And here we have Nokia's response:

Dear Ewan ,

Thank you for your response.

We apologize for the delay in responding to your e-mail message and greatly appreciate your patience.

We understand your concern in regards to the repair status of your Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.

Ewan, we do apologize, however, we are not able to determine the exact date your Nokia N800 Internet Tablet will be available. Your Internet Tablet has been ordered. Please continue to monitor our web site at www.nokiausa.com for updates.

As stated in the user guide under the warranty section:

"Nokia will repair the Product under the limited warranty within 30 days after receipt of the Product. If Nokia cannot perform repairs covered under this limited warranty within 30 days, or after a reasonable number of attempts to repair the same defect, Nokia at its option, will provide a replacement Product or refund the purchase price of the Product less a reasonable amount for usage. In some states the Consumer may have the right to a loaner if the repair of the Product
takes more than ten (10) days."

If you have any additional questions, please contact us. To ensure proper handling, please continue to use the current subject line.

Thank you for choosing Nokia for your mobile needs.

Tiffany
E-mail Specialist
Nokia Inc.

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Yeah, I know, I'm in one of those states that has the right to a loaner. In fact, in Texas the current behavior by Nokia could be prosecuted under either "Theft by Conversion" or as their not abiding by several consumer protection statutes.

Evidently they didn't take me very seriously, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised. We'll see if they take a letter from my lawyer seriously - but he's pretty sure that they won't pay attention until we get a ruling in the appropriate court here in Texas and then put a lien against some of their offices. It's amazing how a sheriff standing in front of a locked door gets people's attention

Since it looks like I'm going to have to go the court route, I will have to stop posting on here (or elsewhere) on this matter since that could affect the case. I'll let y'all know what the final outcome is, but if any of you have contacts within Nokia, you might want to let them know that they are about to have some problems that they could have easily avoided by just bothering to answer some polite questions with actual answers.

Oh - and y'all may remember I was reluctant to turn the N800 in for support in the first place since I'd had poor experiences in this area before. Well, I hate to say I was right, but...