I bought a N81 in 2007(ish) in cyprus. I don't know why the phone was spanish. It was pretty obvious that it wasn't greek without even turning it on because all the greek nokias have also greek letters on the T9 keypad. Instead of returning it I changed the product code (which everybody warned it voids warranty) and reflashed with Greek firmware.
The speaker stopped working some months later, and I had already moved to Greece. I took it to a nokia care there, without even the receipt. (the phone had been announced less than a year ago)
They did say it was in a bad condition, and took it in. About a month later they gave me what looked like a new one (still no greek on the keypad so I assume they just replaced the casing)

So, I am pretty optimistic about warranty issues, on the other hand we seem to be getting the N9 here officially.