Mobile phone saga

In October, for the birthday of my son (who happens to be a special needs boy) I bought him a mobile phone from a Go Mobile outlet in Psaila Street. The phone, which was supposed to be brand new, turned out to have been used as when I gave it to my son I found the phone book full of phone numbers! There was also a voucher for a free Lm5 top-up card but when I presented it to the Go Mobile branch in Msida I was informed that it was not valid anymore.

When I complained to the agent he blamed Go Mobile. He also said he could not replace the phone as they were out of stock and offered another phone at an extra charge. In the meantime my poor son could not understand what was going on. If I decided to accept the other phone he offered I was told that I had to go to the Paola branch, as they could not go themselves.

So I called Go Mobile for help. When I explained what had happened and what kind of service I got from their agent, I was promised a new phone, the same model as I had purchased (not out of stock now!). They also promised to have a word with their agent.

After four days this new(!) phone stopped working. So I went back to the agent who after a week called and told me to pick up the phone and take it to Go Mobile in Marsa, as no one had been to collect it. So I took it to Marsa and after an hour of trying to park and waiting, I handed the phone to a member of staff who informed me that they did not have the guarantee slip as the agent had not sent it. He promised me that as soon as the guarantee arrived they would pass the set on to the technician.

So it was back to the agent again and he had the cheek to ask me to take the slip to Marsa myself! I asked if he had heard about a machine called fax.

Two days later, on a Thursday, they called to tell me that the phone was ready and I could pick it up from Marsa. I asked if it was possible to collect it from Msida and they told me to go the following Monday. So on Monday morning, like a fool, I went to Msida and was met with: "Sorry, no mobile, come on Tuesday please."

On Tuesday the mobile phone was there - but no SIM card: "We will check and call you sir." On Wednesday they called me from Marsa to go and collect the SIM card as "sorry, we made a mistake". Plus, according to the technician, the phone "seems" to be OK!

At this point I lost my patience and told them I had had enough. They called back to apologise, offered me a free Lm5 top-up card and said they would send someone with the SIM card. I said thank you but no thank you, I would switch to another provider. Next day some executive called again to sort things out by offering me a Lm10 card.

If this is the way Go Mobile treats their customers, trying to hide their disorganisation behind freebees, they had better wake up. The least they could have done was to meet the client, hear the complaint, investigate where the chain broke, and if the complaint was justified come up with a better solution. In the meantime my son, after two months, is still without a mobile phone.