- Amy

It’s not fun if a device you cherish stops working after a software update. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to Amy Gahran. Amy recently posted articles on her experience trying to recover her device after a failed software update….

Two things contributed to my silence yesterday – I was offline most of the day and I really spent a lot of time thinking how to best bring your discussion onto our site, so I was doing my homework before I went further (I needed to contact a bunch of people to find out what we actually do).

1) I see from my email headers that there has been some discussion and as soon as I get off here, I’ll see what they say. But, PLEASE, let’s together make sure that this isn’t a one-off ‘help Amy’ thing, which seems to happen when a blogger pipes up. Let’s see how this can effect a real improvement in some sort of reasonable amount of time (also see next)
2) My comment on ‘intermediaries’ wasn’t to shift the blame. Tut tut. It was saying that your category of problem (service) was a complicated beast. To me it’s a mix of warranty (ask Darla), FW upgrade (you feel that pain), and the channels (particularly in the US). the comment was to step back a bit and think of all the other incidents that you and I have heard of (and the ones we haven’t).
3) Wow. This was a great article. It has many aspects and I think it’s pivoting around your krappy experience with the FW update. I think you could make a deeper post in each of these items you list.
4) (sticking my foot in my mouth) Sigh. What pains me most is that you CARE and you have to suffer such an experience. But, it’s sad to think of all the people who don’t care that we turned off. Gosh, that’s krap.
5) (sticking foot deeper in mouth) Yeah, it’s obvious that sometimes the FW updater bricks a phone. Indeed, I hold my breath every time. But, it seems to be improving (it actually saved my son’s N81 user data – finally). And it’s been really popular. BUT, yeah the big BUT, maybe we should have been prepared for any of those rare instances when it BRICKS THE PHONE. Sigh.
6) (last sticking of foot in mouth) Well, yeah, if you pay a lot for a device, there are certain expectations.

So, let’s keep this visible (even after anything gets fixed for you). Please don’t expect instantaneous responses, though, partly due to time zones (I am in Finland) and partly due to me liking to due my home work so as not to say something misleading, stupid, asinine, wrong, costly, and so forth (but don’t let me take too long to respond).

I hope mojo and MsJen can vouch for me.

‘Later
Hey, and I’d like to excerpt a few of these comments from you and Beth. I’ll try to post something by end of day today.

Ok?

Ta.

Charlie

PS As for sales price, distribution channels, etc, let’s see if we can split those discussion up instead of all on one place. Also, for me, at least, those are much bigger issues than I can respond to. Though it’ll be circulated for comment and any action. Ja?

I’m sad — but not surprised — to hear that you’re another potential N95 owners who’s holding off from buying because of these considerable problems.

And Mark: Thanks much for joining this conversation. I’ve very happy to see you here, that’s encouraging! I’ve responded to you in a new post. I hope we hear more from you and Nokia about this as we all work to address these issues — either here or (even better) on Nokia’s new Conversations blog.

- Amy Gahran

The UX on the side of updating devices painlessly is being addressed, however the N95 NAM/N95 8GB NAM models do not seem to have reaped any of that love yet. Tis a shame really; because that (and present finances) is what is holding me back from purchasing one.

Hooked into your blog now, and so hopefully there will be some kind of response soon. Blessings.