So today my wife gives me a new phone, a Nokia N73 'Music Edition', comes bundled with that cool Moby song they're hammering on the TV ads. Pretty funky thing, all the usual bells and whistles plus pretty astounding sound quality.
I've had the same Nokia 6600 something or other for about 3yrs now, paid B28,000 for it brand new. Thing is it never worked, couldn't sync/connect it to my PC no matter what I tried. After several months of visits to the Nokia 'Service' (and no disrespect to that noble word intended) Center where they invariably simply reinstalled the OS repeatedly like they expected it to suddenly magically fix what it hadn't the previous 10 times (and wiping my contacts in the process), driver downloads, new cable etc etc... Nothing. Nada.
Finally, after several shitty emails/calls to the head office, Nokia struck upon a 'solution'. They'd send my phone to Bangkok for "2-3 months" to be fixed. Great I said, where's my replacement phone in the interim? This surprised them somewhat and after several minutes confusion it was then stated that there would be no replacement phone. Even after I pointed out that I used my phone for business and couldn't simply not have a phone for that long the point was lost on them.
Somewhere in all of this one of the service guys let slip that it's not uncommon for Nokia to 'trial' parts and software releases on Asian markets - iron out the bugs before they are released in Europe. Now I don't know if that's true and the rep that replied to me from Nokia's head office vehemently denied it, but you do have to wonder. Particularly since that was actually one of the few things they did bother to reply to.
Anyway eventually I simply gave up and was left with a phone that wouldn't connect to my PC, couldn't back up data, contacts etc. So a few years later and we arrive at today... Cool, new phone! Not only that but I can put loads of my music on it, perfect!
I guess you can see what's coming now... Yep, doesn't connect to my PC. Similar issue as last time: "USB Device Malfunctioned/Not Recognised" - and by the way before anyone says 'It's your PC' it's not, last time I tried it on several PC's and besides which everything else connects ok.
So to bring an end to this rambling tale this time I've struck on a solution. The phone is back in its box, my sim card back in my old phone, and tomorrow I shall be taking the phone back and telling them to stick it up their collective arse. I'm going to buy a Motorola or sumfing.
Thank you.