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?