I am never getting a Nokia again.

[Gymnophoria]

Don't get me wrong, I love my phone. But when it stopped working and I sent it off for repair I was hopeful that I'd have it back in no time.
I just checked the carphone warehouse repair tracker online and it said my phone couldn't be fixed. So I called them and they said it had "liquid ingress" and couldn't be repaired. Conveniently enough, this isn't covered by my warranty. I googled it out of interest and found a few sites with threads discussing Nokias just being really bad with faults and engineers saying "water damage" because they don't know what the problem is so they can avoid having to replace it.

I told my girlfriend what they had told me on the phone and she said that she'll take me to a Nokia shop that is great. Her phone had exactly the same kind of problems and they were fixed numerous times. They also fix water damage in this shop. So why can't the repair centre in God knows where do that for me?

Does anyone else have bad experiences with Nokia like this?
I love my old phone and I hope I get it working again, but I am never buying a Nokia again. It's not worth the hassle.

[FlyingTrue]

Sounds like either they got two separate phones mixed up or they are making a fraudulent claim to avoid honoring their own warranty. I suggest making sure the serial number of the cell phone you get back is the same as the serial number of the phone you sent them, also when you take it to the repair store, have them verify if there is any evidence of liquid damage or not. From there I would suggest filing a complaint with your government's consumer advocacy representatives.

[The Morrigan]

All my Nokias have worked fine

Although I generally replace my phone after a year so they've never been damaged

[tk338]

I work in one of a few phone repair places with a carphonewarehouse contract, not doing Nokia myself, but the process I should imagine is very similar.

If they say a phone will not be repaired under warranty because there is been liquid damage, they need proof. If you ring them up and ask to speak to someone at the repair centre, they should have a photo taken of the liquid damage as proof which they could email to you. (If anywhere in the tracker online thing you saw BER or 'beyond economical repair' there will without doubt be a photo of the supposed damage)

Certainly with the manufacturer I work with it isn't enough for just one of the liquid indicators to be showing colored, but there has to be evidence of rusting, water (or stains of liquid) inside the phone, or some form of proof beyond a tiny bit of colored paper. There are phones where water has seeped in just enough to hit the liquid indicator but not onto the board or anything.

If there is liquid damage, it doesn't matter what the fault of the phone is, they won't fix it you'd be surprised what some people try, and I know you didn't, but with every phone you get in you have to be skeptical towards the customers comments. people can be very crafty. If you know for certain you didn't liquid damage the phone, nothing could have got in there, query it. They wouldn't damage a phone on purpose you are watched by about 3 billion cctv cameras as you work and another 5 supervisors and managers walking around.

Also, and its a long shot, but if you still have the box for your old phone check the imei which would be on the side of the box, inside or provided on a sticker, and then check the imei on the back of the phone. Its a 15 or 16 digit number unique to every phone and although its nigh on impossible to mix phones up it could be worth a shot.

Finally if you do take it to the Nokia repair shop, don't mention liquid damage, they'll go looking for it! Walk in like its the first time you've taken your phone in anywhere, tell them whats up and see if they can fix it. They may come back to you saying its liquid damaged, and give you a price for it, or they may well not, but once again its all about cost to the shop.

Final final note, if you sent it back through Carphone Warehouse, its being repaired in their name, still a Nokia line, likely any phone make you sent to be repaired through carphone warehouse would be done by the same people. You could also send it back for repair (as you're going to) direct through Nokia, and possibly through your network provider too, although they may tell you to take it back to the shop you bought it from.

Hope you get it sorted anyway. The only sure fire way is send it back through insurance. House contents insurance can sometimes include mobile phones, just again tell them it stopped working, even if they claimed liquid damage on a phone under an insurance claim they'd fix it or give you a new one. But then again I'd never buy insurance for a phone not worth the money imo