[ShankarB]

Hi,

I bought a Nokia N95 8GB very recently in Jan'10.  I bought it with so much of confidence that I'm making a worthy purchase.  But my happiness didn't last long:

Last weekend, the display stopped working for apparently no reason.  When I took it to the service center, they told me that the LCD display is cracked and had to be replaced.  

They also told me that this is not covered by warranty.  Under normal circumstances, I would have agreed to this.  But in this case, I had never once dropped the phone down or put it under any heavy weight to cause the display to crack as it appears  (the phone is in fact free of any scratch or dent).  In fact, I have been continuously using the phone with the pouch that was given with the phone. Moreover, its been just a month since I bought it.

What is most concerning is the kind of responses and info. that I got to hear from the person at the Nokia service centre:
1) He hinted that this is an outdated, discontinued model.

2) The phone sales should have stopped nearly 8 months ago.  He was surprised that I bought just last month.

3) He hinted that its a failure model that Nokia might now be offloading in the market for cheaper price (vendors buy this model, strip the brand and sell it at far lower prices).

The way he went about the whole affair was 'Oh, this issue? OK, I know about this.  But its a display breakage.  I don't care and I will charge as per the book. I'm sorry that you bought this phone.'

I was completely taken aback by such attitude and information.  I was made to feel that I have been somehow duped to buy this model.

This was also confirmed when the vendor from whom I bought the phone showed surprise that I could have bought this phone last month.  Because the model is no longer sold in the store.  It's only available in the vendor's website at nearly 50% discount.

 
I'm shocked that a phone that I bought so recently as one month back, would not work.  What's more shocking  is the kind of replies that I have hear from the Nokia Service Center itself.

I have tried seeking some valid, relevant answers from the Nokia customer care centre as well as from the AskNokia forum.  What I have been receiving so far are standard template-based emails and responses.  Such responses don't seem to be taking cognizance of what's being told in their own service centers.

My questions are:

1) Was I wrong in selecting this model?   Is it a model that has such troubles as hinted by the service centre?

2) Why would the LCD display crack like this without any physical damage done to them?  I have seen phones which have been dropped quite often and still work well without such damages.

3) Given the sentiment about this model, what is the guarantee that if I change the display, it will not crack again for unknown reasons?

4) Which is the right redress forum in Nokia which can provide a more sensible, relevant reply?

I'm sorry that my first post in Nokia had to be of such a bad experience - I was a consistent user of Sony Ericcsson mobile phones.  Though I didn't have any major complaints with their handsets, I really liked the N95 8GB and made a switch to Nokia.  It's needless to say that this experience has left a bitter taste.

[grschinon]

The Nokia Care network is a collection of third party organisations. They are neither run nor owned by Nokia.

If there was no outward indication of damage to the phone then I believe the NCP should have accepted to perform the repair under warranty if you were able to provide a valid invoice proving that you bought the phone less than a year ago.

The fact remains, however, that the N95 8GB is indeed a very old model that is not readily available anywhere any more. It could well be that your retailer managed to get hold of some old stock.

It's a shame you've had this experience because the N95 8GB is indeed a great feature phone with some functions (VoIP in particular) that disappeared in later models. It is, however, too old to be eligible for OVI Maps 3.03 with free navigation, for example.

Had you asked about this maybe a year or 18 months ago, I'd have said to go for it. Depending on what you want to do with your phone, there may be other models that are more up-to-date and more suitable.

[phatdumi]

First thing you should've done was to check back with the retailer, infact you should check with the retailer they could have sold you an old with new fascia which can be sourced easily on the internet, you never dropped the phone so the screen shouldn't have cracked. I had the N95 8GB for nearly 2 years, never had any problems with it and regret giving it up for the N97.

[ShankarB]

Hi, 

Thanks for your replies.  I should say that these are the only relevant replies that I have received so far that at least acknowledges the situation.

1) Nature of the breakage/ Why not acknowledge:

This is exactly my point:  There are no outward damages.  There are not even any scratches - more specifically on the display. 

I can say very confidently that I never dropped the phone or subject it to any heavy pressure and I was the sole user of the phone.

That is why, I don't agree to Nokia playing by the books that they don't care how the damage was done.  Broken is broken.  I think that's rather very cunning than being straight.

2) Year of manufacture/ Did the retailer duped me:

I had checked the the phone's package when I bought it and I confirmed it again - it mentions the manufactured and imported in Sep 2009.  I bought it in Jan 2010.  Almost in a month there's a malfunction.

I'm unable to blame the retailer for these reasons.  And I was aware that the retailer did not provide any additional warranty other than what Nokia provides.
 
I bought the phone when the retailer was doing his New Year eve promotions.  At that time this model was actively promoted with an attractive discount.  Hence I decided to buy it.

I now see that this retailer still sells the phone at the same price.  This confirms my belief that the retailer is trying to offload this model into the market.

I knew that N95 8GB is not the latest model.  But I liked its multimedia facilities, and especially its 5 MP camera.  Since my digital SLR was really bulky  to carry it everywhere, I bought this phone.  Feature-wise and design-wise I liked the phone very much.  

But the way Nokia is treating this issue is what's causing the most frustration.

3) Attitude:

Somehow I get the feeling that almost in Nokia is trying to downplay the issue of what their service centre guys said.  Does it mean Nokia is silently acknowledging what this guy said?

Some of my ex colleagues work in Nokia now.  I tried reaching some officials in their office.  Even they downplayed the entire incident.  The damage was classified 'cosmetic repair' and again as per their rules, will not be covered by warranty.  The reasoning is Nokia cannot judge how the damage was caused.  So, even if there's no outward damage, will Nokia not be able to judge how the damage was caused?

Given all the info. and responses collected so far, my biggest concern is what's the guarantee that the LCD display will not again crack under God-only-knows circumstances?

Why is Nokia not even acknowledging the fact that the LCD panel cracked without any outward damage? 

Is Nokia thinking that by not responding, they can let this whole issue die silently?

OK, let it be given that N95 8GB is really such a fantastic phone with not  many complaints.  In that case, shouldn't Nokia at least think that something wrong should have really happened with this phone which makes one of its customer come to such extents to write long paragraphs seeking some responsible answer?

I'm a product manager with SAP.  If a customer raises such an issue in my product, I will not  and I will not be able to keep so quiet and unresponsive.

Is there any Nokia person listening to this conversation?

[tvih]

Situations like that are indeed quite unfortunate. I haven't had this experience with Nokia, but my mother had an almost identical issue with a TomTom navigator - basically, she kept the navigator in her purse while on a trip. Always in its protective pouch, too. Yet somehow, the damn device managed to crack its display, and thus wouldn't given any video output. It was never dropped. There was no outward sign of damage whatsoever. Yet they refused to do a warranty repair. Changing the screen would've cost nearly as much as the initial price for the device just a month or so before the trip. Needless to say, TomTom got the proverbial finger for their utter lack of customer friendliness, and we've avoided them since like the plague.

Now, there's very little I can think of that you could try doing to remedy it, other than what you've already tried. In Finland we have this... consumer protection bureau or whatever it would be appropriate to call it, whom you can contact if it is a domestic purchase and you feel you are being treated unfairly or such. I don't know if you have anything like that where you live. It's indeed a tricky situation mainly because the phone is basically a discontinued model. But of course since it was sold as new, the warranty should be respected. Personally mainly I'd try to get the place of purchase to remedy to situation by refunding or such. But if you still want to keep the phone, just keep pressing them for covering the repair.