Blog - Immobile Suica

Immobile Suica

Yesterday I woke up late and didn't have my coffee before leaving for work. That's what I put the blame on about dropping my keitai just after using Mobile Suica (my train pass inside the keitai's IC chip) to get in the JR gates at Shinjuku. After my train ride when I tried to walk out, it wouldn't work anymore! What was strange was that I could still view my train pass data on the phone's screen, so the IC chip wasn't really broken, but the IC reader just wouldn't react to it anymore. The rest of the phone still worked nicely, except for a few buttons that had a slightly strange touch. :) It wasn't the first time that I dropped it, I dropped it dozens of times, but it was the first time that something broke.

To get this solved, I first tried Mobile Suica's call center. After telling the whole story in details, I was asked questions that I had already answered, and some questions that wouldn't even apply to my case. Then I was told to go to a DoCoMo shop.

So during lunchtime I rushed to a DoCoMo shop where my phone was checked and there was indeed a problem with the IC chip and the phone needed to be changed completely. Luckily it was still under warranty, but being an oldish model (I got it a year ago) they didn't have the same in stock and they'd have to find one elsewhere. Since no nearby shops had it in stock either, they had one sent over for the next day. Meanwhile, they made me start the process to switch my Mobile Suica to another phone. Since my phone was technically "broken", the clerk had me do the same procedure as for someone who lost their phone or broke it completely. This involves calling the Mobile Suica call center again which bills ¥500 for doing the procedure manually. I thought that was the only way to proceed.

So I left the shop and would come back the next day to get my new phone. Until I still had my old phone that worked except for IC chip beeping. However later I searched a bit on Mobile Suica's site, and I found out that I could have done the switching procedure myself from a menu of the appli (which still worked fine), without paying ¥500. In the evening I called the Mobile Suica call center again and argued a bit about having had to pay ¥500 even though it wasn't necessary, and they told me that they "can't refund" because it's all "automated" (uh-huh) and it was the DoCoMo shop staff's fault for getting me to do that procedure.

On my way back from work yesterday, and to go to work the next day (today), I still had my old phone which wouldn't beep but could display my train pass details on the screen. I had to explain to the station staff the story every time, showing the details on the screen and begging them to let me pass for free. Luckily they were all nice and there was no problem.

Today at lunchtime I rushed back to the DoCoMo shop, where a new phone was waiting for me. First though, I explained the staff (different guy than yesterday) the story about having had to pay ¥500 for something that I didn't have to. The fault was obviously the previous guy's who didn't know better, and the new person understood the situation right away and there was no arguing. He first tried to call the stubborn Mobile Suica call center though, which gave him the same negative answer as I had got the evening before. This took almost half-an-hour. Then I think he went to ask someone important about issuing me some kind of refund which took more time.

It was also time to get my phone switched, and just about 10 minutes later an identical but brand new and shiny phone came. I was also helped to reinstall the Mobile Suica appli, and I was ready to take the train again. The staff also had a good surprise for me, ¥1000 worth of DoCoMo rebate "mobiler's check" cards which I can use as a rebate on my next phone bill. Yay!! Well it probably cost me about ¥500 of calls to the call center and downloading the applis again, so I'm not exactly winning here, but I thought it was very kind.

So, after two visits to the DoCoMo shop, about an hour each time, I'm pretty much all sorted out (I just haven't got the DCMX Mini appli running yet, and I think it will require another trip to a DoCoMo shop), and I've got a brand new phone! I'll be careful not to toss it to the floor, promise.

Posted on December 7, 2007 at 22:07 | Tweet |

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