I have always been a fan of Nokia mobile phones. My first phone was an Ericsson, which did the job, but wasn't very nice. My second phone was the Nokia 3210 and since then I have sworn by them. I must admit that I have been lucky enough not to have any issues with my phones, because even when I had phones that had bugs reported, they never seemed to manifest on my handsets.

My brother on the other hand has had endless trouble with his Nokia 8310. He got it about 4 years ago while he was still living in London and obviously brought it back with him to South Africa. He had issues initially with it when he came back and it required a software upgrade, which he had to pay for?!? (I will save my rant on this for another time) but my biggest issue with that particular incident was that they kept calling the phone a 'Grey phone'. Now I'm not sure what happens everywhere else, but a large majority of companies in South Africa only support devices that they import. If they didn't import it, then they call it a grey product and they won't support it.

Now I'm sorry, but I don't understand why if a device, in this case a Nokia mobile phone, that was bought from an official store in the United Kingdom, should be considered a 'Grey' product just because it wasn't imported by the people importing Nokia phones into South Afica. I mean, it is an official Nokia phone, bought at an official Nokia distributor, for standard use in the United Kingdom. It wasn't bought because it was cheaper there or any other excuse that is often used to justify buying something outside of this country. It was bought there because he was living and working there. He then moved back to South Africa to complete his studies and brought it with. What do they expect him to do, throw the phone away and buy one from the official importers when he arrived?

To make matters worse, the phone has now packed up and the Nokia service center refuse to look at the phone, because it is a 'Grey' product, until my brother pays R360. What does that payment get him? The privalege of having the Nokia 'approved' technicion look at his phone. Nothing more. He will still have to pay for labour and parts and the stupid software upgrade should it require one. Plus the phone is completely out of warranty so there is no way Nokia would be loosing any money by treating it as a normal out of warranty phone.

I am begining to think I need to re-evaluate my support for Nokia and their phones. I think this is rediculous customer support and that I have to consider an alternate manufacturer when I get my next phone.