NOKIA N80 - awful - stuk in an Orange contract

peterg1965

I have an 18 month Orange contract (started Aug 06) with a Nokia N80 Smartphone. I have v happy with Orange and get my free broadband (the contract is Dolphin 35 - £35 month). My problem is with the phone, it has great features, just what i wanted, but it is simply badly designed and impossible to live with! It is a slider design and it is very sensitive and I am forever missing calls because the slightest of touches answer the phone and then cuts the call off. The handset lock is truely woeful and so is the battery life.

Any tips on how I an 'persuade' Orange to give me another phone - extending my contract or something? Has anyone tried to do this before with Orange.

lolamancity

Ive got an N80, so has my husband

It claims to offer a lot, but in reality its a truly terrible phone...so much so that they actually discontinued them very soon after their release

This being the case, if you ring them and explain the problems, they will prob offer you an alternative handset... if they dont, lay it on a bit thicker and say its totally froze... they will have to offer you another handset seeing as its on contract.

carly

I'm sorry to say that i doubt very much that they will give you a new handset. Your contract with them is for the airtime, which they will continue to provide and will continue to charge you for. On most contracts these days the phone is actually not part of the contract, but a gift. This is why so many people take out a contract and then sell the phone. If you lost the phone they wouldnt provide a free replacement either, unless you had insurance. Your best bet is to sell the handset and buy yourself another that you are more comfortable with.

Jon_01

The only way they'll change it for another model is if it gets replaced three times for the same fault. They’ll then offer you a dmr (different model replacement), but only if you press them.

lolamancity

Jon_01 wrote:

The only way they'll change it for another model is if it gets replaced three times for the same fault. They’ll then offer you a dmr (different model replacement), but only if you press them.

I dont think they can replace this one though, because as far as im aware, its discontinued (for now) and it's the handset which has had the most problems for years

i think if you insist that its knackered and that you dont want another one, because it'll most probably screw up again, theyll agree to an alternative replacement.

The only other thing they might offer, is a firmware update...which you have to go into a Carphone Warehouse for.... that actually does help the phone run better, hence why ive still got mine.

maniac886

peterg1965 wrote:

I have an 18 month Orange contract (started Aug 06) with a Nokia N80 Smartphone. I have v happy with Orange and get my free broadband (the contract is Dolphin 35 - £35 month). My problem is with the phone, it has great features, just what i wanted, but it is simply badly designed and impossible to live with! It is a slider design and it is very sensitive and I am forever missing calls because the slightest of touches answer the phone and then cuts the call off. The handset lock is truely woeful and so is the battery life.

Any tips on how I an 'persuade' Orange to give me another phone - extending my contract or something? Has anyone tried to do this before with Orange.

You could sell your phone on ebay and then use the money from that to buy a phone you are more happy with?

JAYMARSH2005

I agree with maniac,sell it on ebay, as for you missing calls, is there any way to disable the slide function for answering calls ? I know some phones have this so when the phone slides it doesnt answer to you press a button.

Rewind_Bo

I've got the N80 and havent had any problems with it (other than its size - one fat phone). I'd sell it on ebay - will easily get over £100. I'm keeping mine only for the sat nav

rosscobley

Disable the slide call answering. Go on to the nokia Web site and you can download a program and then you can update the Firmware on the phone. It makes the phone 100% better and solves all the problems with messages and crashing. Also the battery lasts a lot longer with the new software

peterg1965

Thanks for that rosscobley. Hope id ont sound stupid but how do you turn the slide call answering off? I dont have access to my instruction book at the moment (and that is usually worse than useless - written in fluent Swahili!!) and the settings option does not list slide answering.

maniac886

You can download the nokia n80 userguide here. Hope this helps.