E75 Mail for Exchange - absolutely useless

Question

Hi all,
This is a rant, a big one.
I have been a loyal Nokia user since I was 18 (I'm in my mid 30's now). The nature of my work denoted that it was time to get myself a 'push-mail' phone so when my contract was up with Optus. I opted for the E75. I contemplated a Blackberry (as this is what most of my colleagues use) but being a loyal Nokia user and comfortable with their menus, I thought I would try this new phone. After all, there had been a massive advertising blitz throughout the Australian print media, online and television spruiking the qualities of this phone, specifically it being an "email on your mobile" type of handset. This was about a month and a half ago.
As our IT guy at work was on leave I set the E75 up with my gmail account (and just set work email on autoforward to gmail). It worked like a dream for about three days when it suddenly dropped out. The following day email worked fine ...then dropped out ....then worked fine ...then dropped out for two days. This pattern continued for a week (despite my reconfiguring the settings in-line with advice from both Nokia and Optus technicians AND performing hard resets). In short, the 'email' software on the E75 just plain DOES NOT WORK.
I returned the handset to the store where I got it from and they exchanged it for a new E75. Exactly the same problems as before. I experimented with setting it up with different types of email (hotmail, yahoo, work etc) and the same thing happened. Email would work fine and dandy for a couple of days then it would drop out for half a day or more. The nature of my work denotes that if I put my email address out there and tell colleagues they can get me on my phone, then my phone better work. As such, I stopped giving people the expectation that they could email me on my mobile and to simply call me or SMS me if they needed me.
I have now sought to have this handset returned and am trying to switch my contract over to a Blackberry. The guys at the store where I contracted with Optus have been pretty helpful as they themselves have had numerous problems with the E75 and angry customers. The Optus business managers themselves are apparently refusing to budge on this and as of this afternoon were saying they would not offer me an exchange (even if it meant I would contract for a more expensive phone, ie more money for them).
As such, I am considering my options.
*To lodge a complaint through a dispute resolution/consumer protection body like the NSW Dept of Fair Trading.
Ifyou have been supplied with a faulty product, this body investigates the situation persuant to the NSW Fair Trading Act. It is a bit hard to achieve an actual resolution for yourself here, you simply make a lot of trouble for the other side.
*To file a claim in the NSW Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal.
Decisions here are binding. You would argue that you've been sold a dud product, the faults are easily demonstrable (google E75 email faults and your system will nearly crash due to all the results that come up). This is probably the best option for people without legal representation. It is quite an informal affair and 'equity' prevails usually.
*To file a claim in the NSW District Court against Optus for breach of contract.
I contracted for "email on my mobile" I didn't get that - there's a breach of a fundamental term. Basic common law contract law. There are no exclusion clauses or disclaimers that can negate such a fundamental breach. Nokia's extensive advertising and branding of this handset as an 'email phone' denote that if it is not fit for that purpose, then you have a breach of the contract. There's also a number of Fair Trading Act sections that are valid in the fitness for purpose respect.
*To file a claim in the Federal Court against NOKIA for breaching s 71 of the Trade Practices Act
As the Trade Practices Act is a federal act, it may be worth an action directly against the manufacturer on the grounds of 'fitness for purpose'. Nokia advertised this phone as an 'email phone', the numerous discussions here denote that there have been so many faults with their email software that the phone is clearly not fit for the purpose of being an email phone, certainly not when it only works half the time.
*To file a claim in the Federal Court against NOKIA for breaching s 52 of the Trade Practices Act
Here we are talking about 'Misleading and Deceptive Conduct'. On other discussion threads dealing with the E75 email faults, some users from Europe have reprinted responses they received from Nokia technicians where they were blatantly told that the E75 is "not a mail for exchange" phone and that faults are to be expected as the software is still in development. Per the ambit of s 52, this is clearly conduct that is LIKELY to mislead or decieve especially when viewed in the light that Nokia have promoted this phone as "email on your mobile" (implying solid reliability) not "email on your mobile half the time cos it only works sparingly because we haven't nutted out the software yet."
That last one is a biggie. IF Nokia were still developing their mail for exchange software and they knew it had bugs and was not reliable (certainly not for business use) then they should not have misled consumers into believing that this phone was the "Blackberry Killer". Their advertisements on the back page of Sydney's 'Good Weekend' certainly fooled me into thinking it was. Of course, people say that I should simply just cough up another $40 of my own money and download RoadSync so I have a reliable mail for exchange program that actually works. This isn't the point. Nokia have put a very faulty product on the market, there seems to be a lot of disconnect between their marketing of the product and what their technicians say it is capable of. As such, I will be demanding a full and fair exchange of this handset with a Blackberry.
Bryan.

Answer 1

I'm not entirely sure what you are trying to do here.
Mail for Exchange - works with Microsoft Exchange Servers only.
It doesn't work with Yahoo! Gmail or any other mail service because its "Mail for EXCHANGE"
"Mail for Exchange is preintegated to Nokia E75, Nokia E72, Nokia E55, Nokia E52, Nokia N86 8MP and Nokia 6710 Navigator"
Taken from: http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/nokia-for-business/software/email-and-instant-messaging/mail-f...
In fact its more compatible with a pre-installed device such as the E75 than any of the other symbian devices that it will operate with.
The program uses the Microsoft Exchange Activesync service to push mail to your handset, this needs to be set up correctly by your companies IT department with the correct heartbeat intervals etc.
I have MfE working fine on my E71, whilst its not the same device the software works well and the push mail function is great.
I have had one or two problems, that the latest version of MfE has exhibited but there is a big thread here /discussions/board/message?board.id=messaging&thread.id=13370
Which details some problems and resolutions.
Shunts...
I will mostly be communicating with a Nokia E72 Zodium Black
Nokia E72-1 with Vr 051.018.207.04 Software
If this post helped... Add some kudos!!