iLikeMyGooglePhone

Nexus One is by far the best Android phone for GSM market (AT&T, T-Mobile in the US). Looks like that statement may pertain only to the Brand New Nexus One that Google ships. Once you have issues with it, be prepared to accept a refurbished unit (a device that was returned by customers for whatever reasons) after the 14 day period.

Refurbished phones are used phones with replaced used/new components in it to make it work as close to the new one. With Nexus One refurbs, you can easily distinguish it from a stock Nexus One by the fact that the finishing is not on par with a new one. The screen/glass may not have a smooth transition to the body, it may be a little off and so is the back part (you can see some gaps).

Nexus One Replacement (swap) Policy :

HTC will set up a swap once you call in with a worthy problem (dropped calls, random reboots, touchscreen issues and all others …) only after you put a credit card authorization on file for a full $529.

It is a FedEx next day delivery, so pretty quick shipment. You will be sent a FedEx return shipping label.

Hopefully the refurbished Nexus One works. If yes, lucky you

They will take the authorization off once they verify the issue. If not, your cc on file may be charged!

My AT&T Nexus One horror story with refurbished units :

My original Nexus One dropped calls occasionally. Called HTC, setup a swap, received the swap in a day’s time.

The first swap rebooted randomly. As soon as I received the swap, I logged in with my GMail account and guess what, it rebooted. I thought it was a welcome reboot and started using it. I was charging my Nexus One and listening to music and it rebooted. The reboot game continued to an extent that it was unusable on a daily basis. My tests initially included so many apps but then I used the stock software without bothering with ANY market apps. It definitely is not some buggy app.

Called HTC and I totally lost it when they mentioned their policy! The policy is that they have to wait till the ticket closes and only then can they setup for another swap. Fair enough but it is their mistake sending a lemon in the first place. I demanded a call-back as soon as the ticket closes for which they initially denied and finally budged.

I generally try to be as polite as possible while calling support lines cos’ I have a first hand experience supporting customers on phone. But these policies were crazy to say the least. How can a freaking swap just decide to reboot all by itself? Is this the best HTC / Google can QC a swap before shipping it to the customer? I believe they prefer spending more of customer support’s time and shipping money than fix the problem at the root the first time.

Anyway, after about 2 days, they finished all the tests with my first Nexus One and closed the ticket. Now I called in for the second swap (yes they were supposed to call but I did and the nice lady said she was about to call me!). Anyway, she setup another swap and assured me that they will double-check the Nexus One before shipping it out.

Called Google to try some software troubleshooting to combat the rebooting issues. They insisted on a repair instead. Upon asking if I can get a new phone for additional $$$ instead of a refurb, he asked me to sell it off on Craigslist / eBay for a loss and then buy a new unit from Google directly! Yes, that is what he suggested!

Anyway, I received the second swap in record time as usual. I started using it and guess what, it was an even worse lemon they sent out. It would not only randomly reboot but it would do it in an infinite loop. It won’t boot to the home-screen unless I remove the battery for so many seconds. Frustrated, called in HTC and just lost it yet again! HTC rep offered me a spare battery for my frustration. He even told that he got 3 swaps with a laptop previously and he could totally understand my frustration! Anyway, I shipped out the first swap. They didn’t want me to ship them both the lemons at the same time for some freaking reason.

Just for the record, I started the whole swap process on June 2nd, 2010. it is June 15th and am yet to receive the 3rd swap.I spent atleast about 4~5 hours on customer support calls and few days testing all 3 Nexus ones so far. Not that I don’t have better things to do, I just can’t stand HTC/Google’s carelessness in patching their freaking annoyances.

I am still waiting for the ticket to be closed and only then can they set a swap up for another Nexus One. I will update this post till I receive a Nexus One that actually works!

My research on randomly rebooting Nexus Ones say that it could be either a bad RAM issue or a potential kernel limitation in 2.1 update where the full 512MB RAM is not used for whatever reason. When Cyanogen could fix it, Google could too but they didn’t. They would openly let you unlock the bootloader by warning you that warranty will be void the moment you unlock your bootloader! This is even worse than jailbreaking an iPhone. You can jailbreak an iPhone and still send in for warranty claim after you restore it to the stock firmware.

Gist of the story (so far) :

Try to avoid a refurbished Nexus One and if inevitable, try asking for a refund. I love iPhone refurbs, they know what QC (quality check) means while HTC doesn’t even care about it.

to be continued ……….