[axel]

After owning the debacle that is the NoKia N97 for several months, I felt a longing to return to simpler, easier to use and more reliable but feature rich handsets that Nokia used to be very well known for, and were actually pretty good at making. Remember that word 'reliable' for now, as I'll come back to it. But basically, every time I had to pull out the heavy, bulky, temperamental N97 from my pocket, and wait for its glitchy, lazy software to figure out what I was trying to do at that moment in time, I became more and more resentful of it and realized that sometimes, "smart phones" are anything but. I longed for the simplicity and beauty of Nokia's 6230,or 6230i, or 6233 days, just as a few examples, when phones did everything you could want them for and didn't require several Phds to operate. In my search, I came to rest upon the Nokia 6700 classic.

I'll confess - I was hooked almost from the fist look. It's stainless steel body; it's cool, classy candbybar form with rounded edges and its simple, yet striking front plate communicated a seriousness and promised a robust, straightforward experience. A quick glance through the feature list and I was hooked. I had to have it. I had dreams of abandoning my N97 to my underwear drawer, possibly only to be liberated in times of desperate need when a back-up handset might be helpful for a trip, but determined not to sell it to anyone, as I knew in my heart, I could not wish the evil of an N97 on my own worst enemy. In one amazing spec sheet, Nokia had promised redemption with the 6700 classic, and I was eager to give it to them.

To be fair, I was warned. Even though I had committed to buying, I raked the internet for reviews. "Temperamental" they warned. "Unreliable" they screamed! "Daft" they exclaimed. I read them all but was unmoved - mine would be the exception, rather than the rule. Mine would defy the expectations, and work well without glitch or incident, for after all, this was Nokia, and Nokia could not let me down so utterly, so completely, so unremorsefully, so quickly in succession, with two different products... not me; a fervant, loyal, reliable supporter and purchaser of their products for the last 10 years, without interruption... This would not happen. I willed it.

I've owned the phone for less two months, and here's the facts: before it just stopped working, the phone would get impossibly hot during phone calls using the headset. It would routinely drop calls for no discernable reason, headset on or not, and when it was offended by my reaction to it doing so, would actually turn itself OFF during phone calls to drive the point home. The phone doesn't have a 3.5mm jack (which I knew when I bought it) so is not terribly good for listening to music or plugging into a car radio, and for reasons which shall always escape me but which shall likely fascinate me to the point of distraction till the day I die, Nokia made it so that the radio could not be played over the loudspeaker!!!!

So, you can't play the radio over the loudspeaker.... and it doesn't work very well, for MAKING PHONE CALLS!!!!

Then, about a month ago, it just turned off, and hasn't come back on since. Despite everything I've tried. And tried. And tried. And keep trying... sigh.

So I've had no choice... Back to the underwear drawer.... and the N97...

Oh, Nokia, my once beloved Nokia, whyfore art thou a hopeless gaggle of idiot-savants and social maladajusts? Where hast your dependability gone? Why hast your basic five-year-old-knows-better-by-now-common-good-sense abandoned thee? Oh my beloved, would that I could flog thee to within an inch of thy corporate life until the madness that has seized thee is over, and thy commitment to me, thy customer, was once more paramount in thy "threatened-giant-addled-brain"....

But alas.... not. So I'm quitting Nokia, after 10 years as a loyal customer. I've owner about 15 or more Nokias since I began, and I've just had so many bad experiences of quality issues in the last two years that I just no longer have faith in the company, or its products. It's painful, because I like the company, what it used to stand for and have always found its products to be the most attractive made by anyone, but I just can't keep spending huge amounts of money on phones that don't actually work. Siiiiighh... I don't know what I'll move on to next, I just know it won't be a Nokia product, and frankly, I don't really care. There's not much joy in it for me anyway. Not now.

Oh... and whatever you do, wherever you are: DO.NOT.BUY.THE.NOKIA.6700.CLASSIC. Under ANY circumstances. On pain of death. Just DON'T.DO.IT. Don't accept it as a gift. Don't buy it used. Don't get it. Just don't. Stay well clear.

With much respect and affection for you all,

Axel

[jimmyireland]

what a nice letter lol

[no1_slumko]

Yes Brilliant. It's touching