And perhaps there is... You tell me if there are protections in place?

It's been a really strange 27 hours. I have been bounced back and forth from T-Mobile and RIM-Blackberry... and a bit with AT&T. Sooooo much fun.

The history was my sister convincing me to switch my personal line from my Palm Treo “everything” plan with Nextel (Sprint) to a free Blackberry Curve 8900 (G3) with the company she worked for (T-Mobile) last spring because my business was falling off. Fine and well enough, Gave me a bit more Blackberry exposure which doesn’t hurt and the cost of ownership was 1/3 the original plan cost. Great deal…

Then in June my girlfriend convinced me to relocate to her town of Santa Cruz (Beautiful city and area on the Pacific Ocean)… So I did, and had to go OUTSIDE to make cell phone calls. Seems as if T-Mobile does not have a Cell Tower along Highway 1 on the West Side. But because it was family I put up with it until this past week.

My sister was RIFTed from her job and was given 5 business days to switch her 5 lines (incl my number) to a retail plan by October 14. No Problem I said… I will simply switch back to the Palm and Sprint… And found out that Sprint would not sell me a plan for where I lived in Santa Cruz… no Cell Coverage on that end of town… Oops…

So I entered into a 1 year contract with AT&T and ported the number from T-Mobile… no problem. Then I am told that I needed to “Unlock” the Blackberry as T-Mobile locks them to their G3 service… No Problem… I contacted T-Mobile Customer Support and they emailed me the releasing code.

So this morning I decided to doc the Blackberry with my laptop via USB to synchronize the phone data one last time before changing out the SIM card… BIG mistake! Just as soon as I plugged the USB port into the phone… the Screen died. And nothing I could do powered the blackberry back up.

So I called T-Mobile Tech Support… and they stated that my 3.5 month old latest and greatest Blackberry phone was no longer under warrantee (on 10/14/2009) because I switched the phone number to AT&T at 6PM on 10/13/2009… So they were “nice” enough to switch me to RIM Blackberry’s Tech Support.

I spent over 4 hours going through their instructions in the effort to restore the phone… no luck… it’s dead. I was told that there was a voltage surge through the USB port and that fried the phone… Huh??? USB ports still work… a short would blow out my USB controller as well… they still work…

After 4 hours I was also told that Blackberry DOES NOT warrantee phones sold through cell phone companies.

So now I have T-Mobile saying that they do not warrantee the phone because I am no longer a customer and Blackberry saying they will not warranty the phone because T-Mobile warrantees the phone.

And the literature all states a one year warranty…

So who warranties the product? Anyone? It is NOT a cheap phone

Like I said… a strange day.

Have you tried removing the battery for about 10 minutes and then putting it back in and turning the phone on? ALso, charging with a charger for a while?

The only one thing I can guarantee you about electronics is that they will break, count on it.

Every piece of kit I've ever purchased (anywhere in the world) has a MANUFACTURER's guarantee or warranty.

Why would T-Mobile be responsible for hardware ?

Do have some sort of consumer's rights organisation that can advise ?

Dear Art;
The only thing I can say is for you to move out of California, come stay with me in NC. I am with Verizon and have no problems with coverage or billing statements. You can start up a new business here and within a year or two you will be thanking me for making your life so much more meaningful. Just think here in NC you can ski down snow covered mountains and in 5 hours be collecting sea shells on the white sand beaches. We also have thousands and thousands of Marines, Sailors, Airman and Soldiers who you can chat with everyday and if you like seafood or fishing than there is no better place. Think about it will ya?

Submit a complaint with Better Business Bureau (BBB) against both T-Mobile and Blackberry.....see how fast they get back to you all eager to resolve the issue.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: NSNN,

Art

Did you use a credit card to make the original purchase? Often time the credit card companies offer extended warranties on items bought with their cards.

First thing you might want to do, Art, is to get the SIM card into another unlocked phone and get your address books and such. The USB connection blowing up the Blackberry does indeed sound like a voltage issue, but your data may still be intact. I'd schit-can the cable you were using too.

Start a paper trail with the support people at Blackberry--anything said on the phone by them can be denied, but an email or fax lives on forever.
Copy the California Public Utilities Commission, or file a complaint here:
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/CEC...utilitycomplaint.htm
Fax your State Representative.

I don't know what it's worth in time and effort to you, but enough noise usually threatens to affect the corporate bottom line, and they may send you an unlocked phone to make you go away.

The other thing about putting the beef in writing--I find that it helps to keep me civil and objective...stifles the urge to flame a(n outsourced?) customer service rep who's reading from a script.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave_M:
Have you tried removing the battery for about 10 minutes and then putting it back in and turning the phone on? ALso, charging with a charger for a while?

The Level 2 Tech guy suggested the same thing so I went out and purchased the Travel charger for it... no luck after 3 hours. I think that the tech was right... there was a short in the phones main board power supply. I suspect component failure. Anything else should have blown at least the laptops USB controller... that is fine. The tech also had me set up the Blackberry software on a desktop machine with no positive results.

The 8900 looked to be a nice phone... would have liked to keep it on AT&T... at least it was Free

quote:

Originally posted by Duster6:
Dear Art;
The only thing I can say is for you to move out of California, come stay with me in NC. I am with Verizon and have no problems with coverage or billing statements. You can start up a new business here and within a year or two you will be thanking me for making your life so much more meaningful. Just think here in NC you can ski down snow covered mountains and in 5 hours be collecting sea shells on the white sand beaches. We also have thousands and thousands of Marines, Sailors, Airman and Soldiers who you can chat with everyday and if you like seafood or fishing than there is no better place. Think about it will ya?

I love NC... not too excited about the Fayetteville area but the rest of the state is great... no match for the redwoods and the Pacific Ocean... Monday's and Tuesday's storm was simply an awsome spectacular event.

Still with the exception of my retaining 50% custody of my kids and my girlfriend's family... I would leave for NC in a heartbeat. I am sure that Bragg has changed some since 1979 when I left... I know that Division sure has.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtMarsh:

quote:

Originally posted by Duster6:
Dear Art;
The only thing I can say is for you to move out of California, come stay with me in NC. I am with Verizon and have no problems with coverage or billing statements. You can start up a new business here and within a year or two you will be thanking me for making your life so much more meaningful. Just think here in NC you can ski down snow covered mountains and in 5 hours be collecting sea shells on the white sand beaches. We also have thousands and thousands of Marines, Sailors, Airman and Soldiers who you can chat with everyday and if you like seafood or fishing than there is no better place. Think about it will ya?

I love NC... not too excited about the Fayetteville area but the rest of the state is great... no match for the redwoods and the Pacific Ocean... Monday's and Tuesday's storm was simply an awsome spectacular event.

Still with the exception of my retaining 50% custody of my kids and my girlfriend's family... I would leave for NC in a heartbeat. I am sure that Bragg has changed some since 1979 when I left... I know that Division sure has.

I also love NC (was born there) and would love to live there but my job and wife are in Pa. On the other hand wife in Pa might be a good reason