Hi Team,
Case ID – 977493699
I would like to start my Apple support by saying that as a consumer I am very disappointed by service and errors made by Apple for my product.
Situation:
I have an Apple 5s which I purchased from UK.
Due to some fault with the phone Apple advisor in Whitefield London store replaced my phone with a new one.
I started using my replaced phone in UK and it was working fine with my Vodafone sim only.
On 29th Oct in landed in India for my holidays and tried to insert the India sim – but it did not work.
Support calls and outcomes:
-> On 30th Oct i called UK call center and explained the situation, that i am in India and why my replaced phone is locked.
The advisor told me that it was mistake done by apple and he provided me the locked phone instead of an unlocked phone.
I requested him to solve this situation somehow and if could get me a replacement in India store or courier me a new device etc..
He told me that India is a country where apple does not have any approved carriers and they cannot guarantee if the apple product will work in India.
From above statement does this mean that Apple in NOT SELLING A SINGLE PHONE IN INDIA?
Upon asking this question the advisor disconnected the phone and never called me back.
Above call lasted for 1 hour on international rates.
->On 1st Nov, I called Apple India team to check if they could help me. They also told me that they cannot help but if I can go to local store and check. (call lasted 50 mins)
I drove 40 km from where I was staying to a service center. After a long queue of 3 hours, the advisor told me that they cannot help and only UK team can fix this issue.
->On 3rd Nov I called Vodafone UK and stayed on line for 1 hour. Vodafone also said the same thing that they cannot unlock the phone because it was not given by Vodafone and I have to check with Apple.
On the same day I called apple UK again and advisor told me that they cannot do anything about it – however he would arrange a call back from UK store directly and he was so confident that they will fix this problem.
->On 4th Nov I did receive a call back but it was not the UK store – it was India call center. I stayed on call for 1 hour after which the lady transferred the call to UK senior agent.
He told me that this cannot be fixed in India and he can only replace it once I am in UK.
Questions & escalations:
->If Apple did this mistake – I would expect that apple fix this anyhow. It is not that apple does not have a shop in India or apple is not suppling products here. They can replace this phone in India as well. But no one seems to help here.
->Executives are making stories and no one is really helping.
->I have been on call worth £200 to solve this – but no one understands the criticality of situation.
->Now if I want to leave this phone for my Dad in India – I cannot because I have to take this back to UK and then get it exchanged and then ship to India ( who would bear this cost?)
->I want all above compensation because it was fault of apple and they are not supporting as they should.
->I have wasted so much time – and i would be buying a new phone here in India (who would compensate the cost for it?)