Ankit Gondalia

Just uploaded my submission for Stage 3, Packaging Design.

My approach to packaging material is a bit different. People might like to have the same glow material on the packaging but do we really need luminous phosphorescent on the box? People usually after unboxing, tend to throw away the box or keep it inside the cabinet or shelf and it’s never looked at.

Instead of using luminous phosphorescent on the packaging, my concept packaging uses a material that would reveal the phone when the box is exposed to sunlight or any UV light. The phone will gradually appear as soon as the box is exposed to the light.

This material is used in clothing and other products. One example of this is the Nike Air Force 1 UV.

Picture shot with Phone (1)

Update on getting the refund for the Pre-order Pass: This is another headache I’ve been going through. Flipkart was supposed to resolve it by today of the complain I raised on the day of returning my phone. Now they’ve extended it to 10th August.

I’ve also heard from some people that the Pre-order Pass isn’t refundable. I hope that’s not true.

Anyone from the Nothing team reading this, please please avoid Flipkart for any of your future products. These people are incapable and it’s just going to tarnish your brand image.

Update 2 : Now been contacted by FK support and have been told that the refund will be initiated with 15 working days. Will update here once I receive the refund.

hemanth_kona wait till the Technician arrives at your home.

The technician arrived just a few minutes ago and he said refund cannot be approved for the display tint as it’s not considered as an issue by us however the Nothing customer support says the opposite.

Luckily I had dust particles inside the back and because of that my refund got approved.

Update on getting the Refund process

It has been a couple of days since I opted for a refund and I’ve been receiving calls every day from the Customer Support Team asking the same question “what’s wrong with the device?”

Like how many times do I have to explain to them the issues? I’ve spoken to them about 7-8 times already, but there has been no update yet and they keep on calling and asking me what’s wrong. How can the Customer Support Team be so dumb and pathetic? Even AliExpress has better Customer Support than these dumbnuts.

Vinayak Yep it’s India specific. There’s high demand & because of their last minute decision for open sale, now they’re just rushing on the production & ignoring QA!

As much as I like the vision of Nothing, I also hate to say that the brand right now is incompetent in producing and selling smartphones and in my honest opinion did not live up to the hype.

Tagging people just to let them know what exactly is wrong @Carl @Rudi @MeghaVishwanath @manu

Note: What I’m writing here is just my personal experience of purchasing and owning the device, the Nothing Phone (1).

Blunder with the sales

First of all trying to get the phone was a task. With all the invite code system and giving special codes to the community members saying “the community gets it first”, then silently axing the whole invite system, making it available to everyone and later the phone not being available on the mentioned sale date (thanks to Flipkart and it’s exceptional service) felt like the brand was quite in a rush and wasn’t sure about the stocks they should’ve maintained.

I finally managed to order the phone, after a couple of days of Flipkart managing to fix it’s website. Couldn’t get the variant I wanted. The one I was looking for was base 8/128 but since it was out of stock (again thanks to Flipkart and its exceptional service) I had to shell out more to get my hands on but that’s fine. All I wanted was to get my hands on this phone.

Excitement turned into Disappointment
The phone finally arrives, started using it & I was pretty happy & impressed with the phone. The software was great and so were the cameras. Everything was going good until one day I saw a small black dot right in the middle of the screen. Later I saw another one around the status bar. And the next day I saw another other one. There were 3 dead pixels on the screen which appeared only on grey background and when the brightness was under 60-70%.

I immediately opted for a replacement.

Disappointment turned into Regret

By the time I opted for a replacement, I knew I wasn’t the only one having issues with the phone (1) . There were numerous posts on twitter complaining about how their phones have green tint issue, dust inside the back, some had vibration motor issues, and more. After seeing those tweets I had no hopes of getting a replacement device with zero issues and I wasn’t wrong. The replacement device was much worse than the previous one. This one had very visible green tint on the bottom part of the display and multiple lint/dust inside the back of the phone.

Now I’ve opted for a refund and the only thing I have now is the Nothing charger that I cannot get a refund for since the return policy has ended.

The hassle of purchasing, getting a faulty device back to back & multiple calls and chats with Flipkart Customer Service Executives. The experience has been pathetic.

All that hype was for Nothing

I’ve lost faith in the brand and for now, I won’t be buying any of the products nor do I recommend someone to buy. I wish Carl and the Team the best of luck for the future!