Maddening mixed messages from customer service

At the beginning of last month a reader by the name of Mart started having problems with his Motorola razi bill-pay phone's screen. He was in Galway at the time so he brought it to the e-mobile shop were he had taken out his contract just a few weeks earlier.

An hour later he was told the problem could not be fixed in the shop and it would have to go to a repair centre in Dublin "He gave me a loan phone that he said would work the same as my motorola razi and that I would have email and the gps system. He also said he had transferred all my data to the loan phone and told me it would take up to 10 days for ,u phone to get repaired."

Mart left the shop content but when he got home he discovered that there was nothing on the loan phone and all his contact details were missing so back he went back to the e-mobile shop. He was then told that the company's loan phones don't allow people to access the internet . "I went home in dismay with a phone I am paying for that is of no use. All I got was company policy."

So, 10 days later "and over 100 calls to the shop" all of which went unanswered he went back to the shop to be told the phone had to go back to the manufacturer in England as the repair shop in Dublin couldn't fix it. Another week passed and he was told the phone was fixed and it would be back in the store 24 hours later. So he went to collect it and an assistant manager made a call and found out the phone was still in England. "I told him this wasn't good enough. I need a phone that will do what I need it to do. He told me to buy a new phone. I told him I was going to cancel the contract. He didn't care. When I asked to speak to the manager I was told it was his day off."

Mart says he is "sick of mobile phone companies treating their customers like dirt. Do they not see that if we all stop using their phones that they will go out of business." He asked about an official complaints procedure and was told there was no complaints department.

Last week he rang the repair shop and was told they have a turnaround of 28 days not between seven and 10 and they said that as the phone had gone back to the manufacturers it could take 12 weeks before he could get an answer back. They also asked how he got their number as it was not supposed to be given to customers."

We contacted the company to find out what was going on and, more importantly, to find out what it was going to do to resolve the problem.

We got a statement in which the company said its policy was to replace all customer phones that become faulty within the first 28 days from the date of purchase once the phone has not been water damaged or physically damaged. "When a phone becomes faulty after the initial 28 day period our policy is to return the phone to the repair company and they will either repair the fault or contact the manufacturer. We attempt to provide our customers with a replacement phone that matches their phone but in some cases this is not possible if the store does not have a similar phone in stock."

A spokeswoman said that in the case of our reader, the repair company sent the phone back to the manufacturer in the UK . We were told that the manufacturer has now examined the fault "and have replaced the phone. The phone is currently being couriered back to the eMobile store in Galway".

Emobile also that that because of the inconvenience caused to Mr McCracken and as he was misadvised about the capability of the loan phone he was given "we credited his account to cover his March invoice. Our Galway store will contact Mr McCracken once his replacement phone is in the store."