[takeo]

I've read a lot of threads that rip apart the Playbook for no good reasons, and I won't comment on that. I will probably write a proper comparison soon - I've been working in this field for more than 15 years, more than a decade for Apple.

Now since I've been "converted" to use a BB in my daily life, moving to Indonesia where this is basically the first and only way to communicate, I have to say I love my BB.

So far I had a 9700, 9800 and now I'm on 9780 - in barely 11 months. You might ask why I switched from my torch (which is lying on my desk), but it's not entirely due to it's downsides - I really liked it. It's rather because the slide broke. When I mean broke, it just stopped "flipping" on its own if pushed about 20% into the direction you want it to go. I remember this from my Nokia 8800 - the high-quality steel-made, ultra-expensive Nokia phone which I had bought for barely 800� (euros). I had to have this phone fixed 3 times, regarding this issue. I could do that full 2 years, as it had a special extended warranty.

Now, my Torch is broken and I asked my local distributor on Indonesia /the official one, called TAM!/ to repair it as it's barely 6 months old (I bought it on the first day it came out and had it shipped to Indonesia immediately). They told me I needed to pay 100$. I heard that, realized this could be not only one time to happen, bought the 9780 and told myself never to buy a slider again in my entire life. - I don't mistreat them, I just use my phone a lot. But that's what it's made for, right?? I'm very very sad about the quality and warranty in this case.

But there is more:

I got my Playbook from the states, payed roughly 850$ for the 64GB version (due to import tax etc) and yesterday I put it on my desk charging. I lifted it up, it slipped out of my hand, fell barely 10 centimeters - and I'm not making any numbers up which sound small - and it landed somehow on the charging-cable. Everything seemed fine (btw the Playbook's build quality is mind-blowing!) but when I wanted to charge it at night, I realized it wouldn't.

The charger which comes with the Playbook won't charge my PB nor my BB anymore - USB cable to charge was my solution and help, but of course I had to keep my computer running to keep it charging and it is much slower. Now I can throw away the charger, as I believe the contacts have been pushed down by the rough landing and can't reach into the Playbook far enough anymore to charge it. I'm sad, I'm upset, I'm helpless - no warranty (sorry to say this: unlike Apple, where you have international warranty) and I *really really really* don't understand why RIM does not ship the magnetic charger with the Playbook. DON'T tell me it's about the costs. Why would you even consider such a awesome port to charge if you don't deliver? I think RIM has a big quality issue and they need to do better work here and introduce an international warranty.

Thanks for your time reading it - I've just felt like getting this out of my head.

[MattBerry08]

So your complaint is that your USB charger is broken? i am sure thats frustrating but the headline and post are misleading. if its charging (slowly) via the regular USB cable - id be skeptical that its the playbook port itself....

[takeo]

So your complaint is that your USB charger is broken? i am sure thats frustrating but the headline and post are misleading. if its charging (slowly) via the regular USB cable - id be skeptical that its the playbook port itself....

I might have pointed this out misleading. The charger with comes shipped with the Playbook /basically a usb-charger/, is broken. The Playbook still charges thru USB-cable. The shipped charger does not have the option to use a usb-cable unlike a "standard" BB-charger.

[Morten]

@takeo - may i suggest, that before you throw your PB charger away, what about getting a cheap normal usb cable, cut it, and cut the charger cable, and just patch in place the new piece with a working micro usb connector?

Not a perfect solution, but can save you for quite a few charging hours

[takeo]

@takeo - may i suggest, that before you throw your PB charger away, what about getting a cheap normal usb cable, cut it, and cut the charger cable, and just patch in place the new piece with a working micro usb connector?

Not a perfect solution, but can save you for quite a few charging hours

Lindstrom, thank you for your input. I thought about it already, might do it. But rather, to be honest, I would love to see RIM ship the magnetic charger with every PB - would really have helped with reviews as well. I probably gonna waste another 60$ on that...

Thanks for your comment though

[Spinal]

i'm a little confused about the thread title, you're saying that your charger doesn't work because you dropped your playbook and it landed where the port is. its a micro-usb adapter look how tiny it is vs the size of the playbook its obviously going to break, as for international warranty depending on where you bought it you could've purchased their extended warranty which is usually international, but it doesn't cover physical damage anyway, so you'd probably be screwed regardless.

[latingeo]

Whats your address, i'll email you a brand new one. lol

[UnifiedTechs]

Short version to save everyones time.

Bought phone, phone broke. Carrier wants $100 to fix, never called RIM who would actually hold warranty but I will blame RIM.

Later bought PB in country not released yet, dropped PB and broke charger, blame RIM again without calling them. Try to make Apple sound better by noting they have international warranty all though my problem is my own fault and would not be fixed by Apple either.

[OniBerry]

Short version to save everyones time.

Bought phone, phone broke. Carrier wants $100 to fix, never called RIM who would actually hold warranty but I will blame RIM.

Later bought PB in country not released yet, dropped PB and broke charger, blame RIM again without calling them. Try to make Apple sound better by noting they have international warranty all though my problem is my own fault and would not be fixed by Apple either.

Yep, that pretty much covers it.

[takeo]

Seems like people here skipped the part where I approached the *official* distributor for RIM in Indonesia (about the same as talking to RIM).

And my other concern is that a slider breakes after a few months - guys, sliders should not break, but this is indeed a problem in terms of quality - next to that, getting it fixed shouldn't cost 100$!! /the phone is 500$!!/

Then we have the issue with the charger: I dropped it, yes, from 10 centimeters. It didn't cause damage to the playbook but obviously to the charger's contacts. That's indeed another quality-problem - how the heck is that even possible? And I can't get it replaced either.

BTW, I'm not trying to put Apple up here. There is many more companies that cover this kind of problems internationally.

[narci]

Short version to save everyones time.

Bought phone, phone broke. Carrier wants $100 to fix, never called RIM who would actually hold warranty but I will blame RIM.

Later bought PB in country not released yet, dropped PB and broke charger, blame RIM again without calling them. Try to make Apple sound better by noting they have international warranty all though my problem is my own fault and would not be fixed by Apple either.

let me shorten that.

user broke the charger. blames rim.

official distributor is not the same as rim.

futureshop and best buy are official distributors of the playbook but you need to contact rim if you have issues outside the stores warranty coverage.

[siausin]

another useless post making a small issue sounded like a big deal breaker...for goodness sake, just because RIM doesn't have international warranty did not make it a defective product maker...i have been using my Torch since launch date and its slider still works perfectly..you broke your own things and you pinned the issue like a big deal..this post is not only misleading, it belittled the phone maker

[takeo]

another useless post making a small issue sounded like a big deal breaker...for goodness sake, just because RIM doesn't have international warranty did not make it a defective product maker...i have been using my Torch since launch date and its slider still works perfectly..you broke your own things and you pinned the issue like a big deal..this post is not only misleading, it belittled the phone maker

So it's misleading if I think that an international warranty should at least cover this kind of damage, as I haven't caused the slider to break by any force, but it broke on daily usage!?

I have like tons of electronics, trust me, but the BB torch and the PB charger are like the only things I can't get fixed for free or I even have to get fixed.

I'm disappointed, I didn't say "go, f**k RIM" - people here are even worse than Apple fans, who can't stand a negative comment.

[UnifiedTechs]

Seems like people here skipped the part where I approached the *official* distributor for RIM in Indonesia (about the same as talking to RIM).

And my other concern is that a slider breakes after a few months - guys, sliders should not break, but this is indeed a problem in terms of quality - next to that, getting it fixed shouldn't cost 100$!! /the phone is 500$!!/

Then we have the issue with the charger: I dropped it, yes, from 10 centimeters. It didn't cause damage to the playbook but obviously to the charger's contacts. That's indeed another quality-problem - how the heck is that even possible? And I can't get it replaced either.

BTW, I'm not trying to put Apple up here. There is many more companies that cover this kind of problems internationally.

I am an official reseller for a ton of products, and yes Blackberry is one of them, but after 30 days your warranty is between you and RIM, I'm not going to be able to help you because RIM does not pay us to do warranty work... very few manufacturers do and then only to certified repair centers. I have neither the parts nor the tools to do the repair, and I'm not going to give you a new phone when my profit is less then 10 to 30% of what I sold it for, especially when RIM would fix it for you for free, I'd be out of business in a month if I did that. Heck on many products the cost to ship it to the manufacture would be more then my profit.

And for the record my Torch is a year old and I have had no problems, a small percentage of any product has issues... you contact the manufacture and they will fix it. And again RIM never said it would be $100 to fix, or refused to fix it. A company that happens to both sell and repair RIM products told you that they charge to repair things.

Want to talk about a company that has expensive repairs? Try Apple! I own a shop in a local mall that does nothing but fix apple phones, often for half the price of what apple charges. We don't sell any phones, and we don't fix anything but Apple phones... they were the only ones profitable to fix and it supports a whole store and employees in a small city. Crack an Apple screen and it's $200 dollars to apple or $75 to us, and Apple doesn't care if you bought it the day before and it fell 2 inches onto a feather pillow, it broke it's your fault. Trip a water censor and warranty was dead for the longest time, and putting it in a pocket while running and you would sweat enough to trip the ones in the headphone jack and the charger port. Finally Apple got such bad backlash that they changed it to the internal one had to be tripped to kill the warranty, still Apple's charge to fix if not in warranty was like $150, we charged $49!

Funniest part is we have 2 other competitors in our area, and 6 in the bigger county south of us so and there is plenty of work to go around! The AT&T store even used to recommend us to customers until the big bosses caught wind of it and threatened to fire them if they didn't stop.

[takeo]

I am an official reseller for a ton of products, and yes Blackberry is one of them, but after 30 days your warranty is between you and RIM, I'm not going to be able to help you because RIM does not pay us to do warranty work... very few manufacturers do and then only to certified repair centers. I have neither the parts nor the tools to do the repair, and I'm not going to give you a new phone when my profit is less then 10 to 30% of what I sold it for, especially when RIM would fix it for you for free, I'd be out of business in a month if I did that. Heck on many products the cost to ship it to the manufacture would be more then my profit.

And for the record my Torch is a year old and I have had no problems, a small percentage of any product has issues... you contact the manufacture and they will fix it. And again RIM never said it would be $100 to fix, or refused to fix it. A company that happens to both sell and repair RIM products told you that they charge to repair things.

Want to talk about a company that has expensive repairs? Try Apple! I own a shop in a local mall that does nothing but fix apple phones, often for half the price of what apple charges. We don't sell any phones, and we don't fix anything but Apple phones... they were the only ones profitable to fix and it supports a whole store and employees in a small city. Crack an Apple screen and it's $200 dollars to apple or $75 to us, and Apple doesn't care if you bought it the day before and it fell 2 inches onto a feather pillow, it broke it's your fault. Trip a water censor and warranty was dead for the longest time, and putting it in a pocket while running and you would sweat enough to trip the ones in the headphone jack and the charger port. Finally Apple got such bad backlash that they changed it to the internal one had to be tripped to kill the warranty, still Apple's charge to fix if not in warranty was like $150, we charged $49!

Funniest part is we have 2 other competitors in our area, and 6 in the bigger county south of us so and there is plenty of work to go around! The AT&T store even used to recommend us to customers until the big bosses caught wind of it and threatened to fire them if they didn't stop.

First off all - thank you for your answer. It's like one of the few serious ones I got here.

Secondly, the torch came out in August last year - I got it 1 week after release. So it's not 1 year old. And I'm not complaining about a broken screen, nor about anything that would probably not be covered by any warranty I know about. I'm complaining about a part of the phone that is obviously weak and easily to break if you use the phone a lot every day - and I gave an example about the same mechanism failing with Nokia - where I got it replaced immediately! So I have a comparison which is eligible.

Having iPhones etc. being fixed for problems Apple doesn't cover is not involved in my thinking. The charger's "adapter" is obviously broken and I know this for a fact: Apple would replace the charger immediately. No charge applied. --- please don't think I'm a fanboy, but I have my experience with this company (Apple) and therefore I'm giving examples. OF course they have flaws too!!

[UnifiedTechs]

So it's misleading if I think that an international warranty should at least cover this kind of damage, as I haven't caused the slider to break by any force, but it broke on daily usage!?

I have like tons of electronics, trust me, but the BB torch and the PB charger are like the only things I can't get fixed for free or I even have to get fixed.

I'm disappointed, I didn't say "go, f**k RIM" - people here are even worse than Apple fans, who can't stand a negative comment.

By your own admission you have never even asked RIM to fix them so honestly everything else is irrelevant. RIM has not refused to fix it, you refuse to ask them.

Do you drop all your electronics? Where those dropped electronics fixed for free?

Now if RIM actually did refuse to fix it you could plead your case to the community, on the Torch you have a strong case, but I also expect RIM will fix it happily if you ask. On the PB you can't ignore the fact you dropped it and NO company is going to fix it, I could easily see a drop of that height breaking a lot of micro chargers, heck I know of many laptop chargers that that fall onto a plugged in charger will snap the port right off the mainboard!

To me your story actually supports the toughness of the Playbook design, it sacrificed the inexpensive charger to prevent serious damage to the actual device. I much rather by a $50 charger then a $500 device!

[UnifiedTechs]

Secondly, the torch came out in August last year - So it's not 1 year old. And I'm not complaining about a broken screen, nor about anything that would probably not be covered by any warranty I know about. I'm complaining about a part of the phone that is obviously weak and easily to break if you use the phone a lot every day - and I gave an example about the same mechanism failing with Nokia - where I got it replaced immediately!

The charger's "adapter" is obviously broken and I know this for a fact: Apple would replace the charger immediately. No charge applied.

(I cut your post down for ease of reading, I hope you agree I did not change any meanings)

I am a little short on the age of my (and your) Torch but that really changes nothing of what I said, but I do have to ask who fixed your Nokia when it broke, was it Nokia or the place where you bought it? And did you have any extended warranty on it through the place you bought it? Again I reiterate my main point, you have never asked RIM to fix your phone.

And I simply can not believe Apple would replace a physically damaged charger for free, it excludes physical damage, and this is from my experience and the stories I hear.

[takeo]

(I cut your post down for ease of reading, I hope you agree I did not change any meanings)

I am a little short on the age of my (and your) Torch but that really changes nothing of what I said, but I do have to ask who fixed your Nokia when it broke, was it Nokia or the place where you bought it? And did you have any extended warranty on it through the place you bought it? Again I reiterate my main point, you have never asked RIM to fix your phone.

And I simply can not believe Apple would replace a physically damaged charger for free, it excludes physical damage, and this is from my experience and the stories I hear.

(no problem cutting down my post, agreed.)

I had my Nokia phone repaired at the official repair-station in Germany back then - had to go to a specific store to get it fixed.
Same happened here - in Indonesia - every place I went to told me to go to that specific store (there is only one branch!), and when I finally went there after asking about 5 stores on my way there, they would let me down asking for 100$.

And yes, Apple would replace it. It happened to a lot of customers - especially the magnet-adapter to break after about 1 year if they would strangle it too much.

[UnifiedTechs]

(no problem cutting down my post, agreed.)

I had my Nokia phone repaired at the official repair-station in Germany back then - had to go to a specific store to get it fixed.
Same happened here - in Indonesia - every place I went to told me to go to that specific store (there is only one branch!), and when I finally went there after asking about 5 stores on my way there, they would let me down asking for 100$.

And yes, Apple would replace it. It happened to a lot of customers - especially the magnet-adapter to break after about 1 year if they would strangle it too much.

So your Nokia was fixed at a authorized repair center that does warranty work, sound like there is none for BlackBerry near you and you need to contact RIM directly. Everyone has tried to tell you to call RIM about getting your Torch repaired, until you do you can't honestly say RIM won't fix it. The only thing you can really say is "RIM is not a mind reader, they haven't offered to repair the broken Torch I threw in a drawer and never told them about"

The Apple Magnet adapter breaking on laptops was an issue that normal use wore out the cable due to a design flaw. It had nothing to do with customers dropping the device in any way, yes people who broke it other ways slipped in under the program but they got lucky. If a design flaw in Playbook chargers showed up I expect RIM would do the same thing Apple did, but the fact yours broke when you dropped it does not make a design flaw, even if it is proven 100% of them break when dropped because it was not designed to be dropped, and RIM makes no statement that implies you can drop it. As I said previously a case could be made to show that designing it to break could be given as an advantage over putting stress on the actual charger port. The Apple situation and your broken charger have nothing in common, and if I were you I would be happy the Playbook itself was not damaged.

Interesting side note I almost forgot about, Apple had to recall every charger originally sold with an iPhone3G because the prongs would break off in an outlet, my old job gave me an iPhone and I remember having to fill out the form to get a replacement sent to me: Apple - Support - Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange Program

[wsoelivan]

I'm from Indonesia as well and I can assure you all there is no RIM authorized repair center over here.

Takeo, TAM is just one of so many Blackberry's distributor here and it's not any better than the others. I've heard 'stories' regarding certain distributors changing the components of the phone etc. No wonder why TAM has been selling Blackberries much cheaper, and still is.

I bought my Playbook from a local reseller and it didn't come with any warranty. The only warranty I have is RIM's warranty. However, the warranty card says warranty is void if the device you obtained is not from authorized dealer.

If anything were to happen to my BB Device, especially if it was completely my own fault, I wouldn't blame RIM for sure.

My suggestion for you is to find a local electrician and fix your Playbook charger. Then locate and go to the nearest authorized RIM in nearby country to fix your Torch for free OR source yourself the broken part from ebay or something and let the pro do the job. Hope this helps.

[siausin]

if you have a defective product, manufacturer including rim will either repair it or replace it..to put your complain into proper perspective, the reason you won't get your pb charger replaced in indonesia is because pb is not launched in indonesia..

[drethos]

the "speed" charger is garbage in my opinion. i still have mine i don't use it but works. it worked great the first day but then it would lose connection randomly while charging. then it wouldn't charge to 100%. to be honest your better off charging with the usb one.

[sam_b77]

Seems like people here skipped the part where I approached the *official* distributor for RIM in Indonesia (about the same as talking to RIM).

And my other concern is that a slider breakes after a few months - guys, sliders should not break, but this is indeed a problem in terms of quality - next to that, getting it fixed shouldn't cost 100$!! /the phone is 500$!!/

Then we have the issue with the charger: I dropped it, yes, from 10 centimeters. It didn't cause damage to the playbook but obviously to the charger's contacts. That's indeed another quality-problem - how the heck is that even possible? And I can't get it replaced either.

BTW, I'm not trying to put Apple up here. There is many more companies that cover this kind of problems internationally.

Official distributor is not the same as RIM.
I had a horrible time with the Storm (won't get into the many problems), so I complained to the distributor and asked them to give me a Bold 2 instead at no extra cost or return my money.
The distributor was delaying so I e-mailed RIM's India CEO and a copy to the distributor.
Long story short they took back the Storm, and gave me a Bold 2. How's that for customer service. Try that with Apple....they will give you the finger.

[dkingsf]

Lindstrom, thank you for your input. I thought about it already, might do it. But rather, to be honest, I would love to see RIM ship the magnetic charger with every PB - would really have helped with reviews as well. I probably gonna waste another 60$ on that...

Thanks for your comment though

A friggin micro usb wall charger costs about $4.99 here in the US (WalMart). I got like, what, 12 sitting around from previous devices.

How about I send you the old one from my Moto? It works fine on MY Playbook.

Sheeh.

[lnichols]

Perhaps you should have waited for it to be sold locally. The title of this thread is total misrepresentation of the issue to make RIM look bad. They provided you a charger that you broke so they should provide the much more expensive one to you and everyone. Apple doesn't even give a charger with the iPod touches.