Google HTC Nexus 9 Tablet Clicking issue

I was very excited to buy my Google Nexus 9 tablet from Amazon in March, 2015.  I happily gave up my iPad mini and was looking forward to going back to Android.  With the release of Lollipop, I was not disappointed.  Sure, it has some issues, most notably a memory leak) but finally the OS was comparable to iOS in my opinion.

For a couple of weeks, everything was great, but then it went wrong.  I was vacationing in NYC and settling down in the hotel room after a long day of sightseeing.   I powered up the tablet and heard this “clicking” sound coming from the bottom speaker.  I immediately thought I had done something.  Had I dropped the tablet?  Banged it too hard?  But I hadn’t.  I have a case for it, and I treat it with kid gloves.

Of course the issue started literally 15 days after I bought the device.  I didn’t think it was a permanent problem, and I was in NYC, so I didn’t immediately assume I would have to send it back.  I noticed that sometimes it didn’t make the clicking sound at all.  I could go an hour or more without it happening.

So I tried, over the course of two more weeks, to diagnose it myself.  Was it the charging cable?  I bought a new one.  Was it when the battery was full?  So I let it drain down to 15%.  Was it an app?  I factory reset the device.  Nothing helped.

By this time, over 30 days had passed since I had purchased the device.  31 to be exact.  I wasn’t sure if Amazon would take it back.  So I reached out to HTC here:  http://htc.cust-serv.com/chat.aspx

I was walked through a script, where the help desk agent started by telling me that clicking was normal, it was a feedback signal from the device that a button had been pressed.  After 15 minutes, I got him to understand that it was NOT normal.  He was sure my problem was an app I had installed and asked me to factory reset the device.  Even though I explained I had already done all of this – I had to follow is annoying script.

Finally, help desk admitted defeat and asked me to send it in for repair.  ON MY DIME.  With packing materials, insurance, and signature on delivery – $25.00 to ship.

So I did.  I lost my tablet for 2 weeks while it was sent in for repair.  I got it back 2 days ago and eagerly unpacked it, happy the situation was finally resolved.

ONLY IT WASN’T.

Nothing had changed.  It has the exact same issue that it had when I sent it in.  Now, they are asking me to spend another $25.00 to ship it to them again.

I verified that they repair work they did last time was a simple speaker replacement.  They didn’t even check it or run diagnostics as far as I know; they just replaced the speaker and sent it back to me.

The problem is not the speaker.  There is something creating feedback that the speaker is expressing as clicks – but the feedback is the issue.  HTC went right for symptom and not root cause.

SoI am not happy.  I am out $50.00 for a repair that is their problem.  This is where Apple has Google beat hands down.  Were this an Apple product, I’d take it right to the store, pay nothing, and get it back (or fixed same day).

After this, if it comes back still unrepaired, I’m going to have some choice words for HTC.