Replacement #4

[AngiMac]

Woke up half an hour late this morning, wondering why my alarm didn't go off on my berry. Picked it up and saw the red LED, figured, ok, I have messages.

Screen was black, so I pressed a button... nothing... my heart sank, as this is the 5th time that this has happened to either my husband or myself with this model of phone.

Called tech support, and they don't have live humans in tech support at Verizon, at least not in the blackberry department until 7 am. Clock rolls around to 7 slowly and I call the number that I should have forever etched into my memory... One good thing about calling at 7 am, there's no wait time for a techie.

I give my name, and tell her the issue, she has me do a battery pull, puts me on hold, and informs me that since this will be my 4th replacement, that I will be receiving the next model up, a Curve 8330.

I REALLY like the flip form factor... I have only had one cell personally that wasn't a flip phone, and I hated it.

But I am HOPING with all the hope I can muster that since the Curve is an established phone model that I will no longer need a replacement every 6 weeks. One thing I have learned from this, I will never again jump into a 2 year contract with a brand new, just been released model phone.

I suppose it's now time for me to take myself over to the Curve forum and see if I can acquaint myself with that model.

[Jancy10]

BB Curve 8330 one of the best devices (not just BB) ever made! You'll be very happy with this device, I have the 8320 (Bold is my everyday BB) and I do love it, the 8330 is supposed to be better...

[sunNsnow]

Give the Curve a chance before you nix it. It's a decent phone but you have to get used to locking it to prevent "self dialing" (inadvertent button pushes when it's in your pocket).

A family member has a Flip 8230 and we're waiting for the replacement to arrive because it was having BBM and phone call issues (he can't hear people on that phone, the phone does not ring in areas where we have decent service).

I personally think that the Flip is a mediocre replacement for the 8130 in terms of quality (feels cheap compared to 8130 and not to mention the problems with it from the beginning).

[8220]

Originally Posted by AngiMac

Woke up half an hour late this morning, wondering why my alarm didn't go off on my berry. Picked it up and saw the red LED, figured, ok, I have messages.

Screen was black, so I pressed a button... nothing... my heart sank, as this is the 5th time that this has happened to either my husband or myself with this model of phone.

Called tech support, and they don't have live humans in tech support at Verizon, at least not in the blackberry department until 7 am. Clock rolls around to 7 slowly and I call the number that I should have forever etched into my memory... One good thing about calling at 7 am, there's no wait time for a techie.

I give my name, and tell her the issue, she has me do a battery pull, puts me on hold, and informs me that since this will be my 4th replacement, that I will be receiving the next model up, a Curve 8330.

I REALLY like the flip form factor... I have only had one cell personally that wasn't a flip phone, and I hated it.

But I am HOPING with all the hope I can muster that since the Curve is an established phone model that I will no longer need a replacement every 6 weeks. One thing I have learned from this, I will never again jump into a 2 year contract with a brand new, just been released model phone.

I suppose it's now time for me to take myself over to the Curve forum and see if I can acquaint myself with that model.

I don't think it's hardware related, because I'm on TMO and my phone doesn't do weird things as other's have posted. My phone has never shut down, the alarm always works, don't need to do batt pulls etc... The only issue I have with this phone is the wifi constantly dropping, I'm on my fourth replacement also, but none of them were related to issues with the phone. It was user abuse and totally my fault.

All of the phones I got from Costco had loose hinging and loose batt cover, but none of them did anything weird, I kept scratching the screen and they were kind enough to replace the phone. The fourth replacement I got from TMO was totally different in terms of build quality. The first thing I noticed was the hinge was snug and not loose like the other ones, but the batt cover was still loosy goosey.

Things I did to try to make it more reliable were:

Update the OS.
Cardboard in the sim card trick. (helps with dropped calls and keeping the phone from doing weird things.)

Glass cloth electrical tape for the loose batt cover (100%) fixed no squeaks! Double sided tape works to but the cloth tape is forever and thicker.

[AngiMac]

I'm not griping about the Curve, just hoping that it will be stable for me

And I don't know that it's hardware, but I've only installed Quick Pull, Google Maps and Facebook on any of them. I didn't have a problem with a loose battery cover, because I put a hard cover on it. It's CDMA so no sim card issue to deal with. Each and every one of these phones were running GREAT until they decided to just power down and not start back up. I've used only blackberry chargers and the one that was sold to us from the carrier when we bought them. Phone hasn't been dropped, immersed in water, etc... I have done the OS update on it, to the I think it was .284 or whatever the most recent official release was. I use a 2 GB micro SD in it for tones, pictures, videos and even THAT was formatted in the phone so that can't be the issue (especially since my husband has had 2 of these do the exact same thing, and my SD card was never put in his).

Each of these phones were Alltel branded 8230s. The one that my husband has right now is a Verizon branded one. Thus far, no issues with it. Hopefully, it will remain as such. But every Alltel branded one we've had has given us no warning whatsoever before turning into a paperweight somewhere around the 6 weeks mark.

If you can think of something that we could possibly be doing to cause this, then by all means, please tell me. I would really prefer to get one phone set up the way I want it and keep it that way instead of having to go through the hassle of getting everything personalized over and over and over...

[8220]

Originally Posted by AngiMac

Each of these phones were Alltel branded 8230s. The one that my husband has right now is a Verizon branded one. Thus far, no issues with it. Hopefully, it will remain as such. But every Alltel branded one we've had has given us no warning whatsoever before turning into a paperweight somewhere around the 6 weeks mark.

If you can think of something that we could possibly be doing to cause this, then by all means, please tell me. I would really prefer to get one phone set up the way I want it and keep it that way instead of having to go through the hassle of getting everything personalized over and over and over...

I highly doubt there was negligence on your part and tend to be leaning toward QC associated with cheap hardware. I just hope I can at least get one year out of my replacement. The good news is this one wasn't refurbed they actually sent me a brand new phone, tighter hinge with no play. My other one was pretty bad and made it feel really cheap. I also fixed the loose batt cover using glass cloth electrical tape no more movement and squeaks and this one feels solid and not cheap after said and done.


I posted this the other day.

Originally Posted by 8220

I'm on a replacement phone with TMO and this is going to be the last one so if this thing doesn't hold out for at least a year I'll have no choice but to dump the phone. This was the only reason I went with BB and it would be a shame for RIM to just abandon the whole concept. I mean they could make this a way better phone we already beta tested the damn thing for RIM for free so they know what needs to be fixed and updated.

Anyway good luck to you and your hubby and hope we both can make it to the end of the year.

[stev32k]

I am on my fourth replacement also. I've had just about every problem that has been reported. The current phone keeps dropping WiFI and without it I don't have any service at all. I've this about a week and I'll give it until Monday, but if it keeps having problems I'll send it back.

It's a shame because there are some things I like about the phone like the large keys that make it easier to dial and text. It's also longer so that I can hold it to my ear and still talk. It only it didn't have all these problems.

[maxknux]

I also had this problem I am on my 3rd replacement and I crashed the OS 3 times on the third phone. So far right now it works but the problem is I feel T-mobile is really slow at updating the OS on the Pearl flip.