Nokia Asia told ZDNet Australia associates based in Singapore that it will only, repair faulty 8210 handsets and renew their warranties at no cost if they've been manufactured between October 2001 and January 2002. In Australia, government authorities have ordered Nokia to extend this offer all owners 8210s exhibiting symptoms of the fault, regardless of when their phone was built.
"For Nokia 8210 phones manufactured outside this timeframe, our normal warranty provisions apply. If consumers have any concerns on this or any issue, we would encourage them to bring their phones to any of our authorised and trained services centres and we will undertake to do the repairs," a Nokia spokesperson said.
Nokia is sticking to its claim that the component quality issue it identified in February only affected 8210s manufactured between the two dates specified in its statements. Nevertheless, on many occasions the New South Wales Department of Fair Trading has said that its investigation into the matter began September 2001.
Nokia appears to have had some difficulty keeping track of the fault and the extent of its impact on phones.
In March, Nokia's chief technical officer, Yjro Neuvo, rejected claims that the fault affected phones in Asia and Europe. Weeks later, Nokia's issued a press statement that indicated the component problem affected phones delivered in Scandinavia, Germany and the United States.
"...the failing display component has to an extent also been used in some other Nokia models," said the company at the time.
Late last year ZDNet Australia reported that a former employee of the company alleged that the display problem may have affected a broad range of Nokia handsets built after the company retired the Nokia 2110, five years ago.
