Consumer Watch: MemoXpress

*** Disclaimer: This post is not intended to malign MemoXpress, but just to narrate a terrible experience from their sales staff***

My sister recently bought a new phone to reward herself for something she does quite masterfully. Anyhoo, she bought it at MemoXpress, Cyberzone, Megamall. She was quite happy with her purchase until she discovered that there is a defect in her phone. I was quite disappointed when I found out about it — when you buy a phone in the mall, you’d expect that it had already undergone quality tests. After all, they already have a huge markup compared to phones sold at Greenhills and the like.

Anyway, I initially thought they were gonna replace it right away because consumers are protected by law by these kind of situations, right?

Monday night, I went with my sis to complain. We enter MemoXpress, my sister explains the defect.. and the conversation went on like this:

Saleslady: Ma’am, kailangan po ipacheck muna natin yang phone kung may sira talaga. (Miss, we need to have the phone checked first to check if there’s really a defect.)

Sister: Nagpunta na kami sa Nokia kanina. Sabi nila may defect daw. (We went to Nokia already. They said there is indeed a defect).

***READ THIS PART***

Saleslady: Ma’am, matagal po kasi kung papacheck. Yung service center po namin nasa Glorietta pa. GUSTO NIYO PO, KAYO NA LANG MAGDALA DUN PARA MAS MABILIS. (Ma’am, it would take long for the cellphone to be checked. Our service center is still in Glorietta. If you want, you can be the one to bring it so it’ll be faster)

***You see, I already learned to be assertive in life — when I know I’m right.***

Robbyrobby: Excuse me? Hindi ba dapat palitan niyo yang phone? Ano pang silbi ng pagbili ng bagong phone kung may sira lang din? (Excuse me? Shouldn’t you replace the phone? What’s the sense of buying a new phone if there’s a defect in it?)

Saleslady: Sir, sorry po, ganun po talaga yung procedure namin. Mga 4-5 days po mawawalan ng telepono si ma’am kung iiwan niyo po dito. (Sir, sorry, that’s our procedure. She won’t have her phone for 4-5 days if you leave it here.)

***Trying to keep my cool and a diplomatic tone, I told my sister that we should have the phone fixed instead in the Nokia center in Megamall, although she’d have to pay for the repairs. I know right, new phone, and a repair fee right away. The next day, Nokia Care Center in Megamall (btw, Nokia Care Center has really nice services) informed us that they couldn’t repair the phone because they found out they had no parts, and we should just return the phone to MemoXpress.***

And so I brought back the phone to MemoXpress. A few hours back, my mom went to Cyberzone to check on the phone’s status.

Mom: Ano nang status ng phone? (What’s the status of the phone?) You can’t keep us open-ended on the situation.

Saleslady: Ma’am, napadala na po sa messenger. (It’s been sent through the messenger).

Mom: E ano ngang status? (So what’s really the status?)

*** NOBODY CAN ANSWER THE QUERY ***

Mom: Is there any manager I can talk to instead?

*** The Officer-In-Charge came out, and informed (or rather slipped) that the phone hasn’t been sent to Glorietta yet. ***

SO YOU SEE, not only IS THEIR AFTER-SALES SERVICE LOUSY, BUT THE SALES STAFF ARE A BUNCH OF LIARS. In the end, they told my mom they would replace the phone tomorrow. But the damage has been done.

If I were my mom, I wouldn’t have half-a-mind to report this incident to the owner of the business. And oh, don’t forget to copy furnish the leasing department of SM and DTI while at it.

Anyway, to the owners of MemoXpress, I do hope you get to read about this. In an industry like yours where there are many competitors, you can’t afford dissatisfied customers bad-mouthing you. I advise you to read the book I placed above and replace your entire sales staff in Cyberzone Megamall to save your business from further demise. If you need a consultant, I’d be happy to oblige.

xoxo,

robbyrobby