I lent my second phone (which I kept on standby) to a journalist
friend recently as he awaited return of his from the service centre. He
had to pay about 70 per cent of the cost of phone to get it repaired,
barely a few months after buying it.
It's raining phones in India. Tens of handset manufacturers (or, assemblers) are flooding the market with scores of models. Newspapers, websites and social media networks announce launch of phones every other day.
There's a phone for everybody -- from $7 to $1,000, the range is simply mind blowing. The features that these feature and smart phones, a bulk of them manufactured in Shenzhen in China, offer are amazing. The pace of launches is so high that even an industry man can't tell you the best one to pick. There are a few firms that sell phones exclusively on the e-commerce sites. Thousands of phones are booked in a jiffy, sometimes even crashing the servers.
The Government must be smiling, getting crores of rupees in duties and Sales Tax. E-commerce firms are happy that they are able to get million of hits, a good number of them turning into sales.
So far so good.
But no one talks about quality and service. No, I'm not talking about the warranties and service centre networks of the handset makers. They talk a lot on these issues and a random Googling would throw up sob stories of users. You simply don't exist for the firm after the transaction is completed.
The phone firms know it well -- that people don't have time and interest to engage in a discourse with the firm on a failed purchase. They instead go for a new phone after struggling with the present one after, say, 6-12 months. Those who have time and energy would be asked to pay a little less than the cost of the phone to get certain parts repaired.
I'm simply amazed at the Governments' indifference. Not a single government agency is interested in ensuring quality or taking up the cause of the consumer.
It's raining phones in India. Tens of handset manufacturers (or, assemblers) are flooding the market with scores of models. Newspapers, websites and social media networks announce launch of phones every other day.
There's a phone for everybody -- from $7 to $1,000, the range is simply mind blowing. The features that these feature and smart phones, a bulk of them manufactured in Shenzhen in China, offer are amazing. The pace of launches is so high that even an industry man can't tell you the best one to pick. There are a few firms that sell phones exclusively on the e-commerce sites. Thousands of phones are booked in a jiffy, sometimes even crashing the servers.
The Government must be smiling, getting crores of rupees in duties and Sales Tax. E-commerce firms are happy that they are able to get million of hits, a good number of them turning into sales.
So far so good.
But no one talks about quality and service. No, I'm not talking about the warranties and service centre networks of the handset makers. They talk a lot on these issues and a random Googling would throw up sob stories of users. You simply don't exist for the firm after the transaction is completed.
The phone firms know it well -- that people don't have time and interest to engage in a discourse with the firm on a failed purchase. They instead go for a new phone after struggling with the present one after, say, 6-12 months. Those who have time and energy would be asked to pay a little less than the cost of the phone to get certain parts repaired.
I'm simply amazed at the Governments' indifference. Not a single government agency is interested in ensuring quality or taking up the cause of the consumer.
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