BY KERSTIN LEE
Various reports have recently come to light regarding the quality of service some students have received from Cell Version, a cell phone store owned by Fardeen Khan and situated in the Neelsie.
Some students have reported that when their devices were taken in for repair, it was returned in a worse condition than before. When they voiced their concerns about the quality of the repair, they explained that they were assured that the device was repaired and that it would operate as it was supposed to.
Mareli Swart, a BAHons (Translation) student, explained that she had to get a completely new cell phone after taking her device to Cell Version to get her cell phone’s screen protector replaced.
“It was replaced with a glass screen which he applied [with] liquid glue … to the cell phone’s screen and the glue went into the call speaker, which damaged it, and I could not hear people when they called me,” Swart said.
She did not return to the store and ultimately had to get a new device. “My cracked screen resulted in a big expense, as I had to replace my phone in the end,” she stated.
When Tristan Perfett, a second-year BEng (Electrical and Electronic) student, took his cell phone to Cell Version on 1 June for a battery replacement, he was informed that it would be a “five minute replacement”. When he received his cellphone back, however, he recalled that his fingerprint scanner was not operating properly.
“When I informed the owner he told me that this wasn’t new and that I brought it in with this defect. I argued with him and eventually he said that I should come back again the next day and he would ‘see what he could do’,” he recalled.
When Perfett returned the following day, he said that he was informed that the scanner was malfunctioning as a result of corrupt software, which had to be fixed as well. When he returned the following Monday (7 June), he found that his cellphone’s proximity sensor was not working and what seemed to him to be a corrupt version of the software had been installed.
He has since returned, but has not yet managed to resolve his issue. “I have been to the shop several times to resolve the issue and the owner has been absent every time.”
Aggrieved by the entire situation, Perfett decided to fight this case and involved Mathilde Adams, the senior letting officer and overseer of stores in the Neelsie. As of now, nothing has been resolved and Perfett is still awaiting information from Adams. In correspondence with the owner regarding the specific cases, he said that he was not in communication with Swart, as she did not return to the store after her first encounter. Furthermore, he stated that he did not charge Perfett on the repair of the screen after the battery was installed. He did not mention the initial error (nor subsequent malfunctions of the devices mentioned by some clients) regarding the workmanship and quality of the service in his correspondence with Die Matie. He also did not address how the store would proceed in light of these events in the future to maintain a relationship with their clients.
