Your mobile phone is slowly collapsing and you need to buy a new one. The offer on the Czech market is really large, operators come with special offers with a cell phone for one crown, authorized sellers come day-by-day with new discount offers, bazaars are full of used mobile phones, but you want a new device and with no contract. Such a consumer often buys a cell phone at some unauthorized sellers and can be sure of having a two-year guaranty and is not afraid of any unpleasant surprises.
If this feeling of safety is correct, can be found out by the Czech Trade Inspection within its controls focused on new mobile phones selling in branches of hundreds of unauthorized sellers and on the Internet. So far results are often surprising. All seems to be all right when buying, i.e. the shop assistant shows the device, all menu of the phone is in perfect Czech, all functions and applications are running well, but despite all this not everything is as it seems.
The reason is clear. At present, a mobile phone is actually a small portable computer and as such its producer sometimes offers actualization on the installed software. And this sometimes causes problems. A so far satisfied new mobile phone user launches an available automatic actualization and instead of expected improving functions, after restarting the device the cell phone welcomes him or her in one of the world languages, even though so far it “communicated” in perfect Czech.
But! To set up Czech again is a problem. The consumer finds out that in the menu Czech language is missing. “First aid” a consumer often seeks on the customer line of the particular brands representation. And there he or she hears unpleasant information. Then the mobile phone, after software actualization, cannot “speak” Czech, nor some other functions (especially more expansive types), then the cause is clear. The cell phone was not produced for the market in the Czech Republic; as such Czech language was not factory installed, and this is why so called localization of the Czech language was performed additionally, mostly at the sellers here in the Czech Republic. Definitively the mobile phones’ origin can be detected through the IMEI number. Authorized services refuse to accept such modified phones for repairs, in addition re-upload of the Czech language is possible only with the help of a service and the actualized version is impossible to displace. The disappointed customer did not know about this fact and was not told about it.
“In the context of new mobile phones selling we need to stress that selling of such modified devices is not forbidden in the Czech Republic, but the customer has to be informed in advance about the fact that he buys such a modified product and about his guaranty being limited. If it be to the contrary, there is infringement of the Consumer Protection Act,” said RNDr. Jana Příhodová, the Director General of the Czech Trade Inspection.
It is only up to the customer to decide whether he or she buys a device without Czech language, which is mostly a little cheaper, or pays a little more and prefers a phone containing the Czech language localization, or he or she buys such a modified mobile phone.
If you want to avoid the above mentioned problems, the Czech Trade Inspection recommends following these rules.
The mobile phone has to be in an unopened original packaging, the seller opens it in front of you, takes it out from protective fillings (the device and the accumulator or other accessories). After the first turning on, the phone can be set up e.g. for English, but in the menu is Czech language also available. There is a manual in the Czech language and one of the signs of the device being produced for the Czech market, can be also the device description on the box. Check the IMEI number by clicking the *#06# combination on the basic display where the production number appears. Check this number with the documents you have to the phone and the number on the phone itself (this is printed mostly below the battery). Request also filling the guaranty list or also typing the IMEI number on the bill!
This is the only way how we can eliminate possible problems or bluffing.