Getting the Service Centre lowdown on the Nokia N97 camera and GPS

But if you happen to live in North America you're still out of luck. The nearest Nokia service centre is.... err... nowhere to be found!

Time to cut my losses and put my POS N97 on ebay me thinks.

Thanks Nokia. That was the last time I wasted my money on your product.

There is a service center in the US, but unfortunately it is in Alabama and has a 7-10 day turnaround (about 2-3 weeks including shipment).

If memory serves me right, this is Nokia's high-end offering with the most flaws/defects post-production. It should have undergone numerous quality testing and 'aged' to maturity/perfection before release. What an average phone user will percieve about Nokia N97 (original issues):
1. mediocre performance (due to limited memory)
2. boring interface (lack of theme effects, kinetic scrolling)
3. defective camera cover
Nokia should, with conscience, have a mechanism to inform and recall all "defective" units for the to be fixed. I pity those who paid considerable buck for this phone not getting the worth that they deserve.
-Dan

This new helps. Although you can't really see the gap between the lens and the cover It serves to confirm that it has been address.

Is there any way to identify new units (e.g manufacture date) via the IMEI series number? I ask because retailers will not allow you to open a sealed package just to check the lens cover out.

Also, the defective lens cover had a blue plastic piece underneath. It seems the fixed one is a different color, based on the picture, but it's difficult to tell. Can anyone confirm if the fixed lens cover is a different color?

wrong! People commenting who have no clue... It took a total of two three days to get the device back in my hands. This from alabama to california by the way.

correction: two to three

Try clicking on the link for Asia Pacific care points (on the link posted above) - http://europe.nokia.com/get-support-and-software/repair-and-recycle/repair/care-points - and you will get a 404. No care points in the whole of Asia Pacific

http://www.nokia-asia.com/get-support-and-software/repair-and-recycle/care-center-locator

As a vodafone uk customer, do I go back to voda or go to the Nokia repair centre?

Thanks

Unregistered wrote:wrong! People commenting who have no clue... It took a total of two three days to get the device back in my hands. This from alabama to california by the way.

My experiences has shown me otherwise.

I have sent devices 4 separate times for repair, and in ZERO instances did I get the device back in 2-3 days. You must mean: it took 3-5 days for the device to get there, 3-5 days for the device to be fixed, and 3-5 days for it back to get to you.

I'm in Florida if it makes in difference.

On all occasions, they were unable to repair my device so they had to replace it.

If this was anyone else than Nokia, there'd be a lot more negative feedback about this "issue"...

If your a voda (or any other carrier/operator) customer, that bought the phone on contract then you go to voda, as technically you don't own the phone yet, your still paying for it as part of the contract. In the background Voda will probly just send it off to Nokia though! So it'll take longer

I bought my device from Jordan, and wanted to fix it in Dubai, but they would not take it even if I pay for it.

I must say, I have been a Nokia fan for years starting with the first querty smartphones and even now I still own a N95 8Gb. I've been following this site all along, but time has come to be onest: Nokia is not the supreme god of phones anymore, in fact they fell behind the rest quite badly ! I am not talking cheap smartphones here, I am talking about their "multimedia computers", things that are supposed to compete with the likes of Palm Pre, Iphone, HTC Hero. I know some others have made similar comments but they have been swiftly put in their places by AAS, with such remarks as the N97 was a lot cheaper then rivals (??!) and it was not meant to compete with those. Well, in my country they are all about the same price. I remember reading explanations about expensive hardware in Iphone versus budget hardware in Nokias. Puting a weak processor in their flagship, a usesless GPS receiver ( as in my old N95 8gb ) and a pathetic amount of RAM, and trying to sell this device for as much as the direct competitors is simply unforgiveble. For me the time has come to say goodbye Nokia and Symbian alltogether. I congratulate AAS for having the guts to admit, even as late as now and in an indirect manner, that Nokia is not a contender in the high-end smartphone market anymore.

das n97 ist mit sicherheit nicht das "high-end" ger�t wie es sich manche gew�nscht h�tten, aber es ist super stylisch und hat gen�gend power um so gut wie alles was man im alltag brauch zu erm�glichen! wer ernsthaft denkt das ein hero oder iphone besser ist..*lol*..da kann ich nur herzhaft lachen!!

There is another solution - a DIY hack: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/fixing-a-scratched-lens-with-a-floppy-disk/

telling it straight, N97 is never Nokia's flagship....so please Nokia, if you are announcing this phone as flagship, then it's an utter failure! E72 must be the real flagship! But the time taking it to the market is so looooooooooooooooong that by the time it get's there, a lot of samsungs, LGs, etc would be better!

I've about had it with Symbian and Nokia after the lousy GPS performance of the N95, N85 and now N97. I'm willing to give Maemo a chance, but not sure I want to be an early adopter of Nokia phones anymore. I'll be watching the AAM site for people's reaction to the phone.

Thanks for checking out on the issue about the GPS.

It seems I was very unlucky as I both have the Camera-slider issue and the GPS issue.
That said I went to the store I bought my phone I had one complaint "leftover".(Because when the shop delivered it for fix of the camera slider issue, it took longer time than usual)

I can therefore complain about the service (for the first fix) as well. 😊

Err - slight problem - the Nokia shop locator page doesn't seem to be working, it just hangs showing;

Area:

Do you know the store name:

In this keyword search field you can enter different search criteria e.g. address, city name, postal code (3 digits minimum) or store name. This helps you to produce more accurate and refined results.
Find

Services:

loading Store Types...
if you manually input a postcode or town then it hangs on "searching ....please wait"
The N97 customer experience for me has been woeful.

This may sound like a stupid question, but please bear with me because I have to travel quite a long way to get to a Nokia Care Point.

I know because the N97 is only three months old that every single one of them should still be within warranty (unless they've been tampered with, which thankfully mine isn't) but, just in case the people at the shop are difficult, how do I prove that my N97 is still within warranty?

I don't want to have to make an extra journey because I didn't bring everything I needed to bring.

steverh wrote:Err - slight problem - the Nokia shop locator page doesn't seem to be working, it just hangs

zxon wrote:Mine does too. It doesn't work in Firefox for some reason, and doesn't work properly in Internet Explorer 8 either. If you have IE8, put it into compatibility view (The broken page icon on the address bar). That worked for me.

Take your receipt with the date of purchase. Make sure you point this out very clearly and tell them that they need to fix this under warranty. Do not take no for an answer. It now seems that all of us early "complainers" were correct even though some on this site continued to make apologies for the inherent flaws of the phone. I am glad I took mine back especially considering that this is supposed to be a flagship phone.

sapporobaby wrote:Take your receipt with the date of purchase. Make sure you point this out very clearly and tell them that they need to fix this under warranty. Do not take no for an answer. It now seems that all of us early "complainers" were correct even though some on this site continued to make apologies for the inherent flaws of the phone. I am glad I took mine back especially considering that this is supposed to be a flagship phone.

May be a long shot but they could fix it on the day if they have the part in. That way, I can make a day of it in the town centre while I'm there (Stockport).

Would replacing the plastic rear assembly as shown in the first pic solve both the lens scratch and gps problems as the gps antenna seems to be part of it?

I'm asking because I had changed the product code so that I could get the latest firmware (3 ain't too quick with their updates) and am aware that this voids the warranty. Would Nokia Care Point check or would they just replace the affected parts regardless as it is a hardware issue?

Unregistered wrote:Would replacing the plastic rear assembly as shown in the first pic solve both the lens scratch and gps problems as the gps antenna seems to be part of it?

I'm asking because I had changed the product code so that I could get the latest firmware (3 ain't too quick with their updates) and am aware that this voids the warranty. Would Nokia Care Point check or would they just replace the affected parts regardless as it is a hardware issue?

What's with the "anti-AAS" negativity? If you tried to be this negative on a certain other Symbian site (starts with My by the way), you'd get pretty short-shrift.

As far as I can tell, Steve and Rafe have been fairly even-handed about the N97. They both like it for what it tries to be and have been fairly critical of its flaws, Steve in particular.

However, the truth is, this attempt to fix the faults in the N97 is too little, too late. While there is always a certain element of risk being an early-adopter, Nokia really dropped the ball on this one; it'll be interesting to see if the N97 mini has many improvements over its big brother, or if it's simply more (or should I say less?) of the same...

Unregistered wrote:Would replacing the plastic rear assembly as shown in the first pic solve both the lens scratch and gps problems as the gps antenna seems to be part of it?

I'm asking because I had changed the product code so that I could get the latest firmware (3 ain't too quick with their updates) and am aware that this voids the warranty. Would Nokia Care Point check or would they just replace the affected parts regardless as it is a hardware issue?

No, the GPS assembly is NOT part of the plastic cover/frame. Sorry.

And yes, the product code WILL be checked. They checked mine. So you'd have to change it back to the original code etc. Or (for others) DON'T CHANGE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Anyone know the part number as my Nokia Care Centre hasn't herard of any replacement part. I'm in Australia with an imported phone, so have to pay for a new part!
what a rip off.