My card got charged again today and unfortunately, my credit card company flagged it again (3rd approval code request) as a suspicious charge because the same amount has appeared multiple times.

Calls to Nokia's order line has had mixed results.

First operator, without even asking for my order number, simply told me that if the credit card company flagged it and refused the charge then my order has been cancelled. When trying to get him to elaborate, he said I needed to use "professional" language when talking to him and when I asked for a supervisor, he hung up on me. This is with me totally bring polite and using the words "please check," etc.

Second operator was more helpful, said that the order is probably still intact because they are just doing a "check" charge and the phone wouldn't be shipping till July. When I asked for a supervisor, he was cooperative but then I was on hold for over 10 minutes and I hung up.

Third operator said that the supervisors were very busy (I guess I can understand why if they have weird attitudes and a very popular pre-order) and said he'd get a supervisor to call me back. I doubt that will happen but kudos to them if they do.

So bottomline... who knows what's going on at this point.

My credit card company just called me and obtained all the information about the order from me and said that they would enquire into the order with Nokia on my behalf and clear up any issues. I have one of those special card accounts, so they do go the extra mile, so I'll report back if I get any worthwhile information.

Here's an UPDATE.

My credit card company just called me back after speaking to BrightPoint (Nokia order fulfillment company).

They told them that basically, BrightPoint will, at regular intervals, go out and request an approval code from all the credit cards of customers whom have pre-ordered to ensure that they have sufficient funds to cover the purchase, even when the product is not ready to ship.

They also told him that the N97 won't be ready to ship until later in June or July and they will continue to do these approval code requests in the interim.

Currently, the interval seems to be about twice a month or every 12-14 days.