PSA: Why you should avoid Motorola Phones.

[SouthFLpix]

Cliff Notes:

-I buy a Moto X in late 2013 directly from Motorola.com via their ‘Moto Maker’ app. My decision is influenced by positive reviews, and also by the fact that Google owns the company, which I associate with fast software updates and good customer service.

-Google sells Motorola to Lenovo in early 2014. Some alarm bells go off in the back of my mind, but I keep an open mind.

-After just over a year of ownership, the phone falls out of my hand while I am leaving the gym and the screen is cracked. The phone is still functional; it’s just a cracked screen.

-I try to initiate a repair via the Motorola website, and get an error message asking me to call customer service. I call, and after being put on hold several times, I am told that they will not repair my device. I ask to speak to a manager on the phone, and am told “Every manager in the building will tell you the same thing.”

-I contact customer service by email and formally ask to have my case reviewed by a supervisor or manager. They basically say, “Get lost. We are not going to fix your phone, but you are welcome to buy a new one from us at full price.”


Here’s the full story:

I purchased a Moto X during the shopping season of 2013. There were lots of reasons that I decided to go with the ‘underdog’ Motorola and their Moto X at the time, including a great form factor, innovative software features such ‘Active Notifications’ , ‘always on’ voice commands, not to mention the ability to customize the appearance of your phone with ‘Moto-maker’ on the Motorola website. At the time Motorola was also owned by Google, and I have always heard that Google is consistently rated as one of the best companies to work for, and it’s also a company that is known for great customer support.

After reading positive reviews such as these….

http://www.droid-life.com/2013/12/24/top-5-android-phones-of-2013

http://www.computerworld.com/articl...es-you-can-buy-right-now--december-2013-.html

…..I purchased a 32gb Moto X and was happy with the phone right from the start. Everything seemed great for a while. I was delighted when my phone received a very timely update to the newest version of Android (KitKat, at the time), and in general I was really enjoying the phone.

In early 2014 when I read that Google had sold Motorola to Lenovo for roughly 3 billion dollars, I’ll admit that initially a few alarm bells went off in the back of my mind. In truth, one of the reasons I had purchased a Motorola phone was because of the reputation enjoyed by parent company Google, and although I had heard of the China based company Lenovo, I didn’t have any personal experience with them. For a time though, everything seemed to be going great. I even read that Motorola was offering free screen repairs to some of its customers as a perk, and with that my customer service concerns seemed to fade away as unfounded.

sources:
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/8...screen-you-can-get-a-replacement-for-free.htm

http://www.androidauthority.com/moto-screen-fix-393278/


Fast forward a year later. The 2014 shopping season tempted me with lots of shiny new smartphones, among them the 2nd generation Moto X and the Nexus 6 (also made by Motorola), but since I was still quite satisfied with my device, I decided to stick it out for another year before upgrading in order to get the best value out of my dollar. At least that was my plan. However, one day while walking out of the gym the phone slipped out of my hands and fell unto the pavement. I did have a protective case on my phone, and the fall wasn’t from that great of a height, but I guess it was just one of ‘those things’ in which the phone happened to land in a particularly vulnerable spot, on particularly hard pavement, and poof!; just like that I had a cracked screen on my hands.


No big deal I thought, I will just get it repaired. At first I tried the repair process on Motorola’s website, but it gave me an error message (100-14) and advised me to call customer service. I called, was put on hold several times, and eventually was told that they would be unable to repair my screen for any price (even though I had read articles that Motorola sometimes offered free repairs, I never asked to have my phone repaired for free). Taken by surprise, I ask to speak to a manager, and was told “I’m sorry, but every manager in the building will tell you the same thing. Our policy will not allow us to repair this phone.” At that point I asked what alternatives I had, and they offered to sell me a new phone at full price. Really??? Basically Motorola is unwilling to repair the screen on my phone. I proceeded to contact customer support via email and formally asked to have my situation reviewed by a manager or supervisor. This is the response I received:



“Dear Jose,

I regret to inform you that after further review of your case, I have determined that due to your device being out of warranty and having physical damage, We will be unable to process a replacement at this time, Our policy will not allow us too process your device, Not even for a fee. I hope this clarifies why the agent was unable to process your device. Thank you for choosingMotorola, Please have a nice day!

Mariano N
MotorolaMobility” (Incident #150106-021395)


This on a phone that is last year’s flagship model. So this would be equivalent of Apple refusing to repair an iPhone 5s screen or Samsung refusing to repair a Galaxy S4.

Could the same thing happen to you if you purchased a Moto X 2nd Gen or a Nexus 6? Remember that I purchased the flagship Motorola phone directly from the Motorola website just a year ago.

With the hindsight of my experience, I have to recommend that you consider alternatives to Motorola when buying a smartphone. Admittedly their phones do have a nice design and clever software features, but their support and service after the fact really left a bad taste in my mouth. If I had this kind of trouble with a 1 year old device, what happens if you ever decide to contact Motorola 2 or 3 years down the road?

I left the ‘incident case number’ up in case anyone here is associated with Motorola and wants to look it up and verify that my story is legitimate. Ok, you’ve been warned. Hopefully this will help some of you avoid some of the headaches that I had to go through.

So where do I go from here? Well, I’ve decided to post my story to as my tech forums and websites as I can, and will make a video showing some screen captures from my back and forth emails with Motorola. Thanks for reading.

 

[doniago]

I feel obligated to ask - was your phone in fact out of warranty?

Not saying I don't sympathize, but once anything is out of warranty getting repairs on it is more of a lucky break than something that you can necessarily (I'm not saying reasonably) expect.

 

[SouthFLpix]

Yes, it was out of warranty. Even if it had been in warranty, physical damage would not have been covered. My goal was simply to pay for an out of warranty repair.

 

[jhawkkw]

That is unusual that they wouldn't set up an out of warrant repair for a fee. I've had to do that with Samsung and Asus in the past and it's been no problem. As for the Nexus 6, I believe Google will cover one screen repair free of charge if it's anything like what they've been doing for the Nexus 5.

 

[lunatic59]

I sympathize as well, but this is one of those situations where policy and customer conflict. I'd guess that Motorola's policy is to simply replace a phone under warranty with a refurb.

This could have easily been another company. I've had similar run-ins with Sony and Toshiba and DON'T get me started on Westinghouse.

In any case, let's see if we can get you fixed up. I'm sure a local shop would fix it for you if it's just the glass that's broken. You said it still works, right? Heck, if you're handy the part costs $8 on Amazon.

 

[SouthFLpix]

Thank you. I actually have an iPhone 5 that I can use for the time being (just need to switch the sim card and call the carrier). I do have a heat gun and precision screwdriver set and may attempt the repair on my own at a later time, but I have to examine just how complicated it is.

For now, my main goal is to share my experience. If you do go with a Motorola phone and it gets damaged, please keep in mind that after 1 year they may opt not to repair it, even for a fee.

 

[SayOw]

Where I live there is a couple cell phone repair shops that replace phone screens "while you wait" (in some instances) for less than $100 regardless of model or carrier...

My teen age daughter is very hard on phones and I've used their services a few times and have been very satisfied.

 

[alostpacket]

Try repairs universe. They aren't the cheapest but they are well regarded on these forums as far as I know. I have personally used them for parts to repair a faulty usb port on an old htc dinc awhile back.

DIY parts for moto X: http://www.repairsuniverse.com/motorola-moto-x-screen-replacements-repair-parts.html
Have them repair it: http://www.repairsuniverse.com/repair-service.html



As for why Moto was not so stellar here...

One reason moto might not want to fix your phone is because a cracked screen can sometimes be easy to replace just glass or other times you may have to replace the digitizer.

The parts require vary from $15 to $150 alone. And it can be hard to tell what they would charge you. So I can't blaim Moto for not wanting to be in the business of fixing user physical damage.

I'm just speculating as to their reasons. Good luck!

 

[chukka63]

Is it not a less hassle just to find somewhere local to get the phone fixed rather than mailing it off,hence wasting time there and back ?

 

[krouget]

Yes, it was out of warranty. Even if it had been in warranty, physical damage would not have been covered. My goal was simply to pay for an out of warranty repair.

I believe this partially depends on who you get when you contact any company, but my experience with Motorola couldn't be more different than yours.

Just last week, my headphone wire managed to get itself caught on a door handle and ripped my 2014 X out of my hands, sending it spinning towards the floor. This wasn't a far plunge, since my phone was just above waist length, plus the floor is a rubber material which absorbed much of the impact. It didn't so much as produce even a scratch on the device, much less a cracked display. I assumed all was well, but soon found that the internal LCD display had somehow broken (not visibly), and while the phone was responsive to things like voice commands and twist to activate the camera, the display was totally non-functional. I've dropped all types of naked phones and tablets before, on surfaces which did way more damage, and never had this happen. It was peculiar that in what can be considered an ideal fall, that this much damage occurred.

I was originally going to purchase another device, but due to the above, figured I'd give it a shot and call Moto customer service to describe what happened. The worst they could say was no (which I was prepared for), but I simply asked if there was any way it could be covered under warranty (it was still under warranty). I have to say, the two people I spoke to (the rep and sales) were incredibly easy to deal with, and could have easily turned me away, given it was technically my fault (at least for the fall). They claimed since the glass didn't break (or any other visible damage for that matter), that the device shouldn't have suffered what it did. They confirmed my previous Moto Maker purchase, didn't give me any hassle about what happened, didn't give me any hassle about it being unlocked (you never know when companies will try to use this as an out, and this was a true test), gave me a code to build a new one, and even gave me the option to re-customize it differently, if I so chose. They've paid shipping both ways, and two business days later, my new device is here and running.

Now this isn't to take away from your experience, because you should have at least been able to have it repaired, especially if it was coming from your pocket. I also don't know what it is about glass, specifically, being broken, as opposed to the fused panel behind it (which in my research, is the more difficult and expensive fix). But it seems like it highly depends on who you get and when. And to be honest, that's been my experience with most companies, across the board; from simple home service, to car dealers, to insurance, it seems to vary based on the person on the other end of the line.