My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

This is partially question, partially rant. I got tired of being treated as annoyance by Nokia post-purchase team and want to tell my story and ask community how can I complain to Nokia company (not Nokia Poland - they are not even trying to be helpful).

I have place my order for n900 in the beginning of October and received phone on 2010-11-23. It was working OK but after few days it started rebooting. Yes, it was famous 32wd_to bug. I changed power settings and for the price of limited battery life and problems with WiFi connections phone was working. After PR1.1 problem got worse, so I decided, as many people affected by this bug, to send phone to get replacement. I phoned to Nokia Poland, phone was answered by off-shored call center. After long talk (trying to explain technical details to non-native speaker takes some time) I was advised to go to Nokia Care shop in my town and leave phone there. I have written 1.5 A4 page document explaining problem, including URLs of Maemo bugzilla and what was causing the reboots (watching flash for more than 10 minutes with energy saving turned on), and took phone to the service point. After few days I got to know that phone was not send to Nokia, but to other company - Regenersis. They send phone back after 10 days. Their "solution": "software was reflashed and phone is working according to specification".

Of course phone was not working correctly - it was still rebooting. First reboot was during charging, when I turned on the GPS unit. So on the next day I took the phone back to the service point. After 10 days phone's status was still "in repair" so I started phoning Regenersis. The only answer I was getting was "phone is still being investigated". After I demanded return of the phone so I can send it
to Nokia and got my money back I got answer "we have exchanged device", and two days later I got SMS: phone is waiting for pick-up.

After I got to service point I was told that only motherboard was replaced - so Regenersis is lying to their customers. Reboots went away but FM transmitter was not working.

In case name "Regenersis" rings some bells - this it the same company that become infamous for refusing to service iPhones claiming they were damaged by water - while the only water was coming from condensation.

After that I was tired of dealing with service and wrote to Nokia Care Poland. I do not think they know something about this new thing called "Internet" and email. Communication with them takes really long time. When I send them email, I need to wait two weeks to get reply. So in my opinion someone just takes emails, prints them and let poor saps from Nokia Care to answer without letting them near big dangerous computers. Replies are in form "You can find enclosed our reply" and email contains Microsoft Word DOC file with answer. What?

After exchange with them I leaned that it was pointless. Their responses were not written in Polish but in legalize, so I had to print them and read few times to understand. In summary:
1. As phones are not services by Nokia but by external companies Nokia does not respond for anything. Very convenient.
2. I should be glad that I received my phone semi-working only after two repairs and one month
3. Regenersis was right telling phone was replaced - according to Nokia Care Poland replacing motherboard is equivalent to replacing entire device. This wins my personal award for the most creative use of Polish language of the year.
4. If I am unhappy with repair I can send it back to service company.

As I prefer not to use my alleged masochism in contact with legal entities,I ignored the last advise, and decided not to bother Nokia Care Poland with my unworthy existence.

After some time PR1.2 came. I could not use OTA so I have reflashed device. After this FM options were not even visible in the "Settings" menu. Few weeks later infrared diode stopped working. I grounded my teeth and decided to go to another service point.
I shortly described problem and left phone there. What is surprising is that this service point sends Nokia devices to another company - to Sacel, not to Regenersis. Very strange indeed. After 10 days I received SMS "phone is waiting".

After getting there I turned phone on and tried to check FM ransmitter options. There weren't any! Service info claimed "software reflashed, phone working according to specification". NOOOOOOOOO! AGAIN?

Hello? Has anyone in the service thought about turning device on and check if it is working? Also - this is not Windows 95, format and reinstall does not cause problems to go away! Or maybe they thought that after I got my device back I will be so happy that I stop complaining that problems are still not solved?

The funny thing is that when I was trying to determine what was done, three employees of the service came and also tried to do something. I should have record them. Nobody even new where the option to turn FM radio was supposed to be. This was official Nokia Care point which was given award for the best customer service in 2007! Three people were not able to deal with the n900 - and they are paid to help Nokia customers to deal with their phones.

I have not even left the store and had device send back to the service. So far (since 2010-07-08) status of the phone is still "in repair".

So time for not so nice summary:
1. In 300,000 people city Nokia has two service points which sole purpose is to send devices to another companies. People in those points are not even able to reflash firmware, as this is what first part of both "repairs" consisted of.

2. Depending on luck device will be send to one of the few service companies not tied to Nokia. As lady in service point told me asking for my personal data "they do not have access to Nokia data and details about customers and devices". Rather strange - different companies can try to repair the same device and will not know about what was done in previous case.

3. Personnel of those companies is unable to read. When complaint is
"FM transmitter and infrared diode are not working" they do not even
try to turn phone on and check if "repair" solved anything.

4. "Format and reinstall" is still alive as way of solving problem in many companies.

5. Nokia Care Poland is more interested in drinking coffee than responding in non-glacial intervals.

6. n900 is supposed to be "4 of 5" and treated as the last prototype.
In my opinion every prototype that shows problems (like, I do not know, reboots connected to power saving, non-working FM transmitter, infrared diode that stops working) should be investigated and taken care of. This way next device will be more reliable. Instead n900 gets send to various companies which do not even share expertise.

7. In some countries people have their devices replaced without any
problems when they do not work - in other customers, after they split with their money, should go away and do not complain, suckers.
This reminds me of recent problems of another phone company, that
also (I think) has something in common with fruits.

So my question is - is there any way for me to officially complain to Nokia Finland (or other part of company supervising Polish wing of Nokia)? What can I do to have my faulty device replaced with the new working correctly, like many other people had?

The most funny thing is that I realised that I like Maemo. Now I am
using replacement phone and I really miss many Maemo features - this is the reason I still have hope that I can get working n900 unit and
need not to look for Android device.

Regards.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

wow you traveled in time...

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

as your phone is from the future, your warranty doesnt apply yet...

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

Sorry to hear of your problems.

I would certainly be asking for a new replacement.

Phone in and ask to escalate your case and ask to talk to a supervisor. I believe most companies will offer replacement if you have suffered more than 2 or 3 repair attempts. This is a customer satisfaction issue.

If the first support person you call won't pass you up the management chain, keep phoning till someone does.

Good luck.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

Well.. That sucks. I share your pain. My n900 has been in service for almost 2 months already. Nothing to do with Nokia Care though. I used my mobile operators service and they sent my phone to their service partner. They repair all models from Samsung to iPhone and Nokia and are official service partners with all major manufacturers.

They did fix the original problem the first time but gave new issues. So I just visited the store the first time to look at the phone and handed it back. Waited 3 weeks. That problem fixed, another one arrived. Waited 2 weeks. Another errorneus service. This time I didn't want to give them my phone anymore so I went to the nearest Nokia Care to get the previous errors fixed. I don't want to go to specifics, but only the first issue was Nokia hardware related. Other returns were caused by faulty service.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

You know my secret! Now I must to do something with you (or your
grandparent - I must consult the Time Lords manual). For now please try not to remember that time travel is possible - if people would know that in the next 154 years it means trouble.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

Hey There:

Sorry to hear fo your problem.

Did you try these phone no:

Nokia Head Office

Keilalahdentie 2-4
P.O. Box 226
FIN-00045 Nokia Group
Finland
Tel. +358 (0) 7180 08000
Fax. +358 7180 34003

or

Nokia
ul. Sienna 73
00-833 Warsaw
Poland
Tel: +48 22 821 8210
Fax: +48 22 821 8220

I think they can help you.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

I suppose my problems with FM transmitter and infrared are also related to repairs. I suppose they put incorrect motherboard (IIRC Greece n900 do not have FM transmitter) or messed something with flashing low-level software.

In my case however Polish Nokia Care is rather unhelpful - this is why I decided to ask here.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

Hey There:

Sorry to hear fo your problem.

Did you try these phone no:

Nokia Head Office

Keilalahdentie 2-4
P.O. Box 226
FIN-00045 Nokia Group
Finland
Tel. +358 (0) 7180 08000
Fax. +358 7180 34003

or

Nokia
ul. Sienna 73
00-833 Warsaw
Poland
Tel: +48 22 821 8210
Fax: +48 22 821 8220

I think they can help you.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/...anagement-team

try those numbers and ask for one of the big fishes maybe?

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html

search for the nokia one...

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

This is the typical run-around, poor and uninterested customer service and communication that the Nokia brand name is becoming known for. I feel like I should sue for mental anguish and penalties over my OWN frustrating and insulting experiences with their support--but then I stopped spending money on Nokia and bought a Motorola Droid in a Verizon store, and all that melted away once I started getting treated like a proper paying customer.

My recommendation, lad... don't bother buying anything from Nokia until you see that Nokia makes some earnest attempt at customer service. And be sure to let others know. Sadly enough, sometimes you have to be the example that others must learn from.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

If I recall correctly Nokia outsources its repair service. And the reason why there usually is poor service is because of cost issues. It's not just a Nokia issue. Don't know the actual numbers but what I've heard of, service firms do not get that much money from fixes that go to warranty. Therefore it is much more profitable to do a quick fix (reflash) as a lot of issues are user related misuse.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

That doesn't really speak to why Nokia corporate isn't providing face-to-face presence in larger cities or why they aren't even doing the best thing overall (simply and instantly replace the device, fix the turned in unit and resell it as a refurbished unit). Refurbished units TEND to still be very high in quality (because at least now they've been looked at individually), are cheaper to buy for someone people who can't afford the full price. It expands the market share of your product while simultaneously an overall excellent customer experience with a very low cost for all involved.

I'm curious to know whether these individual Nokia executives have ever run a successful business before?

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

I understand that reflash should be the first thing you do when trying to fix device - but it should not be the only one done it the service. In my case nobody even turned on phone after reflashing. If they did, they would notice that FM transmitter settings options is missing from the menu.

Also Sacel "experts" did not even fully reflash device - e.g. my bookmarks were still present on the device when I was checking it in the Nokia Care point.

This is not isolated case. Yesterday I was in pub with friends and one of them asked what can be done in case of phone that does not turn on when battery is not fully charged. She send phone to service (I do not know where - phone was issued by cellular network and they were "taking care" of service). Solution so far - "Updated software". Of course this solved nothing.

I am now wondering how this outsourcing is saving money to Nokia. So far my phone was send four times from point to where I left it to the service company. I tend to agree with danramos - it would be cheaper to either fix it correcly for the first time or just replace it with new unit. Is anyone controlling how sucessful are those external companies with fixing devices send to the repair?
But if you do not believe your customers, it tends to cost more, it seems.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

Nokia is certainly doing something wrong here, but i am not sure they know about this problem: how bad their repair service is.

There must be some sort of consumer agency in your country where you can complain when a company plays like this with you. I believe nokia Finland will tell you to call nokia Poland.

Re: My misadventures with warranty repairs
 

Update on situation.
I have phoned Nokia Don'tCare, and then have sent email describing situation on 2010-07-20.

On 2010-07-27 I have received SMS that my phone is back from repair. I went to retrieve it on 2010-07-28. First thing - battery was fully discharged, so I had to wait for it to charge to check if phone turns on! After checking that it works I went home and started restoring backup, charging, etc. FM and IR transmitters are working.
From repait description: "fixed electronic parts with soldering (pol. naprawa elementów elektronicznych z lutowaniem"
Used parts: (Z1505, 4129289, ASIP 10-CH LCD FILTER W/ESID BGA24 ID217, 9903029 STYLET).

In the evening I have received Nokia Don'tCare reply. This time it did not take them two weeks to reply, which seemed nice. On the other hand content of the reply was so bad that I replied with rather nasty email. I will put parts of their explanation - let's laugh together.

I did not know that outsourced service is able to write new UI! Unfortunately there was nothing new, and firmware was in version PR1.2. And I hoped that I would get access to the next firmware version...

Short explanation. I think that one of changes in PR1.2 was that if FM transmitter is not available/not working, the "Settings" menu is not showing option to set frequency. As previous "repair" did not fixed FM transmitter, menu was not showing required options. It looks like Nokia Poland cannot afford to employ at least one person that understands technical details of their phones.

The next of their reply is also interesting, but requires short explanation. In Poland there are two modes of warranty - one is that I send item to repair, another is that I send item back and demand my money back. The latter in my case is harder, as I bought phone via internet from Nokia Online.

In polish:.
Which is total crap because I have bought phone from Nokia Online. As I wrote in the first post I have put order on 2009-10-02 and received phone on 2009-11-23. So in that case Nokia is both seller and warranty provider. It looks like they are not even sure whom they are responding to and where phone was bought.

danramos is right - Nokia deserves to go bankrupt. They cannot afford to employ people with enough technical knowledge to call "********" when service company is pulling wool over their eyes. Lack of such knowledge is especially detrimental in case of section that is to deal with compains over repairs and problems with service.


I would finish it here, but phone is starting to show reset problems again. As I mentioned earlier, bettery came back depleted. I decided to "format" it - charge and discharge fully three times. Each time I have turned phone on after discharge I had report that error "32wd_to" occurred. Today I started watching flash video on BBC - and phone rebooted itself with reason "sw_rst". I have installed Crash Reported so Nokia/Maemo gets reports about this problems, but because of outsourced service and lack of communication inside Nokia nobody gets those reports to use them to help pinpoint problems.

I have bought phone officially from Nokia to be sure that I get good care in case of hardware problems. It looks like I was naive - Nokia phones do not have any warranty.