The following is a letter I sent to Nokia India post my Nokia Lumia 800 ordeal.
My family has been a Nokia customer since the time of Nokia 5110. There was a time, when every single member of our household owned not one, but multiple Nokia phones. There was not an N-Series or E-Series phone that I did not buy even if it meant changing the phone every month. My relationship with Nokia and its associated ecosystem has been a very strong one. Now, the only Nokia phone in the family is a basic model with a “torchlight”.
I personally gave up on Nokia after using the E72. It pains me to see where Nokia is headed, not just globally but in India as well. The company which during its days of glory, set the market on fire with revolutionary touch devices (way ahead of their times) and phones with an operating system that gave them unmatched power is so blind that it cannot even see the way ahead.
I bought a Nokia Lumia 800 on the 17th of December and had it replaced exactly a week later on the 24th of December, 2011. If you would ask me what I really wanted to do, it was to get a full refund. I don’t know if your own employees and channel partners know what the success of this phone means to the future of this company and what exactly is at stake here.
Once I’d lodged a complaint via email on December 20th, 2011 after I came to know Nokia had acknowledged problems with the Nokia Lumia 800, I received a call the next day from Mr. N***** Gupta, who promptly assured me of a replacement on 23rd, December from the Nokia Priority Store in Sector 16, Faridabad. I left work to reach the store only to be told there was no stock available till 27th December. I again called up Mr. N*****, who assured me of the replacement by 1.30PM 24th December. I reached the store at 2PM only to be informed again that the replacement was not in order. It was only after I called up Mr. N***** again and waited for another 40 minutes that I could go back home with a new handset.
When I enquired at the store about the cause of the delay, I was told that they had received instructions for replacement but were unable to execute the instructions since they were not being supplied with the new stock, a problem that squarely lies with YOUR distribution. You sell your customers instruments that barely work for 5 hours on a single charge, that have fancy features like Turn-by-turn navigation systems etc., which can never be used because the phone does not have enough power to deliver what it promises.
I was once a loyal Nokia customer, spending my money on devices that your company made. When I got news of the Lumia 800 a few months back, I was willing to bet on Nokia again. And, I did. I have all current generation devices from all major handset makers but I chose to go with Nokia as my primary phone. Sad to say, but I think I made an extremely bad decision.
I had half a mind to take the replacement piece in a sealed box and sell it outside in the market at a loss. Being an early adopter of the device and the platform, I do get requests from people for reviews and there isn’t a person I have recommended this phone to till now. It’s not because the device is faulty anymore. It’s beautifully designed & has an extremely capable operating system. It’s just that I personally DO NOT TRUST NOKIA ANYMORE. And the blame rests not with the faulty device I bought. The blame does not lie in the fact that I got my replacement a day late. The trust is lost because I can see that your employees and your partners are oblivious of what your company stands for. They are directionless and don’t see how crucial the success of this device is for Nokia. They are content with getting their salaries and treating the customer in an apathetic manner, for which your Nokia Care centres and stores are now famous.
You grew exponentially, selling devices in large volumes, selling franchisees for Nokia stores and customer care centres. But you never really bothered to keep a check on anything. You never really bothered to check back with the customer. Your Nokia Care stores took phones from customers, kept them for weeks together, while the employees there used the phones personally and after their personal satisfaction, handed over the phones to unsuspecting customers with inflated invoices. I have personally had a Nokia N97 “destroyed” by employees at the Nokia Care in Sector 15, Faridabad and a Nokia N85 at Nokia Care, Sector 22, Chandigarh. I did not complain then. I treated them as isolated cases.
But what good is one’s association with a company which has lost faith in itself? Which has lost its touch with the customer? Mr. N***** told me that I would get a Bluetooth headset as a token of gesture from Nokia with the replacement. I would like to tell you that even if Nokia had given me this particular handset free of cost, the trust which has been shattered is beyond repair. I felt like dumping the handset in the recycle bin placed within the store because I felt betrayed by Nokia. No amount of monetary or material compensation can compensate for the lousy and pathetic attitude displayed by the employees of your company. Just to remind you, the Bluetooth headset in question was not given to me “SINCE IT IS NOT IN STOCK AT THE MOMENT”. And I have not signed the Letter of Satisfaction post the replacement.
This is your level of commitment towards those people who chose to unwisely invest in your products:
1. You sell them faulty product
2. You give delayed replacements
3. You mention gifts which will further be delayed
Can you guys spot a pattern? I can. A company which is failing. A company which issues orders at the top but has not communicated the vision at the bottom resulting in little action. A company whose channel partners don’t trust it. A company which cannot identify a loyal from a normal customer (because it never really cared in the past; the focus was solely on volumes). A company whose customers have no faith in it anymore.
I am writing this email to you, late in the night not because I have nothing better to do. It’s because I can see that I’m probably more passionate about your products than some people who work within your organization and are associated with it. It’s not about Rs. 30,000 which I now feel went down the drain. It’s more about the realisation that Nokia is sitting there, resting on its past glory. The employees are complacent. The sales staff is untrained. No amount of money you put into sales promotion can substitute for the existing customers that you will lose due to the prevailing attitude.
I can only hope that you guys realise, while there is still time. I don’t want your free headphones. I actually did not want a replacement. I wanted a refund. But as a one-time lover of Nokia products, I decided not to be so rigid. I don’t want phone calls from executives who don’t realise the importance of customers at this crucial time and I certainly don’t want replies to this email. Instead, by the time this month ends, I will dispose off your product and go back to the existing offerings from either Samsung, Blackberry or Apple, which I already own. They all have better specifications and work better. Most of all, the companies and their employees know the importance of maintaining relationships and have the desire to see their company progress rather than simply drawing fat salaries and resting on past laurels.
As a loyal customer, my duty was to give Nokia another chance. I did. Your product was faulty and you replaced it. It’s just that your entire approach at the execution level, which is heart-breaking. All the best.
I shall post a review of the Nokia Lumia 800 and my experience with it in a few days.