Nokia Care sucks !

"It takes years to get a customer, and seconds to loose one"

Nokia customer care centre at Infantry Road, Bangalore stands tall amidst the other customer care centres.You want to know why? Read on....

To start Nokia being the number 1 in India, most of the bakras purchase Nokia fones. The Services. Wow! Nothing to speak about it. The best description about their care is **BullShit**.

Let me explain my experience with them On the 10-July-2006 (Tuesday), the ill-fated day, I get properly drenched till the second layer of my skin while driving to my office from home. I reach office and find my mobile totally wet and non-functional. As per my friends suggestion I open up my mobile and keep it for drying but later also I find that my mobile is totally dead.

On the 12-July (Thursday), I went to the Nokia authorised customer care centre at Infantry Road, Bangalore. The security at the ground floor asked me to go to the first floor. I entered into the first floor at around 7.15 pm. The security at the reception gave me a token number. The room had a partition with a glass. On one side there was three rows of chairs for the customers to wait and on the other side of the glass was the customer support executives sitting with a computer on their table and calling the token number sequentially via the electronic machine. There were four counters but only two counters were having the executives. I waited patiently for my token number to be announced. After a long wait of around 45 minutes, my token number was called. I went to the counter and gave my mobile and explained the problem. The executive sitting was also a mallu guy and he gave the million dollar smile and said that they cannot guarantee of making it serviceable (I remembered the usual dialogue in bollywood movies "Ab upparwala hi kuch kar sakta hai"). He made a job sheet and said that they will carry out the initial inspection and inform me about it within 5 days. There will be a service fee of Rs 56/- irrespective of whether the instument works or not. I agreed for everything and came back home with a positive hope.

For the next 5 days I waited patiently for a phone call from the customer support but to my disappointment, I did not receive any call. They had mentioned a toll free number that was not at all working. There is another mobile number that was mentioned on the jobsheet which did not exist at all. I then tried the website to track the status of my mobile, but the site was also down.

On 24-July morning at 11.00 am I went directly to the customer care centre. I went directly to the first floor and I was surprised to see the crowd there. There was nobody to guide me where I had to contact and inquire about my handset. I went to the security guard and he asked me to check with the cashier. I noticed that instead of two male customer support executives as on the other day, three female executives were at the counter. Anyhow I went in and met the lady at the cashier counter, without looking at me she just took the jobsheet from me and started going through her records. She checked three register and asked me to go to the second floor which is their stores and despatch section.

Climbing the stairs I entered the second floor. The security guard at the door asked me to get a token from downstairs. I went to first floor to collect token but they informed that I had to collect a different token from the ground floor. I came down and the lady sitting at the counter ground floor (For your information the counter is nothing but two chairs and a table with computer and a printer occupied by two female representatives under the staircase) verified something over her computer and gave me a token. Token number 62. Our of curiousity I asked her if my handset has been repaired, she replied that you need to check at the second floor.

I went to second floor and again waited there for another half an hour for my number to be called. I saw that many annoyed customers were shouting at the counter. My number was then displayed on the electronic machine and I rushed to the counter. A lady at counter took the jobsheet from me and and handed it over to another assistant. I was eagerly waiting to hear about the status of my mobile phone but to my surprise for 20 minutes I was kept standing at the counter. I did not ask or loose my patience with the representative as many other customers were already on that job. After half an hour the assistant handed over my jobsheet and told me poiltely that the mobile is not ready and I can collect it the next day at 11.30am. I was speechless....is this what they call world class customer service. I asked the person if there is any scope of getting the mobile repaired. And the reply that I received would have made anybody faint. He said "Sir, the person who is incharge of repairing your mobile is on leave today, and we are unable to locate the instrument". I did not speak a word and came out of the place.

25th July morning 11.00 am , I again went to the office. By now I was well aware of the formalities, I took the token from the counter, went to the despatch section waited for another 45 minutes for my token number to be called. My token number was called....went to the counter...gave the jobsheet....she gave that to another assistant.....after around 15 minutes my mobile came to the counter...the representative told me with a gentle smile that "Sir, this mobile cannot be repaired as everything is destroyed and is beyond repair". He made me sign on some register and papers and asked me to pay Rs 56/- at cashier counter and collect the mobile. I have to go to the cashier pay the cash & return to the despatch section & pick my mobile! And I was really surprised to find that cashier counter is on the other floor from the despatch section!! Oh My! Why would their be a cashier unless you need to pay to take your mobile from despatch section? But still cashier is faaaaaaaaaaaaar way from the despatch section. Pathetic design.

Upon reaching cashier, I was not surprised to find that nobody existed there. Well, Nokia has given me enough surprises to last a life time. After sometime the lady cashier came to the counter, I paid the service fee. She gave the print command on her computer for the receipt of fee and here comes the next surprise..PRINTER IS NOT WORKING..She did try some simple methods to start the printer but it was continously getting struck. At last she wrote something on the jobsheet and asked me to show this at despatch section to collect my instrument. I went to the despatch section, showed the jobsheet and got my non-functional, dead instrument. (I remember the scene from the bollywood movie 'Saraansh' where anupam kher tries to get his son's dead body from the airport authorities). At last after wasting many hours of my life I could get my Nokia phone back...My friends asked me why I did not shout and blast on them? Becoz there was....
.......this lady who had been standing (*like a punished school gal*) near the executive for over 5hrs
..........this guy over there had been holding his laptop & his Nokia N90 mobile from before I came in
..........this fatty out here has been waiting to find out where has here mobile battery vanished
.........this old man standing next to me having trouble in finding out atleast some entity to hear his complaint
..........three guys who are comming for the 4th time to get a replacement for their Nokia 6600 that had software problems within a week of its purchase
.......a college going student who was continously asking why nobody is available at the customer support number mentioned on the jobsheet
........and all the helpless guys who had bought the Nokia mobile and were waiting patiently outside the counter for their token number to be called.

In short, Nokia Care sucks.....