Are the reps that work at cellphone stores completely useless? I frequent numerous forums pertaining to BlackBerrys and WM PDA phones, and without fail, there are questions pertaining to the correct data plans for the respective devices on an almost daily basis...
I am not ranting at the TC, but at the employees that should better explain this stuff.
Anyway, to use the data features of a BlackBerry, you need to be signed up to either a BES plan or a BIS plan. They are "essentially" the same thing, but BIS is designed more for the individual consumer. I am going to assume that is the category you fall into and say that you need to be on a BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) plan. Depending on your carrier, these plans offer a certain amount of data usage every month, be it unlimited, 1 gig, 500mb, whatever; you need to see which plans are offered by your carrier and which one suits you best. As an example, At&t offers the BlackBerry Personal Plan for $30 a month and it has unlimited data usage for email and web browsing.
Once you have a data plan associated with your account, you will be able to use your BlackBerry to get your email, and to browse the web. While browsing the web, you can download certain files directly to the phone, including images, some video/audio files, and program installation packets (the installation packets must be .jad or .jar format, and to be specific, they aren't really downloaded, but are instead opened and installed). That's about it however; you can't really go all around the net downloading any and everything you see like you would on a desktop, or even a Pocket PC device.
First thing is first however, go back to your cell provider's store and see about getting a data plan so you can actually use the data features of the phone properly.
Last edited by CrazEtooN; 04-03-08 at 02:22 PM.
Reason: fixing something
What I can't understand is why a person in sales would not explain and try to sell the data plans. One would think that a salesperson would at least TRY to sell everything they could possibly sell....
That's exactly what I am getting at. For one, every time I have ever purchased a PDA or BlackBerry device, the rep requires me to get a data plan. I know it isn't a real requirement as a data block can be used in its place, but still, they do their damnedest to get me to purchase the data. I know better, and I would never even think of owning this type of device without a data plan, but obviously, there are many that don't share my knowledge on the subject.
Not to mention the aspects of customer satisfaction and being a good salesperson. All these cellphone reps get commissions on their sales, and as a sales person myself, I can't understand how and why they don't push the plans simply for their own paycheck's benefit. The customer satisfaction part rolls around when you have irritated customers that can't use their devices to their true potential and are super confused about features and whatnot.
As a matter of fact, I have purchased 3 At&t Curves, and not one out of the three was properly registered with BIS upon my taking it home. That's right, for each one I had to actually get home and call customer service to have them properly activate my BIS plan so I would get all my service books. I just think about all the people that buy these phones and don't know about BIS and how to set up email and all that, and how those people are left with gimped devices for who knows how long until they learn better. The only BlackBerrys I have ever owned that were set up properly the instant I walked out of the store were the ones I got when I was with Verizon.
Anyway, I am done ranting, it's just that I feel bad for the customer that puts faith in a rep at a cellphone store and is left worse off for it just because that customer wasn't "in the know."
It is highly likely that Jomo purchased his BB from Ebay or somewhere like that. Most Carrier shops in the Uk would know that he would have had to have a data Plan.
Also in the UK it is not known as a 'data plan' so he could be a little confused as he has never had a Blackberry before.
