| Address: Mumbai City, Maharashtra |
Would like to report a particularly BAD experience I had with HTC Phone as well as
the service centre, which will be an eye opener for all potential users /
customers.
I bought HTC Desire 526G Plus phone on 14/2/15 from Flipkart. After less than 3 months o[censored]sage, the paint on the back cover of the phone started peeling off!
On 6/5/15, I visited HTC web site and had an on-line chat with a service rep (one called - Raees) through the facility available on the web site. This service rep validated the source of my purchase (Flipkart) and the IMEI no of the phone through the chat session and informed me to proceed to one of the service
centers in Mumbai with original bill of purchase for getting the phone serviced. I opted to go to VCare IT Service & Solutions located in F1, Prime Mall, Irla lane, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai on 7/5/15 as that is the closest to my residence.
On reaching the service centre at 4:00pm on 7/5/15, I was attended by one Shri Bhagyesh, who examined the original invoice, phone serial no etc. and told me that even though the instrument is under warranty, since it has been bought
on-line, service centre will not service it "as a policy".
When I insisted to show me the policy, the personnel at the Service Centre (Shri Siddhesh, Chinmay & Bhagyesh) refused to show any policy document; when I asked them to give me, in writing, that the service centre is not going to
service the phone, they refused that too. They refused to even divulge their full names / designations or provide a complaint form for me to complaint about their non-servicing of my phone.
After I refused to budge from the service centre without getting the phone serviced, one of the personnel (Chinmay) called a service in-charge (one Shri Akash, whose full name & designation was also not told to me). After speaking to
Akash, Chinmay told his other two colleagues that Akash has told him that the policy of not servicing HTC phones bought on-line is to be implemented from 1/4/15 and since my phone was bought on 14/2/15 it has to be serviced by the Centre. However, even after this, Siddhesh asked Chinmay to get this verified from "other madam" at the centre and he (Siddhesh) refused to service my phone. All the three personnel then disappeared from their counters for
"consultations" inside the office. After 15 min of wait, on my insisting, Siddhesh shared contact no. of Akash, and I could talk to him (after nearly 10 attempts and sending him a SMS). Akash said he is at his brother's wedding, but was kind enough to understand the difficulties faced by me.
He reiterated the policy that HTC phones bought on-line after 1/4/15 will not be serviced and said he has already instructed the service centre to log a call and service my phone since it has been bought prior to 1/4/15. Even after this,
service centre personnel were not showing any signs of taking actions to service the phone. Meanwhile, Siddhesh asked me to talk to one in charge of the service Centre - Nita Bangera, who happened to come at the counter to attend to some other matter. Siddhesh referred to her as the "Madam in charge of the Centre". When I explained my case to Ms. Nita, she too flatly refused to service my phone and told me that even though Akash has instructed them to service the phone, they will like to verify that from someone else. She refused to tell me with whom she is verifying this.
After wasting nearly 75 min arguing at the Centre, Bhagyesh asked me to fill a form asking for relevant personal details and details of the phone; saying this is the first step for logging a call. After handing over the filled form to Bhagyesh, I asked him how many days it will take to service the phone. Bhagyesh, inspected my phone, and said it will happen immediately as they have spare back covers fitting my phone.
Akash in my conversation had said that the paint peeling off the back cover of my phone is a known manufacturing defect for this model and each service centre have been adequately provided with spare back covers to replace when customer approaches the centre.
However, after entering my form in the system, Bhagyesh changed the tune and said they do not have any black coloured covers in their stock and that it will take 6 - 7 days, he told me that I will have to visit the service centre again to collect the cover. I called Akash to convey the same that how is it that the person who inspected my phone 10 min before entering the form tells me that the servicing will happen immediately, now turns around and says they do not have the covers in spare. As per Bhagyesh, when he checked the back covers, he found only white coloured back covers and no black coloured ones. Even though it was obvious that my phone was black.
On conveying this, Akash has promised me that he will find a centre which has the black back cover tomorrow (i.e. 8/5/15) and will get the same replaced. I have also asked Akash to share full names, designations, e-mail IDs and contact nos of HTC customer service and servicing in-charge in western India so that I can spend more efforts and meet them personally to convey this sub-optimal experience and ask for necessary corrective actions against the Service Centre concerned and the specific personnel. Akash has promised to give me a call on 8/5/15 to provide this information.
I am also asking Flipkart to clarify whether they are aware of this "HTC policy" of not servicing the phones bought on-line through them after 1/4/15. As of today (7/5/15), Flipkart (& Amazon) both continue to offer this specific phone through on-line purchase, without any mention of restrictions on the serviceability, which the HTC personnel conveyed to me today.
Let this experience serve as an eye opener to other HTC customers - current and potential ones and especially those buying the phone on-line from Flipkart..
- Milind Nadkarni
HTC India customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
