Dear Claudienne,
On October 6, 2004 I bought a Digicel Panasonic G60 cellular telephone from Ace Wireless in Old Harbour. About two weeks after I bought the phone I noticed that there was a problem in that the phone was not being fully charged. Eventually it could not be charged at all.

I took it back to Ace Wireless, as the warranty was still good, but eventually they returned it to me and asked me to have another technician repair it, saying the problem was not covered by the warranty. I had another technician check the phone and he told me that the problem seemed to be the charger.

Since late October, or thereabouts, I have been trying to get a new charger, but the problem is that Digicel has not ensured that extra chargers for this phone are available to customers. I have tried to buy a charger at almost every store in Kingston including the major ones. I have also tried stores in Portmore, Spanish Town, Linstead, Mandeville and other towns in other parishes but it seems that there just is no charger for this phone in the island. Also no one can tell me if any are likely to be imported.

I have informed Digicel's customer service about it, but nothing has been done. Please help me.
- SS

SS, your telephone could have been physically damaged which would not be covered by the warranty, a customer service officer at Digicel told Tell Claudienne.

An example of physical damage could be someone dragging out the charger too hard from the extension and, in the process, causing the panel shutter to break out from the copper coils.

The technician usually does basic repairs to the phone off the manufacturers' guidelines. The technician usually looks for physical damage before beginning to repair the phone, we were told.
Regarding, the unavailability of a charger for your Digicel Panasonic G60 telephone, SS, after Tell Claudienne intervened customer service tried to accommodate you by sending a GD35 charger to AC Wireless, your dealer in Old Harbour.

It was thought that the GD35 charger would be compatible with your phone. We note that you collected this charger from the dealer but it did not work.

Digicel said that chargers are not purchased separately. The phones are bought with the handset in the box but for the purpose of repairs, the company usually buys a percentage of a brand of phones and chargers to replace them if there is a problem.

The difficulty with the Digicel Panasonic G60 you bought is that it was what the trade terms 'an end of life' phone. This means that the company has moved on with their product line and is no longer making accessories for this phone.

The manufacturers usually make their chargers standard to allow for interchange between handsets, but the Panasonic G60 apparently varies from that norm.

You also said, SS, that the chargers were not stocked by the dealer store. Because most consumers buy chargers from street vendors, the dealer stores do not find it profitable to sell accessories. They therefore do not stock them, says Digicel customer service.

For this same reason, Digicel also does not usually buy these accessories especially seeing that they are already provided with the handset.

Digicel made checks and realised that no chargers were indeed available that worked with your Panasonic G60 phone.

However, in the interest of good customer relations, Digicel's manager of logistics took a G60 charger from a box with a handset and sent it to the dealer for delivery to you.

We are happy to note that you have received the charger.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World