dis connecting people

I always ranted about nokia phones. I always found them better than the rest. I would even argue about it. A couple of weeks ago I payed a small treasure to change my old, falling to pieces nokia phone with the new N76. It's the Motorola RAZR of nokia. It has Symbian on it and all the bells and whistles. The thinest smartphone, the slickest, etc. Almost. It won't work with Push Mail because Ms Exchange seems to reject other nokia phones than E series.
That's a bummer!

The first glitch I found was that the micro SD cover won't fit well in its place and stays a little outside giving a cheesy aspect. Being a clamshell you'd expect to be able to open the phone with one hand. Stop dreaming. It's difficult to open it with both hands.

These are non issues, You get used to this kind of stuff. The phone has a nice interface for playing music. After a short time the phone rebooted. "That's ok", I said.

Second day I activated 3G data transfer. I popped the browser and started playing just to see how it works. After a few clicks the browser just exited. I repeated this for 4 or 5 times. In the meantime the phone would freeze from time to time - mostly when I was about to answer phone calls or to look at missed calls. It froze and then it rebooted. I took a deep breath of hope.
Being a software developer I said that nokia must have joined the "continuous beta" paradigm. I was sure that I'd found a software update. But the phone was up to date.

The 3rd day I felt that my battery lasts really short. Less than 12 hours. Measuring I figured out that it wears out in around 5-7 hours. Bluetooth off, 3G off.
Ok..

Apparently the store only changes the phone if you get back within the first 48 hours. After that you have to send it to a nokia service center.
Now I'm pissed.
Not only I payed a fortune on a new phone, but I have now I waste my time searching for the service center and taking it there.

So I get to Cirma Electronics - nokia authorized service. I left my phone there and they gave me a piece of paper. I was told it will last 4-5 business days and that I could call the number on the paper to ask about it's status.

After 3 more days I call that number.
Busy or no answer. I call once, twice, ten times. Same thing the next day. After a short online investigation. I can request the phone status using their website! After one week I went there and picked it up.

Hurray!
The phone was replaced with a brand new one. Wow! This must be the Finnish way. So I happily go home to charge it because the battery was completely warn out. I plugged the phone charger and...

Surprise!!!
The phone is as dead as possible: it won't charge, it won't start it only warmed up well after a few hours. I called the service center with tears in my eyes...
of course: busy or no answer. I wasn't really in the mood to go back there. It was Friday and I'd probably get there just after they close the shop.

This was evil.
After a little googling and a few help from a friend I get the phone number of the Purchase Director of Cirma Electronics. Very politely, he explains to me. It's possible to have a perfect phone (QA wise) that is dead as mine. Now I'm puzzled. What does a Quality Assurance Engineer's job at nokia means? He tells me how to get to their offices and promises me that they will take care to sort this out really fast.

This is the first man in 2 weeks that seems customer focused.
Of course I forgot to tell you that I asked a contact from Customer Department, but that manager left the company. So here I am. I'm getting my problem solved by the Purchase Director.

It's Sunday now. Tomorrow I'll start a new "connecting people" adventure.

Any bets on the new piece?
Good night!