The Hindu : Front Page : Anxious callers throng Nokia showrooms

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Friday, Aug 17, 2007
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Anxious callers throng Nokia showrooms

Sandeep Joshi

Confusion over replacement of phone batteries leads to vast rush

— Photo: PTI

ANXIETY TO THE FORE: Nokia mobile phone users outside a customer care centre in Noida on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: A large number of Nokia mobile phone users thronged the company’s stores and service centres here on Thursday for replacement of a particular make of phone batteries having some technical glitch. Similar reports were received from other cities and towns across the country.

Anxious people queued up outside Nokia stores and service centres not only in Delhi but also in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad. At some places, they shouted slogans against the company when the staff refused to change their batteries.

At Nokia’s Bhagat Singh Market shop in Lutyens’ Delhi area, employees expressed their helplessness. “Despite announcements by the company that no replacement of batteries would be done at Nokia stores and service centres, people are still coming to us in large numbers,” said a staffer.

“Nokia is following a standard procedure adopted at the time of any product recall. Through newspaper advertisements Nokia phone users have been asked either to visit our website, send an SMS or ring up call centres to know whether their batteries need replacement,” he said.

In a statement, Nokia reassured its consumers about replacement of faulty BL 5C batteries manufactured by the Matsushita Battery Industrial Company Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006.

Since the matter was reported a couple of days ago, Nokia has received over 1.5 lakh phone calls and SMSes from across the country. Out of these, only about 6,000 batteries were found of the batch that require replacement.

“In case any battery is covered under the product advisory [issued on the official Nokia website], the consumer will be advised to replace the battery. A new battery will be delivered free at the doorstep by a courier in exchange of the old one. Consumers do not need to go anywhere for this service. For all other cases, which are not covered under the product advisory, the consumer can safely continue to use the battery,” the company said.

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