[Resolved]  Reliance Digital — faulty iphone xr

Address:

Mumbai City, Maharashtra, 400068

Hi,

Invoice Number - 000425

Mobile Number - [protected]

This e-mail is in reference to the recent purchase of I-phone XR 128GB. My experience with Reliance Digital has been very disappointing post purchase of the product.

I had walked into the store on 08/12/2018 to look at I-Phone models to gift my wife for her birthday which was due on 11/12/2018. She has been an Apple user since last 2 years and she was keen to get another model of same make. I initially saw the I-phone 7 but didn’t find it worth while spending around 40K especially for a 2 year old model. Post which i saw an I-phone 8 for 58K which was released 1 year back however I-phone XR was just displayed next to it .I took the decision to go for one since the difference was 20K from i-phone 8 and my wife could have the latest model rather than 1 or 2 years old. With such expensive phone, expectations of quality also increase. It was a Surprise for her for her birthday and so we freezed for I-phone XR 128GB which was a good deal compared to I-Phone XR 64GB for a difference of 1200/- approximately.

The sales man from Apple Mr. Sajid said that they have to open the box to check if any physical damage is existing or any technical fault while operating the phone before i could take it home but i was initially hesitant in doing so because it was a gift and i wanted my wife to open the box rather than it being opened earlier. However I agreed because there wasn’t any better option available at that time. The Phone was switched on without SIM and activation was done at the same time because apple will not allow otherwise. No SIM was inserted.

We took the phone back home and i decided to gift her on same day which was 08/12/2018 since it was a weekend and she can have time to set up the phone rather than on working day because we both are working professionals. She didn’t do anything on that day because it was too late. She set up her phone on Sunday majorly regarding apps and backups. The calls made on Sunday were minimum since it wasn’t a working day [Maximum calls are made to each other]. At the most a few calls must have been made to her mom which don’t last long.

We then started using the phone extensively from Monday onwards and we noticed that her voice was going off for few seconds on almost every call whether it was me or anybody else from her work place where we couldn’t hear her. I thought that it would have been network issues and so we decided to try out and give a chance the next day. Entire day Tuesday we faced the same issue and this became very evident because it was her birthday and she was getting calls from friends and relative and almost every call was the same issue where her voice just cuts off while conversing. Since i was working on Tuesday, we had decided to go out for Dinner with family on this occasion however we decided to report the same post coming back from work because i didn’t want to hold this issue for long and thought of reporting it immediately. We stay 15 minutes away from Borivali apptronix [Shimpoli] not knowing that it was shut down operationally due to renovation. We decided to address this issue and then head for dinner with family.

So here’s where the entire trauma started. I visited the apptronix [Shimpoli] store at around 8 pm approx on Tuesday [On her Birthday] rather than going to POS initially. The staff there tells me that the service centre is shut and i got to visit the service centre in Malad which is 13KM away one way and it was closed for that day. So coming and going would take me over an hour on any day from home. I wasn’t happy with it because it would delay my reporting of the issue, the sales staff at the store got me connected to the contact center advisor over the phone. I explained the entire problem to him and he asked me few questions to understand the problem as well assuring me that he will help. Until 24 Minutes it was fine, but after that this problem persisted with the agent on the call where my voice went off since i was talking on the i-phone. He realised that this happened couple of times which he admitted and i also asked him to mention in the notes. He asked me to go to the service centre for diagnosis but i wasn’t happy because it wasn’t nearby and i was working the next day and had my evening classes from 6.30 to 9.30 pm. So i asked him that if this problem has been diagnosed and I’ve reported this within 2 days from using the phone, why it couldn’t be exchanged being faulty. Who would want to visit a service centre in 2 days after spending approx 78K for the phone and 10K for the insurance. So i told the advisor on the phone to hold until i reached POS which was 2 minutes away so he can tell them about the issue he faced on the call because i wasn’t getting any assistance but obvious being because they were sales staff at apptronix store. So we reached the POS and i handed over the phone to Sajid to talk to the advisor because he kept repeating the same issue over and over again by telling me to visit the service centre. Sajid and he agreed to do the troubleshooting over the phone by taking remote access and after troubleshooting, the advisor said that everything is fine and nothing is wrong in spite he facing the issue on the call post 24 minutes. So there is something wrong due to which he experienced the problem but found nothing in diagnosis. I countered the fact that how can anyone understand that the part is faulty over the phone by taking remote access but Sajid said that all tools are available to understand this. This call lasted over an hour with the advisor of apple technician and the advisor said to change the SIM. I had advised them that SIM has been changed 4 months back since my wife lost her old I-phone 6.So the call ended after an hour agreeing to change the SIM. I then tried explaining the staff that this couldn’t be the problem of SIM since we faced no issues on old phone prior to buying this one but they said to try this out. Sajid inserted a replacement SIM in the phone and made a call to his colleague to experience the problem. I then argued, how will i prove this when it happens at any time of the call and how long should i hold the phone and keep talking to prove it. So Sajid said that he will keep talking to his colleague on my behalf. He spoke for 10 minutes randomly about everything but this couldn’t go like this for long time. Then I came on the call and started explaining him everything thinking that we have some content to talk and he can understand my problem since we speaking continuously. This call went for 30 minutes waiting to prove my point, but nothing was experienced that time. We spent almost over 2 hours on her Birthday sorting this out instead us going out as a family and spending some family time. So he advised me to change the SIM and get back to him if this issue persists .Finally we then headed back from there around 10.30 post getting nowhere. 2 hours and 30 minutes spent on her birthday with staff of apple and reliance.

My wife then changed the SIM on Wednesday [Next day] and this issue prevailed where we couldn’t hear her satisfactorily. I started recording calls to prove my point. The staff from store Mr. Nanasaheb called after 2 days to check if it persists. I informed him that the issue is still persisting and will come on Sunday since it’s my only off in that week. Since we both were working until Saturday and i had my classes until 9.30, I decided to go back on Sunday reporting this issue where changing of SIM wasn’t the solution. I played my recordings with Tousif Mujawar [Reliance Department Manager], Nansaheb [RD Staff], and one more person who joined in but didn’t get his name .They also realised that her call quality wasn’t as great as mine .I then defended my conversation that it’s been over a week since I’ve this phone and i can’t talk properly with her and none of them could take a decision to resolve my issue. They called the service center representative from Malad Infinity centre and he said to come next day after my work. The store people said that the service centre will authorise an exchange by issuing a letter and then the reliance digital store will replace and that is the only way. This is the policy as per apple and they can’t do anything. So I finally decided to go there after my work being upset with entire way the matter has been dealt. The store people said that they will take the phone on my behalf but that person wouldn’t have been able to express what I’ve gone through and also play the recordings to prove the same. So it had to be me to go there the next day. It wasn’t like any physical issue which could be proved easily.

Now comes the 3rd day of explaining this issue to another person. I visited the Infinity service centre at around 7.30 pm on Monday after my work. I spoke to Vijay who attended and peacefully explained the situation and also played the recording. He initially told me that there is a problem with Vodafone network not realising that if Vodafone had this issue, it would happen on old phone as well which was switched on Monday to take this I-Phone to the service station. This day i faced no problems talking to my wife when old phone was being used. Vijay now agreed that there is a problem with the phone. This contradicts with the person who diagnosed over the phone saying that everything is fine which was the precise argument on the point that how can someone check physical parts over the phone on Tuesday by running some steps of diagnosis through remote access. Vijay said that it’s been 8 to 9 days and as per his policy he can only book for repairs. I then counter argued that when I’ve complained on Tuesday where the ticket number was raised, why couldn’t that be sufficient. He tells me that his policy says that it can be replaced [If phone is faulty] only within 48 hours. How would you expect the consumers to know about your policy of 48 hours? . Vijay then got Mr Pritesh who was a manager to attend. I explained this to him from the start. He said that he can’t go beyond the policy which is booking of handset for diagnosis irrespective of what happened on Tuesday and Sunday. So I advised him either take a call or let the Reliance store own up in resolving my issue. Both parties stood at their policies [One who required a letter to exchange and one who couldn’t exchange due to over 48 hours and wouldn’t issue a letter].I called reliance digital along with Pritesh and me and placed the call on loudspeaker. I argued with Tousif that since i came on Tuesday on my wife’s birthday, why wasn’t this policy of 48 hours explained to me. He said that he had suggested me to go to the service center for diagnosis. Now there is a difference when somebody says Diagnosis Vs Exchange. Both these words have different interpretation. This argument went on until 10.30 pm with no parties taking ownership of a faulty device and both going only as per each other’s policy .During the call, Pritesh went somewhere inside couple of times leaving only me to fight my case. Moreover he said that it will go to Bangalore for procedures. Now i have got to send this Phone to Bangalore and be without this device for 8 days. I’ve clearly instructed them not to repair the phone because I wouldn’t accept a faulty device after spending a fortune on it.

It just doesn’t go down well if you have spent 90K including insurance and you have to visit a service centre in the same week due to faulty device. Moreover there wasn’t any service centre close by and no ownership from either party to take control of this dilemma. The diagnosis centre is in Bangalore and this leaves us without the device for that many days. I’m sure that none of you would like to go through this situation immediately after purchasing the handset.

I visited again on 21st Dec where they were not allowing me to cancel my Emi from Bajaj .

I’m expecting someone to take responsibility of this situation and resolve by replacing it.