The Nokia 920 in the UK farce

[chrisski]

Its some 6 months since the release of the Nokia Lumia 920 and I am still unable to get a yellow one on O2.  My problem is, O2 are the only UK operator who provide a signal that's almost usable where I live - all the others are too weak in my area, so I'm stuck with O2.

Obviously the EE exclusitivy delayed progress in the UK for this phone, but that ended in January and the uptake by other operators has been poor to say the least.  Vodaphone offer theirs in balck and yellow, and I think red too, but the prices are crazy.  Three, as far as I can tell, only have it in black.  EE/Orange/T-Mobile have black, white, red and yellow, and all are over-priced.

And now, finally, O2 are in the fray, but only black - and again over-priced.  The only way for me to get a yellow 920 and use it on O2 in this country right now is to buy the phone outright factory unlocked for £520 (at least £100 more than the phone is worth) or buy it from Phones4U for £450 + £10 topup and then pay the £35 unlock fee (which seems to take at least two weeks to arrive), so ending up roughly the same price.

I've seen evidence that you can go into an EE shop and pay only £399 for the phone with a free charger plate thrown in - but only for the black model and only where the shops themsevles realise they can sell it at this price - and then only if they have available stock.

I found amazon.de showing handsets for only 280 Euros and have now ordered one on 7 separate occasions, only to be met with an email anything between 10 minutes and three hours later to say the order can not be run.  I even contacted a marketplace seller directly and he said he would have no problems sending one to me on the same day - but first I would have to make a bank transfer to a random Romanian bank account!  There was my clue the 280 Euro offers on amazon.de were all scams, since none of them ever process and that's the reply you get when you contact the sellers.  Be warned.  (incidentally, I've told Amazon about this, they said the seller has breached his contract with them and they would shut him down - yet two weeks on he is still offering 920's you can't actually buy)

So, I contacted Nokia directly by sending an email to their head office.  I had a phone call two days later from a man in Nokia, Finland, and answered my question of "why can't I buy a yellow 920 in the UK to work on the network of my choice?"  His answer: "Nokia have no supply issues to anywhere in the world.  If O2 want to sell colour Lumia 920's, they can.  We suggest you contact your account manager in O2 and ask them to supply a yellow 920."

Not entirely helpful.  But better than I got from O2 themselves:

info: Welcome to O2. A Guru will be with you soon.      
info: You're through to Guru O2 : Edmond.    
O2 : Edmond: Hi I'm O2 : Edmond. How can I help?
chris: hi edmond, i'm chris
chris: i have a question about the nokia lumia 920
chris: after waiting (impatiently) for some 6 months since its release now, i am still unable to buy one on O2 in yellow
chris: do you have any new/info on when we can expect o2 to supply the 920 in something other than black?
O2 : Edmond: I'll explain that to you.
chris: sorry "new"="news"
O2 : Edmond: Please help me with your full name?
chris: Chris *****
chris: O2 Account number ***********
O2 : Edmond: Thanks.
O2 : Edmond: To be honest with you, we don't have any timescale or update for the new Lumia 920 available in yellow colour. Once it is available with us, we will update that on our website for you.
chris: could you explain why you only have the black one for the moment?
chris: is this a supply issue from nokia, an exclusivity deal with another operator...?
O2 : Edmond: I'm sorry but I don't deal with the sales, as I'm a customer service advisor. You'll need to call our sales team on  0844 809 0202 between Monday to Friday 8am to 9pm, Saturday 8am to 8pm & Sunday 8am to 6pm. If you dial 202 from any O2 Pay Monthly mobile it would be free of charge.
O2 : Edmond: I'd appreciate your understanding in this matter.

Some guru Edmond turned out to be.

Why are there so many barriers in place in the UK to stop customers from buying the new FLAGSHIP Nokia handset?  This is the phone that's supposed to save the company, yet Nokia don't seem to be bothered in making sure people can actually get one.

Right now I am leaning towards eBay being my only hope and then switching to a giffgaff SIM to counter the outlay.

Make no mistake - if I could get signal with Vodaphone or Orange, I would leave O2 in a heartbeat - the company have been problematic to me since the day I joined them almost 10 years ago and have shown no customer loyalty whatsoever (my last phone - which has been out of contract now for over a year, was far cheaper (and I do mean a lot) for me to buy as a NEW customer thatn take an upgrade.  And now, three years into a two year contract, even the balck 920 is over priced on the Upgrade You Phone section after logging in with my account.  Is £32 per month for three years so insignificant that I am wothless to this company?!!

So, with both O2 and Nokia having no idea about their own products, does anyone here have any information about the situation?  As far as I can tell, any one wanting it in cyan can forget it.

 (edited for typos and spelling errors)

[MI5]

Rather long winded..... However, I've heard yellow is supposed to be coming to O2 at the end of March....

[version7point0]

Hi Chrisski.

My opinion; it all boils down to supply and demand.

To put this in context - since the 920's release you are the only person I have come accross to have asked for the yellow varriant - so thats checking these forums and having anywhere up to 200 customers coming through our stores doors everyday.

Unless it's Android or iOS, people are just not interested, therefor it would be pointless and costly to have a handful of these everywhere in the country on the off chance someone might buy one.

Like I said, just my opinion.

I wish you luck in your ongoing quest for the mighty yellow Lumia - King of Windows Phone

[sheepdog]

Almost as bad as "when are the white iphones coming". Its a matter of sales. Not many people will want a yellow or pink or cyan phone so the operators have to order in sufficient quantities from the supplier who may have a minimum order threshold to produce said colour. Who will then put into motion the factory order for a batch and so forth. 

Whats the supply situation from other suppliers other than the networks? I guess it may not be that many either.

[Anonymous]

Also - Nokia offer bright cases for them so if you get a black one you can personalise it whenever you want

[version7point0]

Slightly off topic;

I find if you go for a certain coloured variant (and depending on if your OCD rivals mine) you are limited to what wallpapers (or tiles in this case) you can go for before your phone looks "wrong".

My latest laptop is red, yet I feel I can only get away with red tiles on my start screen and a red or black wallpaper on my desktop.

Stay safe kids, stay black...

[Anonymous]

I have a yellow 920. I got it because I changed to Orange (EE) because O2 weren't able to give me even basic signal coverage at work or home for varying and random lengths of time when it used to work fine and they said there were no network issues (thats another story).

As you say it is Nokia's flag ship phone in the colour all the tv adverts show it in.

At what point would there be no demand for a phone in the colour its plastered all over tv in?! Everything used to be black and then I phone released white and its all everyone wanted. Now everyone has a white phone. How bland.

People are now changing there I phone bodies to these coloured vairants, red, blue, purple etc. While I do think pink tiles don't work on my yellow phone, my wife is very anoied I have a yellow 920 and she only has a black one (a steal off ebay at £318 with a charge plate). And as for no one being interested unless its IoS or Android, I'm sorry but IoS is dated now (even Blackberry are having a pop about Apple not moving with the times and upgrading OS) and Android is full of glitches and with the play market largely unchecked all sorts of nasty spyware and dogy apps are finding there way on to peoples phones.

Windows 8 as a phone OS is much better than anything I have used before, and my wife wouldn't go back to either IoS or Android since changing to the lumia at the begining of the year. Its the first phone shes had in living memory she hasn't complained about with in 3 days of having it. The I phones was, can't bluetooth or share anything and siri didn't really have any use in the UK other than to make you laugh when you asked it to talk dirty or told it you had murdered someone, Android, was constant crashes, lock ups and unexpected shut downs.

The biggest problem with W8 is the Microsoft FB app is rubbish and the 3rd party ones arn't much better, but no worries. You can pin web pages direct to your start screen so you just log in to your FB and navigate to your most used section, page or group and pin it where you like on your start screen. Simples.

There are more and more users of W8 apearing and the new Nokia's (theres alot of them all of a sudden) are helping drive this. Certainly build wise compared to the flimsy cheap looking pastic Samsung offerings and the ever fragile I phone's I know what I'd go for every time.

As for contract prices. They're all expencive now. I was lucky enough to get my lumia free but its a £37 a month plus VAT contract. Which is what my wife is paying on her contract that was an I phone deal which she changed to Android and now replaced her Note with the 920.

O2 need to sort basic signal provison out, and by the sound of this, get a sales and marketing team who can see past the old worn out IoS offerings (I really like how you have to buy all new accesories for the I phone 5 as they changed the port in the bottom of it so you can't use it in I pod docks or keep your car charger) and realise that there are more alternatives than Android if you can't afford or don't like I phone.

[chrisski]

Thank you, M15 - may I ask, where did you hear that from?  No end of daily searching the internet for news and popping randomly into shops has ever revealed any info about it.

Apologies for the long post.

[chrisski]

Version7point0 -  I simply can't believe no one is asking for the colour versions since that's the most obvious thing that makes the Lumia range stand out from the rest.  I would be sincerely interested to know how many 820 & 920's sell in each colour offered by operators that do offer the choice already, and since I have seen people weilding the yellow and the red one already its pretty obvious people want to buy something that's not just the black one.

Perhaps you don't encounter it simply because O2 aren't offering it, but pop into a neighbouring Vodaphone shop and watch how many punters pick up the black version when they're taking a look at this handset.   Last time I went in, I had to wait while a group in front of me where picking up the yellow and the red one and never touched the black one.

[chrisski]

Thank you Benny314.  I wish I was in your position where Orange were able to provide a better signal.  Before phones got smart, I was an Orage customer and always found them to be a much better operator to be with.

My wife has a Galaxy S3 and loves it, but after 4 months is beginning to complain about the memory management and apps you can't close - and that she is scared it will break in her bag.  And I agree IOS is looking old.

I've been a WP7 user for the last 2 years and haven't once felt like I was missing out on anything my friends had on their iPhones and can't wait to join you with a WP8 phone.