would like to point out that I had my G1 for 4 years.. never had an issue with it.  I loved that phone, I wish I had it back.

He had me open my phone up, and look for any water damage on the battery or inside… there was none, pristine white like it should be.  He asked me to check if the battery was “bloated”.  No bloating.   We put it back together and plugged it into the usb so the screen would turn on again.. we went through settings for the light…  We did a master reset after he helped me back up everything onto the T Mobile website.  Still had the issue.

After all the time we took going through every possible thing we could think of, he apologized for the issue and told me he would send out a replacement.   I agreed to it, a little hesitant about getting another Wildfire S….

So here, we are… 8 months later, with the exact same issue on the new phone.  I waited for 2 months before calling… I have had a lot of things going on in my real life, I didn’t have the energy to deal with the truck load of stupid I got the first time around before the manager took over the call.

After the last week of trying to get a new phone that WASN’T a Wildfire S… I am still being stuck with a THIRD Wildfire S.  I was told I could buy a new one and pay another 300 plus… who has that expendable cash now a days? I sure don’t.  So I begrudgingly told him to send the  phone and said “Well, if you all want to keep losing money replacing my phone every 6 months, fine with me.  Your dime.”  We hung up the phone, there was nothing left either of us could say.

On a good note (I guess, depends on how you look at it)…. my new Wildfire S will be here Friday… I can once again txt and call my family and friends for at least another 6 months; around the time Wildfire S number 4 comes into my life.

BTW.. if your phone company offers you this phone… RUN!! It’s nice and small, easy to use, but the issues make it a “money pit”, unless you have insurance on it.  Luckily I do… so the money pit is actually T Mobiles.

I do have to say that I love T Mobile.  They are a great company, and not all of their staff are morons named Steve.  I have been with this company for 6 years now, and I have no desire to change back to any other.