Wandering Soul

Monday, November 27, 2006

HELL-O Motto

This is an addendum to my previous post on the (in)famous Motorazr…. Two experiences in the span of 3 weeks, and I am ready to completely tear my hair out!

This incident involves the after-sales service of Motorola, which I experienced when the display of my phone conked off. Oh yeah, issue number one of course was that the display conked off. So after a fair amount of effort, I finally located the Motorola service centre.
Here’s how the whole transaction went:

Over the phone

Me: My phone’s display is not working. Basically, when I open the flip top, all I see is colored lines; I think the display might need to be changed.
Service agent 1: Ma’am, you’ll have to get the phone here. We’ll probably need to replace the part.
Me: how much time will that take?
Service agent 1: Half an hour, if the spare part is available with us.
Me: okay, is it available? I can come there today itself.
Service agent 1: (after putting me on hold when she was presumably, checking for the part): Yes it’s available, you can come today.

At the service centre

Me: I spoke to you over the phone -- My phone’s display is not working. Basically, when I open the flip top, all I see is colored lines; I think the display might need to be changed. You’d mentioned that the display part is available and this can be fixed today.
Service agent 1: Take a seat. We’ll get it done. It will take about half an hour.
Me (after half an hour of waiting): Any update on the phone?
Serice agent 2: Ya, basically the display has become kharab. We’ll need to change it.
Me (thinking: gee, thanks for telling me what I already told you about half an hour ago!): Okay, so have you changed it?
Service agent 2: no, we’ll change it… you'll have to leave it with us. It will take about 2 days.
Me: 2 days? But you told me half an hour!
Service agent 2: No, half an hour was just to check it. Actually we don’t really have the display part with us – we’ll have to order it.
Me: But your colleague told me that you have it with you.
Service agent 2: Forget what she said, she was just saying it. It will be done in 2 days – you can collect it then.

2 days later…

Me (over phone): Hi, I was supposed to pick up my phone today – here is the reference number.
Service agent: Ma’am this has not been fixed today.
Me: But I was told it will be ready for me to pick it up by 5 in the evening.
Service agent: Ya, but the part has not arrived yet. It will come by around 5 today. You can pick up the phone tomorrow.
Me: Are you sure it will be ready tomorrow?
Service agent: Definitely, in fact, you can pick it up tomorrow morning itself – around 11am.

The next day – 3pm

Me: Hi, I’m calling to check if my phone is ready?
Service agent: No, it’s not.
Me: WHY NOT??
Service agent: it will be ready by tomorrow
Me: That’s fine. But why is it not ready today?


At this point, I was given some convoluted story which is not even worth mentioning here. After some 5 mins, Service agent 2 from the day I had visited the center came online. After I had ranted about how pathetic the whole service was and how completely disgusted I was, the guy went to say that they were in fact working on my phone, and that it would be ready for me to collect in a couple of hours. I did ask him how my phone would go from “ready tomorrow morning” to “ready in 2 hours”… but of course, all I got was a “Woh aap hum be chhod dijiye, madam!”.

2 weeks later… the display has conked off yet again.

If I had the resources, energy, and the time, I would sue Motorola – I really would. For now, I am counting the days till I have enough money to buy me a good ol’ Nokia phone again!


Moral of the story: NEVER BUY A MOTOROLA!!!!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Suddenly Patriotic?

Was watching this (rather obscure) Hindi movie on Saturday in a Poona , and just before the movie was supposed to start, the national anthem played! No, the movie was not patriotic by any means! Nor was this a 'Poona phenomenon' (as I was assured by someone who recently saw more than one movie in Poona!).

Does anyone out there know why this is?

Thursday, November 02, 2006

It’s the 1st of November…

When I was driving to work yesterday, I heard on the radio that it was Aishwarya Rai’s birthday. After barely 5 mins, the same message was repeated on the same station. It was just the beginning! It didn’t make any difference when I changed stations… it was just a different voice repeating the same message.

Throughout the day and well into the night, there was constant coverage about her birthday – on the radio, TV channels (channels like MTV had special programs dedicated to her), news (both on the television and Websites) (but wait a minute – news channels??), even a 4-page special paper edition.

AARGH!!! Give me a break!! I mean, so what if it was her birthday?


Today (2nd of November) is Shahrukh Khan's birthday (learned about this yesterday as well -- this RJ made it a point to say it in the same breath!). I shudder to think what kind of coverage he would get!