Cellphones had always fascinated me as a teenager. So I wanted one the day I finished with my Class XII board exams. My father took me to a Nokia Priority Dealer and asked me to choose a handset. But there was none of my choice and therefore I decided to opt for a Samsung mobile. And I landed up buying a stylish sliding Samsung mobile (D840). My father was not very happy with my choice for he prefers only Nokia phones, as though others are not very trendy.
A month after I got my cell I left for Delhi with my parents on a vacation. One fine day while we were on our way to Haridwar I found that my cellphone’s screen had gone blank. I kept sliding my phone up and down but nothing happened. Suddenly my phone started to ring but the display was still blank. I had to guess the name of the caller and this continued till I was back in Assam.
After I reached Guwahati I went to the Samsung dealer from whom I had bought the cellphone in order to get it repaired. But instead they provided me the address of the servicing centre. It was not very difficult for me locate the place of the repairing centre for it was situated at the Orion Tower where I had been earlier. The moment I entered the servicing centre, I was surprised to see a long queue of unhappy customers. After standing for an hour and a half I finally managed to show them my cellphone. But I had to wait for nearly about a month to get it back.
For about six months there were no more problems. But again for the second time my cellphone’s display went blank. I immediately rushed to the servicing centre but when I reached Orion tower I found that the servicing centre had been shifted to the Paltan Bazar area. It took me almost one whole day to locate the place. And finally I found the place but had to undergo the same procedure of standing in a neverending queue. And finally my turn came and again for the second time I deposited my handset with the servicing centre executive.
I waited and waited for my phone to come back. I frequently visited the servicing centre to ask for the cell phone. But each time I went there, the answer was “Sorry ma’am your phone is not yet repaired.” I had to keep visiting the Paltan Bazar servicing centre for as long as five months. And, needless to say, it left me exhausted. Till I got a call saying that the cellphone had finally been repaired.
What counfounds me is the question that when a Samsung servicing centre in New Delhi can repair something in a day, or at most a week, why does it take as many as five tortuous months to do the same in Guwahati?