Appalling Nokia Support in UK
 

Ok, so my story goes:

- ~2 weeks ago suddenly get white screen of death
- Call nokia support. Don't want to help me as I don't have a Nokia Club Nokia number. Spoke to EXTREMELY unhelpful woman in Irish callcenter.
- Attempt to get Club Nokia number. Require Nokia phone IMEI. I don't have a Nokia phone.
- Search internet and find Nokia IMEI number. Register for Club Nokia.
- Call Nokia support. Deal with same extremely unhelpful Irish woman. I get nowhere.
- Call Nokia support. Competent Irish guy answers and *call finally logged*. 770 repair person supposed to call in 1-2 days.

2 days later:
- repair guy phones. tells me to box everything up as i bought it and courier will collect between 9-5.
- at 4:55pm (i kid you not), a whole day of my wife waiting for them at home, courier picks up item.

1 week later:
- receive BARE BONES 770 unit sans box, manual, soft cover, memory card, charger, usb cable. says that screen has been replaced. i can't test.
- call nokia support. deal with EXTREMELY unhelpful irish woman (MUST be same one) who proceeds to shout at me while i explain to her that I don't have a Nokia phone and this doesn't concern a phone. Hang up.
- call nokia support. competent guy (as above) answers and actually knows of the 770. tells me that he is arranging for the repair dude to call me at his first convenience tomorrow morning.

Now:
- I wait, extremely unhappy with Nokia. As soon as the package is returned it's going on ebay and I quite honestly don't care what I get for it at all! I will be insisting that the box and pouch that I receive are the originals (with same WLAN number on them as in the extensive photos I took before the courier picked up) otherwise i will demand a replacement or refund and/or escalate with the relevant consumer support groups.

Unhappy is an understatement actually. It's one thing to have so many of these things crapping itself, it's another thing to have such terrible support services to have to deal with. I will never deal with Nokia every again or buy any future Nokia product.

I've been attempting to get them to fix the fractured plastic clipon base of mine (out of principal since its a manufacturing fault). Foolishly leaving it to the online mechanism for this resulted in an email asking for my contact details to arrange collection. Three emails later over the last month has resulted in no contact whatsoever. I cant face a call center yet I'll work up to it.

Anyone have anything positive to say regarding Nokia support?

Can anyone who lives in the UK tell me what the government department/industry ombudsman I need to talk to in relation to consumer rights and matters like that? I am giving Nokia 48 hours and then I will escalate things. I think I am entitled to a refund here, as I am very doubtful these incompetent fools would have kept track of my original packagings etc. I've only been living in the UK for 6 months so don't yet know anything about this, but I am more than prepared to find out and see how well the system here supports consumer rights.

Your problem is that you are dealing with the call center peons who only understand what is written down in front of them. Their 'managers' only oversee the peons and understand even less (only required skill is to BS the customer into oblivion).

I had the exact same problem with HP. I purchased a 24" monitor and their call center couldn't handle the fact that I had not purchased a g*d damned HP computer to go with it ('what is the serial # of your PC sir' 'I don't have one' 'I need it' etc..).

I ended up calling their HQ in Mountain View and speaking to someone in their chain of command. They then instructed the peons on how to handle my problem. Have you tried calling their local offices and speaking to management?

I feel your pain though *shakes fist*.

Well, it's not just the call centre it's the entire support system as it remains to be only available to people with phones. That problem begins the moment you try to register with Club Nokia online. Apparently they are ramping up advertising for this thing, so it's about time they got their damn act together, and that includes training their support staff.

My story from Finland:

-I got my 770 at january, and it had broken wlan, fractured bottom and connection problem with mmc-card.

-I emailed twice to Nokia support about wlan but they didn't tell me if it was hardware of software problem.

-Finally I gave up waiting software fix and left my 770 to shop that sends Nokia products to repair.

-After two weeks I got used 770 with different mac-address. It was completely junk and they propably just sent something to me so they could say it was "fixed" within two weeks.

-After another two weeks they sent me new unit, but they didn't send back my battery.

-I got my battery after a week. I had to call directly to company which repairs Nokia products and remind them.

-This new unit had one broken key.

-I called to Nokia customer service (pay-number), Nokia warranty service, toll-free number to sales and sent email to sales and asked for refund because Nokia wasn't able send me working device or replaicement device while they fix my unit.

-Next day Nokia manager of customer service (or something) called me and we made a deal: I would send my unit once more for repairing and he would make sure they will immediately send new unit back to me. That should take 2 to 3 business days.

-3rd business-day I called to company which repairs Nokia products. My device was there but no-one was doing anything to it. Next day I called to Nokia manager of customer service and complained.

-After a week I finally got back my current device.

Conclusion: Repairing takes two weeks. If they fail to fix your unit, they do nothing to speed up your next repair. You can't trust promises made by Nokia, they just want to get you off their back and forget promises they made. If you have bad luck with broken devices you will be the only one who suffers. Don't expect Nokia to help fixing problems they cause you, you can only wait.

770 is a great device with lots of potential. But don't be dependent on it and be sure your business will not suffer if you don't have it around.

If you're based in the UK, it may be worth getting in touch with the PC Pro helping hand people. They seem only too happy to go after the big boys who don't live up to expectations

Update:

- no call from nokia today
- first thing (7:30am) i faxed the repair company Communicaid who wrote the repair slip and the place where the repair obviously had been taken out. no response all day.
- 4:00pm i called Communicaid helpdesk and they informed me that the fax number on the slip was incorrect and gave me the fax number for the repair center. i asked for the phone number of the repair center and they said there isn't one (bullcrap!).
- 4:45pm fax sent to Communicaid repair center. Obviously not expecting a reply as they've probably all been to the pub since midday.

If any of my original items aren't recovered I am demanding a full refund. Lucky I paid by credit card as well, I'll have a completed dispute form ready for Monday.

After chasing Nokia down with numerous faxes and phonecalls I got all my original equipment sent back via courier. The unit appears to be working fine now, but personally I'm not prepared to go through the support hoops again and the downtime. It's gotta go...

I'm starting to get angry with Nokia too.

Two weeks ago get the "white screen of death". Went to Nokia authorized center and left the 770 there with an expected repairing time of two weeks.

After two weeks I called there and expected time changed to 15-18 days. I started sendingmail to nokia helpline to ask them how to monitor the repairing, why there is not a substitution policy etc. 4 messages, never get an answer.

Again, as many other said: 770 is a great device, but Nokia Support sucks a lot and we can not rely on them with such a long time to repair, we are even not sure to receive our own device once repaired etc.

Do not know if will ever get any other Nokia product..

Sorry to hear you're having problems there maxilogan. My last call for action involved sending a fax to the careline, and the 3 nokia offices in the UK. It at least resulted in me getting a call from them the next day. Anyway, they lost me as a customer, as great a device it is. Shame. It's only the beginning though, there will be other devices like this out in the future...