HTC

[Stoney]

Hi Blinkie,

I hope you don't get what is evidently someone elses refurbished phone like I did. I was not impressed. I stated to VF before that I don't appreciate paying full contract costs for a refurb. Guess what, they didn't respond to that question.

[cammeronuk2]

Nice to know I’m not the only one with these issues....

I have spent the last 3 weeks on the phone to the tech dept to get this issue fixed. I have had a new SIM and a replacement handset and guess what? Same issue if not worse than before.

In the first week I got told the mast was down by an agent, Then I sent an email and got there is nothing wrong with the mast and the again today (Same day as I got my replacement) the mast is down. Sounds like the mast is up and down like the information in getting.

Oh and another thing when I rang them today I got the attitude of the agent as "PUT UP AND SHUT" To my shock.

Now my question to Vodafone is as this is an on-going issue and I had to ring of a landline as per your message before being trans to an agent will Vodafone credit me for those 08700 calls on my landline bill as no agent has offered to call me back.

I never had this issue with my IPhone 3GS wish I had kept it to be honest. So I have again sent another email of too Vodafone to see what there reply is, All I want to know like the rest of you on here is the honest truth if and when will Vodafone fix this issue??

[danbann]

No problem Lee. I have since sent my phone in for repair and its due back around the 9th. Not very confident because of past experiences and because of the recent post above, who too sent it in for repair and had it replaced and still no change.

I have mentioned before that i will seek legal advice and i stand by that if there is no change. I feel its disgusting that the customers have NO rights in this situation. I have been using a very basic Nokia and have never lost signal, even in the exact places where on my HTC has none whatsoever, the Nokia has had FULL signal.

So Vodafone, i'm not the brightest in the world, but please dont insult my inteligence and tell me there isnt a problem!!

[danbann]

Picked up my phone on tuesday and today I experienced exactly the same fault as before. My work phone, which is also Vodafone, was switching from 3-4 bars (on this phone, 4 is the maximum) and my HTC was flicking from NO SIGNAL to 1 bar, with a couple of occasions jumping to 2, but only for a split second. Now considering that it goes to 5 bars on the HTC, I find that proof that the problem is still there. On making a call, it lost signal alltogether, until i tried again. Tomorrow I will be working in an area where I always had the issue of, NO signal on my HTC and FULL on my nokia, this will be the big test for me and proof of any fault. Lets see how it goes......

[icechris]

I think there are issues with the indicators on the phone if not the signal reception itself. I have several different apps installed to monitor wifi and rf signal and they often don't match up with the strength shown on the taskbar. For example I can be next to my router with the wifi widget showing a full wifi signal while the taskbar is showing the single dot no bars at all. The RF signal on the taskbar also seems to jump between 1 - 3 bars much more than the RF widget does over a 10 bar scale, you'd think the 10 bar would move more as it has more possible positions.

I've sent a message to customer support about it as I changed my sim and it hasn't improved and I'm getting fed up with the lack of network in places I spend a lot of time. One place is my place of work where I can have a signal in the classroom yet walking 10m to the staff room and I have no signal at all. Despite the staff room being the closer to the nearest cell tower!

[icechris]

So I've had a reply from the customer support and I don't think they should be allowed to call themselves customer support as the reply was a joke.

They pretty much ignored my message and simply said set your phone to 2G only as your in a weak 3G signal area.

1) Why would I disable the high speed internet features of my phone when thats what I got it for?

2) Why would I do this when my HD2 was perfectly fine in this apparently weak 3G signal area?

3) Why would I also do this when the Sensation was originally fine in the area too? Its only in the last few months that its got to the point of frustration. I rarely found any deadspots at all until a few months back when my school and a club I goto suddenly showed up with no network signals at all. Ironically, the phone also struggled the other day in the Vodafone store itself.

And also why am I now being told my area is the problem when the Vodafone signal checker says our area is the highest possible ratings for both calls and internet both indoors and outdoors?

They didn't even suggest it could be a fault with the phone that would need to be repaired. Just told me to disable 3g.

I've sent a reply but I'm really not happy right now about this lack of help.

[danbann]

Well after my phone is back from repair i'm still not happy. I was on a coach yesterday with a friend, who also owns a HTC but on O2. He was flicking through the net no problem, I however was waiting and waiting for pages to load, it was pointless, sos much so I put the phone in my pocket. Today I was on another HTC Sensation, again a friends, and his internet was so so quick in comparison to mine, but again he was on another provider. Mine has never ever performed that good in all the time i have had it, so please dont tell me its the areas I'm in. Now I have read on several forums, inc this one, that HTC just dont work well on Vodafone. This seems to be true to me. My signal is still sporadic, I regularly loose it altogether, my internet signal sticks and this happens in many areas...........My whole experience with Vodafone and HTC is something that will never be repeated, cos I'm gone when my contract is up!!

So Vodafone what next???
I have changed my SIM card.
I'm on my third HTC (Sensation by far the worst).
This has just been repaired (well, they re-installed the most recent firmware).
What next??

I await a response, it may be a long one..............................

[msdl28712]

well well the saga continues

my phone became unresponsive on the touch screen no hard reset or nothing working to get the touch screen back so sent it of for repair on the 26 april and received  a carefully serviced and  refurbished hand set back on the 30 april as it couldnt be repaired in a reasonable timescale .

this phone lasted till the tenth yes just ten days the power switch over the ten days got worse when i came to locking and unlocking screen till eventually it wouldnt work at all.

eventually a family member dropped into a voda store yesterday for me.

i phoned voda customer service and explained everything they eventually agreed to change the handset for a alternative like for like model

heesr some of the chooses i was offered erricson vivaz, htc touch, samsung galaxy as well as a few others i cant remember prob because they was released over 2-3 years ago now im sorrry but these handsets are nothing like a like for like model i find this insulting do voda actually think im stupid to accept one of these models.

ive told them keep the phone there end and have got a manager calling me back today hopefully but i cant see them being any helpful

really peed of with voda at the moment

marc

[James]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the update here.

Unfortunately the issue was tested by our devices team and they were unable to replicate the issue in different areas of different signal strength which points to it being an individual handset or SIM issue rather than a generic issue with all of the phones.

Due to this the only thing we can suggest would be a free of charge repair however; if you have already done this please can I ask how long you have had the phone if you are still experiencing issues?

James

[sbrk]

@danbann you know what? there might be something in that. we blame the phone, but maybe it's the network after all. Many moons ago I had a blackberry 9500 which lost signal more than it held it, even when sitting on my desk at work. I went on holiday to Europe and you know what, solid signal every time I took it out of my pocket. I haven't been abroad with my sensation yet but I'm sure the dreaded no bars with the little x won't appear!

I live in a rural (but not in the sticks - on a main line into London) location and work in central London.

sbrk

[danbann]

Yes the problems are still there for me, as I have already mentioned. My work phone, again mentioned already, at times and in certain areas has full signal and the HTC flicks from no signal upto 3, but hovers around 1-2. The amount of times I pull my phone from my pocket and for a few seconds has no signal, is not very reassuring as I often think I'm missing calls due to no signal. My Nokia (work phone) never EVER loses signal in all the places I work. The HTC has poor signal, Vodafone can you please just admit to this? And explain to me why its still so poor, even after repair, in comparison to other handsets? This phone is only a few month old and has never been that good with regards to signal and the internet is very poor and slow. I was advised to switch he 3g off and use the hspa (or what ever its called), but on the upgrade its no longer possible I don't think.

[chrisw99]

I have a works phone for on call purposes, on the O2 network.  Last time I got a "no signal" on the Sensation (when the works Nokia 6310 was getting full bars on O2), I decided to put the O2 SIM in the Sensation..

Surprise surprise, full bars on O2 on the Sensation.

But then I put the Vodafone SIM into the Nokia, and got full bars on that too.   

So there is something peculiar going on with the the Vodafone network and the HTC Sensation.  I suspect it is in the build.prop settings (/system/build.prop file on the phone).  These are the ones to do with signal, and my current values are...

ro.ril.enable.dtm = 1

ro.ril.gprsclass = 12

ro.ril.hsdpa.category = 10

ro.ril.hsupa.category = 6

ro.ril.hsxpa = 2

ro.ril.hep = 1

ro.ril.def.agps.mode = 2

ro.ril.enable.prl.recognition = 1

Note ril = radio interface layer, these settings are to do with the phone's signal.

A lot of these settings are network carrier specific and should be set to match what the network is capable of. E.g. enable.dtm was 0, but Vodafone UK became dtm enabled in 2010 so I changed this to 1.

Vodafone ... are you taking the default values for these from the generic HTC ICS build you receive and modify, in which case they may not be optimal for the VF network but just the HTC defaults?

What should the current settings be for the items listed above?

Note, I also had

ro.ril.disable.power.collapse = 1

I changed this to 0 and got double, perhaps triple, battery life.

[sbrk]

my build.prop (which I have not changed) has no mention of hep and has 2 entries for hsxpa. assuming the config reader takes the last value, then it's set to 3.

I can't imagine the dtm setting affecting the ability to hold a signal. isn't it just the ability to send data when you're on a call and not on 3g?

[danbann]

Are there any of the Vodafone team there????

[Lee]

Hi there danbann,

Thanks for your post.

I've sent you a PM which can be accessed here so we can look at your options. If you could follow the instructions in the PM and send us your details one of the team will be with you as soon as they can.

Hey chrisw99, 

I've forwarded on your post to our devices team for review. It makes very interesting reading.

Cheers,

Lee

[icechris]

To follow up on my posts earlier. I think its actually the network thats the issue and not my phone. One customer service rep has said theres an issue locally which is apparently being looked at by engineers.

However, using my phone out and about in a few new areas in the past week, the phone hasn't struggled to get a decent 3g signal anywhere except within one building in town (which is probably due to the building itself) and several buildings in my village (which is the area they claim is affected).

[welshmerlin]

I have watched this thread for some time now hoping a solution would be found.  My phone is exactly as described by everyone else on this thread. 

I have just returned from a week’s holiday in Spain and the signal was rock solid with amazing fast internet.  I am sure it's a Vodfone UK compatibility problem with the Sensation.  Earlier in the year I was in Lanzarote in a weak signal area (1 to 2 bars) however the signal remained constant and never dropped out.

My wife’s iphone 4S is also on Vodafone and never has a problem with dropped signals.  This week we were in a nearby village and I had no signal whilst  iphone had 2 to 3 very useable bars

I use this phone for business and miss so many calls it drives my customers and I crazy. 

What are my options as my upgrade date is not until October ?  Please don’t insult me with suggesting a new SIM card / send phone away for repair.  The phone has worked perfectly for 2 weeks abroad – there is nothing wrong with the phone.

[danbann]

Don't hold your breath buddy. This is an ongoing problem and Vodafone don't give a monkeys.

To vodafone, I have done as you asked in your earlier post. When I signed in, as asked to do in my message, I had no idea what to do next. So I messaged yourselves to contact me, again as stated as an alternative. I'm still waiting for a response days later. My wife wants me to sell my phone and buy something else.......why the hell should I? Vodafone, sort it PLEASE!

[gingdave]

Hi,

just to let you know i get the same inadequate level of customer service response from 3 mobile for exactly the same issue.

both myself and my gf have htc phones (sensation and wildfire) and we both experienced a massive reduction in signal strength around 23rd March 2012 (halifax area).  i get barely any signal in my lounge and can only use the phone without wanting to smash it to pieces when in the attic.  i get the same response that it's a mast problem and will be fixed within 72hours, then i'm told it's not a network problem, whilst at the same time my gf is being told that it's a case of a congested mast which they can do nothing about, but when i call (for the umpteenth time) they will still open a technical call to investigate the incident, one month we get a fiver knocked off the bill, the next month we're back up to full price and have to argue the toss with numerous 'customer service', starting from scratch, despite the problem not being resolved.  they don't know what's going on and will feed you bull until you just get sick of wasting your time talking to them and they know they can keep raking in the money month on month regardless.  if i miss a call from them they then send me a text saying that 'the problem has been resolved' just because i haven't told them again that the problem still exists.  from reading a number of forums it seems that the sensation has some kind of 'death grip' issue with the signal (but is that only with wifi?), but it also seems that a number of uk people across different networks have had a reduction in signal strength this year.  congestion?  some national network strength 'adjustment'?  these companies do a great job of keeping their customers at arm's length and seem to carry out their technical work without leaving the office.  

[dj9928]

Spoke to Vodafone today about these issues, went through various things which didn't help and am no further forward. Regretting buying this phone now for various things, camera - my iphone 4 took better photos, also only has a quadrant score of 2000, lowest I have seen on a dual core phone, I've noticed its no where near as snappy as a SGS2.