AN EAST London resident has finally made headway after a five-month battle with a local MTN branch over cellphone repair.
Jean Corson has been given back his Nokia N95, which had been taken in for repairs in November last year.
Unfortunately, after collecting the phone, Corson discovered it was still not functioning despite sitting in an MTN branch for almost six months.
Corson originally took in two identical N95 phones to two different MTN branches in Hemingways Mall.
He was charged a repair fee on both phones, despite the fact they were still under warranty.
Corson eventually collected one of the two phones in December last year, and the repair fee was waived as it was found that “the fault fell under the warranty”, said Paul Rozycki from MTN’s national office .
The second phone however had “cosmetic changes” done as part of the repair, and this was not covered by the warranty, said Rozycki.
Corson said he had never authorised such repairs on the phone, which added up to over R1000.
He said when an MTN employee called and asked him for authorisation, he had said ‘no’.
“I stated in no uncertain terms that I was not prepared to pay a single cent for this guarantee job,” said Corson in an e-mail to the Crusaders, adding that he had requested a written request with an itemised quotation.
“It’s a bit of a ‘he said, she said’ scenario,” said Rozycki, who explained that the MTN repairmen believed they had been given authorisation.
According to Corson, MTN had refused to release the cellphone unless he paid , and the phone was at the MTN store until last week, when Corson got a call from Rozycki informing him the repair fee had been waived.
On April 8, Corson collected the second Nokia N95 from the MTN branch, only to discover the next day that it would not switch on.
Rozycki said the phone had been “prioritised”, and that repairmen at the Durban MTN repair centre would look at the phone once Corson handed it in again.
Corson said he was grateful the Crusaders could help him with the situation.
“If it wasn’t for (the Crusaders), the phone would still be sitting in the MTN branch store.” —
[email protected]
