I think that's fair enough.

The people getting 15% aren't really placing new orders, you know. That's just a technicality to workaround a fault in the system processing an old order. Those people ordered when there was a special offer on.

It's understandable that you're sad to have missed out a special offer, but that's just the normal roller coaster of commerce.

It's been an awful customer experience for a lot of people. But given your story, I think you're asking too much. If you call most stores and just ask for a discount which they're not offering, on the grounds that you know some people who ordered more than a month ago and got a lower price which was offered back then, sometimes you get lucky but you should not be surprised if the answer is "no we're not offering that now".

Topcashback has a good reputation, but they can't guarantee the selling company will honour their agreement to pay cashback.

Nokia has weaseled out of paying cashback to a few people who used it with other discount codes, by telling people their order will be cancelled and they'll have to recreate their order by telephone if they want to keep the discount codes, and that loses the cashback - they don't carry the cashback to the new order.

I think that's a fault in Nokia's system rather than a systematic attempt to avoid honouring deals, but it does mean they don't pay in some cases.

There's no harm in trying, though. I used Topcashback to place my order, and they were quite easy to register with and then use. Just make sure you start at the Topcashback site, register, make sure you're logged in, then go to the Nokia page on Topcashback and follow the link to Nokia sales.

The worst that can happen is you don't get the cashback, but if there's no funny business with the order it should be ok. From what people have told me, Topcashback have a good reputation, so they're not likely to be faking the referral.

That said, nobody's been able to confirm getting the cashback yet - because that takes time (could be a few months), and it's not like anyone's confirmed a delivery of the N900 yet in the UK either :-)

Where can I get these discount codes from? Are you allowed to share them with me?

The codes in question all expired a while ago, there are no current ones.

They expired a month ago. That's why new orders can't use them.

The European Sales Manager David called me back earlier today and they are only going to give 15% even though I had heard that it could be 30%.

Has anyone been offerred more than 15%

I tried to speak to David but they said he wasn't available, so I just gave up and went for the 15% discount. Let us know if you hear anything about the 30%.

Short version:

I lost my 30% discount due to the card handling problem, and reluctantly agreed to a new order with 15% discount. I'm fed up with the roller coaster experience; it's worth £70 just to stop having to deal with it.

Customer services gave me a mixed message, at one point telling me I'd keep the original price (yay ), then later a different representative saying I could not (boo-hoo ). It's like a microcosmic version of the same emotional roller coaster, packing the same highs and lows of the past month into a single call...

I checked if that would affect delivery timing and was told they have enough stock now, so that queuing position isn't an issue.

Update:

Oh, wtf! I've just checked the new order they just made for me, and they messed that up too. The new one has standard (slow) delivery, which I did not agree to.

Therefore I'm going to call tomorrow morning to cancel the new order.

I'll probably go ahead and make a fourth(!) order tomorrow morning. But there is no guarantee they'll honour even the last price if I do that - others have posted to say amending the delivery type on an existing order isn't possible.

Sigh, Nokia, your sales service is really screwing up.

I'm a big fan of open devices, and there's no competition yet.

But this surprisingly large number of glitches and disappointments are giving me plenty of time to decide if I really need a very expensive phone right now. After all it comes with a fair number of bugs and despite the excitement, it's just a little computer-phone, not the ultimate fantasy device. I might be better off waiting for a cheaper, better, faster, smaller alternative to come out - from anyone - which surely will happen within a year.

In a nutshell, all these sales problems are giving me reason to wonder if the hype and excitement over the device itself will turn out to be disappointing too.

Longer story:

My order was cancelled due to "card declined", like everyone else getting this unpleasant surprise.

I just spoke with Customer Services (0845 0455555), explained the situation and that many people are in the same boat.

I spoke to a very nice lady who told me they cannot revive the "cancelled" order, but they can create a new one and will keep my 30% discount because I had placed the original order by phone. All I had to do was be transferred to Sales, and create a new order.

At this point I'm a happy customer again

So then I was transferred to Sales, and spoke to Chris. (I'm wondering if that's his real name, because everyone seems to be speaking to Chris ;-)

He told me that I cannot keep the 30% discount.



He said that it is not Nokia's fault that my card with many others were declined. He said he can offer a 15% discount, that's been agreed with their supervisors due to this issue, and if I'd called this morning I would not even be offered that.

He agreed it's unusual that so many people are affected, but still said it's Mastercard's fault not Nokia's fault, so tough. I can't have it at the price originally agreed.

I'm thinking if they had to have a special meeting with supervisers to establish a discount just because of the number of card problems with this specific issue, it clearly has something to do with Nokia's card handling or submission processes, and frankly the company can afford to honour their originally agreed prices - after all they did agree to them, by telephone in some cases (mine included)!

I'm also thinking this is like going to a market where you haggle for a bit, agree a price and shake hands, hand over your card, they bag up the goods, you're all excited at the shiny new thing you've bought and glad the negotiating is over. Then just as they hand you the machine to enter your card PIN, and they know you're emotionally invested in the purchase, they say "Changed mind. You can have it for £70 higher, take it or leave it". That's a serious merchanting faux pas. When a price is agreed, that's what you stick to unless you have a real problem with it - which Nokia does not.

I think the fault in customer service at this point is they should have agreed to keep the customer's original discount price, or something close to it, whatever it was for each customer.

The theory that 30% discounts were an unintended glitch doesn't make sense after they have already gone to the effort to phone customers before (3 weeks ago) and create phone orders with a 30% discount, their operators knowing full well what they were doing at the time.

Anyways, I decided that I'm fed up with this emotional roller coaster, and agreed to pay £70 more than previously agreed for my phone. That is, I accepted the 15% offer, which I'm sure they think is a generous concession but doesn't feel like one under the circumstances.

Before saying yes I asked about place in the queue, as I'm not interested in waiting another month, or indeed another few weeks. Chris told me that's not an issue now, as they have enough stock, so then I said yes.

Btw, I asked if he's able to confirm the transaction going through this time. He said no, it still takes time, but he does not expect a problem as I've called the card company and told them the last one (which was declined) should not have been declined.

After ending the call, I looked online to find my new order has the slow delivery option, while the original (which I thought was being duplicated) had express delivery.

If Chris had told me the new price I was paying on my card, I would have known and immediately pointed it out. (I thought that it was mandatory for the seller to quote the price before placing a card transaction? That didn't happen...)

Ordinarily that wouldn't be the end of the world, but you know, after waiting >1 month for delivery and people talking about delivery dates in December and January at this point, unexpectedly getting converted to the slow delivery option is worrying.

So I'm going to call them again tomorrow morning, to find out if the delivery option can be changed (fixed), and if it cannot, if they recreate the order what will happen to the price this time...

Just make me so god dam mad that they can't just hold the orders and wait for the customer to sort the card out!!! its crazy

ps anyone know when we should see any movement for our reorders?