Let’s fight against Mobistar …

Mobistar is not known to have the best service in Belgium (remember Basta?) and I’ll prove it again.

I’m a very good customer of customer; my company spends about 6000€ a year on wireless communications. So when the charger of my iPhone (purchased from Mobistar of course) breaks after 10 months, I expect to have it replaced quickly.

So when I started the case some 4 weeks ago I couldn’t expect what would happen. Here’s the truth …

Step 1: let’s go to the store

Let’s go the store where the iPhone was bought. According to the salesman the warranty is only 6 months on accessories; please buy a new one because we won’t replace it free of charge he said.

I tried to explain that the warranty is by law 2 years on everything and that, as a good customer of Mobistar, am expecting another kind of service. Answer of the salesman: I can’t take decisions like this (the price of new charger is 29€) and how much money you spend with Mobistar has no influence on the decision.

I advised he may want to speak to his manager and he promised to call back the week after.

Lessons learned step 1:

–          Train your employees better

–          Empower your employees

–          Make sure your employees can handle claims correctly and don’t argue with a customer when the law is against them

Step 2: I Take action. Let’s call the manager

After I had been waiting 2 weeks for a call from the manager, I decided it was time to try to call by myself. After 57 attempts, I managed to reach him on a Friday at 5pm.

I complained that I had to call 57 times and that nobody called me back. “Don’t start like this” he said because otherwise we won’t be friends and we won’t find a solution to your case.

In the end we found indeed no solution because he kept telling me that the warranty was 6 months. If I’m not happy he said I should send a complaint in writing. Mobistar doesn’t accept complaints other than in writing and by registered mail.

Lessons learned step 2:

–          Make sure customers can reach you when they try to

–          Don’t put hurdles to avoid customers getting in touch with you

–          Make sure your managers are trained

Step 3: Back to the store

Let’s go to the store to get the defect charger back and try to negotiate a solution in person.

I tried but none of the employees was willing to take responsibility. Besides lack of knowledge of the legal warranty (they kept telling me it was 6 months) they gave me an advice: “go to Mobistar HQ”. That’s what I did.

Step 4: Mobistar, here I am. Let’s pay a visit to Mobistar HQ’s

Here I am at Mobistar HQ and guess what … there’s a service employee who is there to “help” you.

Employee 1 : “Go to the store where you purchased the phone”

I : “that’s where I’m coming from. They told me to come to the HQ”

Employee 1 : “The warranty is 6 months on accessories. There’s nothing I can do for you. You can buy a new one if you want”

I : “I won’t buy a new one. The law says 2-year warranty and I demand that you replace my defect charger. Where is it written that accessories are guaranteed 6 months?”

Employee 1 : “I don’t know. That’s what we learn”

I : “I won’t move until you’ve shown me where it’s written. I want to speak to a manager”

At this moment a colleague of him gets involved.

Employee 2 : “the 6-month warranty is probably mentioned in the terms & conditions”

I : “fair enough. Show me the terms & conditions”

Employee 2 : “I don’t know where to find them”

I: “perhaps on the back of an invoice?”

Employee 2: “I’ve one here. Let’s check.”

Guess what … it ‘s written … 2-year warranty. The guys at Mobistar started to lose control at this point. Other unsatisfied customers were waiting behind me and seeing me complaining were suddenly also raising the voice.

So they decided to put me in a separate meeting room to wait on the manager, who came after 30 minutes. A nice guy actually … but unprepared.

We read Mobistar terms & conditions together and he told me this :

Manager: “we seldom have clients as well prepared as you are”.

I: “that’s why to try to cheat on them so that they buy new stuffs from you”

Manager: “well actually you know we don’t make so much profits on Apple accessories … but that’s another story. Well, given all the efforts that you did I’ll reimburse you the price of a new charger”

I: “too nice of you … but that’s the law. No more, no less. I thank you for this but you’ll understand that I won’t give up my claim against Mobistar. You have to respect the law”

My take:

On the parking lot I talked to another client who was complaining at the same time when I was in. He had had the same problem with his iPhone and got the same answer from Mobistar. When did he do? He bought a new charger for 29€.

What a great system. Think about it for one second. Unless you’ve a customer like me who knows the law, who wants to complain, Mobistar’s strategy to lie to its customers is a fabulous one. Customers will buy new stuffs from Mobistar, Mobistar will not bear the costs for dealing with the warranty. Sales go up, costs go down, profits are boosted.

By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab Dr. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab is the founder of IntoTheMinds. He specializes in e-commerce, retail and logistics. He is also a research fellow in the marketing department of the Free University of Brussels and acts as a coach for several startups and public organizations. He holds a PhD in Marketing, a MBA in Finance, and a MSc in Chemistry. He can be contacted by email, Linkedin or by phone (+32 486 42 79 42)