Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: Maintenance Centres… Outside the Framework

The power went out at Hajja Nadia’s home while the washing machine was running; the electricity came back half an hour later, but the washing machine did not respond to the start command and a warning sign appeared to contact maintenance. She told her husband about it and expressed her sadness that the washing machine had broken down, as she had chosen it 7 years earlier as an outstanding brand and model, and she asked him to look for the product’s agent in Egypt. She whispered to him her fears about maintenance centres, after the stories she hears every day about the bad image of maintenance centres in Egypt, whether in terms of incompetence or swindling the owners of broken appliances, overcharging for spare parts they falsely claim to have replaced, or exaggerating the cost of the repair. Her husband promised her to do what was necessary and began the search for the authorized maintenance centre on the internet, but he was surprised by hundreds of advertisements for maintenance centres bearing the logo of the washing machine’s brand, so that he could not tell which of these centres were genuine. He turned to a friend of his, who suggested that he call the shop where he had bought the washing machine to get the agent’s telephone number and location, so as to be safe. He liked the idea and called the shop, which gave him the number of the authorized maintenance agent, which made him feel relieved and reassured; he called his friend back to thank him for his advice, and called his wife to tell her (Eureka), a Greek word meaning “I have found it”. He promptly called the agent, and a voice answered welcoming him and his requests; remembering his wife’s warning to be careful, he immediately asked whether they were the authorized agent, and she answered with complete confidence that they were the agent. The agent’s company sent specialized technicians to the house within two hours to repair the washing machine, but they informed Hajja Nadia that the washing machine had a serious fault in the (electronic board), and suggested that she let them take it to the company to be examined by specialists, and that they would call her before completing the repair to obtain the customer’s opinion; she agreed to the washing machine being taken and received a receipt for it. The next day the company informed them that the cost of repairing the washing machine was 6,500 pounds; the husband was astonished and looked at the company’s receipt again, and was surprised to find that it had been issued by a company called (Al-Wakeel for Maintenance), not by the product’s agent, and that the receipt did not include an addre— he got in touch with the product’s agent, after confirming that the washing machine’s serial number was registered in his name as the buyer, explaining the washing machine’s problem; the company’s representative told him that the washing machine only needed some steps to be followed with him over the telephone, because this happens when the electricity fluctuates, and indeed, after the steps were completed, the washing machine went back to working efficiently. After Hajja Nadia told her story in front of her neighbour, who had lost the remote control of her LG television and wanted to buy a replacement, the neighbour felt reassured at having the correct number of the agent. She called the WhatsApp number of the said company, which told her that her request would be sent to its branch in Nasr City, and two days later the Nasr City centre called her to tell her to come and collect the new remote control and pay 500 pounds. On arriving at the place, it turned out to be a maintenance centre bearing a different name and displaying the LG logo and trademark, and it was not a branch of the company; when she asked, they told her it was an authorized maintenance centre; she paid, received the new remote control and asked for an invoice showing the value added tax, but they refused on the pretext that there were no invoices; she called the parent company, which replied that invoices are not issued for such items, so she filed a complaint with the Consumer Protection Agency. Such violations are many, repeated and widespread, in a way that points to the chaos of the service and maintenance centre system in Egypt, as they exploit the citizen and the state and evade their responsibility and their tax obligations. Moreover, these complaints place great burdens on the Consumer Protection Agency, exhaust its capabilities and take up its efforts, without leading to a radical solution that restores discipline to the system of service and maintenance centres in Egypt. The time has come to reconsider the regulating rules, the licensing conditions and the competence of the staff of these centres, and to put in place the necessary controls to guarantee the payment of tax obligations to the state and to guarantee the repair and maintenance of appliances for a specified period, in a way that preserves and entrenches the rule of law and brings order to the system of service and maintenance centres.—ss or of the company’s headquarters, so he realized that he had fallen victim to a great deception. He told the company that he was ready to pay the repair costs in order to get the address, and he filed a police report, reaching the company’s headquarters and collecting the washing machine before it could be tampered with.