[Snafufubar]

So I took a stroll over to my local Best-buy and Future-shop stores in anticipation of buying a Play Book - at the very least I wanted to demo them and run it through the paces.

I was somewhat shocked to find the BB demo unit wasn't even upgraded to 2.0(even though 2.0 is all over their webpage and flyers). The gentleman proceeds to tell me, ya Rim locks up these units with limited functionality for demos, and that BB cant dl the update to said demo units because the wifi set up at the store wont let it(to save on bandwidth he went on to say....just imagine if people could use a lot and that would be expensive, as a result I could not even try out their 1 demo unit at the store because it was perpetually trying to update)

Then I go to Future-shop and try one, no internet connectivity to the 16 G unit, finally after waiting patiently for a sales associate to finish with another guy with a bt keyboard I tried it out....yet no 2.0 update.

Legitimate question here - I'm wondering is this BB/Futureshop being inept or is this Rim's fault somehow? I cant imagine I was the only one wondering about 2.0 as several people were waiting to try it out after me and this update isn't even applied to show it off to possible paying customers.

So, I will continue to do research and debate buying a PB as the experience at local tech stories is somewhat lacking. Rim, Bestbuy, and Futureshop - shut up and take my money after you have demo units sorted!:P

/endrant

[Bluemoonjules]

O...K.....

[Snafufubar]

Im merely commenting on my trip to the store that did not have an up to date, internet connected playbook for possible consumers to try - i want a pb, but trying out the latest version would be ideal and would help in making a choice to buy or not.

[hpjrt]

Well, since the stores are advertising the update, I would certainly have taken the store to task for the lack of working, updated Playbooks. Of course I have a habit of being a little outspoken.

RIM can't be everywhere and, in fairness, I suspect that the store salespeople haven't been adequately trained ... so I would take it upon myself to increase their knowledge ... particularly if my moniker was The Teacher.

[Snafufubar]

Well, since the stores are advertising the update, I would certainly have taken the store to task for the lack of working, updated Playbooks. Of course I have a habit of being a little outspoken.

RIM can't be everywhere and, in fairness, I suspect that the store salespeople haven't been adequately trained ... so I would take it upon myself to increase their knowledge ... particularly if my moniker was The Teacher.

lol touche - well he clearly was not a fan of the playbook and I just wanted to try the demo out, as well, being a teacher in town it may not be that well to go off on a guy about demo units not being updated bahahah

[mikeplus1]

WorstBuy employees are not very well trained in anything but being annoying in my experience, but YMMV. I do not go in with any hopes of buying anything since they do not sell a single item that I cannot buy much cheaper elsewhere, but sometimes I do go there for a hands-on look at something before I buy it online for less.

[amro]

simple solution. go to a store that wants to take your money.

staples seems to be head and shoulders above the rest in terms of playbook.

[Snafufubar]

simple solution. go to a store that wants to take your money.

staples seems to be head and shoulders above the rest in terms of playbook.

Hey I hear ya, that was my next stop and they had no playbooks, only ipads and other android tablets.

[jgrobertson]

You have hit on a very excellent point about the marketing failure at RIM. They just don't seem to know how to sell to the consumer. If they were really trying they would have made sure that ALL STORES had updated units BEFORE the release. And that at least one person at each store was trained in how to demo and sell them.

This is something that RIM has to do. They can't rely on the stores to do it on their own. Until recently RIM sold mostly to IT departments who would take care of all these details for the employees of the companies that were using Blackberrys. That model does not work at Best Buy.

A while back, I actually encountered a representative from Blackberry with logo shirt etc. I ask him when the demo unit did not work. He said that the WiFi was not good enough to update it. I told him. For goodness sakes, take the thing home if you have to but get it updated and get a power cord for it that is not broken. He just shrugged. There you have it.