Mumbai:
Imagine buying a new cellphone from a 'priority' dealer and then finding previous user's messages on it.
That is exactly what happened to Jyoti Talukdar, an Andheri-based businesswoman, who bought a cellphone from an Irla shop last Friday.
Talukdar, who runs a loan portal with her husband Subhrajeet, had purchased the handset from S R Telecom at Irla, which claims to be a Nokia priority dealer. However, on opening the seal of the box and starting the handset, she noticed that it wasn't functioning properly. It was only then that she realised that there were 20 messages on the phone from the day before it was bought, and it had been tampered with in other ways as well.
Nokia officials have confirmed that the shop had ceased to be a priority outlet as of January this year.
"If I was buying a piece from the grey market, I wouldn't be complaining now. However, this dealer claimed to be genuine and that is why I went to his store," complained Jyoti.
"When we went back to the shop, the shopkeeper told us that he had showed the piece to another customer and had mistakenly transferred the information of that person to the phone. But, if that is true, then why sell it to me in a supposedly sealed box? The Bluetooth username has been changed, there are 20 messages from that customer in my inbox and two hours of talk time recorded on the log. This is a second-hand piece, there's no doubt," she added.
The couple has now filed a non-cognizable complaint with the Juhu police station. "We don't want any other person to be inconvenienced," said Subhrajeet. "We discovered all this by chance because the sound wasn't working properly on my wife's phone, or else it could have been some time before we noticed anything fishy. Moreover, he claimed to be a Nokia dealer when he wasn't, so, how can we trust the goods from this shop."
The shopkeeper, Mannu Jeswani, refuted the Talukdars' claims. "It isn't a second-hand piece. In my eight years of running this store, I've kept every customer happy. I offered the lady in question a complete refund or exchange, but she's demanding an extra amount. You can then guess what her intentions are behind making this public," said Jeswani.
A Nokia spokesperson said that all Nokia priority dealers have to follow certain guidelines. "It is shocking that this man who submitted his resignation as a priority dealer is still using our branding to sell his phones. We will be taking action against him in the matter," said the spokesperson.
That is exactly what happened to Jyoti Talukdar, an Andheri-based businesswoman, who bought a cellphone from an Irla shop last Friday.
Talukdar, who runs a loan portal with her husband Subhrajeet, had purchased the handset from S R Telecom at Irla, which claims to be a Nokia priority dealer. However, on opening the seal of the box and starting the handset, she noticed that it wasn't functioning properly. It was only then that she realised that there were 20 messages on the phone from the day before it was bought, and it had been tampered with in other ways as well.
Nokia officials have confirmed that the shop had ceased to be a priority outlet as of January this year.
"If I was buying a piece from the grey market, I wouldn't be complaining now. However, this dealer claimed to be genuine and that is why I went to his store," complained Jyoti.
"When we went back to the shop, the shopkeeper told us that he had showed the piece to another customer and had mistakenly transferred the information of that person to the phone. But, if that is true, then why sell it to me in a supposedly sealed box? The Bluetooth username has been changed, there are 20 messages from that customer in my inbox and two hours of talk time recorded on the log. This is a second-hand piece, there's no doubt," she added.
The couple has now filed a non-cognizable complaint with the Juhu police station. "We don't want any other person to be inconvenienced," said Subhrajeet. "We discovered all this by chance because the sound wasn't working properly on my wife's phone, or else it could have been some time before we noticed anything fishy. Moreover, he claimed to be a Nokia dealer when he wasn't, so, how can we trust the goods from this shop."
The shopkeeper, Mannu Jeswani, refuted the Talukdars' claims. "It isn't a second-hand piece. In my eight years of running this store, I've kept every customer happy. I offered the lady in question a complete refund or exchange, but she's demanding an extra amount. You can then guess what her intentions are behind making this public," said Jeswani.
A Nokia spokesperson said that all Nokia priority dealers have to follow certain guidelines. "It is shocking that this man who submitted his resignation as a priority dealer is still using our branding to sell his phones. We will be taking action against him in the matter," said the spokesperson.
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