Emu’s customer service was poor, but its offer wasn’t enough for Guowei

The issue

Guowei wanted Emu to tell him if the mobile data device he bought from Emu several years ago was locked to its network or not.

If it was locked, Guowei wanted to know how he could unlock it, given he was now out of contract.

He’d been an Emu customer for 17 years.

Guowei went to an Emu shop where staff said he had to call technical support for this service.

The next day he called Emu technical support, explained what he needed to the technician, who did not seem to understand.

The technician insisted Guowei call another provider to remove the SIM.

When Guowei asked the technician to transfer him to someone with better knowledge, the technician said he couldn't transfer him to another person in his team.

Guowei then asked to speak with his manager, the technician refused and said he will ask his colleague for a solution.

Guowei waited for a while and then got disconnected. He complained to Emu, which referred him to us.

The investigation

Guowei originally wanted Emu to tell him what he needed to know about the service but now wanted Emu to compensate him for its terrible treatment of a loyal customer.

We asked Emu to respond to Guowei’s complaint and send us the call recording.

Emu sent the call recording and offered to credit Guowei’s account $50, equal to one month’s service charge for the device.

Guowei rejected the offer and said he wanted three months’ charges or $150. Emu offered him two months’ charges, or $100.

He rejected the offer again.

The outcome

We listened to the call.

We told Guowei while the customer service was poor, and we asked Emu to provide better training to staff, we think the offer of $100 is fair as the impact on him was low.

Guowei disagreed and insisted on $150 compensation.

Using a Fair Offer Assessment, we explained why we thought the offer was fair and closed the complaint.

*Names of individuals, organisations and companies have been changed.