I bought a Nexus 6P from Amazon in April 2016, wanting a relatively up-to-date Android device at a reasonable price. I liked the phone well enough — it wasn’t perfect, the camera was a bit slow, and the headphone volume was a bit low. But it served me well enough for a little over a year, and I was thinking to hold onto it until next year when Android P rolls out and I’d be stuck unable to update.
Then, earlier this week, the damn thing was hit with the boot loop error where it flashes the Google logo for a few seconds, reboots, and repeats the same thing over and over until it runs out of power. As far as I’ve been able to discover, it’s impossible to resolve, including following Huawei’s instructions to use recovery mode to clear the cache. Simply put, on my Nexus 6P anyways, trying to access recovery mode just kicks off another round of reboots.
And so, I contacted Huawei to find out how to resolve the issue. My Nexus 6P is out of warranty, and so I wasn’t looking for a free fix. In fact, I used American Express to buy the phone, and so I’m covered by its excellent extended warranty — but I knew they would ask for a repair estimate, and that’s what I was hoping to get from Huawei.
I sent my email to Huawei at 11pm or so Monday night and receive a response early Tuesday morning. Clearly, Huawei is aware of the issue and apparently had a letter already prepared. In addition to providing the instructions above on how to attempt to boot the phone, the letter also linked to the warranty status page for checking whether a device remains in warranty. Imagine my surprise, then, at reading this part:
Before you give us a call, you can send to us through this channel your IMEI number and proof of purchase so we can confirm all the information about your warranty and give you more options.
If the device results to be out of warranty, it will not be possible to be sent for repair, our service center is no longer handling this specific issue in out of warranty devices.
Yes, that’s right. If your Nexus 6P is out of warranty, Huawei isn’t going to fix it — even if you’re willing to pay. Your Nexus 6P, which you might have only used for 13 months, is now worthless.
Honestly, I’m a bit shocked. Again, I wasn’t expecting to get my Nexus 6P fixed for free. And indeed, I’m lucky enough to be covered by Amex’s extended warranty. But if I wasn’t covered, then I’d be stuck buying a brand new phone rather than paying something less to get my otherwise perfectly fine Nexus 6P repaired.
I bought a Huawei Watch 2 Classic because I was thus far happy with my experience, and now I’m seriously questioning whether I made the right decision.
And so, I’d like to know: am I alone in being bothered by this?
I experienced the same response from Huawei. The problem is that even with an extended warranty from Amex there is no one that I can find to fix the phone. They told me to buy another phone. Fat chance that is going to happen!
Mine just died and won’t turn on at all, same story, just out of warranty. No support from Google or Huawei. For $600 plus dollars you’d expect more than a year worth of reliability, and certainly more than that worth of customer service!