[Newshound115]

Hello, Can anyone help please? I cannot fo the life of me syncronise my BT Yahoo online calendar with my new Blackberry 9700. I can sync contacts without any problem it's just the calendar that is proving impossible to sync.

My e-mail works fine. BTW it's the new version of the Yahoo online calendar.
The version of Blackberry DTM is 5.01.28. My PC is running Windows 7. I have Outlook 2007 on computer but I don't want to use if if at all possible. What I just want to do is sync directly with my Yahoo calendar and yes I have filled in all the boxes on the DTM correctly. After syncing the address book it looks like the Calendar sync process is stating and then the message "connection to the Yahoo server has been lost" comes up.

I spent an hour on the phone with a very helpful fellow direct from RIM support. If you have a British Telecom supplied �BT Yahoo� online account as supplied by British Telecom to all of its broadband customers, it appears you cannot sync your online calendar with a Blackberry, any Blackberry.

When the chap from RIM heard that no one at Vodafone had offered to put me through to RIM support despite four calls over the past two weeks to Vodafone�s customer support � apparently a free option open to new BB customers, he offered to help for free and waived the normal $49 support fee. Now that's what I call customer service. He really went out of his way to find a solution. After checking all of the settings in my Blackberry and the DTM we set up a dummy ordinary free Yahoo account and its calendar sync'd to my BB without any problem.

So the problem is not with the Blackberry or the free version of Yahoo but with that strange creature 'BT Yahoo' - the sickly love child of two corporate entities who are, shall we say "limited" when it comes to customer service. . Regrettably, I have ten years worth of calendar entries in my BT Yahoo calendar.

When, on the sixth attempt, I got through through to the BT call centre in India, I asked if they could explain why an ordinary Yahoo account could sync with a Blackberry but a "BT Yahoo" could not. I was told that they don't support Yahoo �but it's called BT YAHOO� - Silence. �Yes but we don't support Yahoo and we don�t have any way of getting in touch with anyone at Yahoo� Sigh. The staff in the BT call centre are extraordinarily polite but have been given no authority beyond a few very limited problems with one�s actual broadband connection, to really help in any way. Hard to believe, but the only way to lodge a complaint with BT � a major telecoms company is to write a letter, stick a stamp on the envelope and post it to some nebulous address in Durham. Given the hours that I spent with the call centre in India, I have no faith that anyone would bother responding to a letter. Sigh.


So am I feeling a little aggrieved and a little bit whingy? Yes. I am more than annoyed with Vodafone because when I bought this phone, I told the salesman that I had a BT Yahoo account and he told me that he knew of no syncing problems. I am annoyed with Vodafone�s customer service because they seem to be unaware of the issue and despite four attempts to solve it with them they could have put me in touch with the competent RIM support staff, and didn�t. And am I annoyed with BT Yahoo? Indeed I am. They do not have the first idea about customer service.

So now, I�m stuck with Blackberry 9700 and can only use its e-mail features and because this has taken so long to sort out I�m now outside of Vodafone�s 28 day returns policy so the only way to cancel the contract is pay Vodafone �585. I give up.

Caveat Emptor. I think I�m going back to my faithful Nokia 6310i and a written diary. Or is there some bright soul out there that might have a solution?

Regards Newshound

[bbsean]

Have you thought of just creating a regular (i.e.: not BT branded) Yahoo account - or even a Gmail account, then exporting your BT Yahoo calendar entries to the new account?

Regular Yahoo and Gmail have no problems syncing with BB.

Just a thought!

(PS: As far as everyone having your current BT Yahoo email address, you could forward all your BT Yahoo emails to your new account and Voila!!)!