3 Defective 928s now

[dakranii]

I'm on my 3rd 928 and I have to send it into Nokia for repair. What do you do when you have to send your phone in? Do you have a backup to use in the meantime? Do you go without a phone for 10-14 business days?

Nokia chat told me I could get a "loaner" from Verizon. Verizon told me that's not true. I visited two corporate Verizon stores and two "authorized dealers". The only offer I got was that one authorized dealer would sell me a used iPhone for $150 and then probably buy it back from me when my 928 returns.

928 #1 - rear speaker blew causing distorted sounds. Sounded terrible at volumes above 15. Verizon took the device and mailed me a recertified replacement.
928 #2 - headphone port malfunctioned. The phone believed something was plugged into headphone port when nothing was. This prevented any sound from coming out of receiver during phone calls and any sound from coming out of rear speaker at all other times. Verizon took the device and mailed me a recertified replacement.
928 #3 - exact same problem as #2 after having it for only 2 weeks.

I'm a little annoyed with this. I'm tired of resetting my phone, losing all of my settings, losing all of my game save data, etc. Verizon shouldn't have to keep sending me recertified phones, I want Nokia to figure out what's wrong. But this 10-14 business days without a phone is annoying. I wish Nokia would help out with the gap in some way.

 

[hopmedic]

Write to Stephen.elop@nokia.com. I got a better response that way. Be sure to inform them how many phones you've gone through, and that you do not want to go without your phone. He'll have staff reply, and call you for information about the problem. They sent me a phone without me sending mine in first. It'll be a refurb. But at least you won't go without a phone.

Side note, if there's a Microsoft Store nearby, I'd go that route in the future. I bought my phone there, and I've replaced it a couple times (other than the phone Nokia sent). I walked in, gave them the bad phone, they gave me a brand new phone. The one time I broke the screen, I gave them the bad phone and $50, and they gave me a brand new phone (using MS insurance I bought when I bought the phone).

 

[Moiz Mian]

Does Verizon not have their own warranty exchange program? With ATT, they mail you a new one (refurb) and then you have 10 days to mail your old one back. It's more convenient because you can make sure you downloaded all your apps, and you arranged your tiles the same way, and once you're sure you have all your data, you reset and send the old one back. Also, you bypass Nokia completely, so you never have to wait for them to "fix" a phone for 14 days or whatever

 

[hopmedic]

Does Verizon not have their own warranty exchange program? With ATT, they mail you a new one (refurb) and then you have 10 days to mail your old one back. It's more convenient because you can make sure you downloaded all your apps, and you arranged your tiles the same way, and once you're sure you have all your data, you reset and send the old one back. Also, you bypass Nokia completely, so you never have to wait for them to "fix" a phone for 14 days or whatever

Yes, they do, but OP wanted to avoid Verizon.

 

[dakranii]

They do and Verizon has replaced two phones for me already. I want Nokia to take the blame for this with their defective hardware. I feel guilty/bad having Verizon always pick up the slack. I know it's a better route for me.

And on that note, tweeting with Nokiacare, they basically said "sorry, repairs take 7-10 business days" and Verizon, who wasn't even part of the conversation, sent me a tweet yesterday asking if they can help and seeing what they can do. They're moving up some notches in my book for customer service. It'll be quite a coup of VZW sweeps into my conversation with Nokia and saves the day.

@NokiaCareUS chat said VZW would give me a loaner phone. Any suggestions when the 4 VZW stores I visited didn't have a loaner?

@jason_chapman When did you contact the chat support? Do you have a reference number? ^GS

@NokiaCareUS Friday. No ref. number, just an email with UPS label and instructions for mailing.

@jason_chapman We see. Sorry to hear that VZW can't provide a loaner phone. Repair can take 7-10 business days. ^GS

VZW Support ‏@VZWSupport 15h @jason_chapman Let me work on a few suggestions! We normally do not provide loaner phones. What issues are you having with your phone? ^EW

 

[hopmedic]

Sometimes good advice is given, and not received...........

 

[Moiz Mian]

I feel like the 928 is ruining windows phones image for Verizon customers. The 920/925/1020 on ATT are almost flawless in terms of quality. The first batches had some duds, but they are way better now. And i never had issues with gunk or freezing, it was always just like creaky body or rattly vibrate, but some of these 928 issues are just insane. I wonder if they screwed up in the design phase or whether they are using an inferior manufacturing plant.

Also, since you've gone through so many 928s. I would wait till the 929 comes out and tell them to give you a free exchange/upgrade, otherwise you'll drive their 928 stock to the ground. I've seen it work on ATT

 

[dakranii]

Yeah, that's something that's been in the back of mind through this. It would be nice. Maybe if I complain enough.

 

[gsquared]

Write to Stephen.elop@nokia.com. I got a better response that way. Be sure to inform them how many phones you've gone through, and that you do not want to go without your phone. He'll have staff reply, and call you for information about the problem. They sent me a phone without me sending mine in first. It'll be a refurb. But at least you won't go without a phone.

Side note, if there's a Microsoft Store nearby, I'd go that route in the future. I bought my phone there, and I've replaced it a couple times (other than the phone Nokia sent). I walked in, gave them the bad phone, they gave me a brand new phone. The one time I broke the screen, I gave them the bad phone and $50, and they gave me a brand new phone (using MS insurance I bought when I bought the phone).

You may geet a reply stating Mr. Elop no longer works here.

 

[hopmedic]

You may geet a reply stating Mr. Elop no longer works here.

Nope. Just had a bad DT-900 replaced in this way when I emailed him a few weeks ago. Nokia Support wanted a receipt, said they would return my bad DT-900 unrepaired if I sent it to them without a receipt, and I told them there was no need for me to still have my receipt since the item has a one-year warranty and it had not yet been a year since it was released (I think it was something like November 2 or so when this whole email exchange began). They stood firm. I emailed Elop, and his support staff sent me an emailed shipping label. As soon as I shipped the item, I got notification that my replacement had been shipped.

He's not part of Microsoft yet.

 

[adierkes]

My wife and I both have 928s and have had no issues with them.

 

[hopmedic]

I feel like the 928 is ruining windows phones image for Verizon customers. The 920/925/1020 on ATT are almost flawless in terms of quality. The first batches had some duds, but they are way better now. And i never had issues with gunk or freezing, it was always just like creaky body or rattly vibrate, but some of these 928 issues are just insane. I wonder if they screwed up in the design phase or whether they are using an inferior manufacturing plant.

Also, since you've gone through so many 928s. I would wait till the 929 comes out and tell them to give you a free exchange/upgrade, otherwise you'll drive their 928 stock to the ground. I've seen it work on ATT

I've had four 928s. But that doesn't mean the 928 is ruining anything. If you look in any forum dedicated to a specific phone, you're going to see problems. 928 is no worse than any other.

 

[falconrap]

The 822 had the same rep early on, but overall, the vast majority never had a problem with it. I think what tends to happen is you see people who have one bad phone get stuck in the endless shuffling of defective phones labeled as refurbs. I've seen this pattern on numerous phones. Saw the same pattern on the Pre+ and Pre2, and, except for a known issue with the keyboard on the Pre+ (took apart and cleaned off the foreign contaminant myself) I never had issues with either. Every phone model I have seen on Mobile Nations forums seems to show the same pattern. Someone returns their defective phone, and they end up going through several more phones.

I really wish the carriers and makers had a little more sense in this area. Just give people a brand new phone, as you probably spend the phone's cost in just time dealing with these refurbs.

 

[dakranii]

Just an update and to sing the praises of Verizon again for their customer service.

928 #3 - exact same problem as #2 after having it for only 2 weeks. Sent it to Nokia for 1.5 weeks for repair. It came back to me with the headphone port problem fixed and after a hard reset. (strangely it was also missing the screen protector I had on it, they must have removed it?). HOWEVER, the headphone problem was fixed, but my phone from the night I received it had such severe phantom touches of the back and home capacitive buttons that it was practically unusable. Nokia said I could send it back to them if I wanted.

Instead I went to Verizon, yet again. The rep there ordered me a new phone and had it overnighted to me to be delivered on a Saturday. He also said that when it arrives to come in to see him and he'd set me up with a new screen protector free of charge, as I've already spent $40 on screen protectors.

928 #4 - On it's way to me now, will arrive tomorrow.

One thing I found interesting, he said that Verizon customer care will try to set you up with a different phone if you have problems with multiple phones. I told him I wasn't interested in the 822 or the Samsung ATIV or HTC 8X at this point, I'd give the 928 a try one more time. Perhaps if the 928 cycle continues the 929 will be out by the then and they'd put me on that phone. Who knows, they've been great at customer service so far.

I've had four 928s. But that doesn't mean the 928 is ruining anything. If you look in any forum dedicated to a specific phone, you're going to see problems. 928 is no worse than any other.

At Verizon today the rep said the same thing when I asked if the 928 seemed particularly cursed. He said he gets phones of all makes and models returned for hardware problems, iPhones, Samsungs, everything. None more so than any others.

 

[hopmedic]

Since you quoted me, I give... Today I exchanged my 928 and received my fifth one (one of them was because I broke the screen, though). Perhaps the 928 has more problems than others, but making that determination from information gleaned from forums like this is folly. I will stand by my statement that any phone will have forums with complaints just like it, but I'll concede that it is possible the 928 is more problem-ridden. I do love the phone, though. Here's my experience from today. http://forums.windowscentral.com/no...losing-itself-multiple-times.html#post2276435

 

[AV2RY]

My phone (L928) still freezes sometimes. Last time was today , just froze for no reason. Waited for 3-5 min still was frozen, did soft reset. Maybe Nokia is (still) working on bugs with this device and not releasing update (for Verizon) as they did for ATT and Tmobile

 

[jgraves1107]

I'm blaming Microsoft on this. The screen freezing is not really freezing if those buttons at the bottom work. Seems the touch software just stops working all together. I haven't even had my phone 48hrs yet and it has done this. Generally hardware will be more of a constant. Seems this issue is in the PC as well. I have seen it a few times on mine. As long as a reboot is fixing it then a few times here and there I can live with. If it happens daily then a full software reinstall would be my next try.

 

[cristianocr7]

I'm on my 3rd. Same issues as you all. Left iPhone for this? It was not what I expected. Going to try Android and the HTC One within very near future.

 

[jgraves1107]

Just had to have my 928 replaced with a new one. A week old! Headphone jack failed causing no speaker sound at the earpeice.

 

[cristianocr7]

I'm hoping this one works for me as well. I LOVE this phone! I wish notifications were better and I know that is coming. The UI and experience is awesome. The camera and live tiles are great too! Email reminds me of my Blackberry (I use outlook.com email and its flawless, GMail takes 30 seconds longer to sync (crazy!)) Fingers crossed! There are so many pro's and I swore I'd never go to android, but this HTC One is killer!