Here's
my Nokia E71 nightmare.
I got a Nokia E71 from Three Mobile (in the UK) on a contract. Seemed like a good phone with TONNES of features, I was very happy indeed.
About a month after getting it I first noticed something peculiar. When I was in my house, the signal would drop to nothing (for no apparant reason, the phone hadn't been moved and nothing had obstructed it). More worryingly, when the signal dropped to nothing it wouldn't improve again. I could walk outside and hold the phone directly near the main antenna and nothing, no signal. Then, if I did a manual network search it'd find the signal and I'd have a really GOOD signal. Take it back into my house, good signal. Sit it down, good signal. Check it every few minutes, good signal. When I least expect it, the signal drops to zero again and does not improve unless I manually search. Repeat ad nausium.
As this was the first time I'd noticed this I phoned three to find out what was going on, I was told there was some 'maintainance in the area' and that they'd send an engineer to check the signal strength. They, straight away, blamed the signal. I waited a week but no improvement, so I rang them back, they told me the same thing, saying that because it was only in my house I had the problem it was not a handset issue. This I found particularly strange because I had another handset with exactly the same SIM and it worked brilliantly in the house, and when I put a pay-as-you-go sim in the Nokia E71 the signal problems were the same.... the sim wasn't the problem, the signal wasn't the problem, to me it was clear: the handset was the problem. BUT, being a good customer I decided to let them send another engineer and waited another week.
In that week I observed my phone in other places. In Manchester (the third largest city in England) city centre I noticed the same thing happened, the signal would just drop (although not to zero) for a while then improve again... even if the phone was stationary and there were no obstructions. On the bus it'd drop right down, but recover.... it seemed to be just in my house (where the signal was a tiny bit weaker anyway) that it'd drop down below some critical threshold such that it couldn't recover... that was until I noticed it drop in my office and not recover. Now I had TWO postcodes with the same problem, so I phoned three back to find out what was going on.
I was told it was a signal problem, nothing wrong with the handset. Then the person on the phone let slip that this handset does have a slightly weaker signal overall, and that there is a firmware update coming soon to fix it. Strange, I thought, so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Then I missed a really important call because my phone had lost signal, this was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I decided enough was enough and called them back, saying the phone WAS faulty. I explained that hundreds of people shared the problem, and that it was unacceptable for them to provide a phone with known faults. I was told that I would get a call back.
In the meantime, I experimented a bit with the settings and noticed that the customer firmware approved by three didn't allow the phone to connect by GSM. It ONLY allowed a UMTS connection. It seems to me that when the phone loses its 3g signal it begins to look for a GSM signal, only for that signal to be forbidden by the firmware, so it gets stuck in a loop at that point. I might be wrong, but that's how it appears to me.
Anyway, when three rang back they offered me two alternative handsets, a Nokia 6220 or an LG Viewty. Neither of these phones provide wifi support. It seems I would be 'downgrading' from a Nokia E71 to a phone with fewer features! I (rather obviously) said I wasn't happy with that and that I require a phone with wifi and with GPS (the two big reasons why I got a contract with three with the Nokia E71 in the first place). They went away, a week later I rang them to ask them what was going on and they told me they could also offer me a Nokia E63, but I'd have to pay an additional £60 AND I'd have to extend the contract by another six months! The Nokia E63 doesn't have GPS! So I'd be downgrading my phone, paying more and extending my contract all to get a reliable signal? I don't think so.
I just finished on the phone speaking to the three customer services call centre manager, who told me three have no responsibility to provide a replacement phone with any more features than the ability to make and receive phone calls, and that it was the only solution they could offer me. I have escallated it further, because this is absolutely crazy.
I'm not sure where I stand legally but if, when I'm called back in under 24 hours, a solution isn't found I will be seeking legal advice. I feel as though I've been deceived by three.
So, when I come to forums like this and the advice is to set the phone to a GSM only signal I get very upset. I can't do that, it's forbidden on my phone. All I can do is leave my phone by the window with the bottom pointing directly at the mast and hope that I don't lose signal. I have to check it every half hour or so, roughly half of the time I have to manually select the network again.
My advice so far: DO NOT GO WITH THREE. DO NOT GET A NOKIA E71.
Question: if I 'rebrand' my phone (not sure if its legal or not but it's only software so I can't see why not) to upgrade the firmware to the latest version, will that help?
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