My short experience with a bricked Lumia 920 and Nokia Care Support

There's nothing worse than your Windows Phone taking some physical damage as the appearance of a smartphone is fairly important, especially when it's a Lumia 920 or other Windows Phone. There's really only one instance when an issue can prove more irritating and that's when the software (or a combination of it and hardware) royally breaks and thus bricking the device. How useful is a bricked Windows Phone? Well, it's good paperweight, I suppose. This is what happened to my poor white Lumia 920. Let me tell you a short story of what happened and how quickly the issue was resolved by Nokia.

It all began last Wednesday when I attempted to reset my Lumia 920 (settings > about > reset phone) to go through the installation process for a tutorial we're publishing on Windows Phone Central shortly. Unfortunately when the phone rebooted, I was greeted by the fairly common "spinning cogs" issue. I ran through numerous trouble shooting options and even attempted to connect the device to the PC and flash the firmware. Each and every attempt failed.

Which option was I left with? The manufacturer, or in this case Nokia. Since the Lumia 920 is (or rather, was) only just shy of 5 months in age, the warranty was still valid. Thursday I went to the Nokia UK support website and followed through the trouble shooter for it to try and work out exactly what the diagnosis was. It was extremely straight forward and easy to get through.

Common questions were asked, with potential solutions. But if you keep selecting "no" when the walkthrough asks whether or not each solution solves the issue (like I had to), you're then taken to the page to book for the Windows Phone to be sent out to Nokia for further investigation. Once you've filled in all the necessary details, an email confirmation is sent with the date for collection. I was expecting a slight delay between filing the request and the actual collection, but it was literally the next day.

With the device well on its way, all that was left to do was wait for a response. Come Monday (it was the Friday when the Lumia 920 was collected), I received a confirmation email from Nokia stating they've received the faulty device. That was day 2. On day number 3, the Tuesday just gone, I received a follow-up email that simply said the engineers were unable to fix the fault and that the Lumia 920 has been exchanged. I then received the new Lumia 920 this morning, day 4. That's four days for me to send my Lumia 920 to Nokia and for the company to essentially replace the device, which is an outstanding service.

What would I recommend to consumers, namely those with Nokia Windows Phones? Be sure to get in touch with Nokia when issues arise. Support channels are in place for customers to run through trouble shooters and / or contact Nokia directly to arrange for the Windows Phone in question to be looked at. While my Lumia 920 is lost forever in the test labs to help the technicians further understand what went wrong, the shiny new white smartphone joins the Samsung ATIV S and others on a rather dusty desk, ready for daily use.

Thank you, Nokia.

Have you contacted Nokia support and sent back your Lumia Windows Phones? If so, what are your experiences?

Rich Edmonds

Rich Edmonds is Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him over on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

123 Comments

Mine bricked last week. Contacted Nokia support and after about 15 min (had a very nice chat with someone), we decided my phone needed to be taken in to AT&T for a new one. AT&T had me a new one in about 30 min.
Same here, and same exact story, but I called at&t, 3 days later I had another nl920 at my door and 10 days to ship back old one, was sure about Nokia, but at&t surprised me, in a good way
I just took mine into an AT&T service shop. I assume that not everyone has one. I'm lucky enought to live pretty close to one.
Had to replace mine due to a speaker issue. AT&T replaced it promptly. I hear all these negative comments about their customer service and I have never had anything but stellar support from them.
Actually, mine had many issues, lcd colours being yellowish, buttons are dark yellow, it kept losing signal, and a faulty earpieace, and of course overheating, battery drain, the dust in the FF camera, and those MOFOS only said that they can fix it, and they will never be able to replace, and I dont know why! :/
My ATT service center replaced mine today after the spinning gears issue for 30 hrs. They could not solve it, though maybe they don't know about this thread...I hadn't seen it until after I took mine in. The great part was that I also had a dinged up phone with dust in the FF camera, and they still replaced it. Maybe you just need to have the software brick up "from trying to update it."
The funny thing was that my Windows store was completely useless. They didn't even know the update was out for the Lumia 920. I would expect more from them.
Nokia support was great to me here in the US
Of course if you look in our amazing forums there are ways to fix bricked Lumia 920s yourself... That's what I had to do at christmas!
I had to do that at Thanksgiving. Literally two and a half weeks after having mine. Sad day, but the forums came through! Glad to know that the official support channels are awesome if I go that route next time.
I still don't get how you manage to brick your WP's... :P
Mine was a device from Build. So could have been an early batch problem. But I didn't do anything outside normal use, just doing a factory reset like Rich did above.
Sam, do you know, do our Build phones have any kind of warranty?
There was actually a document that you should have received with the phone at Build that gave contact information for support issues with that phone. It was a different department from the standard customer care department. My Build phone bricked on reset. I went through Nokia customer care and they wound up sending me out a new phone. It took well over a month because they had no stock. The phone they sent is not identical to the build phone, because they apparently only manufactured those for Build. The original build phone was a penta-band. The new one is an AT&T branded quad-band phone that is supposed to be unlocked.
Speaking of which, does anyone want to buy a brand new AT&T branded quad-band phone that is supposed to be unlocked? My company has switched my service to Verizon so I am on an 8X now.
Yeah I remember there being some document, I'll have to dig it out of my clutter. I was just wondering if anyone knew off the top of their head whether or not we had at least a 1 year warranty or not. I'm glad to read that they replaced your phone when it went bad. It may have taken a month, but in my book thats pretty good customer service for something they gave out for free.
Please email me if you really want to sell the phone.
If you are still selling it, please email me as I am very interested =D
The gears of death is a problem affecting a lot of 920s.

However, I have neaver heard of it not responding to beign flashed before.
Which is what is linked in the article. And as I mention in the article, it didn't work.
My bad :) totally skimmed the article after the first bit
Bad Jay Bennett. Commenting without reading the article, LOL!
I had to fix mine a couple of weeks ago (thank you forums) - In fact, it was after meeting Rich for a pint....maybe he jinxed it!!!
Outstanding customer support. One more reason to decide for Nokia, at least in my case.
I agree. I went through AT&T's "customer no-service" about 4 times before finalling going through Nokia. While I wasn't happy, they really came through and did an amazing job. If anything happens to my new 920, I won't even go through AT&T, I'll be going through Nokia.
That's great :-) On a lighter note, how did you "Remove and retain your battery and battery cover before packing your device"? :D
That's just a default message on there. You can't remove the batteries on 920's.
Yup, I know, that's why I asked :D
*humor* ;-)
It was difficult, I must admit! :-P
Well, it's good you didn't retain those, else you could only send the gorilla glass to them.. :D
Haha!
Nothing but bad for me I'm afraid. I sent back my Lumia 800 3 times with the same problem (microphone stopped working). The speed it was all done was good but the quality of the fix was poor, would work for a few days then die again. As much as I complained for a new phone they would not give me one and kept telling me to send it back. Gave up in the end and sold it on ebay as faulty.
I bought a Lumia 920 because I love the phone but I'm praying nothing goes wrong as I don't want to go through all that again!
I used to have an iPhone, the button on the phone broke, they replaced the whole phone and sent it back within a week. A+ service.
Surely it would have cost less to send me a new phone the amount of times it took them to TRY and fix it!
I had the exact same problem with my mircrophone on an 800, was it completely non-functioning or just really quiet? i sent mine off and recieved a repaired model in 3 days, and the problem never came back. However during the repair some slight damage was done to the polycarbonate shell when taking the screen out, which was a real shame.
Had no problem with Nokia support US
I have a slightly less positive story.
My Lumia 920 suffered from a weird accellerometor fault. Of which the onl solution seemed to be a hard hit. I got to the Nokia online repair, and filled out the form. I never got an email response...
So I filled out another one a week later, this time I got a response in about an hour, but it said they were having technical difficulties and would follow up, don't reply to the email. So I didn't.... and I waited... and waited....
So a week or so goes by again, and I call in using the Nokia care app (very useful btw) and the, *ahem* tech support could only suggest I fill the form out again... which I did, to the same error message and 0 follow up. Filed it once more a day or so later, same response. So, I gave up.
Aside from my ruddy accelerometor issues (somethings like photo spacial apps get reeeeeal buggy) and dust in my camera, I've decided to live with it for now. Maybe I might try calling again.
Take it to att if you're in the US. In addition to the manufacturer warranty most carriers have a separate warranty.
My sister broke her wireless charging cable through her own fault. She tried to go through Nokia to PURCHASE a new cable because she couldn't find one for sale anywhere. They assigned her a rep to work with her. They weren't able to find a reseller that only sold the cable. ....so they sent her a new unit free of charge and thanked her for being a customer. It was awesome. My sister was an Apple person before this, and wasn't sure if she'd stay with WP. Yet now she has been won over by Nokia's service.
One tip of the day: never reset your Lumia 920 if you really doesn't have to
Mine was almost bricked last time I reset
I had the cogs issue recently and the fix posted on the forum worked for me. I'm glad that you got the chance to make the best of an unfortunate situation.
I have bricked my 920 twice and flashed it with navifirm both times to get it as good as new. AT&T is out of cyan phones anyways and I would have to take a black one if I got it exchanged. Only problem is that a lot of progress in games got wiped out.
My Cyan one was replaced last week by AT&T for the spinning gears issue. They obviously didn't have one iat the device support center, but I had a cyan one via FEDEX on my doostep the next afternoon. It may be a refurb, but that is what I expected from a warranty replacement.
Had an issue with mine here in Australia. Procedure here is to send it via the local postal system and because it has a battery it needs to travel by road. I'm in West Australia. Phone had to go east. Some 4000 kms.. Tracking it via the Nokia website it took about 5 business days to get there. 1 day for Nokia to fix. 5 business days back. Just over 2 weeks in total and I was happy as that's as good as its going to get from my side of the country by road. But maybe Nokia could use a delivery company other than the local PO like DHL and pick up the unit and get it there faster like they did in your case and then I'd be much happier if turn around was about a week. I have to mention that the issue had to do with the proximity sensor. But Nokia replaced the housing which had a huge dent in the corner from a big fall and also the screen which had a fairly deep scratch in the middle, so it kinda feels like I got a new phone :) thanks Nokia!
Yeah, in Australia I had a very negative experience with Nokia Care.
A few years ago Nokia care used to have offices in all major cities where you could personally get the phone looked at and handed-in, usually with a replacement on the spot, or at least a quick turn around. Now it is a post only service which in my experience ended up taking over 1 month for me to get my phone returned (and I am on the East Coast!).
The postage got lost (and I used the registered Nokia packaing as provided by Nokia), and they told me it was my loss! (a 3 week old Lumia 900 for $650!). I kept on getting put through to an Indian call center and they kept on telling me to chase up the postal service and it was not longer a Nokia issue! (I even supplied them with the Nokia postage receipt) and tracking number. I was furious. This was a Nokia Care supplied and funded packag I used! It is the ONLY repair service they offer! It should be their responsibility! The call centre even laughed at me for getting mad, and effectively told me bad luck! This went on for 1 month until the phone eventually turned up (all they did was flash the device and it still had various issues).
Maybe the service is better in other countries, but it makes me very nervous to ever buy a Nokia in Australia.
I sent my 820 to CPW twice then Nokia care twice. Nokia replaced it the second time. I was fairly annoyed at the 5 working day turnaround.
The first repair by Nokia was more faulty than it went away! Nokia care were useless when contacting them by phone and refused to reimburse me any loss of service etc.
I also visited an 'Express Care Centre' - a 140 mile round trip. Only to find it has closed as a repair centre (still a retailer) and still listed on Nokia.co.uk as an Express centre (Westcom, Clifton/Bristol fyi).
Eventually had enough and emailed Stephen Elop. He got the Customer Escalations and Resolution Team to contact me from Anovo (not sure if 3rd party or inhouse alternative brand). They replaced the handset again and sent me some stuff (Luna headset & 32GB card) but overall disappointed with the debacle it was to get my handset working.
Now my mother is going through the same issue. Last time I was home I had my parents switch networks and get 820's as both me and my brother have WP so they can always get tech advice from us.
Now I'm sorted but I eventually got £540 from CPW for returning my 820 and the inconvenience. The cash draw was too much to pass up as in the end my 820 was replaced by one made in Finland and worked epically. Used some of the cash to buy a 620 and I'll just wait for all the little niggles to blow over before getting another high end/LTE device.
Friends 920 was rebooting alot and he call ATT and was sent a new one without any fuss. The customer rep also told him to keep the defectiove phone. Nice bonus!
I've gone through multiple exchanges, four for myself and three for family members.

Yes, that is correct, everybody that had a phone under my plan had their 920 exchanged. Well, except for one, but she is about to get one soon since now her phone isn't working properly.

THere needs to be a QC process for these phones, its quite embarrasing. My family members were iphone users and i dont think they would get another nokia phone after this. Anyway, that is a different topic.

As far as nOkia care goes, they have been great through all my exchanges. Although my first took about a month, but they sent me a loaner to use in the meantime since they didn't have my color, so that was nice of them. When my color did come, it was defective so i had to do another one and then got another replacement shortly after. With all the exchanges i've gone through, they have been responsive and informativel.

So moral of the story, your phone is broke, go through nokia care, not ATT or whoever you bought it from, i bet they suck, i know ATT does.
Throughout the years, with all of the issues I've had with various phones, I've never had a single issue with AT&T's warranty department. I may take my 920 in since I've got dust under the ffc and issues with the network after the 1308 update.
I'm guessing there will be a fix foe the network thing. Just blow the dust out with canned air through the ear hole.
Collection, do you mean shipping?
UPS came and collected the device and it's used in the email, so I used the same term for consistency sake.
I got shit support from EE but managed to find a site where I could download some Nokia tools. Overwrote the ROM and eventually everything was back to normal. Don't bother calling EE. They have less of a clue than the pizza-induced stool that just won't flush.
My Lumia 800 last year decided that it would crash and not want to turn on. Went to the Nokia website on the Wednesday, filled out the form, printed off the AusPost eParcel label, then the next day took the phone to the Adelaide CBD Post Office, put it in a box, got a Road Ship Only sticker stuck on it (because of the battery and not wanting to earn the ire of Australia Post) and off it went.
As I was moving from college back to home, I got it sent back home to a small town that usually takes a day or so longer for things to get to. I wasn't expecting it back for a couple of weeks, especially with the Road Ship Only sticker on it. Got it back the next Thursday with new guts in it - so a one week turnaround. I was amazed, and definitely happy to not be using my poor old HTC Desire anymore.
Same happened to me when I tried to reset my device. Spinning gears came up and kept spinning for about 13 hours. I took the device to my local ATT repair store and had a replacement that very same day. Moral of the story is don't reset your Lumia 920.
Been impressed with their support. My first Lumia 920 (bought on day 1) overheated badly and rebooted. I contacted their support via Twitter. Not only super responsive but followed up without asking yo make sure everything was fine after they quickly shipped me a replacement. Thank you Nokia for being awesome on all fronts!
I had to send mine in because the prox sensor stopped working. Sent it on a Friday and had a replacement a week from Monday. Quick and simple, the way it should be.
I'm now on my fourth 920. My first one was great. Battery easily lasted 14+ hours of heavy use (the only one to do this) but the LED flash stopped working. It had to be sent away and I got sent a new one. On this one, the vibration didn't work, sent back. My 3rd one overheated while charging (with the official Nokia charging cable I might add) and died. I'm now in my fourth 920. Luckily I have an old 900 laying around as each swap took at least 7 days, with the last one taking 3 weeks. I've been pretty disappointed with these issues. The worst is that that first device had such great battery life, with all consecutive ones going into battery saver mode by 330pm every day. Also, every time I've contacted Nokia for any of these issues, they've deferred me to Rogers. I would have hoped they'd take a more active role in their customers' satisfaction.
Advice for you. Buy instead Nokia 8X.:p
Stop sucking Nokias cock already. Y'all killing me
Do have a similiar experience with another OEM? Share it if you do.
LOL! Good one!
But it's just so darn tasty!
THIS is another reason I love you guys !! Tongue in cheek...not subtle at all....lol
Stop complaining and go back to your Doro site...
Mine bricked about 3 months after I got it contacted Nokia, was told to take it to at&t. From there I went without a cellphone for a week waiting on replacement. This wouldn't have been so bad had that not been my only phone (literally only phone no home phone for me). So my thought going away from that situation is to hope and pray it never breaks again.
Meanwhile mine took three weeks for just the FFC-dust issue and was returned with a blown out speaker. I guess it's a gamble.
Traded it in at ATT and bought a yellow one.
Mine restarted and got stuck on Nokia screen - took back to Vodafone Uk shop - got replacement delivered and collected the very next day! I've since found holding down volume and camera button forces a reset for when this happens again...
This is my 5th Lumia 920 as of when they first came out, got mine in Dec. 2012 I believe. On that one I had gotten the Portico update. By Feb I had moved to Texas and not much longer in Feb I had reset my phone but I had got cogged. Took it to att bit they couldn't figure it out so they directed me to the device support center not too far from there. They couldn't get it to work so I received a new one under warranty. Not to mention I had got a new skin for that as well also that time was having issues with the prox. sensor, which I though had to do with the placement of the skin. 2nd had no problems and this was now with the 1308 firmware update, tried to reset to help with the sketchy data and low WiFi...boooom! cogged. A second trip to the DSC and issued another phone in the beginning of April. Had a breakfast to go to at 8:30am...alarm fails me and doesn't go off, only vibrates. Set alarms multiple times and no sound only vibrates. Also doesn't allow you to listen to ringtones but to pick them and ringer fails to work and I get yelled at by my old lady for not picking up the phone. After breakfast go to DSC and get it checked out and sure enough the afore mentioned don't work as they tested it. Issued 4th Lumia and just as I take it to copy my apps as restore didn't work for whatever reason, that was fun, I felt something move inside the phone. Sure enough give it a shake and something is loose in there, I've exhausted all their Lumias in white at the DSC so they have to order it now. Just got my 5th one yesterday and restored they day after I had taken my bricked new 1308 firmwared phone to the support center. So I ended up having the 1308 but not the storage part. I mean a good experience through the support center cause I rather talk to someone rather than on the phone.
A sticky should be made for different button configs for the 920, such as volume down and power and what it does or holding all 4 down and what it does.
Some of us don't have the ability to send our phones in for repair and wait four days (often longer from what I've read). AT&T overnights me devices when there are issues, Nokia should do the same. As a member of the legal field, it is really unrealistic for Nokia to expect me to be without a phone. In your case, either scenario made no difference for you. One of my Lumias had black lines running up and down the display and was still usable. I had 2 options in Nokia's eyes, keep the phone and be SOL, or send it to them and be SOL without a phone. I chose to contact AT&T who immediately sent me a device and gave me 10 days to return mine. I think Nokia is a fantastic company with great service and products, but their warranty and replacement system need to catch up to an era where users can walk into Apple stores and get a replacement. Our cell phones are our lives for most of us, expecting us to be four days without one when it isn't bricked is ridiculous.
That happened to me but because I bought it from the Microsoft Store I just went to the store and they swapped it.
Because my late (sold ^_^ ) 800 was imported to CZ from DE I had to endure 21 long days without it.. Just died in the middle of a song..
I have had less then stellar service. I chose to call them, I'm in Canada, and the people they employ seem to be Pilipino or something, either way I can't understand a thing they say. I have had 2 replacement devices sent to me by nokia care, both of which had faulty ram and restarted without notice. Both times I didn't send back my original Rogers device which had cosmetic defects and several dead pixels. I was told to send the second one to the repair facility and that I would have to pay for the shipping. I paid the $15 for shipping and after 3 weeks the unit was returned to me stating it was a US phone and the warranty wasn't valid in Canada. I then called again asking them for a way to solve the problem, this time the person I was talking to was really rude, stating that it isn't their fault and that I should have sent the Rogers phone in for repair and sent the phone that was restarting as well to their Canada distribution center (still wanted me to pay for shipping for both) I currently have both phones and have no plans to send it back unless they pay for shipping and reimburse me for my original shipping cost.
Terrible Customer Service so far. Called in with a problem, asked to soft reset. Problem got worse. Called in again, asked to hard reset. Phone bricked. Called in again, asked to send for repair. In the US the turnaround is 2 weeks. That's 2 weeks without a smartphone.
Got phone back from repair - they "unbricked" it, but problem for which I called to begin with remained. Called in again. Asked to send again for repair. This time I wasn't willing to accept this solution. Why would this time be any better than before? Asked to talk to a supervisor, waiting to be contacted. Not expecting much. Developing story. But already disappointed deeply with a company of which I've been a loyal customer for years and a share holder.
Unfortunately, I've had a (still having, I guess) experience with Nokia US + Canada. Sent my Lumia 920 in on January 4, 2013, and as of today, April 10, 2013, NOTHING! They didn't even have record that my phone was in their posession until February 20. Lord only knows why I haven't received the stupid thing. I bought an ATIV S, to hold me over until the 920 comes. I doubt I'll switch back.
Haha haha haha! Please don't post such articles on WPCentral. Telling the truth about Lumias may cause heart attacks. Those users that have been bad-mouthing HTC 8X will start knocking their heels saying: "There's no phone like Nokia, there's no phone like Lumia".
I sent a detailed email tip about this a month or two ago regarding Nokia tech support in Canada. It was absolutely like no other service I have ever experienced. You fill out a brief form available from the Nokia Canada site then overnight it to their service partner... It was back in my hands, fully operational, in less than a week. The LCD was replaced and it's been flawless since. I highly recommend Nokia for this and so many other reasons.
I have had that issue, and I found a procedure that got me out of it. You do a volume down + power, then wait about 5 minutes, and the phone restarts. As soon as you see the Nokia logo click the following sequence. Volume up, then volume down, then power and then volume down again. You have to be quick and do it before the gears appear. If they do appear before you have punched in the sequence, you will have to repeat the process. OR, if you are a bit daring, open up the phone and disconnect the battery when the Nokia logo appears.
I've had luck with Volume up, volume up, volume down, volume down, Back, Search, Back, Search, Power, Camera.
Nokia's versión of the Konami Code perhaps?
Personally I've only experienced one time I had to deal with Nokia directly. My old L900 was bricked and after a quick call to Nokia customer service they provided me a reference # for repair and asked I send them the phone. I sent it in by priority mail the same day. And no lie, I had my phone back on my doorstep and working flawlessly in 2 business days. That was unbelievable.
I had the 3 red rings on an old Xbox 360 and it took about 2 weeks to get it back. Nokia set a new standard for amazing service for me.
Both AT&T have been awesome when it comes to Lumia support. AT&T swapped my "just in case" before my holiday trip home. I had/have the cog wheel issue (even on my new after all updates) but I learned to plug it in and be patient(aka distract me) and do something else.
I originally had the Lumia 820 with AT&T. It decided to randomly shut off in my pocket and I would have to start up the phone each time (which can be hazardous if you need to make an emergency phone call). Within a week of having it, I simply took it to the local AT&T store and they swapped it out for a new one. Apparently, they had been dealing with this issue for other customers. No fuss, no muss.
This article would be more helpful with links to the appropriate Nokia support site. I reset my L920 early in it's life to supposedly help with battery life. I got lucky that it didn't brick!
I alwys have TEP, deal with carrier. never had issues.
On a positive note: i don't have any issues with my 920 and my mothers 820 is also running fine. The screen of my dads 900 was broken but he repaired it at a local store. So i don't have any experience with customer support yet (knock on wood) and with good devices (as the lumia's are) you shouldn't even need them.
My Lumia 920 had a faulty facing camera, one that would hang on a briefly glimpsed image or not show an image at all. Did not effect the OS in any way (could still go back to rear lense or out of app altogether) but I only noticed 31 days after purchase...Rogers (Canada) gave me a very pointed "we won't do anything fro you after 30 days" so I had to send it into Nokia. After contacting a rep I was told to print a fill a PDF and send it in with the phone (after verifying valididty of warranty). I did not get a pre-paid envelope or anything, just instructions to send it in. Before I sent it I decided to factory reset it (as was suggested on the form) to ensure my personal stuff was gone. Only then did I get an actual issue with the OS (spinning cogs). Sent it in two days ago, was delivered yesterday at 9am, waiting to see what happens...
Had the same problem. Took mine to the att store and got a new one without any ploblem. They said alot of people had the same problem i had.
i've restted my Lumia 920, no lie, 13 times yesterday. All worked. Yes i got the gears, but thats just the logo. i just let it run each time it takes liek 5-7 minutes which seem like forever but resolves itself.

I thought my phone was bricked because it shouldn't take that long but all is well.
I got a foreigner when I called Nokia and I couldn't understand her, so I called at&t and got a new one next day.
Let me tell u, that my white one did the same thing, so att sent me a black one, and after 2days the white one came out of the brick. But I still sent it back. Then last Tuesday, I did a factory reset on my black 920, and it bricked. So I talked to att, and they sent me the scarcely cyan 920. (yay) but when I got home from work Sunday morning, my black 920 was up and runnin again. Crazy huh?
My friend broke his red Lumia 920 digitizer. Also didn't have insurance. So decided only thing to try was to replace it ourselves. Got it on no problems and does work but the phone goes into a bricked state and I cannot recover it through navifirm!!!! Any ideas?????
Yeah Nokia have great Customer Care Support
well personally i'd rather my phone did'nt brick/break! but it's good to know there is a reliable support system in place if it should. 10 out of 10 for nokia
While I agree Nokia's service is great, nothing beats the feeling of walking into an Apple store and walking out with a replacement. I miss that feeling.
That problem with the reset seems to be common. I had the same issue but was able to restart it. Anyway, I just left it at the Nokia Care Centre because of the proximity sensor problem. They said that a recalibration would solve it. Obviously I knew it wouldn't. Later this afternoon I called to know news and they told me it would have to go to the factory. They told me it would take up to TWO WEEKS to get it back.
Got mine through ATT. Was easily replaced. Now just waiting for word on the dust in the ffc fix.
Sent mine away for the dreaded proximity fault, came back a week later then went again within another week, sent it straight back with a strongly written email, they said they couldn't repair it so would replace it , only actually replaced the motherboard but all is well now :)
My lumia 920 is with Nokia Care right now (screen freezing, camera won't start, doesn't rotate to landscape, etc.).
I am told the mainboard has been replaced and it is in testing.
I hate the idea of having a "refurbished" L920 after less the two months of use, especially since I paid full price with no carrier subsidy ($600+).
Any further problems since the motherboard was replaced?
Reminds me of my experience with my very first XBOX 360. The thing froze 20 minutes into playing a game every time. Called support, they sent a box/coffin. Received it the next day, shipped out my console to them, they received it the day after that and sent me a brand new XBOX 360 the day they received my broken one. All told, I was without my XBOX 360 for 5 days.
I'm going on to my 4th Lumia 920 now. Twice bricked because ATT's solution to every issue is to restet the phone. Since the last time ATT's CS told me replacement phones are almost always refurbs I contacted Nokia. They sent me a shipping label to return my bricked phone and sent a replacement which I should be getting today. If I understood correctly I should be different than the ATT Lumia 920. Overall great experience with Nokia.
Nokia support was all ceap in Denmark! They did not even want to bother looking into my incident. Here when you buy a device you have to contact and handle all support through the retailer. My Lumia 920 was sent to repair 3 time! and the 3rd time it got a new one. the first time the retailers own service center tried to fix it (didnt but that did not stop them from returning my phone). 2. they sent it to Nokia who did something and changd the cover...they just didn't put the cover on correctly thus rendering my volume buttons unseable!!! All this took 2 months!!!! That is absolutely horrible service!
I had fairly bad experience.
The first device I bought, a yellow Lumia 920 had a flickering screen issue right from day 1. Sent it to Nokia Care and they said they could not provide a yellow device for replacement (no stock). I setteled for a black one after 7 days.
The second device had its FFC covered completely with dust, taking photos was no longer possible. Nokia Care checked and agreed for a replacement. Sent it and requested if a Yellow device could be provided (thats the primary reason why I bought the device). After 10 days of repeatedly enquiring about I finally am handed over a device.
Now this was really frustrating and left me fuming. They definitely gave me a yellow one, but the same device (IMEI No.) I had recieved earlier the body having all sort of dents over it (a refurbished one)
I lost my patience, finally wrote a mail to the customer relations head and requested for a refund.
I am stuck with my old device for 3 years now. I love the Lumia 920, but the attitude shown by Nokia ; I dubt I'm buyin a nokia again
I'm on my 4th 920. The first two were replaced by AT&T within the first 14 days of purchase. My 3rd 920 I sent to Nokia for repair. They returned it, saying that they repaired it. I was with my phone for approximately 9 days. I still had the same issues, so two weeks later, I sent it back again to Nokia for repair. Another 8 days without the phone, which was replaced under warranty. Same problems. AT&T was kind enough to sell me a HTC 8x for the cost of the tax alone, approximately $43. No problems with the 8x. Sent the 920 back to Nokia for repair and I just got it back, again repaired, yesterday. I will be firing up the 920 this weekend, but glad I have the 8x to fall back on. What was the problem? Each phone would freeze, crash, or reboot at random, especially when playing video/audio; I had to constantly adjust the brightness manually; and the third issue, well, I can't recall right now. The 1st phone ran up my data charges by downloading over 1G in seven days, which was unusual for me. I had a WP7 and was use to managing my data usage. The other phone never exhibited this issue. All in all, AT&T has been great. Nokia has been fair, though going without a smart phone for nearly two weeks is difficult, but a first world problem. Hopefully my 920 will work as good as my 8x has. I miss the wireless charging and better camera of the 920
Ah, I remembered the third issue. The screen would sometimes not come back out of sleep mode, the phone wold, but the screen would stay black. I tested this by holding the cam button, then taking a photo, all with the screen black. Reboot, and the photo was in the camera roll.
My Lumia 920 Had Some Features Missing In The OS, Song Files I Received Through Bluetooth Did Not Get Saved To The Phone. I Was Told Reinstalling Was The Solution. Nokia Care Center Did It In Less Than 24hrs And I Even Got Datasense And Camera Update Which Was Not On My Brother's NL 920.
I wish I could say the same. Sent my phone in last Tuesday, still showing in repair. Bad enough I didn't have it for NAB, but I have another 10 day conference that I'm leaving for on Friday and it still says "In repair" on the status site. On hold now to see if they can send it to my destination.
I had a Similar Experiance, Mu L920 couldnt detect updates and Nokia Care sorted everything out for me via twitter including the pick up via UPS, i got the phone back in the same week with Portico installed (it wouldnt detect it) and Firmware that no one else got which inclused extra Camera improvments,

I will definatly be buying Nokia again when my contract is up for renewal in 2014 :)
I took my phone in to get the screen replaced. Paid for the replacement right away. They said an update came out and they updated it and bricked it...took a month and half for them to decide to replace the phone. I live the phone but didn't have a good experience with their support.
That forum fix didn't work for me. I was literallyscrewed when my Lumia bricked itself. Then for some reason after 6 hours, it just....unbricked itself.
I never saw posts like this for the Focus. I'm on my 2nd 920, my first (launch) had the proximity sensor issue where I couldn't hang up a call. My parents are on their 2nd and 3rd 822.
All i can say about Nokia Turkey is "they suck!" very bad support with my white lumia...
I love an outstanding customer service like this !
BlackBerry service is good too , they fixed a curve for us (got it the next day) & replaced my brother's bricked Bold 9900 with a Z10 ! (it took while , because they were outta stock)
Motorola also have a good customer service
Sony / Ericsson are also great , they replaced my father's water damaged phone no questions asked .
Samsung is **** though ! The way they handled my father's bricked Note II made my father sell it after he got it backed & get a RAZR instead
In Switzerland, Nokia support and service is a total disaster. They send you to talk from one department to another and help is a wish at best! Thank you Nokia!
What about Nokia support in UK. They never answer to me!!!
I had a problem with the screen going blank during the call. Went through Nokia's website and was asked to send it to them. But before that I went to phones4u, where I had bought it from. They checked it and replaced it. Unfortunately I had to replace my yellow one with the red, as they didn't have any yellow in stock!
I had bought an HTC 8X as a backup phone.
The situation occurred that my father needed a new phone so I suggested using the 8X, Long story short before I could set it up for him correctly one of the family put a wrong email address in the phone (non MS), and I had to reset it. Which it didn't do - dead.
This was the first time the unit was used. I sent it back to the reseller (thinking I'd get a swift turnaround replacement as the rep suggested on the phone).
3 Months later after being ultra patient (and the first email stating that once the phone arrives which it did it takes a max of 21 days to resolve the issue), there were delays in getting another device and after another week they said we can't get hold of a new device what would you like, replace with a different device, store credit or full refund? I chose full refund.
After the first delay I purchased a new Nokia Lumia 720 for my father - it is on its way. I've needed to call Nokia Care Centre and contact Nokia's forums in the past for other reasons and they have always been speedy and extremely helpful. That is service.
I will always recommend Nokia to friends and family now just based on quality of service (let alone the quality of build and performance). Thank you Nokia :)
Happened to me twice.. My cousin downloaded a software that fixes it in five minutes
My 920 froze the first day i got it, Nokia Chat said reset it. Brick. Changed for a new one at point of sale. Allowed because i had just bought it, the day before.
Two months ago phone froze, and again Nokia Chat said reset. Again brick. then sent it away by dropping off at my carrier "Rogers" repair centre. 14 business day later, so a total of 20 days later I received my phone.
Today the front facing camera stopped working, Nokia Chat assured me that they have resolved the bricking issues and not to worry reset the phone. Brick.
The repair centre isn't even Nokia is some other company, can't remember the name. i have asked for a new phone, and been told no.
My Microsoft surface had a slight discolouration to the windows logo and they sent me a replacement surface. That is customer service. If they ever make their own phone i will drop Nokia like a bad habit.
Wish I could say the same... Had a very strange "inverted screen" issue with my 920 (unable to post YouTube video due to stupid comment SPAM system)
I took it back to Phones4U in the UK and they sent it away for repair. 10 days later I got a notice that it had been replaced and was ready to collect - great! Problem was when I went to collect the device the "replacement" was covered in scratches and had dust under the front camera lense. The phone is now on its way back to Phones4U for a second time for a second "repair"...
In the middle of all of this I had contacted Nokia support who finding out that the replacement phone was damanged kindly offered to get me to send the device direct to them - one conference call with Nokia / Phones4U later my devices was ready to be turned arround and sent to me so I could send it onto Nokia.
I then checked with Nokia that it wouldn't be a problem that the original issue had been fixed - turns out it would be. I had to ring Phones4U and get them to cancel the cancellation!
On week 3 without my 920 now and not holding out much help for what comes back a second time.
I think the moral of my story is to contact Nokia directly & dont go back to the vendor if you can help it.
Did you try removing the SIM card when you had the spinning cogs? That worked for me. Might have saved you the hassle (although minor by the sounds of it) of having to send it away.

[EDIT] Actually I think this was when I was stuck on the logo if I remember correctly... Ignore :)
I had the same issue with my Lumia just last Thursday. Reset the phone to log into a new Microsoft account and it was stuck on the gears forever. I read online how you can fix it yourself but was worried I would mess it up further -- after all, this isn't android -- so I took it to Nokia Care. It's been with them for a week and I am supposed to pick it up later in the afternoon.
Well mine bricked it stuck on the gears for over an hour and I tried a soft reset still the same gears, but it getting pick up by UPS tomorrow to be sent to Nokia Repair for other issues I think I let them take a look and include a note explaining what happened.
i had a fat white line on the right side of my nokia lumia 820, it appeared out of no where leaving me in a fix, i did a soft reset and got stuck at the gears screen :(, within next fifteen minutes i was at the nearest nokia care, they have now kept my phone with them and told me that it will be sent to the factory, the told me to expect a reply from NOKIA within 10 days,
All this happened yesterday to my 2 month old lumia. hoping for the best service from nokia as i dont trust the nokia care guys... :(
4 days for a tech writer, 4 to 6 WEEKS for a consumer (in Canada, anyway)
NOKIA has gone WAY downhill, and it almost sounds like this "article" should be on their website.
Phone won't update etc. MS solution? Remove the battery...
About half the people posting here already know or at least suspect...don't buy these phones...
Quite a few of the others are never going to get it...or work for nokia and have an Iphone or Android.
I remember when it was "Man, Nokia makes great phones, too bad they don't make smartphones..."
They stiil don't...
Oh yes. I sent two Lumia 920s to Nokia care centre in Auckland and merely 24 hours later the phones were ready for collection with brand new shinny screens replaced.
I am a normal consumer.

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