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]

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@chrisski wrote:

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.

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A colleague is waiting to upgrade and was told more colours would be available at the end of the month. Also the 720 is in red exclusive to O2 apparently.

[MI5]

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@chrisski wrote:

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

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Android is designed to keep apps open and held in memory for faster operation. It's not a fault or limitation (just for info)

[Anonymous]

I do tend to agree with the good points above.

I have deliberately not looked at what colors O2 are getting in stock as it'll make me want one! I have an S3, I love it, but I do have a thing for Windows Phone.

I got the HD7 a few years back and felt that the phone had a lot of potential. I couldn't understand why Windows Phone wasn't as popular as it deserved to be. It is the most professional feeling to a phone you can get and has full integration with Windows 8.

The bright colors are a defining feature of the Lumia range and I do believe O2 should be embracing WP more as opposed to treating it as a cheaper alternative to its beloved iOS.

Hopefully any future colors we get in will be soon and can satisfy what you are looking for because this phone really is the future and when we start rolling out 4G and the Windows Marketplace starts rolling out more apps you'll have a great experience on it!

[Anonymous]

I have to say I was totaly against windows phone OS. The wife had a HTC HD2 on windows. She got through 2 phones in 3 days with software faults. Then when it failed a month later it had to go to be repaired as it was out side of the 14 day swap for new and it came back less useable than when it went away. That was when she got her first I phone (a 4). Then she got the 4s as she didn't like the look of anything else. Certainly build wise nothing looked as sleek as the 4/4s at upgrade time. But now with the new lumias and Blackberry offerings I phone look rough around the edges. And I still can't believe how good the WP8 OS is. Classic Microsoft (it had to be rubbish somewhere) it doesn't really work on a desk top, but on the lumia its untouchable.

[Anonymous]

Are you aware that o2 and Vodafone share masts? I would think that that would ensure network coverage with Vodafone for you.

I'm in the same boat, I've a hankering for a yellow 920 myself and o2's stock response of "check the coming soon page" isn't very helpful, although I understand that its something they are required to say if the answer doesn't appear on their script.

To the chap who claims he's seem no demand for colour 920's, this is probably because o2 have done a piss poor job of marketing the device in black and the staff, in two stores I've visited, have been woefully uneducated on the device. People may be more inclined to ask about the 920 in a colour other than black if they actually knew you sold the thing in the first place. My first visit to an o2 store to enquire about the 920 was before it was officially released on o2 but after it appeared on the coming soon webpage, no one could answer any questions I had, tariff or technical related so I came back a week after o2 started selling it, went to look at it and ask the staff, two different staff members told me that the phone wasn't out yet depsite the fact I had held their demo phone in my own damn hands minutes before.

It would be interesting to hear your feedback after/if o2 starts stocking colour 920's on the general level of interest shown towards them, I think you may be surprised, everytime I visit CPW or Phones4U the colour 920's always have someone playing with them. Plenty of people ask on twitter all the time.