Yup. the Hero is a piece of crap.

[tkirton]

Originally Posted by MarcusInMD

My son got one December 29th 2009. The screen started acting up about a month and half ago then all of a sudden stopped working all together. Sent it to HTC, they fixed it or exchanged it and he got the replacement last friday. This one did not even make it a week and the screen no longer responds to touch.

I have owned three HTC phones before this one and have beaten them to death without issues. My son takes meticulous care of this one and it's failed twice already.

I am thinking twice now about replacing my own TP with the new evo. Seems like HTC is going down hill in quality.

I had this issue once when flashing a new rom (understand you probably didn't do that, but the basic issue may be similar). What I ended up doing is using the bottom keys and trackball to navigate through the settings menu until I was at screen calibration. Then I started that up.

What it could be is a messed up setting in your phone. Screen calibration clears any calibration settings and allows you to create new calibration settings.

Also did that when I lost access to the right-most keys on the virtual keyboard. That one just came about on its own.

[MarcusInMD]

Thanks for the replies. The phone is over 4 months old now so the 30 days doesn't apply. We can't get into the main phone area because there is a security draw pattern so we can''t do anything with screen calibration etc. I may try to do a hard reset again on the phone (did it on the last phone but it didn't help)

[bradart]

Originally Posted by mlin

Really!?!?! NEVER!?!?! Not even the 1st gen Touch Pro? A phone that Sprint adjusted their policies in order to remove them from circulation...

Ok, i'll give you that one. That said, though, i do know quite a few people who have touch pros and have never had a single issue. But i would say if there was one htc phone to waer the name tag of "kind of a turd" it would be the touch pro. I'd say htc has redeemed themselves enough to expunge that from their record, though.

[sprintgirl]

its not fraud if a) the rep made a mistake at the time of purchase (they accidentally didnt add tep when i requested it so i have been there) and b) if you are within 30 days of the replacement phone being added to the acct. u can add tep when u upgrade, put a new esn on the acct, get a replacement phone, have a paid repair at a tech center, open enrollment, or within 30 days of upgrade or new activation. not fraud. its not like i said hey insure your car and hire somebody to steal it. geez. also, with the new plan and all its features, often the contracts look like they dont have tep even though they do bcuz there is not enough room so the computer "hides" it.

[MarcusInMD]

I drove an hour to a "local" repair store. The tech got the phone and replaced the screen....I was out in 15 minutes. No questions asked. Shame their phone support people don't know as much as a third party dealer!

Thanks everyone.

[iviyth0s]

Originally Posted by MarcusInMD

I drove an hour to a "local" repair store. The tech got the phone and replaced the screen....I was out in 15 minutes. No questions asked. Shame their phone support people don't know as much as a third party dealer!
Thanks everyone.

Hope your "luck" holds together and you have the great Hero experience we're all having

[mmarcz]

I had a TP, that I got as a replacement for a defective mogul. I never had one problem ever with the TP, and sold it to a co-worker when I bought my Hero.

I dont understand why people will get expensive smartphones, with a discount or otherwise, and not pay the $7/month charge. Then complain if something goes wrong, that they were "screwed" by the carrier. Its like driving a car without insurance. Not a good idea either.

I got my Hero at bestbuy, they were fantastic. Ive always had the full TEP coverage on all my lines, so I never have lose sleep or a wad of cash if there a broken/stolen/lost/jumped in the pool/etc phone. Its called being responsible.

mmarcz

[MrChainsaw]

I hope I can help clear things up a little. (I've been doing this over 9 yrs.) Sprint knows when you didn't buy the phone from a Sprint corporate store very quickly. If you bought it over the phone or web directly from Sprint, it takes another minute or two, but they can find it. Other than that, they can't tell which 3rd party you got it from, they just know you got it 3rd party. Sprint Service and Repair stores will cover the manufacturer's warranty for you within the first year. If you are having problems within the first 30 days, we send you back to the 3rd party for you to get another BRAND NEW phone. Any other time within the first year, Sprint will fix or replace the phone (90% of the time reconditioned) at no cost. KEEP IN MIND THAT IT IS AN EXTENSION OF THE MANUFACTURER'S WARRANTY. So mechanical and electrical failure only. Any kind of physical damage will be referred to Asurion with the deductible. Once you've had it for a year, you're done. Unless, you have TEP. Then, the services continue to be free for as long as that phone is on your account. I work in one of the busiest Sprint owned S&R centers in the country and the Hero NEVER comes in for issues. Like Bradart said, I sell a ton of these phones because I have one and I love it. Almost every single time someone comes in with a "messed up" Hero, it's because they have unreasonable expectations of what it's supposed to do. I have not ever heard of screen going bad on a Hero. So I would definitely agree that you are just unlucky and this is NOT proof of a badly built phone. And BTW, hahahahah, we are as addicted to these forums as you are, so posting advice on how to trick us usually doesn't do a whole lot

[iviyth0s]

I just had a thought OP....were you trying to use a stylus or your fingernails to work the Hero's screen because sadly it's a capacitive screen not resistive so those wont work like on the Touch Pro.

[Harveystyles]

Originally Posted by mlin

Really!?!?! NEVER!?!?! Not even the 1st gen Touch Pro? A phone that Sprint adjusted their policies in order to remove them from circulation...

i'm sorry, but I would have to agree on this topic. The Touch Pro (imo) was the worst built phone I, personally, have ever layed my hands on. I owned this phone for 4 months and had it swapped out 6 times , and I BABIED that friggin thing. On the 6th time, I traded it on Craigslist for an INSTINCT S30, just to get rid of it.
Now, I must say, I've owned a few other HTC phones, and never really had any major problems with them.

And, on the Hero being junk, I personally know alot of people that own this phone, and I have never heard of any build quality complications, other than dust under the screen, and the paint coming off the end call button.