European pricing seems a lot higher than in the US mainly because of much higher taxes (every price listed in Europe includes approx 20% sales tax, you aren't allowed to advertise tax-free prices) and the current massive strength of the Euro and Pound.

Take those out and there's very little difference between the amount of money available for technical support in the US and Europe.

In any case, allowing devices to be dropped off by customers at repair shops that exist anyway wouldn't cost the support any extra.


These aren't manufacturer stores that do the repairs though, they're independent repair shops and retail chains.

The staff at these places don't work for Nokia, Nokia doesn't own these shops, it's just Nokia agreeing to pick up the tab for whatever needs fixing as long as it's covered by the guarantee.

Nokia's support site for each country lists which shops in that country will take Nokia devices in for repairs. For example in Britain a lot of Carphone Warehouse stores will repair Nokia devices under guarantee, I know someone who took their N800 to be fixed there.

The way it works: You take the device to any designated repair place, they fix it, you collect it, and they send the bill to Nokia. You don't pay a penny. The repair time at our local place varies from a few days to a couple of weeks, but there are absolutely no costs for the user except travelling to the shop (and as they're mainly in retail chains they're usually on your shopping route anyway).

And because you're actually there, you can often chat directly to the people who repaired your device, which makes it easier to find out exactly what went wrong and how to avoid problems in the future. It's very much like chatting to mechanics who have fixed your car.

The icing on the cake is that you can get these repairs at any repair centre in the entire EU, you don't have to live in the place where you get it fixed. If you're on holiday within Europe and your phone breaks down, you can get it repaired for free right there.

It's such a simple and easy to use system, I cannot see why this is being denied to American customers. The US is the one market on the planet where Nokia has failed to grow, maybe introducing this European-style support system might help them win back customers?