Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
U.S. Sidekick Slide owners reported happy anecdotes of taking faulty handhelds in to T-Mobile stores and receiving free upgrades to the more expensive – but bulkier – Sidekick LX model.
In Australia, Telstra chose not to follow suit. It did not offer any recall, or suspend sales of the faulty model. Users were able to bring their handset in to stores within thirty days and, under Telstra’s early life failure (ELF) policy, have them exchanged for a replacement. The LX model is not available in Australia, so replacements were simply for an equally-faulty Slide.
Fortunately, Motorola determined the cause of the fault. It turned out the battery was jiggling slightly when the slide mechanism was activated and often this was sufficient to cause the battery to move away from the contacts and cause power to switch off. A reworked model was put in to production with extra cushioning in the battery compartment to more securely hold the battery.
Motorola has determined that the intermittent power cycling on some T-Mobile Sidekick Slide devices was caused by a minor issue relating to the battery contacts. Motorola also has identified and tested a solution which it will implement for existing devices, and incorporate into newly manufactured ones. T-Mobile expects to begin offering the Sidekick Slide again beginning next week.
If a customer has a Sidekick Slide that is experiencing the intermittent power cycle issue, they may contact T-Mobile Customer Care or go to a T-Mobile retail store for assistance and to discuss available options.
By December 6th, T-Mobile were again selling the Sidekick Slide, the new, repaired version.
Down under, it’s a different story. Australian users continued complaining of models that powered off. As recently as Friday the 4th of January over-the-counter Telstra stock of Hiptop Slides have still been shutting down while sliding.
Some Hiptop slide devices have been powering off when customers are sliding the screens up and down. We are currently investigating the extent of the problem with Motorola.
Please reinforce that Motorola and Telstra are committed to providing our customers with quality products and as such we're being proactive in responding to feedback received globally on the Hiptop slide handset. In Australia, as always, Motorola assesses extensively any customer feedback on the product and encourage any customer who experiences issues to contact Motorola's customer service line, so that they can provide an immediate resolution.
For any returned devices please follow Motorola's current 'Early Life Failure' or 'express Warranty' process. Customers experiencing problems can also contact Motorola's Customer Service on 1300 138 823 who will be happy to assist them.
However, despite the memo, it seems many Telstra stores seem blissfully ignorant about the Hiptop Slide fault (and, in some reported cases, even just what a Hiptop Slide actually is.)
Read on to see what happened when I went into a store.
David Bass
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