Don't Buy an HTC ex Qtek device in Italy. No support or customer care for you!!!

I feel it's scandalous.
If you take a tour among the main electronic equipment stores all over Italy (and italian web based stores, too), you'll see HTC products largely available everywhere.
The same generosity is not available when you need HTC (ex Qtek) support services.
Here is the web pictured history of my small Odissea: a terrible tour that only a private American company will be probably able to end: http://www.pocketpctech.com/.
I will keep you informed about this....

But now we start from the beginning.

I'm a fortunate user of a Qtek 9090 device. A PDA phone with WI-FI features, BT, GPRS, a good processor, a Secure Digital slot, a bundled keyboard and Windows Mobile 2003.

A very common event, occurred due to device intense using: LCD and Touchscreen got broken.
Yes, I confess. I'm a little bit distract, and my head run besides codes and OSes; so I sitted on the poor Qtek device, breaking its main screen glass and severe damaging the TouchScreen LCD system.

What would you've done?

Go where we live..... Internet.

And here start the nightmare.

After some difficult googling (no good score for some precise keywords as "Qtek" "support" "assistance") I finally stop in the site that follows.
And for the first of an endless number of times, I had to complete annoying forms, that only my best browsing pal (Roboform) lighted a bit.

As you'll see, if you'll keep on reading, just to know a stupid support center mail or web address, I've been called to complete forms over forms....

Ok. The first one's my mistake. Brightpoint (I love them...) don't care of my problems....

But if you call your domain http://www.myqtek.com/ some stupid customers like me that don't read any single line of a web site, can wrong...
Take a look at the intro page of the Brightpoint site, do you see any Brightpoint Logo?

Ok.... said bye-bye to ambiguous marketing strategies at Brightpoint, I kept on surfing following cited company suggestions (knocking at http://www.qtekcorp.com/ for not "Brightpointed" support).

Here we are:

As you can see, in the upper right corner a scroll menu invites you to choose your country.

Anger of selecting Italy (the country of sun and poetry, but not of good services, poor Italians...) the menu picture detail speaks for me:

No country to choose, my dear.

Ok, I say. Webmaster forgot to link a table....

Go ahead.

I reached, by chance, a support page that (common feature of all the "dis-services" Qtek sites) before telling more, asks for IMEI and s/n before continuing.... Grrrrr!!!

Finally, thanks God, they gave birth to a very precious web address, alerting you that only repairing services are eventually supported. Not any other stupid, begging customers need...

;-))

If, for the fate, is not clear to surfer that at Qtek don't have time to loose with stupid and rude problems of their products buyers, Teleservice (the elected Qtek support company) makes appear a further Window to remind this to you:

I happy said to myself: I got them, my screen repair is on its way.....

I found the hided, but precious, HTC/Qtek support site.

This is the Welcome page at Teleservice

Happy for their brilliant enterprise career, but trying me to be happy too, I started to funk, clicking nervously at any link at Telesevice....

This is a brief picture log:

I voluntary miss some other pages but at final, I reached this one.
Prepare yourself and feel free to laugh until blowing:

Is true, it is not an editing....

No support for Italy (the romantic country where I bought the device).

I opened the contact page of Teleservice Site.

Here it is:

Ok.

It was clear at that point, that no Qtek customer care or support service for Italians is set up, so no chance to repair my PDA.

I'm not the kind of girl that give up a fight without having spent all available energies.

So, I decided to loose another hour of my time and I read docs on the net.

I discovered that Qtek doesn't exist anymore and HTC has bought the entire brand.

"How stupid you are, Stephanie! Is normal that to repair a phone you must know stocks market and brands evolution...."

So I visited the HTC site.

I found the Qtek brand and my marvelous "Blue Angel" alias 9090.

Here's my verbose picture log:

This is wonderful. They offer to you, as you can see, a phone service to support you with Italian language, but, as later I'll show you, they're not able to answer to emails with any language, but English.... What do you think, it's time to donate some dimes to HTC via PayPal to support them for their efforts?

Oh God....

But's not finished

Let's see....

Through an odious "do it by yourself" system to solve some obvious troubleshootings, that however doesn't comprehend, in any categories, the simple break of the phone screen, I finally reach a form....

Now I laugh, but I was really furious....

I had to choose another issue from the list (and I leave you to comment their support answer)

and here's the form:

What follows is the best of all, for me....

This is the ASP back, after the form completion

I won!!!!

After an hour and an half of browsing and reading, I have a phone number. No web site, no mail, but a phone number from Emilia Romagna (a 300 km area from where I live, that makes a PDA send not so different from delivering it to USA)

And this is what I decided to do.

Instead of waiting Monday morning (it's Sunday now) and afraid to receive a "TELECA" answer, tuned with the rest of HTC/Qtek support organization, I decided to send my device to US guys at pocketpctech.com.

With some clicks, that I show you, I'll probably have a courier, next week, that will pick up my PDA and give me it back repaired. All by credit card.

I don't know what will happen and how the Americans will take care of my device (I'll tell you, of course); I don't want to use bad words on this blog, but darling, I'm really p---ed off of the bad quality of services here in Europe.

I don't understand why European consumers/customers associations have got a so weak power confronted to the one of American analogs.

Is possible to sell a product in a country, and provide a so bad organized support network or don't provide it at all?

Ok. HTC jewels are nice tools. But you're sure, after what you've seen, that's the right choice for you or, even worse, for your company?

This blog's open. So if HTC wants to reply, we'll sure evaluate their reasons.

Thank you