Header image: Shattered by killerbee11682 (via Flickr) – Used according to its Creative Commons 2.0 license.
November 11th 2016
Around lunchtime, UPS comes again, and delivers my phone back to me. In the office I get a small crowd gathered around me as I ask one of my colleagues to record while I open the package. Everybody looks at me while I look at the new repair receipt. This time, they actually did something to it.
This time they actually understood what the problem was, or at least they cared enough to see if there was any, and found the phone motherboard to be faulty, so they replaced it with a new one. The receipt also mentions that the Phone IMEI changed in the process, but it wasn’t the only thing that changed. After inspecting the receipt I move on to check out the phone: the screen has been replaced. I can tell because my OnePlus tempered glass premium screen protector is gone. In its place there is the default plastic screen protector that every new OnePlus Two comes with. I’m a bit disappointed, but I notice that they also replaced the metal band around the phone, and I notice because mine was a bit scratched. It’s not an entirely new phone, I can tell because there’s still the tempered glass protector over the rear camera. So it’s my phone, they changed the motherboard, and for some reason, also the screen.
I quickly turn the phone on, and pop my sim card inside. I also skip all the steps of the setup wizard, because there’s only one thing I care about right now. The office is quiet, everybody stands silent and waits for me to say something. After a few moments waiting for the phone to realize a new sim is inside, it finally shows me some signal bars. I raise my arms up over the head: yay! The phone works! They did it! They fixed it!
My colleagues cheer, my terrible experience with the OnePlus warranty finally ended! I open the camera to check if that works, after seeing the repair center break the front camera of my boss’ OnePlus Three, I need to make sure everything is ok before considering this story over. Both cameras work, can properly focus and the flash fires. Satisfied with my findings, I hit the home button to close the camera app and to move on to check the speakers, but nothing happens.
I hit it again, nothing happens.
I press it more accurately, making sure my finger completely covers the button’s surface. Still nothing.
I quickly open the security settings and try to record my fingerprint, but I can’t make the sensor sense anything.
The home button does not work.
I could not believe what I was seeing. I bet you can imagine the expression on my face in the exact moment when I realized that while the initial defect was fixed, a new one was added. I put the phone on the table, but I truly, really, deeply want to throw it out of the window, down on the concrete and see it shatter.
But no, that would invalidate my warranty, and even though at this point I really feel like having the warranty is exactly the same as not having it, I decide I won’t smash the phone on the floor. I still have 11 months of warranty left before it expires, and I will get them to fix the damn phone, no matter how many times I need to send it back to them, if it’s the last thing I do.
Always Settle 