HTC is basically the mobile phone manufacturing equivalent of a cult television show. She is the Parks and Recreation of this space, with avid users merrily touting the quality and reliability of the product, even if not many others are taking part.
But this isn’t NBC, where low-rated critical darlings survived despite all ostensible logic. The mobile industry is hyper-competitive, and HTC does not have the luxury of awards and fan campaigns to keep it afloat. It needs actual users.
It’s latest effort to court consumers away from defending champ Samsung and reborn hotshot LG is the all-new, cheekily named “UH OH” protection service that comes free with the purchase of a One M9 or a new One M8. A letter from HTC president Jason Mackenzie elaborates on UH OHs offerings, including a complete phone replacement within the first 12 months of ownership if a M9 or M8 suffers water damage, gets a cracked screen, or if the owner decides to switch carriers. No questions asked.
Also, if one goes 12 months without exploiting these services, HTC will give you $100 toward the purchase of one’s next HTC One. No word on if that means unlocked, full-price phones or carrier-subsidized ones. Also, I’m inferring that HTC intends to keep the One brand around for some time, based on the money offered to buy the “next” One. So if you had your money on a One M10, place said money down.
Mackenzie takes a few potshots at competitors, saying:
“Other OEMs view “protection” as another thing to sell consumers. In our opinion, that isn’t taking care of your customers. It is profiting from their misfortune. In addition to actually paying for their “Elite” protection plans, they also expect you to pay additional service fees to use the service – and, you don’t get anything back if you don’t use it. Some competitors are just offering coverage for some types of damage covered by HTC UH OH Protection but not others. HTC is making sure our customers are taken care of without additional costs because we believe that if you purchase a premium phone it should stay that way.”
Now what’s not clear is if this is an either/or scenario when it comes to phone protection, as in if you happen to have the apocalyptic misfortune of cracking a screen, suffering water damage, and opting to switch carriers, it is unclear whether HTC would cover all of that or just one of these instances.
Also, UH OH users are only given one free phone replacement and one year of service. It’s free, so who really cares, but if you damage your phone on month 13, you’re out of luck. By comparison, Samsung’s Plus Mobile Elite protection package costs $99 for a Galaxy S4, S5, or S6, and while it does not cover a carrier switch, its length of protection is two years and allows for up to three claims, though each claim costs $79. LG’s free support is mostly limited to screen replacements.
Still, UH OH is free, requires no registration, and is offered in the US and Mexico (curiously, no Canada – take that, NAFTA). It also offers next-day air service. Check out the full breakdown in the table below.
Does this sort of peace of mind swing you into the HTC camp? It will be interesting to see if warranty wars help garner HTC more market share. It certainly needs it.
Source: HTC
Come comment on this article: HTC Launches UH OH Protection, Mocks Stingy Competitors
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