Canadian buyer says Nothing and Best Buy both won't honor his phone warranty

Buying a niche smartphone always comes with a bit of risk. You worry about software updates or maybe finding a decent case, but you generally assume the warranty is valid. For some Canadian owners of the Nothing Phone, that assumption is proving to be a costly mistake. Customers are finding themselves trapped in a bizarre customer service loop where the manufacturer and the retailer simply point fingers at each other.

The issue surfaced recently when a Reddit user detailed a frustrating experience with a Nothing Phone (3a). After less than four months of use, the device developed a green line across the display. This is a fairly common hardware defect with modern OLED panels and is typically a straightforward warranty claim.

The problem lies in how these phones are sold. Nothing’s official Canadian website does not sell the Phone (3a) directly. Instead, the “Buy” button funnels traffic straight to Best Buy Canada. Naturally, a customer following that link assumes they are buying through an authorized channel with full support. Here’s a screenshot the OP shared as proof of the website only providing the option to score the 3a from Best Buy:

When the user contacted Best Buy for a repair, the retailer stated they have no RMA program for the brand and directed the owner to contact Nothing directly. That is standard procedure for many electronics. However, when the user reached out to Nothing, the support team refused to help. They cited a warranty clause stating they do not cover devices not purchased directly from their own domain, “nothing.tech.”

This creates somewhat of an impossible situation. Nothing directs you to Best Buy to make the purchase, but then seemingly uses that same retail channel as an excuse to deny warranty coverage later.

It is a massive gap in logistics that leaves early adopters out in the cold. While consumer protection laws in provinces like Quebec might technically protect buyers, nobody wants to quote legal statutes just to get a screen fixed. For a brand trying to build a reputation in North America, hiding behind fine print while customers sit with broken phones is a quick way to lose trust.

There’s a whole separate post and discussion about the issue on the r/Android subreddit, where plenty of folks claim they won’t be considering Nothing products after the mess. So it should be in Nothing’s best interest to sort this problem out before it’s too late.

We’ll keep an eye out for any further developments and will update this post if and when there’s something to share.