This is an excellent phone. As long as it doesn’t get any issues. You can’t imagine the horror you will have to face to try to get this phone fixed or repaired.
OnePlus is providing world-class phones at affordable prices. Absolutely true. But, this cheap prices has a lot of drawbacks. One of the major being the worst customer service and service centers of all the mobile phone companies.
They don’t have their own service centers and outsource repair. And that is when your trouble starts.
Take my example:
I accidentally got my phone wet. It is not covered under warranty. I got to their authorized B2X service center(Marathahalli, Bangalore). They take my phone and never call me back about the status. I go there after many days and find that the motherboard for the phone needs to be replaced. Cost for replacing the motherboard? Rs.21, 500. Read on to know why I mentioned the price here. Things will get interesting.
Anyways, I said I couldn’t afford to repair a Rs. 25000 phone for Rs. 21, 500 and asked them to return the examined phone. Guess what. They did return me a phone, but that was not mine. This phone had tampered glass screen. Mine didn’t. This one has no dents on the sides, mine had dents on 3 corners. They gave me someone else’s phone.(Maybe with someone else’s ruined motherboard too? God knows.)
On creating a scene over this in front of other people waiting to get their phones checked, B2X representatives asked to me to come back next day to collect my ACTUAL phone.(I had no way of verifying whether the parts that they returned were actually my own. The IMEI number is just a number pasted on the inner back cover which can be easily replaced.)
Still hopeful, I took my phone to another authorized OnePlus service center, Regenersis(VV Puram, Bangalore). Now things get interesting. They find my phone seal broken and tell me my phone is no longer within warranty since the seal is broken. I try to make them understand that the seal was broken by one of their own "authorized service center". After much confusion, they accept my phone for checking and find the motherboard needs replacement. Remember the price quoted earlier? Rs 21, 500. These people quote Rs. 18, 000. Two authorized service centers. Same motherboard. Two different prices.(God know how much it should actually cost.)
What more? The second service center didn’t even give me a separate bill. They stamped the bill from the first service center.(I am guessing the repair money won’t reach OnePlus.) By this time, I was exhausted and all I wanted was to get my phone back. I cave to their demands and follow their instructions and pay Rs18k to get the damn phone fixed.
The irony about this is that many of the people buying this phone don’t even have a OnePlus service center in their city/town. Imagine the trouble people from this places would face if they needed to get their phones checked.
But, this has been an important lesson. And I want you to save your money. It’s not just the phone. Just like a car or a motorbike, your phone needs a good service center too. Don’t run after fads such as "flagship killers". Go for well established companies like Samsung, Apple, Motorola, etc. And stay away from these new generation of phone startups as long as they don’t start providing good, well-proven services in your area.