The details of this case are as follows:
Case: 73299404
Engineer: Lalit Kumar
CaseOpened: 06/Apr/2009 12:31:06



Phone Model: W 595
Phone IMEI : 359051025566902
Purchase Date: 12/03/2009
Seller: The Mobile Store, Pallimukku, Kochi.
Defect Date: 29/03/2009
Defect: Blank Display
Job No. : SES09STH11276


I am the unhappy owner of a W 595, purchased recently from The Mobile Store, Pallimukku, Kochi -15, Kerala, India. The phone was bought on 12th March 2009, Thursday, and was intended to last considerably longer than 2 weeks. I was expecting a life of 2 years or so.

2 and a half weeks later, my W 595’s screen went blank automatically around 12 pm on 29th March, Sunday. This was shortly after I had taken a few photos and sent a few messages earlier on the same day. At first I was dismissive about the problem and supposed I had perhaps pressed some buttons and turned the phone off or so.

From The Mobile Store, the Salora International servicing centre and from the Swiss Time House servicing centre and the Sony Ericsson Experience Store at GCDA COmplex in Kochi, all have said the display is broken. All I can say at this point is that I have not had enough time in these 2 weeks to drop the phone. I also have not found the time to “go to an airport and go through airport security” in the short time since I bought the phone, which is a suggestion made by the Salora International receptionist.

Anyway, getting back to the sequence of events. The next day, 30th March 2009, Monday, I went to The Mobile Store, the seller and complained. They gave me the addresses of the 2 authorised servicing centres in Kochi: Salora International, Chittoor Road and Swiss Time House,GCDA Complex, Marine Drive.

The next day being 31st March, the financial year close, I being a CA Professional, was unable to follow up.

On April Fools’ however, I went in search of Salora International. I not being a native of Kochi, and having no private transport, I do not know if you can imagine the extent of trouble I had trying to find the little known Salora International. In fact, I didn’t even manage to locate the building that day, having been misdirected. Guess who got made an April Fool in advance! It was 6 pm and closing time by the time I reached near the godownish area.

So, the next day, I emerged early from my office and arrived at Salora. And you know what! I got misdirected into walking in a circle yet again. Anyway. At Salora, I was barely greeted by a lady named Biji who took one look at the mobile and said “Oh! The screen’s broken. Pay Rs.1244 and we will repair it. Your warranty does not cover physical damage.” Guess what, I didn’t know the warranty covered defective phones.

This lady was the most unhelpful of all the staff I have encountered in connection with this problem. As soon as I pointed out that I had not dropped the phone within those 2 weeks, she said, “Oh! Maybe it got broken when going through airport security.” Well, I assured her that I hadn’t been to an airport recently. Then, as she realized that I had no intention of paying for repair, she shed all responsibility and told me to mail Sony Ericsson. No further help, since I was not going to be a paying customer. She did not know why I could not get through to Sony Ericsson on the Toll Free helpline. Or where the nearest café was. Or how long it might take to get a response to the mail. Either dumb or wilfully unhelpful.

Saddened at being stonewalled and pushed from one place to another by Mobile Store and Salora, I returned to The Mobile Store. Where they directed me to Swiss Time House.

So, on I trekked to Swiss TH. I got the same response, need I tell. Except I was also subjected to a mild cross examination by the engineers, trying to get me to tell “Oh! Actually, I accidentally dropped the phone. In fact, I am sure I dropped it atleast once a day.” I’m pretty speechless at all the ‘customer care’ I have been subjected to so far.

Anyway. I got the GCDA Complex servicing centre to accept the phone for repair.

I sent it into the Swiss Time House service centre in Kochi soon after. The defect was listed as ‘physical damage’ and I was given an estimate of above Rs.1200. It has been taken in for repair out of warranty although I have not dropped the phone or mishandled it in any way.

Next, I sent an email to their customer support email id, questions.in@supprt.sonyericsson.com and an engineer named Lalit Kumar has taken up my case. Unfortunately, even though almost 3 weeks have passed since then, I have received no reply other than an acknowledgment of receipt of my email and a mail from the engineer concerned defending the service centre procedure and harassment.

So, on the 20th of April, I sent another mail to their escalation email, that is seee@support.sonyericsson.com. I did this after sending yet another mail to their primary support email. And not receiving any reply.
I still have not received any reply from either of these email helplines.

So, I called up the servicing centre around the 27th of April. Only to hear that my phone was not yet repaired. Feeling physical presence would make a difference, I went there. To find the place partially closed down. It turned out that they are auditing their accounts since Salora International is breaking ties with Sony Ericsson. That’s their stated reason for the delay, which is due to ‘spare parts availability’ problem. Its uncertain who is the cause of the break up. I smell a fraud, don’t you? Either Sony Ericsson or Salora International. Why else would Swiss Time House be shifting over to Accel, the other service centre?

On the way out of the complex, I spotted a Sony Ericsson Experience Store, GCDA Complex, Marine Drive, Kochi. Went in, asked to talk to the manager. The manager, a Hafis P H, listened very patiently to what I had to say and then showed me certain mobile review websites and the ratings they had to offer on my W 595 phone. Since obviously the average rating was around 80%, I must be lying. I definitely am not one of the poor fools who got the other 20%, am I? Although Mr. Hafis did let drop that maybe I was too unlucky. And he did say, upon my questioning him about a possible reason for the delay in responding to the emails, that maybe I was ‘an unimportant case’ and maybe that was why nobody had bothered to respond.

Id like to insert here that I have been advised by everyone involved to call the Sony Ericsson helpline 1800-11-1800 (toll free) and (STD Code) 3901111. However, since I did not have a replacement handset, I was reluctant to call.

It was only on the last week of April, on the day after I visited the Sony Ericsson Experience Store, that I finally gave up on the email support and called up their phone support.

I was connected to a guy called ‘Jerry’ to whom I gave all the details. He put me on hold and went to check with Mr Lalit Kumar, the engineer who had handled my case. And I was cut off. I redialed. Only to get another call centre executive, a lady. Who said it was impossible to transfer me back to Jerry.
With no choice, I told her all the details as well. As soon as I had finished,I got cut off again.
Third time. Got a guy named ‘Nishanth’ or something like it. Wouldn’t transfer again. However, having heard that I had been cut off twice, he gave me the Case ID no. quickly , in case I got cut off again. And asked me to call after 48 hours.

Did so. Went to the helpdesk option this time. After doing a lot of explaining with the person at the other end of the line and asking for a resolution that was satisfactory to me instead of to Sony Ericsson, I got transferred to a senior person. Who said I had to give them 48 working hours!

Am going to call them today.

A mobile costing Rs.14000 lasting 2 weeks is simply unacceptable, whether the purchase was made in Sweden or in India. I’m sure any court will agree, never mind the fact that Indian laws do not provide for guarantees, only warranties. Especially when the consumer has been sold an obviously defective mobile. I do not think it necessary that I have to suffer for no fault of mine.

Anyway am publishing the issue on my blog.