Blog!ARU: Archive

Towards the end of last year I found an album on Nokia Music that I really wanted but couldn't find anywhere else. I duly registered for Nokia Music, paid for the album and tried to downloaded the tracks. The tracks wouldn't download to my PC, something to do with a certificate error.

It was then that I found out that I had paid for DRM-riddled Windows Media Audio files at a low-quality bit-rate that could only be played if you have an Internet connection to download the license and a player capable of handling the DRM. I hadn't managed to download or play the music so I wrote to Nokia Music support and asked for a refund under the 7-day Distance Selling Regulations.

Nokia Music wrote back and asked for my inside leg measurement and a bucket load of details about my phone (none of which were relevant to my request). I duly replied and reiterated my request for a refund as they were obliged to offer by law.

They asked for more information about my PC and my phone. I answered some of it and reiterated my request for a refund. They asked a fourth time for even more information, but I ignored the request and just replied with the refund request.

That was the last I heard from Nokia Music.

I planned to take them to the small claims court, but in the end couldn't muster the enthusiasm to go through the hassle just for £8. So, avoid Nokia Music like the plague. They don't warn you before you buy that you are buying DRM-crippled WMA files at 192kbits/s, then when things don't work and you request a refund within 7 days as you're entitled to by rights protected under UK law, they procrastinate and then ignore you. I want to download music at up to 320kbits/s in plain MP3 format so I can play it when and where I want with no restrictions. DRM, Nokia Music and Nokia Music Customer Services suck.

I have a ‘Pay Monthly’ contract with Vodafone, for which they push bits of dead trees through my letter box every month with billing information on them. When I got the phone last May I was offered online billing and I duly attempted to register. I tried several times but was never able to manage it. In the end I contacted customer services who told me that online billing was broken, which was why I couldn't register, that they were working on a newer version and that I should try again later.

Later is February 2010; I was prompted to register again a couple of days ago by an SMS telling me that dead trees weren't going to be ferried to me every month any more. I tried yesterday to register but kept getting told that I'd entered incorrect account information. I checked and re-checked but couldn't get it to work. I contacted customer services.

They advised me that I wasn't the account holder and that I should get permission first from whoever was before attempting to register. I replied and advised that I am the account holder, that they couriered the phone to my home address when I bought it, that they send the bill to the same address every month and that I pay the bill from my bank account every month.

I got a call from a friendly but barely comprehensible gentleman from Bangalore who advised that he would delete my account and that I should attempt to register again. He subsequently sent me an email asking that I rate his answer online. I've spent an hour today trying that again. The form asks for my phone number and when I submit it I get an SMS with a security code in it. On the next form I enter the security code. On the next form I fill in my date of birth, my account number from my bill and the method by which I pay for my contract. When I do this I'm told yet again that I have entered incorrect account information and that I can't continue. When I follow the link to rate my customer service I get a web page blank except for the error message “Server Unavailable”.

Vodafone have terribly nice customer service staff, but nothing works. Vodafone suck.

Update (7th Feb)
News from Bangalore just in: apparently they have the wrong date on file for my birthday, which is odd because every time they do a security check they ask for this and it's always been OK! All I have to do is take my birth certificate to my nearest store 8 miles away…

Update (15th Feb)
Still no joy on this. I got the date-of-birth problem resolved and a follow-up email from Vodafone confidently predicted that all would be well now. Having the correct date of birth on file has had no effect; same problem, same error. Latest request from them is to email them a picture of the error message — it just says “You have entered incorrect account information. Please try again.” and they know that, but they want a picture of it regardless. If I wasn't tied into my contract for another 9 months it would be tempting to switch to O2.

Update (17th Feb)
Vodafone have been in touch to tell me that the reason I still can't log in is that I'm entering my date of birth wrong. What has actually happened beggars belief in that whoever made the correction to my Vodafone account on the 15th input another, different, wrong date for my birthday. Remarkably I haven't quite lost my rag with them, I'm not sure why.

Update (18th Feb)
Vodafone have been in touch to say that they've updated my date of birth — to yet another completely wrong date. Now I have lost my rag with them.

Update (19th Feb)
I asked Vodafone to call me to confirm that they'd fixed my date of birth and then I was going to register while they were on the call. They didn't call. They emailed this morning to say that they'd updated my date of birth correctly and that now I'd be able to register. Despite the assurances I still get the same error when I try to register. I've now threatened to cancel my contract and have asked for the name and address of the head of customer services.

Update (19th Feb)
Another email this morning says that I should wait 24 hours before attempting to register. 48 hours later and it still doesn't work. My request for the details of the head of customer service was denied but I've been offered the option of beginning the complaints procedure via a manager, I've requested this.

Update (23rd Feb)
A reply from the escalation team (second-line support) revealed that a technical glitch had prevented my date of birth from being updated and that they'd now corrected the mistake on my account. This did not fix the problem. Given the previous reply I then waited 24 hours, but it still isn't fixed. The person dealing with this also appears to have ignored my insistence on registering a complaint. My spleen has been vented at this point.

Update (13th Aug)
Vodafone never did get back to me. I intended to write a letter of complaint, but couldn't be bothered dealing with Vodafone any more intending to switch to O2 at the end of my contract at the end of the year. However, I've just tried registering again using the new revamped “My Account” registration process. This partially worked but kept redirecting me to an additional registration screen that on submission would say “Requested service is already avaliable on the number” (typo theirs), but by browsing the parts of “My Account” that did work I did manage to find an option to unsubscribe from online billing entirely with then another option to remove all my details from Vodafone, which I did. This achieved I re-registered my phone and now have a mostly working “My Account” section. The bit that doesn't work is the direct link to online billing. However, I did manage to find another way in and bookmarked it for direct access for use once I've logged into “My Account”. So, after a particularly awful customer experience with Vodafone I can at least see what they're charging me for each month.

I'd been using Nokia Maps for about a year, the paid service that is, and it was pretty good, it worked, I could plan routes, it got me from A to B just fine, more or less (apart from that time it took me on a detour to Manchester and I sat in stationary traffic on the M62 for an hour, but let us overlook that little mishap).

Now it's defunct as there's a new Ovi Maps that's free to use. Sounds great. It's not. I'd tried last week to use a saved favourite route, but Ovi Maps would only ever report the error “Route Not Found”.

Today I had to rely on it to go to Kwik Fit in Trowbridge to have two new front tyres fitted. I'd set the location of Kiwk Fit as a temporary favourite, got in the car, picked the favourite and it duly appeared on the map, great. I then chose ”Drive to” and got the error “Route Not Found”. I had to go back into the house and memorise the route from Google Maps.

I've spent a couple of hours uninstalling, installing, re-installing, deleting folders, changing settings and more as advised in various forums and none of it works. Ovi Maps is crap. Its basic function of being a sat-nav doesn't work and there's no way to add or edit custom routes unlike the old version, so even if the sat-nav did work I couldn't plan journeys and set waypoints to avoid congested roads. I can however check for my nearest Michelin-starred restaurant, so that's handy. I'd happily continue to pay for Nokia Maps, but I don't think it's possible to download the old version any more and it's probably not possible to buy a licence even if I could. Nokia intend the free Ovi Maps to become a ‘killer app’ that will woo punters into buying its phones, and maybe it would be if it worked.

Having been a happy paying customer of Nokia Maps I'm now faced with the ironic prospect of having to buy a sat-nav, good work Nokia!

Update
Ugh, this morning it's all working; the Sat-Nav bit works, saved routes work, the voicey bit is working too. Rather perplexed as I haven't touched the phone since yesterday not even to turn it off. It got me to the Quantocks this afternoon (where I was drinking Earl Grey and eating bananas whilst surrounded by low clouds and back on a purposely different route flawlessly. Oh, well, lets hope it stays that way. Ovi Maps no longer sucks.