There’s quite a fair bit of bad publicity with regards to Nokia Singapore‘s service standard lately over the Internet.
First sighted – a person by the nickname of xiaoyun posted a thread on omy’s forum titled “I won a battle against Nokia”.
This was subsequently picked by other popular local forums like Hardware Zone and even earned a mention on blog aggregator, Tomorrow.SG.
Here’s what was posted:
I finally won the battle against Nokia Pte Ltd.
I bought a Nokia phone in Aug 2007 through Starhub with 24months contract at $388.
The phone was not functioned properly in the very first week. I tried to ask for a one to one exchange and was replied, “Nokia has no such policy”. I got no choice but to send to Nokia Care Centre for repair.
Between Aug 2007 and Nov 2007, countless of visitation and many phone call were made to Nokia. So much time was wasted but the phone was getting from bad to worst.
I gave warning to Nokia that I was considering to file a claim against them through Small Claim Tribunal. I finally took action as there was no proper follow up from Nokia after one month.
Nokia authorized a young girl to come for the first consultation and then in default of attending before the Tribunal for the rest.
I finally won the case and was awarded $778 by Small Claim Tribunal in 18 Dec 2007.
Nokia was given 15 days to make the settlement, but they did not respond to me.
I called to check about it on 22 Jan 2008, and Nokia said that they did not receive such notice.
I went to their HQ the next day, after presenting the Order of Tribunal to the Manager, he finally agree to pay. However, Nokia would pay me if only I agreed to sign a conditional letter. They wanted to keep my mouth shut and I was not allowed to disclose this claim to any third party. I refused as they had no right to impose any condition because this was not an out of court settlement.
I then applied for WSS (Writ of Seizure and Sale) the next day. An appointment date was scheduled on 11 Feb 2008.
I accompany the bailiff officer to Nokia HQ. Nokia was then given two options by the bailiff officer. One was to make settlement and the other one was let the bailiff officer to sticker their movable assets.
They finally woke up and agree to make payment. By then, they got to pay $1,018.43 instead of $778.
By sharing this experience, I hope that many have a better idea of what to do if encounter similar situation in the future.
Many of us wouldn’t want to take the trouble to make such claim. Some may have no time, and some may think that Nokia is such a big company and no point goes against them.
The Relations Manager of Nokia, Ms Serene Teo, told me that I won’t be able to win the case and the most I could only get back $388. This was what she believed, but she was wrong.
Thus far, I have not seen any response from Nokia Singapore’s PR people – even though there’s threats like these going around:
I suggest we all send an e-mail to alert Nokia Head Office about this. More often than not, the company is fine, but the Singaporean customer service staff (and apparently the top management now) is not.
———–
TO: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
SUBJECT: Nokia Singapore has gotten Nokia bad press———–
Dear Sir,
I hope to draw your attention to a recent case in Singapore about how your staff in Singapore has gotten your company into bad press by failing to provide basic customer service.
Please see the post by the customer at a local newspaper forum here: http://forum.omy.sg/showthread.php?t=2120
Please also see her post about how attempts to contact the top management in Nokia Singapore has failed: http://forum.omy.sg/showthread.php?t=2120&page=2
Additionally, the post has also been picked up by local online aggregator, Tomorrow.sg, here: http://tomorrow.sg/archives/2008/02/…nst_nokia.html
I understand that many companies provide good customer service elsewhere, but not in Singapore. Perhaps you may want to reconsider some of the staff being employed here in Singapore, less they tarnish your company’s good name.
As for me, I will definitely shun Nokia products from now onwards until a satisfactory answer has been given to Singaporeans.
Thank you for taking time to read my letter.
Best regards,
<SIGN YOUR NAME HERE>
Isn’t Nokia’s tagline, “Connecting People”? Doesn’t seem to be the case here lei. Someone even dug out a previous letter to the Straits Times forum page by a guy called Adrian Chew earlier this year recounting a similar experience as xiaoyun – except this guy gave up fighting in exasperation.
Hey Nokia, say something lei? Don’t keep quiet… If your good name is being smeared, please come out and clarify. We want to believe in your tagline and the quality of your products. Please response.
Technorati Tags: nokia singapore, omy forum, omy.sg, xiaoyun, hardware zone, tomorrow.sg, edmw, starhub, nokia care centre, small claim tribunal, nokia hq, serene teo, olli-pekka kallasvuo, wong aifong, bad service, singapore
that’s why all my phones been samsung.
1st a nokia and never a nokia again.
fuuuuuuucked up customer service!
Nokia has yet to comment on this. The PR people sleeping? sigh… even if want to believe their innocence also difficult.
i read abt the article in today’s TNP.
ahem!TNP leh.
it is not just PR involved here but the whole branding.
and, they sure have alot of crisis comm to work on here.
TNP or Straits Times? I saw in ST, not TNP.