Ebay India phone buying experience / review - ebay.in Seller sankyoelectronics

Being adventurous in online shopping does not go well always!

I placed an order for a cell phone from ebay India seller sankyoelectronics who is from Chennai.

http://cgi.ebay.in/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150835286131

As per seller listing it is
Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro SK17i Mobile + Warranty
Condition "New: A brand-new, unused and undamaged item."
http://myworld.ebay.in/sankyoelectronics


Shipper/Seller Address -
Gopalakrishnan M
Sankyo Electronics
14 Periyar Street , Kulasekarapuram
Virugambakkam Chennai - 600092 
Seller phone number 044-43518526

On packing there was also a from Sticker
K J Enterprises
#27 Kasim Street Royapettah
Chennai - 600014

Surprisingly as against claimed by seller that it is a brand new unused item it was a used one without proper packing.

The product received was not in new condition. See pictures

1. Box was not sealed.
2. Company packing was missing in the box
3. All items were packed in old plastic covers with cello tape attached.
4. Phone had a lot of finger prints and marks on the body. I cleaned there was no screen damage.
5. Charger also has marks and repacked. definitely old used charger.
6. The ear phone was also old piece not the one company gives with this model.
7. Clock was already set on the phone. some one had used it earlier.

Shipment

Seal on top only

No seal on bottom. clearly opened and closed from bottom of the box

Repackaged in old cover. not fresh piece

Lots of fingerprints and marks on screen

These were the contents packed in individual old plastic covers.
No other internal packing or documentation etc. One paper only

Charger is also used  with marks on it

This is an older model Sony Ericsson HPM-60/J  not the latest  earphone that comes with this model.

Clock was already set when turned on. Cleaned the screen, there was no damage to the screen.

Product was not in brand new condition as described by seller. It is otherwise working.

I have raised an ebay case for resolution with the seller.

Original Seller Listing

Although seller has 98% positive feedback, recently few people have complained against old / missing items. I went by the positive feedback and took a chance of ordering. It ended up a bad experience. Please be careful dealing with this and similar sellers on ebay.

Seller cheated - despite his promise that he will ship new accessories like charger and earphone he did not ship. He requested that he has a review with Ebay and his business gets hurt by negative feedback and so his feedback should be changed from negative to positive. I trusted him and changed feedback. After that he stopped responding to my emails and phone calls. Never trust such seller and give them any business.

Don't trust sellers and change feedback until they fix your problem.  After you change feedback like I did for Sankyo Electronics, even Ebay does not care.

Update Nov 2012- Based on comments to my post I see that many buyers faced issues with products and quality of service from this seller. Now while browing ebay I just noted that this seller SankyoElectronics is no longer registered on ebay and his ID is deactivated.

Ebay page showing that seller is no longer registered. 

Blackberry Curve Series Phone - BB Curve 8520 after a year plus of ownership. Poor Product and Service from Blackberry India.

My first mobile phone was a Philips phone in 1998 which were followed through the years by many phones from Nokia, Sony Ericson, LG, Samsung and then around 1.5 year back a Blackberry. Blackberry usage experience has been good but the handset itself is a bad experience in terms of reliability and usable life. Never seen a phone or its parts falling apart the way this Blackberry handset did.

Blackberry was out of compulsion to access corporate emails and I settled for the modest BB Curve 8520 which was purchased through the service provider Airtel. The phone felt robust in hand had a good keyboard, dedicated music buttons, rubberized grip around the phone, couple of buttons which can be customized and had decent features and easy to use.

After around 8 months of use the rubber parts on the body started feeling rough and grainy and I thought this is regular wear and tear. After few months I started seeing few cracks on it and eventually over next few months there were more of these. After a year or so the rubber material buttons started cracking and one fine day when I tried to press a button on side to turn on the data connection there was no button. The button (which is actually just part of the molded rubber part of the body) had just cracked and fallen some where. Over next week one by one all the buttons even the ones rarely used and rubber around the buttons had just vanished.

To my surprise in my office when I looked at BB curve phones used by others many of them had faced same problem and any one having a phone for more than a year typically had buttons on their phone missing. Many even had the buttons on top (three music/mute buttons) missing. Problem with missing button, you can not control volume and many other features of the phone and also water and dust can easily go inside and phone looks ugly.

See 2 buttons of right side gone and upper volume button in process of cracking and next one shows button gone.Left side one button also gone missing.

And now the Blackberry Service in India. 

When I called service center in Bangalore I was told body etc are not covered specially when it is one year old and out of warranty. I posted a message to BB India through twitter and then said they can look into it. I also posted few pictures for them to look at and informed the fact that it is not only me and many other users who have problem and it is a design issue with the kind of material and button design being used in the Curve series of phones. BB India informed that their service partner Redington will get in touch and fix problem for me.

Redington after few followups informed me they will cosmetic upgrade (change the body) on my phone in coming days but after few days informed that phone is not sold through their channel and they can not do any thing about it and will tell BB India the same. On reminding BB again they mentioned contact the service provider. They communicate through Twitter direct message and never have really looked into the issue seriously. Curve has been one of the best sellers for Blackberry but so many users have this problem due to bad design and poor choice of material. They continue to sell Curve series of phones with this design and even the newly launched model Curve 9220 uses similar rubberized button design.

Tata Nano owner seeks compensation

Tata Nano owner is seeking Rs 15lacs (1.5million) from Tata Motors as compensation for his new Tata Nano that caught fire on the day of purchase.
Details at DNA link
http://www.dnaindia.com/mobile/report.php?n=1370119
Response from Tata has not been very supportive or encouraging to their customers. We do not have a strong regulator like transport safety administrators in USA or Europe and Auto companies take quality and safety very lightly. Instead of just focusing on emission norms of vehicles it is high time that an empowered regulatory agency is formed which provides guidance on and monitors road and vehicle safety issues.

- Neeraj

Europa Locks Bangalore Bad After Sale/Installation Quality of Service

In my apartment after using cupboard locks from Europa Locks ( I decided to also go for a second main door lock from the same company. So around 10 daya back I got Europa main door lock from a Timber Store on Sarjapur Road Bangalore ( 3 dead bolt dimple keys model MRP Rs. 1135) and I was informed that company person will come and install the same which is a free service for main door locks. The shop keeper booked an installation request with company representative and (some request number was also assigned) I was updated that someone will come in 2 days. After more than a week of follow up almost every day and hearing that someone will come today/tomorrow afternoon/evening finally today I went to the shop where I got the lock and gave them the box telling that I will rather go for Godrej lock who were more responsive in terms of service in past. Finally shop keeper sent his own carpenter to get the lock installed instead of waiting for the company person any more. The same is now installed but quality/installation is not to my satisfaction as the keys feel too hard to turn both open and lock. I was told that they will get this fixed now from the company person again and I should wait.

Overall a very bad experience. Overall products quality feels good (atleast in packaging) and all the good things the company writes about the company and products on Europa Locks website and product packaging but in field and operations, quality of service this company has a long way to go to meet customer satisfaction. I would suggest stay with better known companies like Godrej or even Link Locks.

- Neeraj 25 March 2010

Update - After communicating with the company - the problem is now resolved and lock is now functioning to my satisfaction as updated in the comment.

- Neeraj 29 March 2010

Bangalore Europa Locks Service Numbers as provided by one of the blog viewers - 9448385429, 9342574721. These numbers are specifically for Bangalore. 

Bad product quality of a laptop and worst customer service by HCL Infosystems

My relative in Punjab bought (or rather made a mistake of buying) an HCL laptop from authorized dealer in Kapurthala in Punjab for around Rs30000. (~ $650)

* Machine Serial No : 8084AX056382
* Product Code : AX0P2825
* Warranty Card No. : 10485949
* Date of Installation: 18/11/2008

After some time of purchase the machine started giving problems with the display which was reported to HCL and given to service center for warranty repair.. Even after keeping machine for weeks for repair a permanent fix was not done by HCL service and the same problem reoccurred 3rd time in October/November and machine was again given to HCL as it was still in warranty.

Calls to HCL's Support desk were essentially of no use and waste of time and effort. Machine was last given to HCL service center on 9th November 2009 and have not been returned by the company till date (today 7th January 2010). What kind of service is this? Essentially during last 12 months machine has been with HCL service for close to 4 months. So HCL has taken money for the laptop and in a way still owns the machine, Isn't that cheating?

Emails and calls to HCL helpline have not resulted in any thing. This example shows how some of these Indian companies treat customers.

I have suggested to file a consumer and civil court case against HCL Infosystems for compensation. I would suggest buying a laptop or a computer from Dell, Acer, HP, Compaq or Toshiba and avoid local brands specially HCL.

- Neeraj

Suspected fake ISI marking on LPG Gas Pipe and No manufacturing/expiry date

There is a wide scale misuse of ISI marking. Be in food, drinking water or electrical/home appliances, there are substandard products on which manufacturers place Agmark/ISI mark without getting certification. Some place ISI mark and license number which as per BIS website queries are invalid. Recently got an LPG gas pipe from a well known shop in Bangalore which has an ISI mark on the packaging and cover text says that the product expires and should be replaced after 3 years of manufacture as per date printed on the tube. Surprisingly there is no manufacturing date on the packaging or on the gas tube. The records as per BIS website show that the manufacturer is not one of the certified companies and so does not have ISI marking license under that standard number. License number search shows it is invalid. The company making the product also has placed incomplete address - only company name and city.

Such critical items like gas pipes having poor quality can cause accidents like the one which happened in Bangalore recently. The large retail chains as well as small shops are filled with substandard products from China as well as Indian manufacturers. Consumers need to be alert while shopping for critical every day use products some of which can risk lives and health.

- Neeraj

Reliance CDMA USB Data Card Connection - Huawei EC121

Recently started using this Reliance Data card connection service (USB version with Huawei EC-121 card) and thought of posting my experience after around a week of experience. 

In part I have used Reliance data connection using their WLL phone many years ago and it was reasonably good at that time. Otherwise I have tried various other  ISP connections in India including Airtel, Tata Indicom and BSNL. My main connection stays as BSNL broadband which is quite good and this new Reliance connection is a backup or for use when I am not in office or home. 

First impression on this new connection - Very Bad, highly unreliable connection, Many times zero traffic rate even in areas where Reliance network signal strength is very good. It connects atmost every time with the network but you literally have to beg for each packet to arrive.. 

On a Saturday or Sunday evening a non working day when you would expect traffic speed to be really good, even that time almost no traffic. Sites like google are also not opening which are supposed to be really fast to open. Keep trying and trying once in a while some page opens. Looks like a major problem in their data network or DNS servers. Let me see if it is once a while problem or if it stays like this probably will have to try some thing else. 

Will update if I see any improvement.

Rest Later. Have a nice day

- Neeraj

What you got served at a restaurant?

I have been living in Bangalore for close to ten years now and it has been a mixed bag of experiences, when it comes to restaurant food and quality of service. Let me start by sharing some experiences. I have been served many things in restaurant foods from pieces of cloth to insects. At one of the restaurants Mast Kalandar in Koramangala (on 80 ft road when you go from Sony World towards new Passport office), I got this piece of cloth inside their Amritsari stuffed Kulcha/Prantha. Thanks to widely available cameras which are now virtually everywhere in phones, one can now record what you get served.

Here is a zoomed view!

The manager was in a don't care kind of mood and one of cooks told me that some times the cloths used for cooking and cleaning may go into the dough and this would have just happened. The manager on after some discussion offered me to serve me a free single Kulcha. I was told they can not serve a full plate as there was a problem with only one piece! As if they were doing some charity. Because of their attitude, I did not go to that place again. They have few branches around Bangalore quality of food and service varies quite a lot.

Rest Later,

- Neeraj

Related Posts

What you got served at a Restaurant Part 2

What you got served at a Restaurant Part 3