[General Accessories] ng:
I really have to vent these frustrations and I want to warn people that still want to buy this kind product and particularly from a site like Expansys about some serious problems of misinformation!!

I bought my Nokia HS-12W BT stereo headset a year ago from Expansys NL for the tender price that these things go for (€130) and it functioned as well as it could, but about a month ago the microphone of the headset broke. I could hear my callers, but they couldn't hear me. Thinking that this kind of life-span for such a high-end product cannot be right, I call Expansys NL, which is not easy, since they don't really like picking up the phone (I've had that several times now). The guy from Expansys told me that all products come with a year warrantee, so that I could send my headset to them (to France) and that they would be in touch.

A few weeks later I get emailed a quote from Expansys in France that my microphone was indeed broken, that I could get a new device, but that I would have to pay the nice sum of €90 because I was out of warrantee. The email asked me to reply whether or not I was ok with this quote, so I did, stating clearly that I was still within my warrantee period.

I hear nothing for 2 weeks (!) and when I send an email asking where what the status of my case is, I get an email back saying that this is the quote of Nokia and that it is maintained (what?!?) So I call customer services in the Netherlands (calling another country for customer services, I don't think so!), explain my case and the guy will ask around (ofcourse..) and call me back. When I'm called back (quite swiftly, which is good), he says that accessoiries from Nokia only have a warrantee of 6 months (!!) and that there is nothing that they can do and that he didn't know 'cause he was new (they always are..). So what's the conclusion: they can send me back my broken headset or I can pay 65% of my original purchase amount after only a year to get a functioning headset back (WHAT!?!?!?!)

After letting it sink in, I call them back, telling Expansys that they knew this about Nokia a month ago when I first called, that I sent my headset based on their information of a year's warantee and now I am confronted with high costs and I don't think that this should be my problem. The guy from the helpdesk said that there was most likely nothing they could do, because they don't repair things themselves, they only sell the products. Repairs get sent back to the manufacturers. He was going to contact the returns department (in France) and he would call back. I'm now waiting for the answer, but I think I can guess what it'll be....

I am so pissed off that such an expensive product simply breaks within a years time and that the people that sold it to me first tell me one thing and then the other. Since this information can't be found anywhere on the Expansys website: Nokia only gives 6 months warrantee on their items and Expansys will hide behind newbee's and Nokia before they will give you any service!

My question: is it normal that these expensive things break down as if they were something that fell of the back of the truck? how long have other BT stereo headsets gone before breaking? Do I just have to come to terms with the fact that next to my expensive device, I have to pay on an annual basis to have a functioning BT stereo headset?