The Voice - Dear Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice

In March I bought a Samsung E350 cellphone from the Game City Orange store for P1,500. In August the phone went wrong so I took it back and they offered to repair it. I picked it up again on 18th September. However the phone showed the same fault so I took it back a week later. Yet again they repaired it and returned it to me. Then it started misbehaving again with the screen blacking out, the phone freezing, a faulty speaker and sometimes it couldn’t receive calls at all.

I took it back yet again but they weren’t too happy to repair it.

What do you think I should do?

Take it back again and now you can demand a replacement. If a phone goes wrong that many times there’s clearly a manufacturing fault.

But that doesn’t affect your rights. You were sold something that was not of merchantable quality. It was a cellphone that you couldn’t use as a cellphone, simple as that. The Consumer Protection Regulations are perfectly clear in this sort of situation. Unless you signed something saying there was no warranty then you deserve a refund or a replacement without any argument.

Update: Instead of talking to the Orange Store we spoke to Orange themselves. Their Chief Marketing Officer was very upset that an Orange customer had been let down and has offered her a brand new phone to replace the faulty one. Good for Orange. Who could ask for more?

The lesson? If something goes wrong you should obviously give the store a chance to put it right, that’s only reasonable. However if they won’t or can’t fix the problem you should escalate to the next level up. Go to the Regional Manager, the Country Manager, Head Office, whoever you think is most interested in the company’s reputation. Chances are they’ll fix it pretty quickly.