One of the main reasons that the Nokia Conversations site was setup by longtime Nokia blogger Charlie Schick is to better facilitate….conversations….between Nokia and its consumers. When it first launched, a blogger named Amy Gahran posted the same type stuff I’ve been ranting about for a while – if Nokia wants to make a bigger impact in the U.S. market, they’re going to have to step it up in terms of service.
Amy lined up six main things that Nokia needs to address, and Charlie has done exactly what he’s said he’d do with his new site – got in touch with the people who make things move in the right departments, and got some answers. Here’s her six things:
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
Charlie’s come back to the scene with updates for 3, 4, and 5, and will be laying those out on the Conversations site. He started with #3, chatting with those involved, and James came back with this response from the Nokia USA team. The team notes that while the site claims up to 30 days, 85% of their returns happen within 7 days, and most are returned within 10 full days.
While that’s great, I can’t help but think that if Nokia USA is going to play ball with unlocked Nseries handsets, they’re going to have to tighten that up a bit. I can call AT&T today, go through some diagnostics and troubleshooting over the phone, and have a replacement unit on my desk tomorrow, in most cases. They trust me enough to ship a replacement and *then* allow me to return my defective handset. Why’s that important? It eliminates the time that I’m left without a phone as best as possible.
What are your thoughts on the current situation of Nokia USA warranty repairs? Have you had any experiences? Don’t leave a comment on this post – channel your feedback to the Conversations site.
