Digital Phone Company / Nokia review: Poor service! 1

I purchased a new Nokia 6300 mobile telephone from 02 in May of this year, from new the phone seemed to be very slow in calling up menu’s etc and had bad voice quality when making phone calls. I accepted these minor problems as I could not do without my phone. I popped into the Digital Phone Company on St. Stephens street Norwich (A Nokia service center) shop in Norwich and enquired about the problems and was told by the sales rep something to the effect of “Nokia loads so much software on these that they start frying themselves!”

He told me that he could try and fix it but it would require them taking all the information off of the phone and reloading it. At this point the problem was not sufficient to warrant this so I declined the offer and carried on using the phone.

I also noticed in the following few weeks that the battery life of the phone seemed to be getting very poor.

At this time I went away for a few days and neglected to pack my phone, leaving it at home, upon my return I went to check my phone for missed calls etc and found it to be switched off. I tried to turn it on to no avail, assuming it had run out of battery. Naturally I tried putting it on charge using the genuine Nokia charger that It came with as always. Nothing happened, I left it for a few hours and still nothing, the phone would not switch on at all.

I then contacted 02 who informed me that I needed to take the phone to the nearest Nokia service point, which was the Digital phone company on St. Stephens street Norwich. I did this the next day and the gentlemen in the shop said that he would have a look at it for me but It would erase all of the information on the phone. I asked how long it would take as I was expecting an important call and he said that for £10 he would do it by that afternoon. As I really did need a phone ASAP I agreed, paid the money on my card and left the phone with the DPC. That afternoon I returned and the same gentleman said that the phone had been looked at and that because the battery has run right out it didn’t have enough power to charge itself! He informed me that he had to put it on a special machine to charge it up. He also claimed to have replaced the charging block. I was just happy to have got my phone in time to receive my call (which I did).

The next day I went to use my phone and it had turned itself of and wouldn’t turn back on or respond at all. I went back to the Digital Phone company who said that it would have to go to Nokia. I asked how long that would take as I needed a phone and they said hopefully less than a week. I asked if I could possible borrow a phone in the meantime and was told that I couldn’t as I di not have a contract with the DPC.

A week later I went back to the shop to inquire about my phone and hopefully pick it up. The man in the shop said he was sorry that it was not there and it was still with nokia, but to come back in a few days to try again. About a week later I returned and a different gentleman at the shop said that it still was not there but he would phone nokia for me and see when it will be done then phone me back later that day at home. I never received a call. The following day I returned to the shop again to inquire and was told that he didn’t phone me as nokia couldn’t tell him anything so he didn’t think it was worth phoning me. He said to come back in a weeks time.

I did this, again no phone, again a promise to phone Nokia and then me, which alas never happened.

Back to the shop. This time I asked that they phoned Nokia while I waited to make sure that it did. The guy disappeared in the back and came back a few minutes later saying they were engaged and he would keep trying and then get in contact with me. He didn’t

Back to the shop a few days later, I asked if he had got in touch with Nokia the last time and he said he was on hold for 2 hours so had to stop trying.

This time I asked to speak with a manager, Daniel, who took my number again and said he would try and then get back to me.

4 days later, no word, back to the shop, this time I asked for Nokia’s number directly so I could find my phone myself, and was given the number of the care line that can be found on the website.

After trying to get to talk to a real person about tracing and getting my phone back for over half an hour, the closest I got was an automated service that asked me to type in my area code to locate my nearest service center. I did this with my local Norwich area (01603) and was told to take my handset to car phone warehouse in Edinburgh (500 miles away)!

Back to Digital phone company to ask for a more useful number and to ask them to trace my phone as I really needed it back. They at this point said that my phone had come in the day before to them, been tested and had to be sent back as it was still not fixed (This later turned out to be a complete fabrication). I accepted this, although was getting more and more annoyed with the fact that I had not had a phone for a month. I was told to come back the following week.

Back to the shop, still not there. I asked a member of staff to again phone Nokia while I waited. He went in the back for about half an hour. He then came back, did not apologize for the wait but said that he had spoken to Nokia, who had accepted that this was ridiculous and that they were getting a brand new handset sent by courier that would be there by the end of that week or early the following week. (again transpired to be a fabrication)

At last I thought, it was sorted. Back to the shop as instructed.

Surprisingly there was no new phone. Come back next week I was told. At this point I pleaded that they sort this out there and then. I was told; “There is nothing we can do, we cant have people on hold all the time, its with Nokia now” Ok I said give me a number for Nokia where I can talk to them and I will wait on hold

“we can’t give you that number”

The only number they would give me was the useless automated care line again.

At this point there was nobody I could get hold of at Nokia and Nokias reps (The DPC) refused to do anything!

I found a number (the only number apparently in existence for Nokia in the UK) by searching myself on the internet. I phoned this number and explained to a lady who was premium technical support for seroco phones about my situation. She was very good and gave me the number of Freepost. She said the only way I could contact Nokia would be to write to them and that there was no other phone number for them.

Not knowing who they were or how they could help, I phoned them as there was nothing else I could do.

I explained the story to them. The guy on the phone was very understanding. He said how disgusting it was that DPC refused to help and said that it wasn’t the first time he had come across problems with them.

He then went on to tell me that his company didn’t have the phone and due to a rule to do with confidentiality or security he couldn’t get my phone back only the DPC could. I asked what I could do and where to turn next. He told me to try Nokia again.

Back to the technical support guys who said that hey were the only humans in Nokia I could talk to in the country and that they could not pass me on to anyone else AT ALL. They claimed that there was no one else in the whole of Nokia that they could contact but I could try the head office in Finland as a last resort. They also said how disgusting it was that DPC wouldn’t help and that I should try Trading Standards.

I was then advised that all I could do was to report my phone stolen. Before wasting police time in such a stupid manner I managed to contact a company who offered to do a trace on my imie number for me to see where my phone was. They did this and told me it had gone from DPC to a Nokia hub, then been passed onto a company called NMF technologies then back to a Nokia hub Andover. It never went back to DPC half way through as they claimed; they also never chased it up!

I went to the DPC with this info and pleaded that they find my phone with this info. They again were very dismissive and said yet again that they would phone Nokia for me.

In the meantime I telephoned NMF technology's myself after finding their info on the internet. They would not tell me anything as I was not a Nokia agent but suddenly the next day my phone turned up back at the DPC. They called me to tell me. I wasn’t in the city center to collect it but my partner was. I phoned DPC back and asked if it was ok that she picked it up on my behalf. Fine they said.

So, at last, almost 7 weeks later my phone (old phone not a replacement) was back with me! It was missing the cover to the USB port and was a little more scratched and knocked about, but it was defiantly my phone.

I tried switching it on, Nothing. I put on charge for a while. Nothing, Back to the Digital Phone Company yet again.

They told me that it was probably the battery that was so flat it couldn’t charge up. They said to come back in an hour as they would put it on their special machine.

Back I went that evening.

“sorry sir but it doesn’t seem to charge up” No surprise there, that’s why they had it for the previous 7 weeks.

“I seems weird that it is still broken” they said “because Nokia have replaced the battery, it’s a brand new one”.

I then checked the battery to see if this was true as I know I had removed the black scratch panel previously. But had left a small portion remaining. Unsurprisingly it was not a new battery, this was another lie.

“We need to send it back to Nokia” I was told

Alas, no phone again.