Order No: TEC/BB/13/06611.
I own a Blackberry Curve 9220 and it used to shut down automatically intermittently. It’s been 15 months now since I purchased my phone and since this period is well within the warranty period (18 months), I visited the Blackberry Service Center at CCOM Telecommunications Ltd at Eternity Mall, Thane for getting my phone fixed. I was asked to fill a complaint form and a software up gradation was done on my phone by the technical team but still the issue was not resolved.
I had to visit the service center again the next day and I was told to fill another complaint form. I was told that an inspection would be done at the Bangalore Head Office and I’ll have to pay a fee of Rs. 250 if the repair is made in case of any damage else I can collect the phone as it is without paying anything. I called up on the support number the next day and I was told by a customer care representative that the phone will be sent to Bangalore HO for inspection and an estimate cost will be given for repairing the phone since there is a liquid damage in my phone.
The next day I received an auto generated e-mail saying that the phone is irreparable and ready to be collected whereas I was under the impression that my phone is being inspected in Bangalore HO. I have been calling frequently (not on public holidays) and even dropped an e-mail to understand this ambiguity between what I was communicated earlier and the auto generated e-mail but no one answered or replied. I had to leave my work and come down to the Service Center and was asked to collect the phone and pay Rs. 250 as inspection charges since the warranty criteria was held void as communicated by the Customer Care Representative.
I have had the most disappointing experience with the service offered at CCOM Telecommunication (Registered Blackberry Service Center) and following are the reasons:
On my first visit I was told that a software upgradation will solve the problem but still the problem was not resolved. Why wasn’t the diagnosis done thoroughly on my first visit itself if there was a liquid damage that was identified later after my second visit? Do you expect the customer to make several rounds to your service center to get the problem identified? I have spent Rs. 200 – 300 in travelling to your service center and sacrificed my work in the process.
Warranty means Warranty! You can’t force the customer to surrender to the terms and conditions where the warranty is held void even if the warranty period is not over. A Liquid Damage is not a deliberate damage a customer would cause to his phone and if the damage has occurred within the warranty period it means the phone has got a short life and is defective, and not the fault of the customer!
Even if the damage is identified and you say that the phone is not repairable, how can the customer be asked to pay the inspection charges of Rs. 250 which is merely a service offered by you in diagnosing the problem during the warranty period? Firstly, you are holding my warranty period void because of an internal damage which is not in my control, and then asking me to pay the inspection charges that too under the warranty period is ridiculous! Forget the repairing of the mobile – At least a service of any kind under the warranty period has to be free of cost and goes without saying else why would I come to your service center in the first place?
Nobody responds on the call or responds to my e-mail and I have to come all the way to the service center to put forth my queries. To sum up, I came to the service center thinking that my phone will get fixed under warranty and in return what I find out is that I have to go through the ordeal of making multiple rounds at the service center, spend almost 300 rupees in traveling and get to hear from the customer care representative that ‘Your phone is irreparable and you have to pay inspection charges of Rs. 250.
Why keep the word warranty then?