Products & Services

Service in the USA – Update

By James on 15 May 2008

USA – During the first week of Conversations’ public debut, an issue was highlighted which hit perfectly with one of the reasons the site exists in the first place. Having had a terrible experience with Nokia customer service in the USA, Amy Gahran wrote a post on her blog about it. And then she told us about it on here. And boy, are we glad she did.

Charlie and Mark have been exchanging mails with the team in the US, understanding what the situation is right now and what it could be in the future. As we’ve already written, things are a changing in the USA and from what we can tell, this will only be for the better.

Right now though, we have updates and clarity on some of the issues raised by Amy and although not conclusive, they’re at least heading in the right direction. For those new to the conversation, Amy’s key
points were:
1. Don’t blame your intermediaries
2. Price and sell your product reasonably
3. Speed repair turnaround time and enhance your warranty
4. Frankly and publicly discuss your known firmware update problems
5. Fix your firmware update process
6. Expand US local retail availability and service

We have updates on three, four, and five which we’ll be posting over the next day or so. The others we’re still working on and will post when we get more info.

First up, it’s repair turnaround time and the warranty.

UPDATE: We also have some news on the Nokia Software Update.

For clarity’s sake – these discussions around repair and warranty apply specifically to the USA. If you’d like to know the status in your local territory, simply head to Nokia.com and select your region and country,
then head for the support and repair section of the site for local info.

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Tom Says:
May 15th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

> First up, it’s repair turnaround time and the warranty.

Glad to hear it.

I think you should look at the Apple model. I’m constantly impressed. They have *never* charged me for *any* service, whatsoever. Well, wait — that’s not quite true. I did damage the case on one of my PowerBooks. Obviously, that’s not covered under warranty.

But a crashed hard drive and a failed bluetooth module were replaced rapidly and without question. And since I live in a town with an Apple store, I am extra happy because I know I can just bring it right into the store and talk to someone WHO IS VERY INFORMED and will HELP.

If my laptop goes belly up because of a firmware update, I know what’s going to happen: Apple is going to fix it, and it’s not going to cost me a penny.

(of course, I have backups of everything, too. Not sure how to do that with the N95)

Ricky Cadden Says:
May 16th, 2008 at 12:54 am

I’m really glad to be getting some clarification on these topics. I myself have had run-ins with this, recorded here:
http://www.symbian-guru.com/welcome/2007/05/nokias-us-warra.html

I agree 300% with Amy’s points, as well. It’s sad that I can call AT&T and do some diagnostics over the phone, and have a replacement N75 on my desk tomorrow, with full return shipping materials for my damaged N75.

They send me one with the trust that I’ll send them mine. (Clearly, theirs is a funded trust, since I have an active account with them, but Nokia could work out something similar).

Also, the firmware updates is a touchy subject for me. It’s really frustrating, and, well, I could go on about how annoying and completely ridiculous it is that the N95-3 has yet to receive any of the updates that other models have gotten, but it’s beating a dead horse, really.

Jeremy T Says:
May 16th, 2008 at 5:22 am

Thanks very much for paying attention. I have to second the firmware complaints – I have an N95-3, and it’s lagging so far behind the rest of the N95s with no update in sight. I’d love to at least know when to expect an update and why it’s so slow in coming.

Amy Gahran Says:
May 16th, 2008 at 7:37 am

Hi, James

Thanks much to the Nokia team for continuing to look into these issues and discuss them publicly. That’s more than most companies would do.

I look forward to continuing this discussion.

- Amy Gahran

Amy Gahran Says:
May 16th, 2008 at 7:46 am

By the way, the post where I discuss all of those recommendations in detail can be found here:

http://snurl.com/256gg

Thanks,

Nick Says:
May 16th, 2008 at 6:14 pm

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1322819&page=1&pp=15

Amy Gahran Says:
May 16th, 2008 at 11:09 pm

Thanks again to Nokia for having this public and (I think) very constructive conversation. I just posted a roundup of the issues we have & have not addressed so far (as of May 16)

http://urltea.com/37r2

And I also did a video wrap-up on Seesmic:

http://seesmic.com/v/JzrmBidZ7d

Looking forward to further collaboration on solutions for your US market!

Andy Suardy Says:
May 18th, 2008 at 6:13 am

Glad to hear that you’re trying to fix service in the USA, but how about here in Singapore? Service here is TERRIBLE.. people have an attitude, they promise to call you back and never do, they try to charge you for stuff that should be free, they don’t honor any warranties except those from Singapore… I mean, what if I’m from the USA and my Nokia crashes…I can’t get it fixed or replaced ’cause I have a US warranty… what crap!

I am really tired of a battle every time I go for service. I’m thinking of switching to another mfg of handphones.

Even the managers are pretty much worthless… attitude, not helpful, don’t listen to a complaint, don’t seem to care… HEY PEOPLE… OUR PURCHASE PAYS YOUR SALARY..DUH!!!

How about fixing that..OH, and the link on this site to Nokia.com doesn’t work… well, I’m not surprised.. your staff in Singapore don’t either!

Nokia Conversations Says:
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:06 pm

Great news from Nokia Care USA (BONUS: Tooting your horn)

USA – As you all know, we’ve been having a conversation about the state of service by Nokia in the USA. The thread started with a passionate but disappointed N95 (ex-)owner. We’ve been digging deeper, trying to get some answers,