fireheads!!

the fireheads
(from l to r; vinay "headbanger" raj, musheer "miths" alam, harish "argus" menon)

connecting people

[if you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. if you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends - jeff bezos]

Here’s my formula of customer bliss:

a faulty nokia 6670

+

complaint letter loaded with sarcasm and diatribe

hi,

i am writing this mail to explain in detail the trials and tribulations that i am facing with the nokia 6670 handset that i own. i bought the said handset on 30.05.05 and used it without any issues. on 23.03.06 when i was on a call the display suddenly went blank and it wouldn’t respond and nor was i able to restart it.

i took it to the nokia care center in infantry road, bangalore and gave the handset for repairs. i was asked to come after a week to collect my phone. after a week, i went there and collected the phone which they assured that will be working fine now. indeed it did, but only for a day. the next day, when i was out-station the issue resurfaced and i suffered for a week without a phone. as soon as i came back i went to the service center where i was again made to book a job sheet (for the second time) and was given another phone (a nokia 2650) while mine was being repaired.

a week later, i again went to the service center where i was told that the phone wasn’t ready. i wasn’t ready to continue using the stand-by phone and insisted on action. then, mr. rajesh nair provided me with a replacement handset which was a supposedly refurbished one from nokia. i want to bring to your notice that this said handset wouldn’t start when it was switched on and he had to give me a new battery for it. i used it fine for a day and after which, believe it or not, the phone faced the same issue. i brought it back and was convinced enough to do a re-flashing of the phone, thinking foolishly that it will resolve it. i went on a business trip again and after 2 days of functioning the phone died out on me in the middle of a conference call giving me a lot of mental anxiety.

that i was livid would be an understatement. i reached the service center again after only a week and upon faced with this dilemma; mr nair promised me a brand new handset. this was not presently available and he asked me to wait for a week. partly assured that my troubles were over, i agreed to one more week of limited connectivity and collected a new handset last week. my troubles were far from over! the handset was having the same issue again!!

in between all this visits to the service center, i had seen at least 15 (i am not exaggerating) nokia 6670 phones with the same issue and i am convinced this is something to do with the architecture of the phone. i gave the handset back to your service center yesterday and asked mr. nair to provide me with a replacement of a different model as my confidence in the handset was severely shaken! he said that it is not in his powers to replace it with another model and i was asked to write this mail. i am convinced that i am entitled for this considering the mental agony, loss of productivity, wastage of time and financial losses i have incurred due to the inability of your service center to correctly diagnose and rectify the problem associated with your handset. i request you to take my request into consideration and provide me with a solution asap.

sincerely,

harish menon

=

a brand new nokia 6680!!

road, rubber and rock n roll

long stretch of 4 lane expressway...
burning rubber at 125 per hour...
group of people who you would give your life for...
drag race in the middle of the highway...
old monk, 100 pipers and talking till the wee hours...
pure bliss....

That was our trip to Yelagiri