Nokia makes one of the best phones in the world. However I wish I could say the same about Nokia’s support division. My recent experience with Nokia’s customer service has proven to me that a consumer company is not just about products. The experience of how the company treats its customers is also a big part of the overall “product”.
A couple of weeks ago, my expensive Nokia N95’s backlight battery decided to die on me. Why, I have no idea. Just one day it stopped working. Since I am currently traveling and not at home (in the U.S. where I purchased the phone), I wanted to find a local Nokia support center in order to get my phone fixed. Since Nokia is a global company, I didn’t think this was a problem. However, as it turns out, I walked up to the counter and the person told me that since my phone was purchased in the states, they would not honor the 1 year warranty BY NOKIA. “Aren’t you Nokia?!?” I said. “Yes, but we are Taiwan’s division and we don’t support the warranty by the U.S. You will have to ship your phone to the U.S. if you want to use the warranty.”
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but a company that markets GLOBAL phones does not have a GLOBAL WARRANTY policy?!?A company that wants you to travel with their phones won’t support the phone if it breaks outside of the country you purchased the phone?!? Does anyone else besides me think there’s something wrong with this concept?
So I tried contacting Nokia U.S.A. to get support. My first attempt at calling, no one picked up. So I tried to send an email. I got the typical response that Nokia received my email and would respond in 24 hours. A day later, no response, a week later, still no response.
Finally I gave up and just decided to pay for the fix locally here. Since the time and effort, not to mention the shipping, will cost just as much, if not more to ship back to the states.
Companies need to get it straight. If you’re going to market yourself as a global company and create a global device, you better support your own product globally! Nokia gets an A grade for technological superiority, but an F for one of the worst support I’ve ever experienced.
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on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Commentary, Gadgets.
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Nokia’s Crappy Warranty
A couple of weeks ago, my expensive Nokia N95’s backlight battery decided to die on me. Why, I have no idea. Just one day it stopped working. Since I am currently traveling and not at home (in the U.S. where I purchased the phone), I wanted to find a local Nokia support center in order to get my phone fixed. Since Nokia is a global company, I didn’t think this was a problem. However, as it turns out, I walked up to the counter and the person told me that since my phone was purchased in the states, they would not honor the 1 year warranty BY NOKIA. “Aren’t you Nokia?!?” I said. “Yes, but we are Taiwan’s division and we don’t support the warranty by the U.S. You will have to ship your phone to the U.S. if you want to use the warranty.”
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but a company that markets GLOBAL phones does not have a GLOBAL WARRANTY policy?!? A company that wants you to travel with their phones won’t support the phone if it breaks outside of the country you purchased the phone?!? Does anyone else besides me think there’s something wrong with this concept?
So I tried contacting Nokia U.S.A. to get support. My first attempt at calling, no one picked up. So I tried to send an email. I got the typical response that Nokia received my email and would respond in 24 hours. A day later, no response, a week later, still no response.
Finally I gave up and just decided to pay for the fix locally here. Since the time and effort, not to mention the shipping, will cost just as much, if not more to ship back to the states.
Companies need to get it straight. If you’re going to market yourself as a global company and create a global device, you better support your own product globally! Nokia gets an A grade for technological superiority, but an F for one of the worst support I’ve ever experienced.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Commentary, Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.