Should you Pre-order Nokia N8 from @NokiaIndia ?

Even if many might have pre-ordered Nokia N8 and its really getting hard to hold the temptation to buy the camera flagship device of the mobile world, but if you look closer then sure there are many doubts that raises the question that should you buy Nokia N8 right now?

It has nothing to do with the biased reviews coming from some leading blogs or from someone, whom with all due respect, I should only call “Bitch in heat”. No!!! I still very much buying Nokia N8 coz its the best out there to serve my needs, but question is about the time. Do you really need to get it before everyone?

Firstly, what is a Pre-order?

As per Nokia “Preordering a product means you’ll be one of the first to receive it after it’s released. As soon as the product is in stock, we will process and ship your order to you.”

Nokia N8 is available on Pre-order for Indian Customers since September 29, 2010 on the site given below

While Nokia Priority dealers asking for Rs. 2000/- or Rs. 1000/-for the pre-order amount, I am not sure that if there is a proper process of dealing this systematically in India at least. At least most of the dealers are not providing you a proper receipt or order no. (their sites are providing one, but not the priority dealers in Delhi at least). The one I visited, is only offering a local receipt from their shop name only.

Yes! you can assume that the process is still reliable, but …

Nokia N8 price, Is it decent to buy?

Sure, a price of Rs. 25000/- is not much, if you are in a world, where Samsung Galaxy sells in Rs. 29000/- and ridiculously binding you in pricy app world Apple iPhone 3GS selling in like Rs. 35000/-, but still the price at which Nokia N8 is going to launched on week 1, is no where near what they promised in April. That was Rs. 21, 500/- without taxes for god sake. Are you saying that you are charging Rs. 4, 500/- as taxes?

It will sure hurt many to buy the device in like Rs. 26, 000/- or Rs. 25, 000/-, when they were expecting in much lesser. Nokia sure loosing the USV of Nokia N8 on price point at least. If you ask me, then price of Rs. 22, 500/- was kind of reasonable.

Specially when you know that within a month, it will sell on that price, then are you ready to pay extra 2-3k for just getting it before a month? Remember Nokia N900 was announced at a price Rs. 30, 600/- and now its selling on Rs. 24, 500/-

Some of the cruel facts about pre-order …

1. You do not get any special discount or bundled accessories or anything. I asked @NokiaIndia and they just said this, nothing else.

   

2. Booking early means paying the highest price that the device can ever get and most of the time, you pay MRP. Remember recently they launched Nokia C6-00 in Rs. 15, 600/- and within a week other retailers selling it in Rs. 13, 300/-.
3. Even if we talk about authenticity of the device or guarantees associated with the device, then Nokia priority dealers are nothing special but a bunch of money suckers. They only provide you whatever come standard from Nokia, while the other dealers not only offer you way better price, but bundled accessories, even greater maintenance cover for the device and a much dignified gesture as a customer.

Oops!! I already did the Pre-order, what’s the way to go from here?

Yup! I understand. Many might have done so. the way to go is to wait a little. Even if you have pre-ordered, you are not forced to buy right then on the day one. If I know right, then you have 60 days in hands till when your deposit wont be consumed by them.

You might even ask for refund citing a valid reason, though that chance would be limited as they already have given you their shot that price might be max 26k and if its even 25.9k, you wont be entitled to pull back on this particular cause.

You will get a call from Nokia Priority Dealer that device is available at the store. You sure can delay the visit to Nokia Priority store for like a week and could keep on confirming the prices from other retailers (though I doubt that at least N8 gonna be available with them real soon like one week). Sure, you will still pay higher, but after a week or two, it should be in few hundreds rather than thousands.

I don’t wanna to be mean with Nokia, but honestly, I tried hard to understand the point of pre-ordering a device that will be anyway available in much lower price with other retailers within half a month, even if I understand the restlessness of holding the temptation to touch best camera phone ever.

Please offer me your views, if you ever find any profit of buying a device from a Nokia Priority Dealer leave alone the pre-order thing.

Note that I am talking about India and specially New Delhi.  May be others find some pleasant experiences as well. Do tell me, if you think otherwise or in same ways as me.

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com