livefreeordie | # 1 | 2009-11-27, 19:21 | Report

I don't want this to come off as a rant, so I want to start by saying that I'm not one of those people who jumped on every rumored release date. I also don't think the delay from October to November was a big deal. Hell, I even think Ovi will be a vibrant platform in about a year, and find S60 mostly ok.

The final straw, to me, are the actions of the flagship store in Helsinki. When I visited them months ago, they told me I could preorder either online or by leaving my contact info at the store. They said both alternatives were equal.

So on Monday I inquired about my order, and they said they wouldn't be selling until Friday, because mailed devices needed to arrive at customers' homes on the day of release. Stupid way to remove a brick and mortar benefit, but fair enough - except for the fact that devices from the online store have been arriving throughout the week!

Now it's Friday, and no one's called me. I did some searching, and it turns out they're now saying Wednesday. Maybe.

Are you freaking kidding me??? This isn't a countrywide delay. It's not even a retailer-specific delay. I am in fact getting my device over a week later (maybe) than everyone else just because I ordered from the wrong Nokia department!

I can live without an N900 for a bit longer. I don't care if I'm first. Whatever. But now I'm starting to get really pissed off as a shareholder. These are elementary mistakes - why aren't people getting fired left and right?

This is obviously not the only issue. Experience and searching reveals many more amateur mistakes that shouldn't cost the company any money to fix, but are pissing off customers.

-Nokia UK don't bother updating their firmware servers for months after everyone else.
-Extremely poor grammar in customer correspondence.
-People trying to contact Ovi for valid development questions getting ignored.
-Checkboxes as dropdown menus in S60.
-Failure to stop the press from going crazy with the factory shipment notification two weeks before devices arrived at retailers.

The actual product is otherwise excellent! Why is upper management putting up with this? Are you going to wait until these monkeys accidentally burn down their office buildings or what?

nuknuk | # 2 | 2009-11-27, 19:25 | Report

The actual product is otherwise excellent!
for some yes i agree for some VERY VERY POOR.

f pickels | # 3 | 2009-11-27, 19:41 | Report

This will never change. This is the how company's that are to big to care function. and it is not by accident. It is by design. The executive officers are complete unreachable and have isolated themselves from customers. Try to reach the executive offices? Not easy , I tried , it is By design. Customer service is compartmentalized, by design. They are to big to react in a timely manner to market changes, or customers needs. Nokia is the GM of the tech world. So completely out of touch with what people actually want, and how to get products to the market. Prof being Nokias Market share going south in a hurry. They are a Dinosaur on the verge of extinction.

CrashandDie | # 4 | 2009-11-27, 19:50 | Report

Hi livefreeordie,

First of all, thank you for a very constructive post. I'm sure some will find they don't agree with some of your points, but it is incredibly refreshing to see a properly argumented and formulated post.

However, as this doesn't really relate to Maemo nor the N900 in particular, maybe this would have made more sense in the Off-Topic or General forums.

I completely agree with you: Nokia's move to make a press release that announced the factory-release of the devices was a mistake; they highly overestimated the intelligence of their customers. The incessant trolling and moaning that ensued has no doubt generated a lot of pain and discouraged a few users, moreover I believe it has hurt the COmmunity: our job is not to wield off armies of prepubescent infants throwing a tantrum over the delivery of their latest toys.

I'm afraid not familiar enough with S60 to cast a vote on the other points you adressed, but overall I don't believe firing solves these kind of issues. Yes, some things will need to change, but it is only through making the mistakes that one can learn. I hope Nokia as a whole will learn from the issues they have encountered.

Again, thanks for this post.

(Written on my [loan] N900)

livefreeordie | # 5 | 2009-11-27, 19:51 | Report

But I don't actually agree with that. No other company is even trying to produce anything as amazing as Maemo. Maemo 5 is the only mobile OS I would consider at this point, and Maemo 6 should bring feature parity with S60 for the average user.

On the lower end, S40 is still as solid as it always was. Ovi software is rushed, but getting better by the day. Why are the rest of the departments letting the company down like this?

I also believe in giving people a second chance, and don't approve of harsh punishment for honest mistakes. It's just that many of these issues are so elementary that it's getting to the point where giving people the benefit of the doubt is just delusional.

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Last edited by livefreeordie; 2009-11-27 at 19:54.

RobertHall | # 6 | 2009-11-27, 19:55 | Report

i agree with this post...after the N97 fiasco i wonder if Nokias beta testers and R&D team who worked on it still have a job? the n97 was a letdown both hardware and software...
on another note people say symbian is "old" but having used non nokia symbian devices...the UI can be adapted to look and feel so much more user friendly without such a drastic overhaul....

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Last edited by RobertHall; 2009-11-28 at 04:27.

mchu6am4 | # 7 | 2009-11-27, 19:57 | Report

need to fire OPK

fouro | # 8 | 2009-11-27, 20:08 | Report

This was annoying for me since they told me that I would be getting the device faster from them than from online store since I wouldn't have to wait for mail to carry my device to me. Instead of that, now I'll have to wait a week longer.

Well, I ordered it three months ago so I can understand that they didn't know everything by then. But since I didn't hear anything from them, I really didn't expect anything to change. As someone who ordered it at the beginning of September, I hoped I'd get it earlier.

I've actually had something like 2,5 months to change the pre-order to online store and if I had done it, I would have recieved it probably on monday. The dissapointment comes from the fact that I trusted their word on this. And also from the fact that I would have enough time this weekend to play with it.

Yep, again annyoing. Someone has really screwed there since they told me that the shipment is in mid-Europe somewhere and no one didn't know where it was. Probably not from Flagship Store this time, but still someone from logistics etc.

I think the biggest issue here is that if rest of the retailers start selling it on Friday, it would be only few days wait. I could have saved several euros by pre-ordering it from someone else and gotten it almost as fast. So now I get a feeling that I'm being screwed financially too. But now it's too late to change.

In the end, because the phone is selling far better than expected. I'm quite dissapointed and annoeyd but can't really do anything. Went to store to try out HD2 but still ended up not buying it and waiting for the next week.

livefreeordie | # 9 | 2009-11-27, 20:10 | Report

I know I'm the one who started this thread, but I wouldn't even go that far. We don't know what his long term strategy is, and it seems like Nokia is already trying to change direction fast.

What IS clear is that no one is trying to pick the low hanging fruit, and that blame falls on middle management.


I have a backup preorder at verkkokauppa.com. If I don't have the N900 by Wednesday, Nokia Retail is not getting my money no matter what.

I know that's a hollow threat considering Nokia is just losing out on the retail margin, but like I said before, the actual product is great.

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Last edited by livefreeordie; 2009-11-27 at 20:16.

kopte3 | # 10 | 2009-11-27, 20:15 | Report

nuknuk, mate, you're boring!! Everybody on this forum know that you have a faulty device, every single member! At first we felt sorry for you. But enough of that whining, please! Go and do something constructive, because doing what you are doing now is just being pain in the ***.
Sorry, but that's the truth.
I hope you'll get another one soon.