Complaint Details

Status	:	Closed
Complaint No	:	0038134/2015
Category	:	Telecom
Date	:	04-02-2015
Subject Line	:	Defect in Product & Unsatisfactory After Sales Service of Micromax
Complainant	:	Jaffer Lakdawala
Address	:	96, Saifee Jubilee Street, Motiwala Building, 1st flr, RN - 4, Bhindi Bazar
Complainee	:	Micromax
Address	:	Micromax House, Pascos Building, 90B, Sector-18,

Complaint Details
I am an unsatisfied customer of Micromax mobile phones - A102 (Canvas Doodle 3) purchased from Vijay Sales - Opera House branch of Mumbai and I am making this complaint to highlight the issues I have faced with the phones performance. I am giving the important details of my purchase below: -

Vendor - Vijay Sales - Opera House branch - Mumbai
Invoice No. 05-OH08-14SICD1305 for Rs. 7990/- dated 18th June 2014
Phones IMEI/ESN No. is 911363951687797/911363951738293.

The date of purchase is 18th June 2014 and it was merely 3 months since I have purchased, my phone had a touch screen and camera issue. My touch screen would not respond and my camera would not get detected.

On facing the above issue, I approached one of the Micromax customer care centres viz. - Tamana InfoTech, Shop No. 9, Radhika Niwas at Andheri East, Mumbai on 18th November 2014 morning and handed over the phone for getting the problem sorted and phone repaired. I was handed a Job sheet dated 18th November 2014 with an assurance to sort the reported problems within 8 to 10 working days (which itself was high in 1st place).

To my utter shock, I received a call in the afternoon from the service centre that the Phone requires to be sent to the Head Office for further repairs for which the entire process will take a duration of 40 long days!!I told them clearly, that it seems that I have been sold a second hand, sub-standard product & hence I want my money back.

I fail to understand the following:-

1) Why such a high duration to repair a mobile by its own internal service centres/offices.
2) What is the customer's fault in all of this that he has to wait for so long inspite of paying the full amount of mobile at the time of purchase. It will require a customer to purchase a new mobile because 40 days is just too long a duration to stay without a mobile.
3) Within 3 months of purchase of a new mobile, it develops 2 faults for which it has to undergo repairs.

With little option left, I agreed to give my phone for repair and accepted to undergo the hardships due to the faulty mobile supplied by Micromax.

Finally, I was called by the Micromax customer care centre at Andheri viz. Tamanna Infotech on 14th December 2014 for collecting my phone. Luckily i did not go on 14th but instead visited on Monday, 16th December 2014 at 6:10 p.m. After waiting till 7:50 p.m. i.e. an hour and 40 minutes, The store personnel named Ms. Pranita Basu finally informed that the phone was not to be found and that they will get back to me or call me.

I wrote a mail again on 29th December 2014 for early handover of my phone and also requesting stern action against Tamanna Infotech and its employees which most of the times, keeps its phone engaged so that customers cannot call.

I again wrote a mail to the customer care of Micromax on 30th Jan 2015 informing them that on collecting my phone from their service centre post supposed repairs, I observed that my phone had two cracks on the body (physical damage) which i immediately brought to the notice of the service centre. I was assured that the body would be replaced in 10 days. Basis their suggestion, i went home with my phone. However, worse was yet to come. As i reached home and kept the phone on charging, after a certain percentage of charging completed, it started to show the message - "Power Overvoltage. Unplug the charger" and the charging would stop.

I initially thought this would be some temporary issue and persisted using the phone for couple of days sparingly to preserve the charging. But the problem continued. I decided to again take the phone to the service centre but while charging at the service centre, there was no message popping up. Hence, my handset was not accepted for any faults.

Again, on reaching home, same problem cropped up and my phone would not charge. I thought maybe that the problem is with my home electricity line. Hence, tried charging at my office, through laptop and other chargers. But the problem continued.

Finally i took the screenshot of the message as a proof to show the Micromax service centre that the problem actually exists. They suggested me to change the phone battery which they did and assured me that the problem is now solved. My mistake i believed them for the second time around. Again on reaching home, the power overvoltage message started popping up.

Finally, on 23rd January 2015, I again went to the service centre, where i was suggested that my phone will have to deposited again for repairs. Hence, my mobile was taken back and I was informed that it will take another 40 odd days for it to get repaired.

Having given the above facts and undergone the above hardships, i demanded a complete refund of my phone or a replacement with a new phone since now it is evident that i was supplied an inferior quality second hand phone. To this, i was informed by Micromax that they do not have any replacement and refund Policy!!They also informed that the warranty is void if phone is damaged.

I replied to them on the same day stating that it was hard to believe and sounded absurd that warranty is void if there is a physical damage to the phone even though the same was caused by their own service centre was caused by your service centre itself. The same was reported at the time I collected my phone. Do they mean to say that a customer gives his phone to the authorized service centre. The service centre mishandles the device, causes damage to it and the warranty gets void for no fault of the customer. The damage is caused by their service centre and not by me.

Micromax is now asking me to go to the service centre and give a call on their customer care which invariably does not connect.

The above episode clearly shows that Micromax is just keen on increasing its market share (even if it is by way of selling sub-standard quality phones) & are not at all bothered about providing customer satisfaction & quality. With deep regret, I would like to state that earlier, Micromax was not this way. I have been using Micromax Cell phone since 2010 & till the time, Micromax was not a big name the product quality was good. But now Micromax has chosen to ignore the customer satisfaction & product quality & sell cheap sub-standard handsets.
Today is 4th Feb 2015. i.e. almost 2.5 months since i have been facing issues with my phone and its being only 5 months since i have purchased my phone. I had lodged a complaint on customer care alongwith numerous follow ups on emails but no fruitful reply has so far come from the company. Hence I am compelled to lodge this case with the Consumer Complaints Redressal Council (India) to get me my money & incidental costs back. I am not interested anymore in using the second hand quality Micromax Mobiles.
Exhibits –

1. Invoice of Purchase of Micromax mobile amounting to Rs. 7,990 dated 16/08/14/-
2. Job Sheet No. W030242-1114-13422243 dated 18/11/14 - 1st repair.
3. 2nd Job Sheet No. W030242-0115-14667654 dated 23/01/15 - 2nd repair.
Email communications with Micromax may be provided if required at the later stages.

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