Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Nokia 9300 firmware blues


So what happens when your Nokia 9300 Communicator keeps freezing? You take it back to the KPN Business Centre in Amsterdam where you got it. There you discover that KPN hasn't updated its database and still thinks you're using a different phone - one which was replaced a year ago. They won't help you. You return home to get the receipt to prove you are who you say you are - guilty until proven innocent at KPN. A day later, it takes 55 minutes to download "the latest firmware" for that phone and another 40 minutes to reset the thing and reload certain applications and specific settings.

The Blackberry function doesn't work any more. KPN Business Centre is clueless - thats a Blackberry problem. No it isn't according to Blackberry. It takes 3 calls to KPN Helpdesk (33 minutes on hold) to discover that the Blackberry client on the phone needs upgrading, from www.businesssoftware.nokia.com . There I discover that they didn't give me the "latest" firmware upgrade at all...version 6 has been out for a couple of months and solves (apparently) the bugs that are causing the phone to operate v e r y s l o w l y. Oh, and a new (reserve) battery for the Nokia 9300 is a special order because the phone has been discontinued (6 months ago).

In short, trying to get clear answers is Mission Impossible. Why on earth can't users download firmware updates either over the web, or ideally over the network? My next phone is going to have this....and it may not be a NOKIA if they can't get their act together.
While I am ranting...the NOKIA message board is one of the worst in terms of organisation - I use it in class to show people how not to organise discussions. You just see a cloud of frustrated NOKIA users hoping to find answers from other users - no-one from Nokia wandering around the boards to help out. Am I disappointed - you bet. Is Sony Ericsson much better - not in my experience - see the comments further down the blog about the P-800 firmware fiasco. How come these jokers don't take high end phone support seriously? Because customers don't complain.

1 comment:

Mr Ives said...

I've had similar 9300 woes with firmware in the UK. In the end carphone ware house in Reading were able to upgrade it last year. This was after visiting various "approved" Nokia service centers who either were unable or unwilling to do it. Usually they'd say {sound of sucking in breath} "very risky, can go wrong, you don't want to do that". having had palms for years, I was astonished how hard this was (Palm is downloadable). I think S60 devices are now web updateable which is good.
Out f interest do you know what the latest firmware for the 9300 is ?

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