Samsung GALAXY Y DUOS Product Image (4) (Photo credit: renaissancechambara)

Last year I traded in my tried and tested Nokia for a Smart phone that proved too smart for me to handle. My Samsung Duos Y ( whatever it is……) had a dual SIM card which turned out to be my undoing because a three day stay in Italy while the phone was downloading Apps in the background cost me Rs 9,000! Peeved with this unnecessary expense, I was already regretting buying this phone when earlier this year I found my battery draining within hours and worse still, the phone getting too hot to handle.

So I went down to the Samsung Cafe which is down the road from my house and was told to produce the invoice failing which I should tell them the exact date of purchase. Now this is as idiotic as looking for a needle in a haystack but I did tell them that no sooner did I buy the phone than the cost came down and worse still, the model was pulled out a while later.

I was told that the problem could only be solved at the Service Centre , the location of which  the Cafewallahs had absolutely no idea. Once again miffed by this indifferent customer service, I went back home and luckily found the original packing of the phone and marched back to the shop. The shop attendant looked at the box as though I had pilfered it from their showroom and was surprised that I had kept it. Rather reluctantly he traced the transaction and offered to give me a printed copy of the receipt the next day after 12.

I chose to ignore this till last month it developed a new problem. From time to time the Service provider dropped my service and I had to remove the SIM, rub it down and put it back. I tried this several times till I finally changed the slot . I also went to the Service provider who told me he could do nothing with the phone but only find out if the SIM was faulty. And if the SIM was faulty, I needed to apply for a new one and since I was not the primary subscriber, I needed a letter of authority along with address proof of primary subscriber and myself.

I just couldn’t manage any more of this run around and decided to finally act the helpless, Memsaab and put it in my husband’s lunch basket and asked him to deal with it. He of course sent it off to their IT Dept and I duly got a call from the concerned person. After explaining the problem I told him not to call me again but to just get the phone fixed or better still replaced. I am sick and tired of my Smart phone and long for my good old NOKIA which was just a phone.

But till I get my phone back either replaced or repaired, I am disconnected from the world and am happy for it. I had one whole day without having to worry where the phone was kept and not worry about checking for messages from time to time. I didn’t have to worry about losing it, having it stolen, dropping it or even having a conversation in whispers , straining to hear what the other person was saying over a tenuous connection , guiltily looking at it in conversation or trying to read messages without spectacles or worse still trying to answer it with a swipe before the caller disconnected!

In fact, I had such a stress free day that I am quite willing to go without the mobile phone for the rest of my life…..