I let Cellucity in Cavendish Square sell me a Nokia E75 phone for R4500 in early March. The sales people were very good at telling me about the guarantees, and the fact that my phone would be replaced if there was any problem in the first seven days. What they didn't mention was that if you take your phone back for replacement, they will actually only replace the phone when some faceless technician at 'Vodacare' gives them the go-ahead. So they send the phone away to 'Vodacare' and then renounce all responsibility for how long it may take to get your phone back.

Apparently this was in the fine print I signed. Well, they might win a court case against me, and bully for them if they do. There's a difference between covering yourself legally and actually using that fine print as an excuse to keep a slack, rubbish policy whereby a customer can bring a malfunctioning phone back and be left for a limitless amount of time to get a replacement. For me it's nearly a month and counting now, and I suppose it could take years. My phone may be obsolete by the time it comes back in 2014...what service!

On the 31st July, 2006, I purchased a new contract with a company called ‘CELLUCITY’ at Century City Shopping Mall, Cape Town, for a cellular phone a NOKIA 6280. The cell phone was connected on the 2nd August and on the 3rd August I noticed a big leaf shaped shadow on the screen. We checked to see if we had made some mistake but realized that there was a fault with the phone. When we took the phone back, we were told that we must have broken the phone. I know that the phone was never abused as I never even had a chance to even put one telephone number on the phone as I was still using my old phone which I have had for 3 years and have never had a days problem with it. Anyhow Cellucity took the phone in and on the 8th August and sent it in to ‘VODACARE’ to have it checked. They tell me that it will cost US$70.00 to repair. I told ‘Cellucity’ that I have not done anything to the phone. They became rude and aggressive and did not want to help me any further. To this day, I still have no cell phone and feel that this sort of service in such a highly competitive world is disgusting and a very bad reflection on Nokia who should check out their distributors as they are causing them to loose business. Incidentally, I have also been threatened that I will be blacklisted if I don’t pay the contract which is for 2 years.

John, Cape Town, South Africa
CelluCity at Century City Shopping Mall, Cape Town