Global Companies – Oh How I Hate Them. I Am Looking At You Nokia And Dell

First of all, while I have your attention, can I say do not EVER buy a Nokia mobile phone again. Since that is out of the way, let me continue.

I had the privilege to receive a brand new Nokia E71 as a present. The person who got it for me got it over in China while he was on holidays. The phone was working perfectly over there. When I received it, it was working well. Then, as always the battery starts to get flat so I put it on charge. Nothing happened. The phone just says “Not Charging” when I plug it in.

Since Nokia is a world-wide organisation, and I am in Australia, I went to the Nokia Care Centre in the City to get it repaired. It is a new phone, so it should be under warranty… right?. After waiting 1 hour to be served, I am not one of the happiest people. So my number is finally called, I go up to the counter and say to them “My Phone Does Charge.” She then takes the phone and goes try it herself. It doesn’t charge.

So now we book it for a repair. She fills out the details on her computer, the IMEI number, and says to me the phone is from the USA, and as we are in Australia, we are not authorised to repair it. It is going to cost you $35 for a quote and they will come back in the next day to tell you the cost to get it repaired.

At this stage I am thinking, they are a global company. Why can’t they repair it in Australia, and if their not authorised, ship it over to USA and get someone who is authorised to repair it, to repair it.

Anyway, I gave them the $35 dollars to get a quote. The next day, I get a very short email back from Nokia saying this.

Your quote for handset repair is $468.
Please reply with
“Y” to go ahead,
“N” not to go ahead and
“D” to have disposed.
Thank you

 

WHAT??? I can buy a who new phone for $1 more. What the hell Nokia?

So now I am mad that I wasted $35 on a quote, and to get it repaired, I my as well buy a whole new phone.

So in the next few days, I go and pick my phone up. I get there,  and start waiting in the queue. 1 hour and 10 minutes later, I finally get called up to pick up my phone. I was being served by the same service rep that served me before.

Since their quote did not say how they got to the figure they did, I asked why it was so high. Their response is that it has been illegally modified and we can’t service it, and it looks like the transceiver needs to be replaced – that’s basically the entire circuit board.

At the moment, I am not very happy as:

  1. Its not under warranty
  2. It a charging issue should not cost $1 less than a brand new phone
  3. They say its been illegally modified – the person who get it,got it from an authorised Nokia dealer
  4. They opened it, knowing that they are not authorised to repair the phone, thus losing our warranty that we had on it
  5. Nokia knows we can’t do anything about it, so they will scab as much money as possible off us.

I then request to speak to the manager, who conveniently is in an important meeting. After waiting 20 minutes for him to finish his meeting, he comes and talks to us. He pretty much says “We can’t do anything – its an overseas model. Since you got it from China, you know their stereotype, (I won’t repeat what he said – but I can guarantee after I said “That’s horrible to say about Chinese people”, he soon shut up.

So I gone on with a new issue. I ask the manager, “Since you can’t repair the phone because it has been illegally modified, what can you do, can you help us sort out the issue of the authorised Nokia dealer selling us dodgy phones”.

He basically gave us the shove and said, do what ever you want, we are not going to be involved.

As a Nokia Care Centre, they are the closest to represent us to help us solve the issue of us being sold a faulty phone. But Nokia didn’t care.

We took the guys name, and his managers and asked for his business card. Do you know what he gave us? A piece of paper with their support line phone number, and his hand written writing on the back. As a manager, I would think he should have a business card.

So to come to the end, I got my phone back, and what ever they did, I can manage to get it to charge. Its been over 1 month, and it is yet to go flat. So what ever they did they fixed it, so I have no idea where they got there quote from.

But from the experience, if you are overseas for a holiday and your need a new mobile phone, don’t by a Nokia phone, because when you get back home and it breaks. Tuff luck.

And for the reason why I mentioned Dell in the title, you buy something online, pay for it, they come back a few days later and ask you to pay $200 more for the item.

So has anyone else had bad experiences with Nokia or any other companies? Let me know.

 

Update April 16 2010: So, someone has taken my phone back to China yesterday. They said that it has a cracked motherboard and needs to be shipped to Malaysia to get it repaired. So, why is Nokia saying that a genuine Nokia phone can’t be fixed in Australia because it is a US model, but can be fixed in a different country from where it was purchases and where they phone didn’t not originate from? So I have purchased a faulty manufactured phone from a Nokia dealer, and no one in the world can fix this? What the F$%k is Nokia? You have sold me a product – just fix it. I don’t care how, or where, just fix it under the warranty. You have sold me a faulty phone.

However, I do have to admit, as a replacement phone, I purchased a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. I just hope I don’t get this crap with it if it breaks. I purchased it on a $25/month plan for 24 months. While I am on the topic, if the phone breaks after the initial 1 year warranty, what happens to my contact? I am saying this as I purchased a phone on a contract and the phone didn’t last the contract, so why should I still pay for a phone that I don’t have? What are your thoughts on this?

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