NEW YORK: HTC has started a free phone replacement service that covers cracked screen and water damage for U.S. customers who purchase the company’s flagship One M9 phone.
The HTC UH OH Protection provides consumers who damage their new HTC One M9 with an untimely fall onto the pavement or into a toilet with a free phone replacement within 12 months of purchase, the company said in a statement.
Consumers who choose not to take advantage of UH OH Protection within the first 12 months can alternatively receive US$100 towards the purchase of a future HTC One smartphone.
The UH OH Protection is automatically provided with HTC One M9, which will be going on sale soon in the United States. With a call to HTC Care team, a team member will make arrangements for a replacement phone to be delivered to the customer overnight, according to HTC.
“With the HTC One M9, we didn’t stop with creating an award-winning smartphone and amazing user experiences. We created an innovative new program that ensures the best phone on the market stays that way,” said Jason Mackenzie, president of HTC Americas.
“We want our customers to have the confidence to use their new HTC One and the peace of mind that HTC has your back if something unfortunate happens to it,” Mackenzie said in the statement.
It is not immediately known whether the program will be expanded to HTC’s other markets. The latest edition of the HTC flagship model was unveiled earlier this month and will not be available until late March.
Based on a Google Insights survey conducted in March 2015 with individuals that had damaged their smartphone, 69 percent of respondents said the damage had occurred in the previous 12 months.
Some 47 percent of the respondents who had repaired their phones had spent US$100 or more, while 25 percent were currently using a damaged phone, the survey said.
