Every brand aspires to be popular and a household name. The downside, however, is that popular brands are the ones that counterfeiters go for.
Mobile phones come in various brands, styles and functionality. Popular and reliable brands in Nigeria include Nokia, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, LG, Infinix, and so on. These brands because of their popularity are easy targets for counterfeiters.
The only way to guarantee that the mobile phone you are buying is original is to buy from an authorised dealer shop. Apart from the quality guarantee, authorised dealers are also supposed to offer at least a one-year warranty on any mobile phone you buy. Products bought from online stores like Jumia and Konga are also of good quality.
By law, consumers are expected to get a replacement or repair if their gadget develops a fault during the tenor of the warranty. The warranty is limited and is only valid if the said fault is not as a result of the consumer’s carelessness or abuse.
That was exactly what Mrs. Theresa Ajibola believed, till she went to the mobile phone shop, Slot on Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja. The phone she purchased from the shop, of course, was not a counterfeit and the customer service she received was good, but her nightmare started with that phone.
Narrating her ordeal, Mrs. Ajibola who said it has been frustrating trying to get the Nokia Service Centre to repair the phone or exchange it as the warranty stated said she bought the phone, ‘Microsoft Lumia 430’ with an IMEI No. 354264069760985 from the Slot shop on June 25th 2015.
A few months after that, precisely on May, 31st 2016, she noticed she could not switch the same phone on, so she went back to where the phone was purchased and a staff of Slot explained again that it was a software problem. Due to the extent of the problem, even with the provision of a backup account that Mrs. Ajibola will lose all her data and files again. The staff, nevertheless, directed her to the Nokia Service Centre at Ikeja.
Relating her nightmare, Theresa Ajibola said that after waiting for a call from them, she got in touch with the Service Centre and was informed that the phone had been repaired, so off she drove to Ikeja again on the 9th of June. She took the phone but even before getting home the same fault reared its head again. “Apart from the initial fault I complained about, I noticed other problems which could have emanated from their engineers who tried to solve the initial problem. I immediately called Rose and intimated her,” explained Ajibola.
On the 14th of June, Mrs Ajibola who by now said she was so exasperated and disappointed by the shoddy way the repair of the phone was going insisted on seeing the manager. “I was told, he was not around and I was referred to the supervisor, called Bukky.”
According to her, after listening to her woes, Bukky insisted she wait, assuring her the phone would be repaired. After about two hours without any head way, Mrs. Ajibola was asked to go and wait for a call from the Service Centre. Two days after, 16th of June, making it the fourth time she would come back for the phone and after thirty minutes of usage, the phone went off.
In situations like this, when a phone has been repaired over four times without any positive result, what does the company do? Does it not call for a replacement? Putting the question across to Bukky, she lamely tried to explain that the company would do everything in its power to effect the repairs.
Reacting to this observation, the Centre’s supervisor said they give replacement phones to customers but had to stop when customers were not returning the phones.
Asking the supervisor for more clarifications on the matter, the reporter observed that a customer with a replacement phone which obviously will be cheaper than the one he/she brought for repairs will not forego his/her more expensive phone for a replacement one.
Offering another unconvincing explanation, Bukky said that most times, their staff make the mistake of giving repaired phones back to their owners without actually collecting the replacement phones back from them.
Nokia Care Services and Microsoft have been unable to repair or swap Mrs. Ajibola’s phone since the 31st May despite the fact that a warranty covered it since over one month she brought the phone for repairs.
The fear now is, if consumers cannot get fair treatment after buying from a big brand, is it when they buy from the notorious computer village and may be patronise unknown brands that they will find satisfaction?