I bought a brand new Nokia N93 from a dealer on 15th August2006. After 5 days, I found out that the camera just doesn’t focusproperly. The lens which is supposed to move back and forth, justremains stationary. The pictures were horribly blurred and out of focusas a result.I took the phone back to the dealer. He threw up his hands (obviously)and directed me to a Nokia ’Authorised Care Center’ (henceforthreferred to as ’NACC’). I told this guy that the phone was defectivesince the hardware was malfunctioning. But he didn’t listen to me. For2 days he kept the phone and ’tried’ to solve the problem. All he didduring this time was to flash the phone’s software/firmware a couplatimes. After wasting 2 days of my time, he told me the same thing I hadtold him: phone is defective. He also gave me the run-around to a’bigger’ main NACC, a company that calls itself ’BrightPoint India Pvt.Ltd.’ (henceforth referred to as BPIPL).
These people at BPIPL are notorious for their poor customer service (Idid not know this). I naively submitted my handset (on 30th August) andthey gave me a job-sheet for the same. The customer exec to whom Ihanded over the phone said that 99% they would replace the handset if they couldn’t repair it.They said I should check back in 2 days for the status. They also gaveme 4 telephone numbers and 3 extensions that I could call on to checkthe status. None of these numbers worked. For 2 days I was calling up these numbers - morning, noon and night. Not once did my call go through on any of these numbers.
Exasperated (because I live quite far from BPIPL), I went on a Sunday(3rd September) to check the status. The security guard was kind andtold me that the ’job’ is ready. Happily, I went home and returned onMonday morning on the dot of 9am for my ’finished’ phone. After waitingtill 9:30am, my number was called and the phone was handed over to me.It was the same phone. No focus. Blurred pictures. Same defectivepiece. I drew this ’minor detail’ to their attention. So then they sentmy phone to some ’assistant manager’. This was at 9:30am. Till 10:30am, I just stood there waiting for word from the ’assistant manager’.Meanwhile the other customers there were angry and hurling abuses atthe staff because for every 100 customers there seemed to be just onecustomer exec. And that too totally dumb and inefficient. Later I foundout that this is the norm at that ’main’ NACC.
There were people who had been waiting for months for a replacementhandset. People who had to take leaves from work and shuttle back andforth only because the BPIPL phone numbers don’t work and the staff ishorribly inefficient. So not wanting my handset to go in the godown andwait in perpetuity for a replacement, I yelled at the Assistant managerto return my handset, which she promptly did.
Meanwhile, I was also communicating with Nokia by email about thisfiasco. Nokia did nothing. They even told me that ’someone will callyou up on 4th September’. But nothing happened. As a last ditchattempt, I took the phone to the dealer again. I told him to trygetting me a replacement through his ’channels’. Thats the currentstatus of my phone. It lies there at the dealers. No one has probablybothered to talk to Nokia and no one will.
I wouldn’t be so pissed if the phone was a 3310 or the like. But thefact is that its a bloody expensive N93. I wouldn’t want anyone to gothrough what I have gone through. Whats surprising is that Nokia hasnothing to say on this issue. Many of my emails sent tosupport.services@nokia.com just bounce back.
So its not the question of ’this is just one case in a million’. Thepoint is that this company doesn’t care about its customers. It feelsthat the customer’s money spent on an expensive product is notimportant enough. I am not aware of the procedures to drag Nokia andBPIPL to a consumer court. But I am contemplating that as my next move.These people ought to be severely punished.