Palm WebOS Phones

Wow! I can't believe that you went through that. I must say that I thought Sprint's customer service has been getting better. This just shows that there is a need for some sort of training for their employees.

@boricua:

I, too, have a cracked screen.  However, I've read in these forums all about how Sprint won't do anything about it.  So, I called Palm.  They're sending me a new phone b/c they have a 1 year warranty on the Pre, and an "internal" crack on the screen is a covered item under the warranty.  They put a $400 hold on your credit card to ensure that you return the damaged Pre within the 15 days in their prepaid package, after which the hold comes off.  You'll receive it 2-3 business days after you call them to resolve the issue.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, I hope this is what happens! I am not 100% on returning it, yet.....because it hit me, If this was seriously widespread we would be seeing thousands and thousands of problems, which I am not sure this is the fact. I would have to guess that the majority of owners have had zero issues, at least yet. So I may keep it, I may not. It depends on if palm fixes the problem for me, and how easy the fix goes. I am hoping I get the same experience as you and thanks for kind-of reasurring me!

Do you see how wrong it is that Sprint and Palm can't get together on this.  Why are we going to the Internet to figure this out. Why is Palm quietly replacing this phone and Sprint is pretending nothing is going on? Why can't they be simply replaced at a Sprint store so you have a working phone on your hand now! NOT 2,3, or 7 days later. You of course realize that the phone Palm replaces your's with may / probably is a reconditioned phone, right? Read Palm's website. So you bought a brand new phone and a week later you are getting somebody else's repaired phone and now you think Palm is great for standing behind their product?

New for used plus you get the pleasure of getting the run around from Sprint. You know if Palm would tell me "we figured out what was going wrong and the phone we have sent you has the "fix". I would be able to deal with the mess a little better. But sending the phone back to Palm periodically for another used phone seems just foolish. What do you think?

BTW the people who are online telling us how great their Pre is , I believe them. I <don't know for sure> believe these handsets are manufactured at more than one location. We are the lucky ones who got ours from the passive aggressive factory workers taking the misery out on Palm. The other ,non screwed up handset obviously came from a factory with some sort of quality control in place.

FOUND THIS <<note various suppliers >>

http://http://news.softpedia.com/news/Palm-Pre-Manufactured-by-Taiwanese-CMCS-107280.shtml

Taiwan-based Chi Mei Communication Systems will undertake OEM production of the Palm Pre, Palm's next-generation smartphone that will be launched soon. Chi Mei is likely to source handset FPCBs from fellow suppliers, including Career Technology, Ichia Technologies and Flexium Interconnect, with shipments expected to begin in March at the earliest, indicated the sources,” is what the news story says.

I would love for Sprint to come off the "not a known issue" reply on this problem.

We won't know true numbers but there seems to be a number of people with this very same problem and it doesn't appear that it is an issue that has been fixed with later builds of the phone if people are just now getting them and having it happen.

Palm needs to tell Sprint that this is a known issue, or they need to replace it and get reimbursement from Palm on the devices.  As you can see from my post on the first page I was asked 3 times by a repair center to get the phone repaired, they never once told me to file an insurance claim on it, all the while saying that is "not a known issue" and that I had abused the phone.

I will continue to follow these threads on this issue and HOPE that no one has to go through any of the hassle I went through even though I wasn't in the exact same boat as OP and others.

I too have cracked screen on my palm pre that is less than 30 days old.  The crack originates from the black area near the battery icon.  I was hanging out around the house on Saturday, took the phone out of my pocket and the screen was cracked. I did not drop or damage the phone in any way, and there are no scratches on the phone that indicate a drop or impact.  My wife thought it was odd that this happened so easily, so she searched the web and found these posts, as well as a number of others on palm's site and other palm pre forums. My first step was to call the store I bought it at, who promptly told me to call Asurion, I mentioned the posts and they told me I could call Sprint support to report the problem.  I spoke with Sprint Support, who said there was no known issues with this problem.  Sprint support kept insisting that I take it back to the store in which I bought it, but I told them what the store told me over the phone and that I didnt think it would be worth my time.  I asked support to talk to tech support to see if they had any known issues and got the same answer.  The support rep told me to call Palm support, which I did.  Palm support told me that I could pay something like $250 to get the phone fixed or another option of a $400 deposit, etc, etc.  I then asked the Palm rep if this was a known issue and he said yes it is a known issue, but that Sprint just increased the warranty to 1 year and that they Sprint warranty department could help me reconcile.  I was transfered to Sprint's warranty department, who told me that my only option was to go through insurance.  Finally I told them that if this problem was not corrected, without me having to waste my time (which I had already wasted 2hrs) and their time then I was going to take the phone back and take my business else where.  Sprint warranty decided to transfer me to Sprint Account Services, who deals with customers who are thinking of leaving.  I explained my situation to this rep and was told that he could credit me the $100 that it would cost to place an insurance claim.  He also told me that I should go back to the store I bought it and talk to a manager about the situation.  I did that today and was told there was nothing they could do at the store level.

A few positives. I received a call back from the first Sprint Support rep that I spoke with, a few hours later, who was genuinely concerned with my situation and wanted to see if it had been resolved.  I really appreciated that.  All of the people I spoke with at Sprint were very friendly, understanding and considerate of my issue.  I was given a credit to cover the cost of the insurance. So it will not actually cost me anything out of pocket.

The negatives: Sprint is obviously covering up this problem. If Palm admitted that this was a known issue, then why does Sprint not know about this known issue?  I think this is a very bad move for Sprint and Palm considering this is their last hoorah at trying to keep/win highend first adopter customers that would be interested in other devices/carriers like iPhone/AT&T and MyTouch/T-Mobile.  It is time for them to acknowledge the problem, come up with a viable solution and work to ensure their customers that they will be taken care of, when a carrier or device manufacturer mess up.

The major issue I have now, is that considering that Palm already admitted to me this is a known issue, then by forcing me to file an insurance claim, isnt this a form of insurance fraud?  Thoughts?

When Palm mentioned a $400 Deposit, That was just a hold on your credit card to insure that you send the defective one back. They would not have charged you to replace it.

The sad part is it is a defect that palm acknowledges(to some) but yet Sprint will do nothing to replace them.(Without a fight) Even thou SPRINT"S policy is to handle manufacture warranty's in store since this April. If anything it is Sprint not following thru with their own policy again. Sprint only seems to follow thru with what they put in writing when it benifit's them.