Recently I bought a new mobile phone—Nokia C3. The mix of touchscreen and keypad caught my interest. The model was newly-launched, the shopkeeper told me, as he rattled on about the features. I was happy with it till the day I woke up and found that the touchpad was not working. Now, if the touchscreen doesn’t work, it means I cannot unlock the phone. And I can’t do anything except answer calls and disconnect them.
Work and the rains in Pune prevented me from heading to the Nokia Care Centre for a couple of days. Finally, yesterday my friend took me on his bike to a Care Centre. The lady at the Centre took her own sweet time to ‘kick start’ her system—she had to ‘kick’ the archaic machine with the help of another colleague.
After a half-an-hour wait, the lady asked me about the issue, and handed over the phone to a techie, who sat behind a screen. Another 20-minute wait. The lady then calls me and says that the touchpad has to be replaced and that it would take two weeks. Two weeks??? Just to replace the touchpad??? Beats logic.
“You just have to replace this screen with a new one. Why on earth should it take two weeks? I asked. The smile and the sweet tone of her voice were replaced instantly by a frown and a grim voice. “That’s the time it will take. Or else you can take it elsewhere,” she said.
Customer is King? My foot!
I couldn’t leave the phone there for two weeks as I didn’t have a spare handset. The need was mine, so I tried to cajole the lady to give me a spare set, while they fixed my handset. ‘No, not possible,” she barked.
Customer is King? Don’t think so!
My friend suggested that I buy a basic model while they repair mine. But then it kills the purpose of having warranty, I countered. So, we headed out to another Care centre. There was a huge crowd waiting at this Centre. I took the token with number 49 and stood at the waiting lounge. The Centre had 6 counters for customer care officers and only three were operating even when a huge crowd of about 60 people were waiting.
Usually I carry a book with me, since a ‘wait’ is most likely to happen anywhere you go in India. This time I hadn’t. So I killed time by reading the posters stuck on the wall and the backside of the form which I had to fill out.
An hour and three cigarettes later, the magic number 49 appeared on the screen and I rushed to my designated counter. The same routine followed. And the lady said, “Two weeks sir.”
“Why two weeks? Replacing a touchscreen shouldn’t take more than half an hour? I asked, my irritation coming out very clearly.
“That’s true sir. The problem is that we don’t have a replacement screen. It will take about two weeks before another batch comes here,” she replied.
So, that was the issue. So, nothing else to do, but to wait it out. As I stood up from the counter, I asked the lady to flip over the form that I had filled out. She looked at me in surprise. “Turn it over, and read the headline,” I insisted. She did that and turned beetroot red with embarrassment.
Here’s what she saw:
Do you really expect such an error from a brand like NOKIA?
Is Nokia IMPOTENT or the people working there IMPOTENT or
Are they making the 'customer the king' IMPOTENT?
by Sooraj Singh
Editor-in-Chief
Editor-in-Chief
Only Sales , no after Sales , forget RETURN or Refund
ReplyDeletehttp://aanekant.blogspot.com/2011/09/only-sales-no-after-sales-forget-return.html
This happens when companies reach the level of complacency. They become kings with huge market share, where people keep following them and buying blindly. With such a monopolistic level companies behave such way! Go to a mobile service centre with a new brand..see the service..But not to Chinese made and indian marketed mobiles because you dont have service centre and even if you have they cant repair, and if they can no spares..
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