The Saga of the Nokia (worthless) Phone

On 20 December 2006, I bought my lovely wife her Christmas gift. $100 Nokia flip phone. Her old cell phone had died and it was time for a new phone. Well when Christmas day arrived, I gave her this beautiful (worthless) phone. It worked for a few hours but when you started touching the bottoms, it would automatically turn off. Sometimes when you would receive calls, it would automatically turn off. Okay, I thought I would take it back to where I bought and get a new one or get it fixed.

However, from our Christmas in Noakhali we went straight to our holidays in Rajasthan, India. After returning from India, it took me a few days to get to the Nokia (worthless) phone store it was around the end of January 2007. At the store, I tried to remain calm but they would do nothing! I said, “I bought the (worthless) Nokia phone here because it is an authorized dealer and had fixed prices!” They said, “Sorry, we can not help you. Take it to the Nokia Care Center.”

Okay, I took in to the Nokia Care Center very close to the store the following week. The Nokia Care Center said we would try to fix it but no guarantees. I said please try, by now it is February. They had it for three long weeks and called me. They said, “Sorry we can not fix it. You need to take it to another Nokia Care Center that handles bigger problems.” I said, “No thank you, I want a new (worthless) Nokia phone now.” “No! We can do nothing.” they said.

So the following week an office staff took it down town, very far away with a lot of traffic. This Nokia Care Center had the phone for over a month and called us one day that it is fixed. So the office staff went down, it is the end of March now, and picked up the phone. It took me all of 2 seconds to see that the phone was not fixed. So the next day I went down town to the Nokia Care Center and told them that they did not fix the phone. They said, “Well, what can we do.” I said, “It is a (worthless) Nokia phone and this is a Nokia Care Center and I paid good money for a (worthless) phone and I want a new one!” I’m trying to stay calm this whole time. Anyhow another customer service representative heard us talking and said, that model should of never been sold it was recalled over a year ago from all stores. I said, “Thank you for that information can I have a new phone!” The poor customer service person said, “Sorry we can not handle that here you need to go to another (farther away) Nokia Care Center.”

So off I went to another Nokia Care Center with my (worthless) Nokia phone. This was a very nice Nokia Care Center; everyone was very professional, they even had matching outfits and a ticket number machines to wait you turn. I explain the situation for the billionth time and they started typing in information on my (worthless) Nokia phone to the computer. After about 20 minutes they said, “Sorry, sir this phone is out of warranty and we can do nothing.” At this point my blood is boiling. I remind them that I only bought the (worthless) Nokia phone in December and it had a year warranty on it. “Oh, sorry sir but the phone was manufactured in January 06 and the year warranty ran out in January 07. So the warranty is no good, sorry (with a smile).” I said, “I’M NOT LEAVING HERE UNTIL YOU GIVE ME A NEW PHONE OR I TALK TO THE TOP PERSON IN NOKIA CARE!”

Oh, by the way: I found out that Nokia has three levels of Care Centers in Bangladesh and that now I was at Care level three the highest and best of the Care Centers- who thought up this system was my question to myself. Okay, there is three level but shouldn’t that be an internal system, not one were the customer needs to be bounced around to all three levels!

The customer care person said he would be right back. Well, it took him 30 minutes to go and talk with his supervisor. When he returned, he was very happy to inform me that they could request Nokia in Japan to honor the warranty but it would take two weeks to get an answer form them. HELLO! This is a phone company it takes seconds to make a phone call and get an answer but they said 2 weeks! I said, “I’m not leaving here until I talk to the manager.” It took another 30 minutes to get the manager out to talk with this crazy foreigner.

The escorted me do a very nice small conference room where I could wait for the Manager. He finally showed up and I had to repeat my story for the billionth and one time. He said, “Listen, it will take two weeks for Nokia to approve the warranty and then another two weeks for us to fix the phone or replace it- that is the best I can do.” What could I do but say, sheepishly, “okay.”

Well on 16 May, I finally get a phone call from Level Three Nokia Care center to come and pick up my phone and take it back to the place I bought it for a new phone! Can you BELIEVE that I’m taking the phone back to the place where I bought it five months ago to get a new (worthless) Nokia phone. I’m stuck so what can I do. On 17 May at 5 p.m. I go to the store. Five sales people in the store and not one of them can help me or knows anything I’m taking about and won’t do anything about it. So I have a card of a person I’m suppose to call if I have trouble. GET this: Cell phones don’t work in the store because of no network!! Why would anybody (me) by a phone from that store?!? Anyhoot, I walk outside and call the man and he doesn’t understand a work of my English or Bangla, but by God’s Grace he finally figures out who I am and says he will be at the store in 5 minutes. Well, it took him 20 minutes to get to the store. He says, “Oh, yes sir I can help you.” Welllllllll, he says he can only give me a $50 dollar (worthless) Nokia phone. Wait, a minute I bought a $100 (worthless) Nokia phone and that is what I want!

Well to make a long story short I had to haggle, argue, bicker, pray, negotiate, raise my voice, and use my best Bangla, etc for over an hour. At the end of the long session, he made a phone call from out side the store and said, “Okay, you can have the $100 phone.”

Praise the Lord, now after five months Nita has a cell phone that works and it has been working for more than a week now!!!

Moral of the story- don’t buy (worthless) Nokia phones anywhere in the world! I hope that Google notices the words- Worthless Nokia Phone -and this story is read by the whole world.

And that completes the Saga of the Nokia (worthless) Phone!