Yesterday, T-Mobile stopped the sales of ZTE ZMAX and accessories at every T-mobile store and Metro PCS stores. The same was also inflicted on all the online stores and the company did not disclose the reason behind the action as well.
The whole case caught the limelight because T-mobile started selling the device just seven months ago and pulling it off in such short duration came up as a big blow. Finally, PC Mag, revealed in its report that the reason behind such drastic step by the company was due to customers’ constant drive to forcefully remove the device’s non-removable battery.
The battery of ZTE ZMAX is non-removable, but the back cover is removable and the battery is clipped to the panel and people are forcefully trying to get it off anyhow. As of now, the reason behind such consumer behavior is unknown and there can’t be any presumption regarding what exactly made users to have crazy urge to remove the battery. Surprisingly, many users even used knives and screwdrivers in getting the panel off and gaining access to the internal mechanism.
There is no data regarding how many users attempted such stunts, but we can assume that there might have been considerable amount of such cases, that pushed the company to cease the sales of the device. The main issue that surfaced was that T-Mobile had apparently forwarded the complaints to ZTE, which re-directed consumers back to the T-mobile. The employees at T-Mobile had received a memo to cease ZTE ZMAX sales and also to remove the stock from the sales floor until further notice.
Interestingly, The ZTE ZMAX features a removable back cover, which might have got the users under the presumption about the battery being removable too. It seems like T-mobile and ZTE did miss out on specifically alerting the users about the non-removable nature of the battery, and due to the lack of information customers are attempting such actions.