Mobicity say it is physical damage, and not covered under their warranty. They do not agree with comments I copied from an electronic engineer that dispute this (and corresponds with comments made here). I have taken the complaint up with the government body in Queensland, Australia, the Office of Fair Trading.

If I purchase a replacement phone, it will not be a N900, as I can't be sure the same thing won't happen again. I think I will avoid all Nokia phones in fact. There is speculation newer phones have the issue fixed; even if that is the case I could get one from an old batch. If I use Mobicity or not again remains to be seen.

As a related issue: Is this problem specific to Nokia and N900? Are there are other companies/phones that have dodgy micro-USB ports?

Brian May