Flextronics repair times suck!!!!

[SuCraM1977]

Bought my new Bold 9700 Mid November last year. Used it for about 3 weeks and the battery cover kept falling off. Took it to the Bell store I purchased it from and they would only send it away for repair. Bought the phone brand new for 600 dollars and used if for less than a month so I expected an exchange as the issue is clearly a manufacturers defect. I am very dissatisfied as I dropped the phone off for repair on Dec 4th 2009 and still have not got a replacement or a fixed phone. Bell store keeps claiming that the crappy repair times are because of the fact that it was Christmas time and the Flextronics company that does all of the repairs for RIM in Canada are very busy. This seriously has me thinking of ditching the Blackberry all together because of the poor customer service. A person should not have to wait 3 months to get a replacement anytime.

[ohnoitsbrandon]

There's a one year mfg warranty for the device, can't you request a replacement? I'm new to bell but with telus I just had to go into a corporate store and order a swap unit.

I'd also like to know incase I have any future issues.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Namueab]

Originally Posted by SuCraM1977

Bought my new Bold 9700 Mid November last year. Used it for about 3 weeks and the battery cover kept falling off. Took it to the Bell store I purchased it from and they would only send it away for repair. Bought the phone brand new for 600 dollars and used if for less than a month so I expected an exchange as the issue is clearly a manufacturers defect. I am very dissatisfied as I dropped the phone off for repair on Dec 4th 2009 and still have not got a replacement or a fixed phone. Bell store keeps claiming that the crappy repair times are because of the fact that it was Christmas time and the Flextronics company that does all of the repairs for RIM in Canada are very busy. This seriously has me thinking of ditching the Blackberry all together because of the poor customer service. A person should not have to wait 3 months to get a replacement anytime.

If you bought this phone directly from Bell, I'd be pointing fingers there first. That sounds pretty ridiculous, and I feel bad for you!

[icanhasbrendan]

i'm a sales rep at a corporate store in ottawa.
the warranty policy was changed last summer/fall regarding repairs vs replacements. it's true that at one time RIM offered replacement units within the manufacturers warranty period, but they changed their policy in favor of a repair structure. this isn't a question of bell's accountability, because they have no say in the matter. it's true that flextronics has been a rather unreliable repair centre, at least from my experience sending out customer devices, with long wait times being the most common complaint. again, this is a repair centre selected by RIM and bell has no real say in the matter. until RIM realizes that they're losing customers due to this new system they've put in place i wouldn't expect much.

PS these problems are universal amongst the canadian wireless carriers as the warranty policy is mandated from the manufacturer and the carriers are forced to play along.

[SuCraM1977]

Thanks for all of your comments and I actually sent an email to a VP of customer service at Bell yesterday to complain and voila I got a call from a rep at the Bell store to tell me that a replacement arrived today. I guess I should send emails to higher ups more often. But overall very unimpressed at RIM's choice for repair company and having to wait 9 weeks for a repair is terrible. Hopefully they make some changes to improve repair times.

[icanhasbrendan]

i would also recommend contacting someone at RIM. they need to be told by as many people as possible that the shift in their policy has seriously undermined their reputation as a premium manufacturer.

[ZipSpeed]

Originally Posted by icanhasbrendan

i'm a sales rep at a corporate store in ottawa.
the warranty policy was changed last summer/fall regarding repairs vs replacements. it's true that at one time RIM offered replacement units within the manufacturers warranty period, but they changed their policy in favor of a repair structure. this isn't a question of bell's accountability, because they have no say in the matter. it's true that flextronics has been a rather unreliable repair centre, at least from my experience sending out customer devices, with long wait times being the most common complaint. again, this is a repair centre selected by RIM and bell has no real say in the matter. until RIM realizes that they're losing customers due to this new system they've put in place i wouldn't expect much.

PS these problems are universal amongst the canadian wireless carriers as the warranty policy is mandated from the manufacturer and the carriers are forced to play along.

I don't know about that. When I started getting trackball problems on my Tour, I dropped by the Telus store I bought it from and got a swap unit two days later. Can't speak for the other carriers but I was impressed with how fast in was handled. If Telus can provide this kind of turnaround time, Bell certainly can. I imagine this is the classic scenario of "passing the buck" as it seems Bell doesn't want to deal with the problem.

[Namueab]

Ya I've had Rogers replace my BB's with refurbished units also instantly without having to wait for RIM repair times.

[Pederson]

Yep.. My girlfriend has a Tour with TELUS. Had a problem with it, they gave her a new device on the spot and sent away her old device for repair. Simple as that. However, if I ever have a problem with my phone from bell (whether it's brand new a month after signing 3 years, or old as ****, bell alway takes it and send it away for weeks on end and I'm left without a phone (unless I pay a ridiculous deposit for an absolutely crap loaner).

Sweet service. Don't blame it on RIM, has nothing to do with them.

[WickyLeBlond]

Originally Posted by Pederson

Yep.. My girlfriend has a Tour with TELUS. Had a problem with it, they gave her a new device on the spot and sent away her old device for repair. Simple as that. However, if I ever have a problem with my phone from bell (whether it's brand new a month after signing 3 years, or old as ****, bell alway takes it and send it away for weeks on end and I'm left without a phone (unless I pay a ridiculous deposit for an absolutely crap loaner).

Sweet service. Don't blame it on RIM, has nothing to do with them.

Well, if your girlfriend was still within her in-store exchange period, then yeah, it's normal and the same thing would have happened with Bell.

[SuperCM]

Bell no longer offers a Swap unit. In the past the way it was done and is currently done at TELUS is if you have an issue, a swap unit is ordered in and you take that and your original goes into the cycle to be fixed and comes out to be someone else's swap unit.

What Bell does now is they take your unit and send it in and it comes right back out. Your PIN doesn't change since you get your own unit back. Apparently the wait times for replacement stock was getting excessive, plus there's people that complain when they don't get their own back.

The whole, "oh I paid for a new phone and now I'm getting a refurbished phone" drama. But really, wouldn't you getting your own phone back fixed file it under being refurbished as well? It's not like they come out with peanut butter in the cracks.

Anyways, I had to send my Tour in to get the track ball fixed. Took a week and a half. This was before Christmas though.

[SuCraM1977]

Originally Posted by SuperCM

Bell no longer offers a Swap unit. In the past the way it was done and is currently done at TELUS is if you have an issue, a swap unit is ordered in and you take that and your original goes into the cycle to be fixed and comes out to be someone else's swap unit.

What Bell does now is they take your unit and send it in and it comes right back out. Your PIN doesn't change since you get your own unit back. Apparently the wait times for replacement stock was getting excessive, plus there's people that complain when they don't get their own back.

The whole, "oh I paid for a new phone and now I'm getting a refurbished phone" drama. But really, wouldn't you getting your own phone back fixed file it under being refurbished as well? It's not like they come out with peanut butter in the cracks.

Anyways, I had to send my Tour in to get the track ball fixed. Took a week and a half. This was before Christmas though.

Must be nice I had to wait like 9 weeks to get my supposed new replacement only to find out that the new one was defective as well. I am seriously considering canceling my contract with Bell as I have a friend that has the same phone with Telus and has now gotten 2 brand new replacements over the counter no questions asked. All I have to say is Bell's replacement policies for Blackberries suck and am sure they will lose lots of customers because of it.

[bbviper]

Originally Posted by SuperCM

Bell no longer offers a Swap unit. In the past the way it was done and is currently done at TELUS is if you have an issue, a swap unit is ordered in and you take that and your original goes into the cycle to be fixed and comes out to be someone else's swap unit.

What Bell does now is they take your unit and send it in and it comes right back out. Your PIN doesn't change since you get your own unit back. Apparently the wait times for replacement stock was getting excessive, plus there's people that complain when they don't get their own back.

The whole, "oh I paid for a new phone and now I'm getting a refurbished phone" drama. But really, wouldn't you getting your own phone back fixed file it under being refurbished as well? It's not like they come out with peanut butter in the cracks.

Anyways, I had to send my Tour in to get the track ball fixed. Took a week and a half. This was before Christmas though.

Just wanted to say that it wasn't RIM that choose to change the repair procedure. Bell actually changed it because they were getting charged Back because of the No Fault Found issues. People were sending in phones that just had scratches. So in turn Bell Choose flextronics to handle the repairs to help cut cost. Alot of People but are complaining but complaining to RIM wouldn't do anything because it was the carrier that choose to go that route.

[Shaylguul]

I dropped my wife's Bold 9700 off at Bell a couple of weeks ago and was charged a $42.00 bench fee for wanting the unit looked at. After some complaining I got a credit applied, this is not acceptable. Why should I have to pay for RIM to do a warranty repair? The waiting for a return game is on.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[SuCraM1977]

Originally Posted by Shaylguul

I dropped my wife's Bold 9700 off at Bell a couple of weeks ago and was charged a $42.00 bench fee for wanting the unit looked at. After some complaining I got a credit applied, this is not acceptable. Why should I have to pay for RIM to do a warranty repair? The waiting for a return game is on.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Well that does not surprise me at all. Bell sucks and when I get my replacement I am going to sell it and get an iphone just because of the Blackberry policies. On week 3 of waiting for my replacement big surprise.