[Resolved]  Nokia E5 - 00 — Defective mic / Customer care harassment

Address:

Chandigarh, Chandigarh

Sir/Ma'am,

My father had purchased a Nokia E5-00, (IMEI:[protected]) device, on 1st Nov 2010. It started giving problems with the microphone since around the middle of July 2011, as the voice was intermittently or lately, completely inaudible to the opposite person connected to.
This was immediately reported to Nokia Customer Care, Electra Care at sector 35, Chandigarh for the first time on 23rd July, where the staff only inquired about any kind of water infiltration, but he refused as no such accident had ever happened. The phone was submitted with the centre for inspection which was returned after 4 days, which on receiving worked fine, but soon after the problem reappeared.

On reporting this for the second time to the care centre, it was conveyed to him that the sim card might be defective. However, after checking the issue with various sims available at home, the problem still persisted.

For the third meeting, around 16th August, the issue was reported to Electra Care, however the technical staff, on looking at the phone, said that the problem was beyond their scope for repair, and the phone had to be sent to the 'factory' for part replacement. It was also informed that even though the phone was in warranty period, the charge sheet prepared on the first meeting mentioned 'minor liquid damage', without any acknowledgement or intimation to us, which made the warranty void and the task would have to be charged for an estimate of 1000 rupees. Even after repeatedly conveying to them that there had been no incidence of liquid damage, they refused to offer any help. This forced us to withdraw.

However, my father found it extremely difficult using an older phone set with its own problems, for a final remedy for all the harassment, we decided to shell out the 1000 rupees and get the phone repaired instead of having to buy a new one.
Thus for the 4th time, on 19th of August, Electra care was approached and they prepared a fresh chargesheet, this time advancing to liquid damage from 'minor liquid damage' and voided the warranty.
The call was received on the 22nd of August that the phone was ready, but it was collected on the 30th of August. On receiving, the sound was partially audible, to this, the staff remarked that it could be a minor signal problem, but ensured that the replaced part carries a one month warranty. The amount paid for the repair was Rs. 892/-

But on reaching home, it became clear that phone was still problematic, and the frequency of intermittent problems with the mic have only increased.

Although the month long warranty is still valid, we feel harassed and robbed off of our money. There was no intimation in the first meeting that there was any liquid damage, which was later used as a clause to nullify the warranty. Despite that, the 'supposed' replacement of parts for which we were charged has not helped in any way. Now we do not trust the so called customer 'care' and have lost faith in Nokia brand too. This is a clear case of consumer harassment and cheating, and we wish to approach the consumer court for the same.
As our last hope, we thought that intimating you might be of some help, while your customer care dealership model is hopeless.

We request replacement of the defective phone set which should have been the ideal case in the first place, along with the refund for the repair/part replacement by the customer care which we doubt took place at all.
Your response in this matter is eagerly awaited.

Thanking you in anticipation
Mayank Ojha
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