:con?does de-branding really void your warranty?:con?
well here's my two bits worth....
a couple of weeks ago My much loved N95's backlight failed - the rest of the phone was fine though... I went in to my local Vodafone shop as it was still under warranty (only just thankfully..) the chap took some details then checked the phone's details - "hmmm... this phone has been modified and is no longer in it's default Vodafone spec - you realise this may well void your warranty?"
My response:
"interesting, given the phone is owned by me, and according to your own contract, the warranty offered is the factory Nokia warranty, and the modification made was simply to allow me to run the latest Nokia factory firmware because Vodafone refuse to provide a decent working firmware, what's the problem??"
4 day later my phone was returned with a replaced circuit board all under warranty
Now here's the irony - the phone was re-flashed with the latest Nokia firmware and not rebranded as a vodafone special....😎
Just my two bits worth for those interested...
very interesting as my n95 is now out of warrenty because i changed the product code so i could flash with nokia software. it needed the side volume bitton fixing, ended up costing 40 quid.
By the way, i HATE how slow the n96 is, back on the n95 now, unlocked, on V30, and its supewr speedy.
the answer i heard from nokia is that as long as you use an official nokia firmware, then it does NOT void your warranty. even if you flash with the unbranded firmware, it is still using nokia's own official firmware, so they honor the warranty. this is what i've generally heard. best to just not even bring it up ever if you need to get repairs on your phone. they usually wont even notice anyway.
The answer given by the networks is that it does invalidate the warranty. And at least one member here (Des borders I think) has had it returned without repair due to debranding.
It is possible they will not notice, or care, but if you intend to debrand, you should treat it as losing your warranty, or you might get a nasty suprise.
it must do if you ask me, my N95 broke during flashing the firmware. i posted it off to nokia and got it back straight away saying they wouldnt touch it cuz ive modified the software
I think Dez got his returned because he upgraded to ahead of the SP's FW and so when they tried to reinstall it it wouldnt back date... so they called him on it.
But yeah, the warrenty of the handset is with Nokia... mobile sp's just fill you with as much crap as they can sometimes and even more so the highstreet shops that sell them.
They all seem to end up at places like anovo or crc, where they go out to the shop floor for someoene to plug them in a fix them and then send them packing with the least amount of effort needed.