Handsets: Handle With Care

Most of the Saarc nations have shown impressive growth in mobile phone additions, while wireless infrastructure growth will be below expectations during 2010. The phone market is ringing in profits thanks to phone makers' product innovation and operators' thrust to enter new markets and offer innovative services.

In line with the market growth, dissatisfaction among phone users about their costly gadgets is also on the rise in many markets. Apprehension is primarily because of poor customer care and short shelf life. The urgency for entry level phones forced phone companies to launch poor quality phones. Due to competition, they compromised on several things.

A number of new handset players entered the market and started grabbing customer attention, but they did not increase their investment in customer care. Customer care services from existing players are also not adequate. Users are on the verge of demanding more. Usually, customers do not get enough services. Customer care agents are not equipped enough to handle queries.

New handset makers, who are very good at new designs and marketing themselves, are yet to offer innovative solutions to their customers when they need extra care. Customers are unable to assess themselves whether their problems arise from the operator-end or are created by faulty handsets. Users are afraid to approach phone makers for repair since they feel it's too expensive or time-consuming.

The thriving replacement market is also adding fuel to the misery. If the customer buys a used phone, not knowing whether the gadget has undergone any repair previously using duplicate products, then he/she could be in further trouble. The cost for further repair would be equivalent to buying a new one. Lots of customers do not prefer repair because adding a new gadget to the kitty would be better than going to customer care.

Telecom regulators have tried their hands at ensuring quality of services offered by operators. Could regulators step in to save the customers by regulating the phone players? Phones are a lifeline for many. We could have guidelines to monitor phones' quality, shelf life, customer care, promises vs delivery, security issues, etc.

Baburajan K

baburajank@cybermedia.co.in