[bitflung]

4 months ago I bought my fiance an N82-1. She hasn't used it much yet, as we're waiting for her Verizon (read: non-gsm) service contract to expire in mid September.

For the time being, it was mostly a camera for her. We've recently noticed that the xenon flash is not firing, and as this is a significant feature of the camera we want it fixed.

The phone is under warranty. Yay. Before sending it in I followed the obligatory {backup, remove SD card, hard reset, update firmware, reproduce problem} steps to make sure the problem was REAL and not an artifact of some bad settings, etc.

I think the bulb is broken. I've searched a LOT and haven't found anyone else with this problem. no one. anywhere. Is it REALLY that rare?

We sent it to Nokia Care for service. Paid $14 to ship it, waited, got it back. They said, "Faulty description, nothing is wrong with the device". Yup, the techs didn't notice anything wrong at all with the camera failing to fire the flash... I imagine this is due to the lack of flashes on most cameras and perhaps the frequency of stupid users sending in functional phones. Still... we're frustrated.

I've called again. I've persuaded them to pay for shipping this time. Hopefully they'll notice the glaring darkness from the flash bulb when they take a picture, or at least the horrid picture quality whenever the flash should have fired.

I'm posting this mostly so others with the same problem have a positive result when they search the forums. I found nothing at all. This is the first seed of this problem here (as far as i can tell).

I'll make this post more useful by adding to it once I've successfully had the phone repaired.

-bit

Message Edited by bitflung on 03-Sep-2008 04:35 PM

[grayburn]

Thanks for the heads up as i have an N82, just goes to show how dumb the engineers can be eh?

[manuel123]

I'd say you should probably click the "Contact Us" for customer service again and see if there's anything they can do for you, since your device came back unrepaired.

[bitflung · Accepted solution]

Update: Nokia Care is replacing the device.

i am both impressed and disappointed by the process, and so i'm sharing the full guts of my story here.

BEST PART: nokia ships things FAST, at their own expense. they have paid for 3 of 4 trips my phone has taken. 2 of these were 2-day express and 1 was apparently overnight (will take delivery in 2 hours, on my way home form work). the one leg i paid for was the cheapest and slowest possible: 7 days it took to travel at a cost of $14. i imagine they've got a discount for shipping lots of similar sized packages to/from a single destination, but it still must cost them a pretty penny. THANKS Nokia, for taking the hit on shipping expenses.

WORST PART: i'm split between 2 difficult moments. first, the faulty device was initially returned to me with the claim that no fault was found. it wasn't a temperamental issue, the fault was persistent and simple to reproduce. that bugged me - especially since at that time the repair status indicated that the device had been repaired. the other candidate for worst part was the representative i spoke with after receiving the returned, defective device. this guy just didn't understand ANYTHING i said. i mean simple english. he insisted that i should not fill out a new repair order but rather he would issue a 'bounce expedite' (which he failed to do). realizing that my repair order didn't communicate the problem effectively the first time, i asked how i might 'update the description of my problem'. easy-peasy, right? he misunderstood and assumed i was asking about performing a 'Software Update', to which he replied that, "you have described a hardware problem, software update will not help, also you claimed in the description to have already done this". *sigh* i attempted again and again, with the utmost patience. i remained pleasant and approachable, and reiterated that i simply wanted to 'modify the text description of the problem'. i never got through to him, eventually i gave up and simply left a very poor score for him in the post-conversation survey they send you to. his english sounded just like mine, by the way, in case anyone is wondering if i suffer from a deep-southern drawl or if he was an out-sourced over-seas rep. flipping through a translation dictionary: there was no immediately evident difference in our dialects, we both spoke US-ENGLISH. i suppose that the WORST PART should just be labeled 'incompetence', but that does an injustice to those who were intelligent and helpful. it was very hit-or-miss with no grey area: people were either completely useless and painstaking stupid, or wonderfully pleasant and quick witted.

the story followed this path:

1. certified phone was under warranty
2. sent in for repair
3. received phone back, not repaired, with a description stating that no problem was observed
4. called nokia care, who requested i send it in again and issued an internal 'bounce expedite' (doesn't show in the repair status screen, but internally they expect the phone to be shipped back)
5. talked to 2 more nokia care ppl on the phone, first one sent me a prepaid 2-day fedex shipping label - the 2nd one informed me that the 'bounce expedite' had not been issued, but that they would do so
6. received prepaid fedex label - shipped phone back to nokia service center
7. called nokia care once more to ensure 'bounce expedite' was issued and phone was expected (as it doesn't show up in repair status and was once neglected, i was nervous the recipient wouldn't have a manner to properly inventory my broken device). i was provided with the means to contact the repair center directly such that i could be proactive when the package was received (i had the tracking number, and hence the name of the person who signed to receive it).
8. no direct contact was required - when received they promptly recognized the problem, determined it could not be repaired, and issued a replacement device shipment.
9. the device was shipped overnight to me - i was at work when it would have been delivered, so will stop by fedex on my way home tonight.

in the end, the phone was deemed defective. for reference to others, this was an N82-1 manufactured in china. it was 4 months old, seldom used, and had taken a grand total of about 75 photos (with and without flash). originally sent out on Aug 23rd and received the replacement device today, Sep 17th - all told that's 3 days shy of 4 full weeks.

if there is anything odd about the replacement device, i'll post it here. otherwise silence indicates contentedness.

-bit