Unless something gets screwed up, the fairy tale is not complete. Motorola has been getting rave reviews and great success with its Moto G and Moto E smartphones in the country.
The handsets have been selling like hotcakes and almost all reviews put it above its contemporaries in the respective price bracket. Flipkart has been reaping the benefits as well by being the exclusive seller of Motorola phones.
Thus, to bring balance, a few of the Motorola phones are unable to connect to the Indian mobile networks. The reason behind this as cited by Motorola is that a batch of mobile with particular IMEI numbers are not registered with mobile carriers. This effectively means that these devices can’t be recognized by the networks as trustworthy devices.
The purpose of IMEI numbers is to provide a unique identification to each phone (GSM, UMTS, LTE and iDEN). These 15 digit codes can be considered akin to fingerprints in the mobile world (or more like their ADHAAR number). Unless its IMEI is registered and in the whitelist of a network, a phone won’t connect to the network.
According to Motorola, 16 GB Moto G phones seem to be affected by this bug and the company is working on resolving the issue. They have also sent the mail to the people who are affected by this issue.
Also, Flipkart is giving the customers the option to exchange the phone with a replacement device or get their full refund if they do not want to want the phone anymore. In such case however, the request will be processed only after a week, so I suppose waiting might not be a bad option if you like the phone.
In addition to this, they are also giving a wallet credit of Rs. 1200 that can be used for any purchase on Flipkart to these customers in hope to pacify them.
Flipkart and Motorola also have specified that Moto G phones with IMEI number starting from ‘3533’ are the most susceptible ones to this issue due to a programming error on its part.
As per Flipkart’s communication-
“It may take several days before your phone will connect to the network. You can find your IMEI number listed on the box or behind the back cover. At this stage, our understanding is that this only affects the 16GB version of Moto G.
We are working around the clock with our network partners to ensure your device is listed properly in their system. Because of the complex process to activate, your device could begin working as early as Tuesday or it may take a few days after that for your specific device to begin working properly.”
If you are a Moto G owner, do let us know if you were affected by this!
one of my friends is affected. he just bought a moto g that had the same problem. he got it replaced and even the other one had the same problem.. he has got ?1200 as credit and is waiting for further action from flipkart.