Xiaomi Mobile: A Big Mistake!


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Hello members.

I have created this thread to highlight the ordeal I had gone through while dealing with Xiaomi. I had purchased a Redmi 3S Prime from Mi.com through the 21st September flash sale. The price I paid was Rs. 9,000 for the 32GB Silver colour variant.

There was no notification/update from Xiaomi for my order till it reached the courier partner. The phone was delivered, after 13 days of placing order, on 3rd October. On the other hand, an iPhone 6 which I ordered on 3rd October from Flipkart was in my hands within 24 hours.

I had ordered the Xiaomi phone as a backup phone (alongside my Sony Xperia) as the specs were too hard to resist. :biggrin:

It was used casually for internet surfing and gaming for the first few days, after which I started using it primarily as it was the only phone with me that supported my Jio SIM. There was an issue with the charger since Day 1, as it took a good 4+ hours to charge from 20-80%. It wasn't a major issue as a full charge lasted me for 2+ days easily and I noted it down to report to the service centre when time permits. Everything went smooth till 2nd November, when the phone started heating up under normal usage. I searched the net for the nearest service centre and the issue was now in my 'priority list'. On 8th September, the phone screen cracked all of a sudden while watching a YouTube video. I didn't even touch the screen, even 10 min prior to this, and I was shocked. As I removed the earphones and put the phone away, I noticed that the phone had heated up considerably. In the evening, I took it to the service centre and found that they had an off for that day due to some internal reason. By this time 50% of the screen had went black/grey, in addition to the flickering red-green vertical lines present since the crack appeared.

On 9th November I again went to the service centre at 10.30 AM. It opens at 10.00 AM and I was number 22 in the list. All customers were fed up with the pathetic quality of the phones. One customer had visited 3 different service centres for a screen replacement issue and was finally told that it would take another 15-20 days for the part to arrive, after which the paid (not under warranty) replacement will take place. Customers with a locked phone were given 2 day estimate for a simple software reset. And the boys at the counter were looking for the smallest of scratches on the body panel to turn away the customer citing 'physical damage'. By 12.00 PM, my turn came and in 10 seconds flat, I was told that it is a physical damage. I was told to go away and talk to the customer care in the most rude way possible (in Hindi - "Chal jaa customer care pe baat kar") when I told that my phone didn't have even a minor scratch anywhere and I hadn't dropped it. I called the hotline and one Ms. Amrita attended me over the phone. She was so unsure about company policies and had zero knowledge on mobile phones. She told me that it will be replaced under warranty and talked to the guy at the counter. I explained my situation once again and she put me on hold to talk to her senior. She responded that "any display problem is not repaired under warranty as it is physical damage everytime". In the meantime, the guy at the counter shouted at me to pay Rs. 173 charge for checking the phone or Rs. 2,050 to get it repaired. I asked the customer care agent if there was any chance of a mechanical defect, to which her reply was that "Manufacturing defect shows up in 1 day only" and when I told her that I was dissatisfied with her response and behaviour (rude I would say, but better than the service centre chaps), she told me that "It is not my problem as I have given the resolution and you don't want to pay Rs. 2050". I was totally frustrated by now and told that I want to report her and raise my complaint to which she said that there is no higher level to report and "aap kuch nahi kar sakte ab". I told her that I want to talk to her senior, she put me on hold and disconnected the call. Hearing my conversation in the "non-AC no-fan no-ventilation" room, 3 others who had the same problem of the display cracking without dropping the phone calmed me down. One of them had given his phone for repair and told that it was because there was no Gorilla Glass protection present in most phones from reputed brands nowadays.

As a last resort, I went to the guys at the counter again and this time they took the phone and asked one shabbily dressed person repairing the printer if this was a physical damage. He nodded his head and the guy handed the phone back to me telling that even the head engineer has now confirmed the problem. Fed up, I moved out from there. It was 1 PM already and the service complaint list was well beyond the 60s mark by now.

As of today, the phone is completely un-usable as the entire screen has turned grey-ish now. Now I feel that the 9k bucks have gone down the drain! The screenshots are coming out totally clear and so it may be a software problem also. The phone was not updated till the problem on screen occurred.

Order ID - 5160928555180123
Invoice No. - 1475284060984929224

I am looking for mail IDs of higher officials of Xiaomi to discuss this issue further and posting this on the forum to make people aware of the pathetic quality and practices followed by Xiaomi customer care. I will write a mail to 'service.in@xiaomi.com' with a link to this thread. Please share this thread on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. as I am not using them due to my exams currently. If any more details are needed, please let me know.

PS.
* If anyone knows what might have actually went wrong with the phone technically, please help.
* Sorry for the long post. If you are short on time, please go through the bold text.
* MODS - Please move the thread to the appropriate section and change to a suitable thread title if needed.

Regards,
Alpha
 
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allhyundaicars

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Nairrk

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Oh.. that's very bad experience you got from Xiaomi. Buying phones (or other items) via online sometime meet with this kind of experience when there are complaints. Only way is to find out the higher authorities contact mail from their website and write to them.

Also suggest register a complaint with consumer complaint forum which some time reach to the higher authorities you get some response, atleast in writing:

NATIONAL CONSUMER COMPLAINT FORUM Complaints

Hope your problem will be solved soon.!!
 
Thread Starter #4
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It's best to sell it for a loss or get the screen fit from the outside and keep it as a spare phone.
Hello allhyundaicars

I am getting only around Rs. 4k in this condition. If I get it repaired from outside by spending Rs. 1k, warranty will be void and I won't get more than Rs. 6k. If I get it repaired from Xiaomi for Rs. 2k, I will be able to sell it for roughly Rs. 7k. I will most probably go for the second option, no way I am living with such a pathetic device.

Also suggest register a complaint with consumer complaint forum which some time reach to the higher authorities you get some response, atleast in writing
Hello Nairrk

I've done that just now. Thanks.

Regards,
Alpha
 

kkn13

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Look, Im not defending them in any manner etc but I have to comment -

All service centres in India for any brand are horrible and will mess up your phone more instead of rectifying, DIY route has become the norm for repairs or simply sell and buy a new phone.

With brands such as Apple, you have to shell out 50% of the cost of the device and you get a refurbished phone as replacement, no repairs whatsovever despite paying a huuge premium.

With Samsung, you get the phone damaged even further in most cases despite high pricing again.

Xiaomi is one of the few OEMs that actually have good quality products but its very hit or miss usually and after sales is terrible but you can easily swap the parts yourself , in fact easier than Apple and Samsung especially in Mumbai.

I know it shouldnt be this way and Im not defending Xiaomi but they are arguably better than Apple and Samsung in terms of pricing,parts and DIY repairs etc
Xiaomis should be considered a risky investment but its worth risking for the price

You can buy a Samsung Galaxy S7 for 45k and if something goes wrong , you have a hit or miss 20k for repairs(display)
You can buy a Mi5 (on par with S7 in specs etc frankly) for 20k and if something goes wrong, you can simply sell for 4-5k lesser worst case and buy a new Mi5 for 20k again

Think of Xiaomi as VW/Skoda/Audi ,
Microsoft/Nokia as Maruti ,
Samsung as Hyundai ,
LG as Nissan/Renault,
Sony Xperia as Honda,
Micromax as Tata.

I totally understand your annoyance and Id like to add, this self cracking screen issue has plagued iPhones, Samsungs and even Xperias , alot of my friends had this issue with the brands I just mentioned and everyone had to jump through hoops or simply sell and move on sadly.

Your options(minimal effort and practical ones even if very very unfair and ridiculous) in my honest opinion-

1. Make a ruckus of this issue on twitter, XDA forums ,Facebook, Buzzfeed etc and tweet/email the CEO- Hugo Barra (seems like a good CEO and will probably help you out if he sees, has helped out others in the past)

2. Sell phone for 5-6k and move on

3. DIY repair by sourcing parts yourself

4. Consumer forum (very annoying and wont help because Indian management of all these brands dont do anything, rather #1 frankly)


Id say try #1 first and tweet to Hugo Barra
https://twitter.com/hbarra?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author
hugo.barra@xiaomi.com

BTW this guy seems helpful-
Nisar.sk Profile - Xiaomi MIUI Official Forum
Hes helped out alot of people in the MIUI forums

I know my post is a bit harsh but its unfortunately the hard truth, good luck and please share your experience here
would be glad to help out by retweeting etc till you get justice
 
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kkn13

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Same thing happened with a friend as well.

http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/gadgets-more/22498-sub-standard-products-gionee.html

We complained on every possible platform and got a call to get it checked at the biggest service center in delhi. They said the same thing like you experienced.

It's best to sell it for a loss or get the screen fit from the outside and keep it as a spare phone.
Gionee is the absolute worst along with Micromax,Lava,Xolo,Vivo etc
With Xiaomi and OnePlus, being startup brands, its fairly easy to reach out to the CEO and get justice since they want to protect their already small but emerging image
 
Thread Starter #7
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Received a mail from Customer Care team that the issue has been escalated. Automated most probably. I do not have any big problem in selling the phone (for a loss) and moving on but I am very dissapointed with the attitude of these start ups.

In my case, Sony has mediocre sales but the service experience has been 10 times better.

I would be very thankful if some one could post this issue on social media on my behalf. I am not active since 2-3 months now. And don't have a Twitter account in the first place.

Regards,
Alpha
 
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Nairrk

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Gionee is the absolute worst along with Micromax,Lava,Xolo,Vivo etc
With Xiaomi and OnePlus, being startup brands, its fairly easy to reach out to the CEO and get justice since they want to protect their already small but emerging image
I am not trying to defend Gionee, but frankly, I have been using Gionee since last 2 years (initially I have used Gionee s5.1- no complaints at all and then couple of months back exchanged this one for Volte enabled phone Gionee F103 and that one also working fine) and luckily never faced any problems so far.

Not only Gionee but what I heard that all brand phones used to have some problem at some stage but only those unlucky get affected. Why, nowadays everyone knew whats happening with Samsung....!![roll]
 
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Do check normal mobile shop for screen replacement. They will most probably replace the screen for a thousand bucks. I know, this is frustrating. I too had a nokia normal 1k rs handset whose internal screen broke automatically. I didn't bother to replace it as I knew I will face the same issue you have faced. You might have got lemon piece due to bad luck. I am using Redmi Note prime since 1 year without any issues.
 

kkn13

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I am not trying to defend Gionee, but frankly, I have been using Gionee since last 2 years (initially I have used Gionee s5.1- no complaints at all and then couple of months back exchanged this one for Volte enabled phone Gionee F103 and that one also working fine) and luckily never faced any problems so far.

Not only Gionee but what I heard that all brand phones used to have some problem at some stage but only those unlucky get affected. Why, nowadays everyone knew whats happening with Samsung....!![roll]
Exactly
IMHO might as well take chances with these brands than Apple and Samsungs
Theres no way Im justifying a 50k phone with issues which need 20k for repair when I can buy the same hardware for 20k

Do check normal mobile shop for screen replacement. They will most probably replace the screen for a thousand bucks. I know, this is frustrating. I too had a nokia normal 1k rs handset whose internal screen broke automatically. I didn't bother to replace it as I knew I will face the same issue you have faced. You might have got lemon piece due to bad luck. I am using Redmi Note prime since 1 year without any issues.
Yep its a one-off lemon case for sure
I have 5 Xiaomi phones (Redmi Note 3, Mi5, Redmi 3S etc)
No issues luckily, touch wood

Sadly this is the case with most brands in India,like @Alpha said Sony service is still miles better but not xiaomi, Samsung and Apple from my personal experience

Received a mail from Customer Care team that the issue has been escalated. Automated most probably. I do not have any big problem in selling the phone (for a loss) and moving on but I am very dissapointed with the attitude of these start ups.

In my case, Sony has mediocre sales but the service experience has been 10 times better.

I would be very thankful if some one could post this issue on social media on my behalf. I am not active since 2-3 months now. And don't have a Twitter account in the first place.

Regards,
Alpha

Yeah very unfortunate consumers have to go through this
will surely tweet etc

btw Hugo Barra and Nisar.sk are probably the only helpful Xiaomi guys
Id suggest sending stinker emails as much as possible, dont let this drop unless you can sell the phone for a minimal loss
 
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bhvm

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These days its simply Quantity vs Quality.
Manufacturers want to provide more features/Specs to make a hot sale rather than quality.

Also, Question about Longetivity of Phone has become almost non-existent. People want to throw their phones every 6~8 months to get something new. There are very few fools like me who use their each phone 4 years +
 

kkn13

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These days its simply Quantity vs Quality.
Manufacturers want to provide more features/Specs to make a hot sale rather than quality.

Also, Question about Longetivity of Phone has become almost non-existent. People want to throw their phones every 6~8 months to get something new. There are very few fools like me who use their each phone 4 years +
You arent the only fool here, :stupid: :agree: :P
Im also one a fool who uses phones for 3-4 years
My phone is in pristine condition even right now [glasses]

I know a tonne of people who will tell me how awesome their new phone is but I never see the advantage over my 3 year old phone at all
rather use 50k to change tyres,clutch or suspension of the car :D
 

allhyundaicars

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You arent the only fool here, :sP
Im also one a fool who uses phones for 3-4 years
My phone is in pristine condition even right now [

I know a tonne of people who will tell me how awesome their new phone is but I never see the advantage over my 3 year old phone at all
rather use 50k to change tyres,clutch or suspension of the car :D
It depends on which phone you are using.

I was the same person who switched phone everyear( xperia arc - xperia sp - nexus 5 - galaxy s6)
Now I have been using galaxy s6 since 18 months and I don't feel the need to update my phone. Xperia arc got stolen ,Nexus 5 was absolute worst. Xperia sp is still being used by my mom ( with around 5 hours of screen on time :p )
And before buying a phone I always contact the customer care and ask the display price [:D]
S6 screen costs 11k , weirdly s5 screen costs the same when my friend bought it for 20k.
Bought one plus x for my dad for 16-18k (don't remember) and the screen costs 10k [frustration] When I asked the sc.
So I don't know what companies are doing but now I always prefer to buy insurance.
You should do the same. I bought insurance for 2500rs( for s6)broke the screen , paid 1k as claim and got it repaired from the service center. After asking the price of one plus x bought insurance for that too.
 
Thread Starter #14
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UPDATE

I received a call from the assistant manager, Mr. Deepak Kohli, to discuss the matter. He has asked me to visit the service centre again and visit the head assuring that they will check the phone without any charges. If it is diagnosed as physical damage, then I will have no choice. Otherwise it will be replaced under warranty. Lets see how it goes.

Regards,
Alpha
 
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kkn13

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UPDATE

I received a call from the assistant manager, Mr. Deepak Kohli, to discuss the matter. He has asked me to visit the service centre again and visit the head assuring that they will check the phone without any charges. If it is diagnosed as physical damage, then I will have no choice. Otherwise it will be replaced under warranty. Lets see how it goes.

Regards,
Alpha
If they dont ,please tweet,email etc to Hugo Barra as a last resort
Also the guys at XDA usually have direct contact with these CEOs and will help you make this issue public
And please some detailed upload pics of the phone just for curiousity
 
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