[Resolved]  Samsung Mobile — Sam

TO EVERYONE AT SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS

There are many instances in my mail below which reflect the level of customer service and the pro activeness shown on the same.

I would like to put on the record the manner in which my Father - Col M M Malik, SM (Retd) has been served at various touch points of your organization and the bad experience that has followed.

Background - My father purchased a Samsung - SGH J 800 mobile phone from e-zone outlet at Oberoi Mall Goregaon - East on 8th November 08. The product serial number is - [protected]. Other details on the phone are - Item Code - [protected], TIN No. - [protected] and IMEI No - [protected]. Purchase price of phone - Rs. 7450 /-

The sales staff had no detailed knowledge of the phone features however we were able to convince ourselves knowing Samsung is a reputed brand in the market. As a Matter of fact we own other Samsung product which include a Plasma TV, Wide Screen Normal TV and a Samsung refrigerator.

Problem - Within 2 months of purchasing the handset the phone started getting switched off all of a sudden and had to be re charged to switch it on. On noticing this problem for a couple of days my father approached the E Zone outlet from where he had purchased the phone.

E Zone reply - They were absolutely brash in their response and uncaring in their attitude. The informed my father that they had nothing to do once the phone is sold and he needs to visit the nearest Samsung Serivce centre. My Father is a ex army senior citizen and he should have been treated with respect and attended to properly. Please take up the matter with e zone for their poor and pathetic customer service.

My father then visited the Samsung Service centre at Santacruz - W on 13th Jan '09 at 1530 hrs for which they issued a Work Order No - [protected]. My father left his alternate number with the service centre [protected]. He also explained the problem to the service centre and categorically stated that nothing has happened to the phone and all of a sudden it stopped working and since it is in the warranty period it needs to be repaired and returned to him.

Service Centre Reply - They have given a deaf year to the explanation given by my father and stated that handset PC got damaged due to Water and he will have to bear the cost or repair for the handset. This came as a total surprise to my father as the handset was maintained properly by him.

My father has repeatedly informed them Mr. Dubey at the service centre that No water went into the phone and the service centre needs to re look into the matter. In addition to the same the phone is within warranty and he should not be charged any thing for repair.

Mr. Dubey informed my father that the matter has been taken up with HO at Delhi. My father and myself have been repeatedly calling a gentlemen Mr. Praful who never returned the calls or replied to the sms's. In the mean time Mr. Dubey has called up my father and informed that he will have to pay only 50% of the repair charges i.e. Rs. 2500 /-. After a lot of missed calls and follow up Mr. Praful finally had the time to pick up the phone and explain the companies policies and procedures to my father without getting into complete details.

I have personally spoken to Mr. Dubey and he has refused to accept my request based on the facts i presented to him. Your customer service personnel need some serious training in being empathetic with the customer rather than repeatedly teaching them policies and procedures.

My Father who not that literate with the Online world went to samsung.com and registered a written complaint to which he has not received any reply. However he received an SMS where the transaction number - [protected] and BD No - [protected].

However the facts are

a. that the phone did not get affected by water in anyway and suddenly stopped working
b. that my father has been running from pillar to post without getting proper customer service
c. that e zone treats Samsung customers as garbage
d. that your customer care centre neither sympathetic or empathetic but a learning centre preaching policies and procedures

I have stated enough of the traumatic experience my father is going through to get the phone repaired.

My request to the company is

a. To replace the handset model FREE of cost to my father as there is no fault of the customer but fault in the product. There is not discussion on repair charges as a phone purchased 3 months ago has gone faulty.
b. Last but not the least it should be continuous attempt from the organization to improve its customer satisfaction which exceeds customers expectations. The touch points needs to be made aware of the fact of the value of the customer. I can assure you that we will never be buying a product from e zone in the future.
c. Please give all of them a crash course to deal with Senior Citizens.

I look forward to a positive feedback from your end to resolve the problem.


Manish Malik
(On behalf of his father - Col M M Malik)
January 28th 2009
Contact Number - [protected]