Pinglinks Cellular — A review — horrible.

Photo by Youssef Sarhan on Unsplash

So, my first direct experience with Pinglinks was when my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S8 needed to be checked out.

I found them on Google looking for phone repair shops that would actually be open during the Covid Pandemic.

Thumbs up to them for not only being available, but discoverable online!

I was pleased with this, I called around a few places, but Pinglinks customer facing staff was the most pleasant to speak with, so I decided to take my business there.

The issue was that my phone had suddenly stopped reading the sim card overnight, which was very strange.

Whether it was plugged in or not, it would not pick up the sim card (you’ll see why I mention such a strange thing later).

So I went there the same day I called, because it was my only phone, I get business and personal contact through it, so it was pretty urgent as I would miss all communications when not connected to Wi-Fi.

I got there, they had plenty of items for sale, the place looked pretty nice, it wasn’t what I was expecting lol. The staff was also as pleasant as they were over the phone. I explained the situation to them and they let me know the estimated cost if its a worst case scenario (if the sim card reader would need to be replaced) -$9000JMD.

That was a bit steep of a price considering that:

1. I’d usually be connected to Wi-Fi during the pandemic.
2. I run a 2 year phone cycle and this year is when I’d replace my phone.
3. The sim card reader costs about $500JMD.

However, I was like, okay, we’ll see what happens, worst case scenario, if it does need a sim card reader replacement. I’ll just use the phone at home connected to Wi-Fi and carry around a bangers with hotspot until I get the new phone.

So I ask them to diagnose it for me, and let me decide when they find the issue. They agreed and said the diagnosis cost was $1000, so right then and there I paid. They also said they needed my passcode for my phone to ensure the sim was working..I found this very strange as well, reasons being:

1. I had already checked online to see what the repair process was.
2. I also checked to see if it could have been a software issue and how that would’ve been gone about being fixed.
3. The signal bar is visible whether the phone is locked or unlocked, so they would’ve been able to see if the sim card was being read regardless.
4. You can test call from a locked screen.

Again, however, they are the pro’s here, so i’ll give them what they ask for to work with. So I asked for my phone back and proceeded to delete all the sensitive personal and company information (It was a lot). I then gave them my contact and left.

Fast Forward To Day 2.

I got a missed call from them, tried calling back, got nothing.

Fast Forward To Day 3.

I tried call even more times, got no response, not even a call back. Then tried again later on in the day and finally got them. They say the technician needs my pin. I’m like crap! I forgot to give them, so I go and give it to them. Cool we’re square.

Fast Forward To Day 4.

Shoddy contact practices aside, they got around to my phone fairly quickly since they called the next day. So I decided I need to take the initiative with these guys. So I called and asked, they said, they’re still working on figure it out. So I’m like okay, that’s fine, I’ll wait for their call.

Fast Forward Day 7.

Yeah, I was pretty impatient before this, but by now I had calmed down. They finally called, and said, It’s fixed..

Yes. They said it’s fixed, not We figured out the issue or anything of such sorts. I’m like wut?

Mind you, I’m speaking with the same representative I initially spoke with and left the phone with.

So I asked, What do you mean? I asked you guys to diagnose the issue and get back to me.

She replied I’m sorry, I thought they had contacted you and you guys spoke about that already.

I was very annoyed. However, I kept my cool, my phone is a great phone, hasn’t given me any problems, it’s beautiful and to be honest I had no real desire to get a new phone just yet, as there was nothing out there that I particularly liked, so I was like… This is horrible service, what if I had said I don’t want that? Would they have refused to return my phone? Or kept it for a few more days? Or damaged it?

So I merely asked the cost, she said $8500. I said okay, i’m coming for it today.

As upset as I was, I was getting my phone back, my only hope was that they didn’t screw my phone up and did a proper job with the repair, which I wasn’t very confident in, but I didn’t have many options.

I go there, and I get my phone, it’s moving a bit slow, which I found out, but I thought, maybe its from the cold boot (when you restart a device after an extending period of being off). So I pay and I leave, with an sense of unease, because of the situation, I really lacked confidence in their company and I really didn’t want to bring my phone back there. At this point, i’m wondering if they burnt my motherboard while trying to replace the reader.

Slowness aside thought, mostly all was fine.

Later that day:

After some extended use, the screen started to colour shift, very slight hues of pink and green. I thought two things:

1. Here we go, they screwed it up.
2. What the heck are these guys going to do if I bring it back, screw it up some more

It stopped though. So I pushed the thought the back of my mind, because I didn’t want to face the reality that I probably just wasted $9500 on these guys for in essence screwing up my phone worse than the condition I brought it in and the cost of a Samsung Galaxy S8 display is more than $20,000.

So that would have been a major loss.

A few days later (Thursday):

It started again, but this time worse! I was like crap! I knew it!

I’d have to bring it in, but as this day was especially a busy day for work, I decided I’d do it tomorrow.

Later on I went to speak with my parents. Looked at the time and locked the phone, in these 2–3 minutes the phone has not left in hand. As I am walking back to my room, I look at my phone and this screen is just an absolute mess of green and white.

No damage has been done, no pressure has been applied. Nothing.

I am sorely disappointed at this point, I start thinking about what it could possibly be.

I decided to remove the sim card tray, as the reader might be pressing on the display from behind if it was not installed properly.

There was no change..or so I thought, after a few minutes with the sim removed, everything worked fine. The screen was looking great, no issues. So I assumed my theory correct, working well without the tray, and I was about to try putting the tray back in as I didn’t want to cause further damage if it was indeed the cause.

The next day (Friday):

I head to Pinglinks and explain my issue, with the original rep I saw, as they were attending the desk at the moment. As they were familiar with my woes, I explained the display issue only began after I got it back and that my suspicion was that the sim card reader may have been pressed against the display.

The rep proceeded to inform me that, they do not believe this was the issue as the sim card reader was not replaced and she thought that they had explained this to me.

I’m like no they did not.

Again with the atrocious communication/organisation issues with this company.

So she went into the system and showed. That the notes on the repair were: No issues found with sim card reader, looking for another cause, replaced charging port and that fixed the issue. — paraphrased of course.

Yes, that’s right, this was their explanation, not making sense? Good because it doesn’t.

So I’m wondering..what did I pay for then!?!?

The charging port was a $1500JMD part, with almost no manual labour required to replace on my model specifically, as I had not sealed the back.

So essentially I paid $1000 for them to find the issue and $8500 because they didn’t want me to address it myself?!

Well at least that would be the case if they were being honest about the issue, however, the charging port as you all know is on the opposite end of the phone. Farthest from the sim card reader. It would not pick the sim card reader, whether plugged in or not. And the charging port is also not directly connected to the mainboard of the phone, so for it the bypass everything else and affect the sim card only?

Does anyone smell something bad?

These guys are ridiculous is what I thought, but hey, they had messed up my display somehow during their diagnosis, as they charged me a hefty fee for this it is their responsibility to address it.

So I left it there and of course did not pay this time as I had explained that this only started after they did something — who knows what? — to the phone.

Fast Forward (Monday)

I called to check it on my phone and they let me know it’s still being looked at, but they’ll give me a call when they figure out the issue. I said okay.

Fast Forward (Thursday) — Current Date.

I’m calling, and again getting no response from the company.

Will I do business with them again? — Absolutely not.

LOCATION: 5/10

SERVICE: 3/10

OFFERING: 5/10