C.O., while I agree with some of what you say, I completely disagree with your first sentence. Some people may be that way. However, when we pay top dollar for a FLAGSHIP phone (that starts off working relatively well) - then VZW & HTC push an "update" that causes random reboots in the middle of calls, while in the middle of retrieving messages, while in the middle of typing emails and/or SMS messages, and even worse is not a full reboot
Hey no offense taken man. I appreciate your perspective on this and really, there's no way i could ever disagree with you on this.
Maybe it's just my experience working in customer service, but i'm willing to give htc a little slack because unless there's a source inside htc that leaks information saying "we don't care about our customers and aren't even trying to put out updates/support", i'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. I can't tell you how many times i've gone out of my way and even worked unpaid overtime to help take care of customer's issues only to have them come back the next day and literally say word for word "you don't give a shit about my issues do you" just because the extra time i spent trying to help resolve their problem didn't yield the result they wanted. So as far as talking about "consumers selfish and needy perspective", yes. I'll stand by that all the way. But understand i'm not talking about everybody. You guys dealing with reboots and gps issues have a legitimate beef with them, you just need to settle on a course of action.
You hit the nail on the head with one thing: vzw and htc screwed the pooch on this entire ridiculous process. I think we'd all be willing to cut them a little extra slack if at the very least they were honest and open with what was going on with this. If htc straight up told you "we worked our asses off to have the update ready by the 30th, but there are bugs that make your phone drop signal like crazy and the reboot issue isn't completely fixed. If we push it out, it might do more harm than good. So give us a little more time to figure it out and understand, we are working on it. Sorry for putting you through the wait", things would be different. But promising q2 and remaining silent when the deadline passed is unacceptable.
And the reboot issue...last i heard (about 3 weeks ago) they couldn't even figure out why the reboot issue was happening. But i'd speculate by now they probably have a fix but for whatever reason (vzw's BS update approval process) they don't want to simply give you an update for the reboots and another for gingerbread, so they're bundling it into one massive update of awesomeness thinking it'll be easier for everybody. What they don't realize is the reboot issue isn't something alot of people can just overlook: it's a dealbreaker. So the longer it goes unfixed, the more people might just jump to another phone and vow to never buy htc again. This is where we get into the politics of doing business and i can't tell you enough how some of the smartest people can make the dumbest anti-consumer decisions. But then again, i'm speculating. They might not even have a fix and they're next update could make all our phones self destruct for all i know.
What i've seen that frusterates me? The more people experience something they don't like that goes unfixed, the more they speculate and turn that speculation into truth in their own minds. The answer could very well be that htc is working hard on it, but since htc won't make any statements, people assume shit. Crazy shit. When someone's phone reboots while they're texting that hot girl, they'll sit there and blame htc like it's a single person and turn them into an enemy. "Freaking htc doesn't give a damn and won't even update their freaking phone. Horrible customer support blahbitty blah blah".
I had the reboot problem for a few days and then it just disappeared. Besides that, my gps takes 5 minutes to lock so i'm waiting on this update just like you guys. But having a problem and being stressed out about it is like having 2 problems. So i've made the decision i'll either be fed up enough to exchange/sell the phone or i'll accept the issues until i get an update. The more time i spend worrying about it the more negative i get and i don't feel like going on a tirade against a company because my phone has a couple bugs. Besides....stress makes your penis shrink and my black girlfriend expects the best
TL;DR HTC's main screwup was lack of communication that perpetuated angry speculation. VZW's was not bending over backwards to give us a credit or at least releasing a statement saying "my bad"