Nokia Australia defends new defect claims - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Nokia Australia defends new defect claims

By Andrew Colley, 0
October 04, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Nokia-Australia-defends-new-defect-claims/0,130061791,120268793,00.htm

Nokia's 8850 model mobile phone is coming under fire from consumers who claim the handset suffers from the same screen defects that plagued the 8210.

Dozens of consumers have contacted ZDNet Australia recently after their Nokia 8850 handsets' displays have failed, reminding many of screen fault in Nokia's 8210 model that the manufacturer admits was the result of a faulty component produced last year.

The customers have added their voices to many owners of Nokia handsets who insist that the display fault affects a broader range of the Finnish manufacturer's handset series than the company claims. While ZDNet Australia received a slew of complaints regarding the 8210 last year, dozens of Nokia customers have since made identical allegations regarding the displays of its contemporaries, chief among them the 8850 and 6210 series handsets.

A Nokia Australia spokesperson said that some customers have returned Nokia 8850s but said that the number is not significant.

"We have had some returned but as with most electronics products it would not be unusual for [the company] to have some returns," said a Nokia Australia spokesperson.

"Based on the information we have at the moment we don't consider this to be an issue".

However, consumers may have reason to doubt the accuracy of the Nokia spokesperson's claims regarding the breadth of the range of phones affected by the display problem.

While Nokia insists that the display problem is confined to a batch of Nokia 8210s manufactured between October 2001 and January 2002, the company has had difficulty explaining why the display problem appeared earlier. The NSW Department of Fair Trading began its investigation into the 8210 in September 2001 and ZDNet Australia was receiving a large volume of complaints about the phones in August.

Nokia is standing by its claim that the display problem is unique to the batch carrying faulty components manufactured last year. According to Nokia, display problems experienced in other instances are simply coincidences.

"Other reported display problems are isolated cases and are not linked in any way to [the 8210] case," said the spokesperson.