[Nexus 6  General] mbusic:
I just want to share my sad story with you. I've been on xda for 7-8 years but I didn't want to use my other account. Hope you understand. ;)

Mobicity, The Silence of the Lambs

original article by Mislav Bušić, via mob.hr

Last year, soon after the launch of Nexus 6, I ordered this device from a highly reliable British webshop called mobicity.co.uk.

At the time, they were taking preorders, and due to certain discounts, I managed to buy it at a considerably lower price than in any other store.

I had to wait for almost four months to receive the device I had ordered. To put it mildly,

I was impatient and angry – both at Motorola and at mobicity – mostly because of the lack of information I was getting from them.

However, I had no other choice but to wait patiently.

Finally, I got hold of Nexus and I immediately started a detailed inspection of the device. I ran an out-of-the-ordinary unboxing,

compared it to its main rivals, Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus, and I wrote my review. My dear editor was so pleased with everything that he,

at the very least, wished for his own copy of the device.

In the meantime, we tested various other devices, and I used the Nexus 6 along with my Note 4. At the end of May,

there was a period of three weeks during which I completely stopped using Nexus. Due to circumstances at the time,

I was travelling a lot, so I placed the Nexus back into its original packaging, because Note 4, with its far better camera and battery life,

was simply a better choice when going on a trip.

Since I wasn’t using the Nexus, I decided to pass it along to my editor. Who doesn’t love “the smell of a new smartphone in the morning”?

Since I do backup of all my smartphones almost on a daily basis, I took the box and went straight to the post office.

At the counter, in the post office, I decided to double-check if everything was in place.

What followed was utter shock and disbelief.

The battery of Nexus 6 was inflated like a pack of the cheapest crisps. The cover/lid came off and there was no point in sending the device at all.

In the pre-cardiac condition, I called Krešo, my editor, to explain the whole situation. I don’t know who was in a greater state of shock, him or me.

He, because he wasn’t getting his new toy, or I, because I had it and was now left without it.

Since unfortunately, Motorola doesn’t have a representative in Croatia at all, and mobicity offers no European guarantee,

I had no other choice, but to contact more-or-less all domestic service centres in the hope of finding someone who could repair my Nexus.

I decided to log on to mobicity’s webpage to contact their customer service, and I was again confronted with another unpleasant surprise.

My account, which I had used to buy dozens of other devices, had been deleted because it had been a couple of months since my last log-in and/or purchase.

At this point I was furious. I managed to get their customer service email address and I finally managed to explain my problem to them.

What followed was a dozen of emails during the next fortnight in which I tried to explain that the device was kept in a box, in a room, at room temperature,

away from the sunlight, turned off, with no contact to moisture or cosmic dust. In a nutshell, the conditions were more than perfect.

Finally we reached the conclusion that it wasn’t my fault that the battery got inflated.

During the following fortnight we exchanged yet another dozen of emails in which mobicity very politely explained that it would be best if I could find a service centre in Zagreb that would fix my device.

The biggest problem was the non-existence of a telephone contact with the personnel at mobicity so that I could explain the situation more efficiently and quickly.

Unfortunately, their support service is as prompt and effective as the Croatian judiciary system, so you have to wait for a reply sometimes even for a week.

Weeks went by and mobicity kept on insisting on issuing a €50 voucher which would, according to them,

make up for the mental pain and the cost of battery replacement as well as possible broken motherboard or whatever.

No matter how much I insisted on sending my Nexus directly to them to have it serviced, they persistently refused to accept it.

The main excuse was the somewhat strange ban on sending inflated batteries by plane across the European Union.

This sounds logical – the battery might explode and take down the entire plane.

After a few more emails, I came to understand that this ban applies to all types of postal services, not just air mail.

After I had realised that we cannot come to an understanding, I directed mobicity’s customer service to mob.hr, the web portal I work for.

mob.hr actually attracts 200,000 unique visits a month and we cover an area of around 20 million people and, in fact,

we are the highest rated daily blog on mobile telecommunications in ExYu.

Mobicity took this as a threat and almost refused any further cooperation.

Then I politely explained that a threat would mean writing an article in English about their customer treatment and sharing this article on all leading world web portals,

including those in the USA as well as those in the UK, featuring a whole lot of pictures, attached emails and a video in English ready to be uploaded on our YouTube.

Eventually we reached an understanding. They apologized and decided to accept my Nexus 6 and service it if I agree to remove the battery before sending the phone.

That is exactly what happened. I managed to remove the battery (which meant taking the whole device apart), and I sent the device to Great Britain.

I was patiently checking the tracking number and I saw that the package had been delivered on July, 23.

I thought that maybe they would contact me upon receiving the package, and since this didn’t happen, I decided to contact them.

It turns out that if I hadn’t contacted them, my Nexus would remain there for weeks without them knowing about the whole situation.

Didn’t worry about this too much as they assured me that the device would be serviced in a few weeks’ time, so I decided to wait patiently.

Days went by and the only contact I had with the service centre was the “well-organized” customer service. I kept reminding them and sending them emails once or twice a week.

Weeks went by, and so did the first month since they received my device, and mobiycity’s customer service still had absolutely no information about the status of my device – what’s its status,

are they still waiting for parts, did they notice some other misfunctions apart from the missing battery… as if they hadn’t received the device at all.

I kept sending them emails on a weekly basis until they finally responded. Six weeks after they had received my phone,

they replied that the device was being inspected by their technicians – which actually means that they were staring at it wondering where the battery was.

I was furious, but I managed to calm myself down and I contacted the European Consumer Centre (ECC). They informed me that, since the English are involved,

I can do nothing but wait. They were kind enough to offer help and they contacted some of their colleagues in London who might call mobicity and ask them to speed thing up.

In case mobicity turned them down, the story would end here since, legally, there is no time constraint regarding the servicing of the device!

After two weeks I was informed that the battery had been replaced and that the device was being further tested.

In translation, the servicer’s son got hold of it for free for another couple of weeks or even months to play games, and,

in case the battery doesn’t get inflated again after the kid tries all possible games on Android, I will be given my device back.

After 4 (!) months, I received absolutely no news about my Nexus. Dozens of emails, complaints and status requests went by practically unnoticed.

Mobicity sent me generic emails such as “soon”, “we still don’t know”, “we’re waiting for our repair centre to reply” and so on.

At this moment I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to get my device back or if it had been given to someone else as a wonderful Christmas present.

If someone did something like this in Croatia, we would be accused of being backward, uncivilised and incompetent. Since all of this took place in the UK,

the cradle of civilisation, it is perfectly clear that there are plenty of incompetent, uneducated and lazy people outside Croatia. Maybe if I hadn’t been cheap,

and if I had offered that PR person at the other side of the email some £10 bribe, maybe he would have checked where my Nexus was and would have told his colleagues to fix my phone.

At least, that’s how it works in Croatia, where you need bribe even to get your driving licence.

About 3 weeks ago, I threatened mobicity with negative feedback article, and gave them deadline till friday to repair my Nexus. Within 24 hours,

they said my device is repaired and waiting to be shipped. Guess what? They still haven’t manage to ship it!

So, to sum up, having a warranty is a wonderful thing without which you shouldn’t buy a device because you could easily have an accident as I did, no matter how careful you are.

Be careful where you buy your device and what kind of warranty it comes with. Well-known webshops are sometimes considerably cheaper than the local retail,

but they come with certain risks involved which you have to be prepared for. Your device will most likely be taken to be serviced,

but be prepared wait for it for a couple of months or even to lose it altogether. All things considered, we do not recommend buying from the mobicity.