Misunderstood phones costs industry US$4.5 billion [Cellular News]
A new report from WDSGlobal has revealed that 63% of mobile devices returned as faulty are in perfect working order. This ‘No Fault Found’ (NFF) returns rate exceeds the industry average for general consumer electronic devices by 13% and is costing the mobile industry US$4.5 billion globally. These findings drawn from 15,000 monthly post sales support calls taken on behalf of a major UK retailer are directly attributable to the generally poor user experience met by mobile subscribers when first using a mobile phone.
Closer examination of the ‘No Fault Found’ returns calls revealed that 38% were from users abandoning devices after struggling to use a specific application, 13% were based upon mis-sold devices, where users claim that the device did not fulfil the purpose for which it was sold, and 49% were from users who diagnosed lack of service pre-configuration as a device fault.
With each device returned costing operators, manufacturers and retailers in the order of £35, the overall bill to the UK mobile industry is approximately £54 million and US$4.5 billion to the global mobile industry in wasted expense.
(via Usability in the News)
