Products & Services
Service in the USA – repairs
By James on 15 May 2008
USA – When Amy Gahran called about getting her bricked N95 fixed she was told it could be 30 days before she’d see her phone again. What’s more, she’d have to ship it herself. We’ve taken these issues to Nokia USA and they’ve come back with some good, and useful info.
First up, there’s an excellent tool to work out the status of your device’s warranty. Simply enter your serial number and it’ll let you know how long you have left and a brief overview of what’s covered. The same site will also enable you to track repairs. If you’d rather deal by phone you can also call Nokia or your carrier directly (if you bought your phone through them).
Whilst there is a stated 30 day turnaround in the warranty policy, this is designed to capture all Nokia products and typically applies to older products where spares may not be readily available. Nokia USA assures us devices are typically returned within 7-10 days and that 85 per cent of those returns happen within seven days. This is much closer to the time frame Amy (and we) feel is acceptable.
To be special, we reckon a five day turnaround for Nseries devices would help boost confidence somewhat. And here’s the kicker. If you live in NY or Chicago, you can roll your phone into the local Nokia Flagship store where it’ll be repaired within three days. This is on a par with other device manufacturers in the US, but as Amy rightly points out in another part of her post, there simply isn’t the breadth of Nokia service centres in the US to make this feasible for the masses. That though, could be about to change.
The key here though is that in the majority of cases, the device would be repaired and returned within 10 days, which is itself a substantial jump on the 30 days quoted.
The other point Amy raised was whether the device would be covered if it keeled over during a firmware upgrade. The response from customer care we got is simply “if the phone does not turn on and is within the
warranty period that Nokia will either fix the phone or supply a replacement”. This of course applies to devices that were destined for, and bought in the USA.
You can get full details on US warranties here.
What else do you think needs to happen here?
Related posts:
May 15th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
30 business days are a lot different from actual days. Most people end up waiting 2 months or more for a replacement or repair.
If you take a broken phone to a Nokia store and get a 10 day turnaround, the best thing Nokia can do for its customers is to open more stores.
There should be a Nokia store in every major city.
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May 15th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
James & all at Nokia, thanks for this update. I apprecaiate the transparency.
That said: It doesn’t sound like anything has really changed here, though. While Nokia has always claimed its average turnaround time for repairs is 7-10 days, I’ve personally heard from several N-Series users who reported that they had to wait a month *or more* to get their phones back from Nokia. Why should anyone buying such a costly device worry that they might be left in that situation?
Here’s an option: Is it possible for Nokia to *guarantee* a 7-day turnaround for repair or replacement of its N-Series products in the US? Or at least that we’d get a loaner within a week? That would remove this worry and inspire confidence.
This is, after all, a very expensive phone that takes the place of several other devices. Also, whenever you pack so many sensitive electronics and software into a handheld device, you have to assume that something probably will go wrong at some point, and service WILL be needed.
Frankly, leaving the wiggle-room in Nokia’s warranty language that you could take up to 30 days to return a phone to the customer does not inspire the kind of confidence that most US consumers would need to pay $600 for a phone.
I’d appreciate it if Nokia could say whether it’s willing to take this extra step. If so, when could we expect this? If not, what are the obstacles?
Remember: the new iPhone is allegedly due out soon (possibly in June). Many would-be N-Series US users are eyeing that product — but they might be swayed to go with Nokia if they were confident that you wouldn’t leave them stranded for too long.
What can you tell these people about what they can expect in the next few months on the service front, while they’re making their purchasing decisions?
Thanks,
- Amy Gahran
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May 15th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Here in Finland I had a friend who needed a 6120 Classic repaired, we walked into the Flagship store, he told them his issues, they put his phone in a bag and gave him an N70 to use in the mean time. I don’t know what the turn around time was, but that loaner phone made a huge difference.
You can’t leave people phoneless.
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May 15th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Also, regarding the warranty coverage — on the day my phone bricked following a firmware update, the Nokia rep I spoke to would not guarantee that the problem would be covered under warranty and I would not be charged for repair or replacement.
That might just be an issue of how you train your service reps — but the message I got was definitely “We might cover it (or not).” I asked the rep about this several times to be sure I understood what he was saying.
However, at the time I did not find it acceptable to be in any doubt about whether my dead phone would be fixed or replaced under warranty. That lack of certainty was a major factor in my decision to give up and return the N95 while I could still get a refund on it.
What can or will Nokia do to provide more certainty to its US N-Series customers regarding what will/won’t be covered under warranty?
- Amy Gahran
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:43 am
One of the biggest sticking points is buying a device in a different country and trying to get service on it from the Americas. There are a lot of Nokia fans that acquire devices abroad and use them in the US market. What are they supposed to do when they need service?
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May 16th, 2008 at 1:06 am
As I mentioned in a comment on the other related post, even 5 days is, in most cases, far to long to be without your mobile phone. If Nokia intends to be a major player in the U.S., and in the non-carrier-subsidized unlocked market, they’re going to have to play ball like the big carriers do. With AT&T, I can call in before 3pm, go through some diagnostics and troubleshooting over the phone, and a replacement device is sent out to me with 2-day fare, or for $10 (I think) I can get it overnighted.
When I receive my replacement, I reuse the box and find a prepaid return label to send the defective unit back.
The fact is, the vast majority of U.S. consumers rely on their phone as a facet of life. They rarely go anywhere without them. They also don’t often have a readily available backup phone. Thus, when their phone crashes, they need that to be addressed ASAP.
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May 16th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
The turnaround time seems good, but what about the numerous reports of people who get their phones back with the same issues they’ve sent them in for?
I’ve read numerous horror stories of owners sending in their phones (to Palco) with hardware problems, only to get them back several weeks later and the only thing the warranty techs did was flash the firmware (sometimes not even that).
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May 16th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
A few important points… First of all, when Nokia says that “most phone are returned within 7 days” they are NOT lying! The problem is that typically they don’t do ANYTHING to the phone as far as repairing it. They just send it back with nothing done, or, in extreme cases, with only a firmware update even though the issue is a hardware problem. There is a thread at HoFo (http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1322819&page=1&pp=15) that has each and every correspondence between Nokia and I about my N95-3 repair issue. I think if Nokia reads it they will understand what we‚Äôre going through. I also pasted my notes to corporate in this thread. My user name is ‚Äúhardballer‚Äù.
Enjoy!
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May 16th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Service and Repair…what a joke Nokia. You just have been successful at leaving NA Nokia users in the dark after spending their hard earned cash on your product.
This isn’t just about warranty service. This is about any service, even repairs that the customer has to pay for. The NA market has no reliable parts supplier of authentic Nokia parts that I know of and the repair centre is unwilling to do anything that requires actual work. I am in Canada and am forced to deal with Nokia USA with a N95, or some unauthorized shops if I want my phone back in a reasonable amount of time. Step it up or soon enough we’ll all buy Iphones.
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May 18th, 2008 at 6:19 am
I recently had a very poor experience with the Huntsville service center. I currently own 3 N95’s and love them. I bought a N95-4 and had it for 15 days and the screen started to flicker and I sent to the service center to get it fixed. I recieved it back in 2 weeks with a pink slip with corrosion not under warranty hand written on it. I called the service center to inquire about the problem because the phone was only 15 days old. All I got back was there was corrosion on the board. I offered to drive over from NC to the service center so I could see the corrosion in the phone but was refused and was told I could enter the service center. I also e-mailed asking for a copy of the inspection but never recieved a answer back. I finally got a 800 number to the excutive and they were more rude than the service center. No sorry, wow you can do this no nothing, after spending 700.00 for 15 days. I took matters in my own hands and had another company look at the phone there was no corrosion in the phone, they replaced the screen and it works fine now. A lot of people are impressed with the phone but I am honest with them about the service that Nokia has treated me with. I have a N95-3 that the volume button just went out today, I am afraid to send to the service center after the way they lied to me about the corrosion. I will send it out to another repair company even if I have to pay for it , at least I know I will be treated fairly.
Brad
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June 6th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Please please please. Where is an alternate repair shop. I live in Vancouver Canada. I need to have the screen for a N810 internet tablet repaired. Nokia is horrible for service. Can’t fix it in Canada because USA model. Can fix in USA but can’t be mailed back to Canada. Crazy???
Any help appreciated.
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June 9th, 2008 at 8:33 am
John,
Sorry to hear of your repair issue. Unfortunately, I do not know how to personally resolve your situation.
Is it under warranty? And it seems you already contacted Nokia, right?
Have you checked for possible solutions in the Support Discussion Boards: ? The Discussion Boards are a really good place to get answers and issue resolved. Members of the Care team read it closely.
Nokia Conversations is not a support channel, nor are we set up to deal with individual support issues. The most I can do in this case is forward it to the appropriate people. But, I think it best for you to continue contacting Care directly.
Best regards,
Charlie
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June 30th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Can someone confirm what the warranty period of Nokia N95 is in the US?
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