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Nokia to Replace 43 Million Batteries
mysqlbytes writes "According to a recent post on the BBC's website, Nokia has admitted to a problem in the BL-5C batteries made by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006. For some of us, it means longer battery life with a new lease of life and for some of us, no more burnt legs. You can check out the product advisory here."
I understand that this is a legitimate recall. That said, if your phone is burning your legs while it's charging I'm pretty sure you're using it wrong.
-Peter
Link to forum thread
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Thought I was going to get lucky again as my year and a half old 6230i's battery is heading downhill at the moment.
Was fairly sure it was unlikely when I opened up the phone and the battery said made in Hungary and sure enough it's not one of the affected ones.
Oh well, maybe next time :-)
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"Admitting" seems a bit strong. There is no evidence yet of them denying the matter. It just takes time for reports to come in and see that there is a pattern forming and *realize* all those issues may not be coincidence. "Admitting" to there being an issue implies they were trying to cover up something. At least that's the way I view it. I don't see any wrongdoing, yet.
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Yes they have this massive WTF on there website script! http://forums.worsethanfailure.com/forums/thread/1 27881.aspx
Ears maybe... Butt maybe... but legs? huh?
I just bought a new Nokia a new months ago and it has this battery in it.
Never had any trouble with it but if I get a new one, I'm ok with that.
Go to the following URL http://www.nokia.com/batteryreplacement/en/ to check if you are affected
i'd be suprised if there was significant labour invovled in the process.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
they wont ever have to replace any batteries. ;)
Oh no, no... You've got it all wrong. I've seen countless PR people on TV and they all say the same thing... It's only cheap, off-brand batteries that explode, NEVER the manufacturer's own batteries.
The news media, of course, never argues the point.
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I have a BL-5C unaffected by the recall in my N70. It goes flat very quickly when I turn 3G on. If I leave it in GSM-only mode, the battery lasts a lot longer.
How do they get the number 43?
-- tinyhack.com
But you're assuming 8 hour days, that's only 12 or so batteries an hour.
I think it would be more like 1000 dealers doing at least 25 batteries an hour, for 11 hours a day 7 days a week.
I'm too lazy to do the math, but it's a less than 86 weeks. It still is an incredible amount of labor, but at $9 an hour at the very best it's not really all that much money, they'll hire an extra worker or 2 in each shop it's not all that much in the grand scheme of things.
*disclaimer.
all numbers pulled out of nowhere, and probably mean next to nothing.
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None is affected.
I wonder how Nokia comes to the conclusion that "46 millions batteries" is "very rare" (quoted from the advisory).
Sorta like Democrats, Socialists, Communists, and Soviets, right?
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Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I bet Nokia's rather happy they didn't solder the battery onto the board, but opted for the replaceable solution.
Considering that every month brings with it a new story of a major hardware manufacturer having to recall xx million devices due to faulty batteries, I'm impressed that Apple had the guts to go for non-replaceables.
You don't need to call anyone. If you had actually read the advisory you may have noticed that "if the battery identification number does not contain 26 characters, it is not subject to this product advisory".
As batteries pack in increasing amounts of power in smaller and smaller enclosures, their explosive power also increases.
At some point, with the "right" power density, just shorting a battery may be enough to cause a powerful explosion.
IANAL, but I think the time is ripe for the law to recommend safety guidelines for batteries. At a minimum, maybe all batteries should come with an inbuilt fuse.
Dont make a better sig, you insensitive clod!
But Nokia still gotta cough up with 43M new batteries. And they can't use whatever spares they have lying around, as they're likely to be affected, too. that has to take up some labour (and time)
What?
Not all 43 million batteries need replacing, dimwits! Only a small batch manufactured by Matsushita. You need your battery's serial number to check whether it belongs to that particular batch, mine didn't. If it doesn't, _IT WILL NOT BE REPLACED_.
So not only are they being a fair and responsible company...but their creating jobs too!
Matsushita = Panasonic
One last thing: Sometimes I wonder; "Is that someone's signature? Or do they type that at the end of each post?"
And thats assuming that all Nokia owners respond to the recall.
...and other low end models - some of Nokia's best selling phones. I wonder how many of the end users will even bother to send their batteries back, but still, that's gotta hurt.