MTN to provide serviceable phones

Some MTN mobile telephone subscribers in Abia State are unhappy with the company for introducing and selling to them two customised MTN handsets, which the company said are tagged 620 and 720 smart phones.

The subscribers are irked that they cannot replace the batteries of the two handset brands whose batteries, according to them, could not be replaced when they died after purchase from the MTN, said to be the sole seller.

No less than 19 of such subscribers told The Guardian that all the efforts they made to replace the failed batteries of the two handset brands have been unsuccessful even when they visited the MTN Aba and Umuahia offices to buy their replacements.

According to one of the subscribers, who gave his name as, John Oke, a student of one of the universities in the state, he was told at the MTN office that he cannot be assisted and that he was not the only person inquiring for the battery.

He said that one of the MTN workers, seeing the rage in him and his helplessness, told the worker he cannot as a poor student, afford to buy another handset, had to call MTN Office in Port Harcourt, to inquire if there was stock of the batteries.

Response from the Port Harcourt office according to him did not differ from what he was told earlier. “I was now forced to go to Aba where I was told at the Saint Michael Road Computer/Phone Village that the batteries were not available because the two handset brands were introduced and sold solely by the MTN, and blamed companies and individuals who import telephones without making the spare parts available”.

However, a lucky subscriber was assisted with a battery by another MTN worker whose handset had spoilt long ago but whose battery was still active. “The kind worker, in sympathy, had to give me the battery of his spoilt handset free of charge, and this has been working fine. I thanked and prayed for him, otherwise there was nothing else to do than to discard the handset.”

Querying MTN for this seeming ripping off of its subscribers by selling them handsets whose batteries cannot be replaced, one subscriber, who gave his name, as ‘Justice’ told The Guardian he decided to buy the handset directly from the MTN, believing that if it developed any problem , he would find the solution from the company. “Because the battery is dead, I cannot power on the phone to retrieve my contacts and data. Let us expect that MTN will read your report and advise affected subscribers on how to replace their batteries.”

It is disappointing according to him, that at this level of our development companies like the MTN still distribute products it duly customised without making provision for their serviceability.