[bobpenn]

I was talking to Verizon CS today trying to see when an official release for the new Storm firmware would be out. They told me, after speaking with another tech, that it will come out around 12/15 and that another one will come out in January. They suggested that the versions out now are not intended for distribution.

But the odd part of the call came a minute later, when she told me all about the problem they had with the original firmware and that they had to hand flash the phones one by one and that this is why there is a shortage of phones. The story she was telling was exactly the one reported, and later retracted, at the Boy Genius web site.

I told her that, and she assured me that she was on the "training team" for the Storm and that this is exactly what happened. She said there was a security hole in the original firmware, again, matching the discredited story, and this was the reason for the firmware rollback.

I told her that the story she is telling was retracted, but she told me that she was there and this is exactly what happened.

She seemed quite knowledgeable and if she misinforming me she did a convincing job.

Who knows. Maybe she is just repeating what she heard and she is exaggerating her role. I was just thrown a bit when she told me.

[mutambo]

was her name Sharifa? if so, that should give u a clue to the reliability of her comments.

[jenaywins]

Reps say a lot of stuff; its difficult to decipher what it the truth and what is not. All information from any rep must be taken with a grain of salt.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[bobpenn]

was her name Sharifa? if so, that should give u a clue to the reliability of her comments.

Sorry I didn't get a name.

[Vulcan500Rider]

Reps say a lot of stuff; its difficult to decipher what it the truth and what is not. All information from any rep must be taken with a grain of salt.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Especially when you call *611 and talk to me! LOL J/K

[ggeffon]

the problem I have with Tech Support, is they rely on emulators and simulators more than they do their knowledge of the product...they are responsible for troubleshooting EVERY Smartphone...wouldn�t it be wise of VZW, to have certain teams be responsible for certain phones...when we call in and press 1 for this and 5 for this, instead of using it for polling, maybe they should really step up their Tech Support Teams and dedicate some people to Blackberry and the others to Windows Mobile....

my $.02

[The Blackberry Veteran]

Reps say a lot of stuff; its difficult to decipher what it the truth and what is not. All information from any rep must be taken with a grain of salt.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

When I talk to reps, it sounds like they all got completely different memos for the day. Its ridiculous. They will actually get angry at each other and argue over "what they heard." its great.

If VZW reps were all on the same page with all of the same info being passed around, the world (especially this site) would be a much better place.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[noaim]

was her name Sharifa? if so, that should give u a clue to the reliability of her comments.

a comment like this is rediculous.... no offense but what does someones name have to do with anything.... like they picked it..

this is were ignorance comes in.

[SarahBara9196]

a comment like this is rediculous.... no offense but what does someones name have to do with anything.... like they picked it..

this is were ignorance comes in.

I think the poster meant that they have been misinformed by that person before so if you heard from her she could be lying/wrong...

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[stephdakel]

I think the poster meant that they have been misinformed by that person before so if you heard from her she could be lying/wrong...

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

that's clearly not what the orginal poster was implying. he was being a ****, point blank.

[rimbuk]

yes, the original poster was picking a name that he thought of as derogatory.

It could have been Cletus, Brad, Jesus, Miguel... any name.

I'm not sure whether he was trying to be racist or not, but the point was that you can't completely trust just any VZW CS rep or employee.

Its like going into a Best Buy or Circuit City and asking those people about electronics or games. Most of them know very little about anything. Honestly, they're just $10/hr employess

[dirtyjersey]

Interesting. Either way it doesn't change th fact that this firmware blows.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mutambo]

my point is that i have spoken to Sharifa (sp? , Shaniqua, Shaniya) not sure of spelling, sha something...
and everytime i talk to her i am communicated with nonsense. i might as well compile my own answers to my questions, toss them in hat, and pick out at random. i will get similar responses from the other CS (Rufus, Cleetur, doesnt really matter). They are usually high school drop outs who are paid to say something when someone calls, doesn't have to be accurate, doesn't even have to make sense, just say something and go in circles if needed, and just make sure to end the call with Thanks for being a VZ cust...

my bottom line point is, they arent too concerned about the reliability of the information they pass on to customers. they just say whatever to get you off the phone in under 60 seconds. ever watch Boiler Room? Its the opposite of that, they close on you by getting you the f'ck off the phone.

Shalom my bruthas!

[cray1000]

if the story was true, i wonder how far back they had to go.

lets pretend it is true, they found a flow.

maybe they were like 10 generations ahead of what we have now, realized the flaw, and then realize it was back as far as 10 revisions.

so to make the date, they just flashed a firmware 10 versions old.

lol, and now they are trying to work back to where they were at, without adding the flaw.

i would actually really be happy if this was the case.

[cray1000]

my point is that i have spoken to Sharifa (sp? , Shaniqua, Shaniya) not sure of spelling, sha something...
and everytime i talk to her i am communicated with nonsense. i might as well compile my own answers to my questions, toss them in hat, and pick out at random. i will get similar responses from the other CS (Rufus, Cleetur, doesnt really matter). They are usually high school drop outs who are paid to say something when someone calls, doesn't have to be accurate, doesn't even have to make sense, just say something and go in circles if needed, and just make sure to end the call with Thanks for being a VZ cust...

my bottom line point is, they arent too concerned about the reliability of the information they pass on to customers. they just say whatever to get you off the phone in under 60 seconds. ever watch Boiler Room? Its the opposite of that, they close on you by getting you the f'ck off the phone.

Shalom my bruthas!

was her name Sharifa? if so, that should give u a clue to the reliability of her comments.

you are so full of it, you were implying that "Sharifa" was black and that because she was black, she was giving bad information.

"this should give you a clue to the reliability of her comments" please, its so obvious you were implying her race was the issue.

now you are trying to back track cause people called you out. and iddnt think it was funny.

[mutambo]

you are so full of it, you were implying that "Sharifa" was black and that because she was black, she was giving bad information.

"this should give you a clue to the reliability of her comments" please, its so obvious you were implying her race was the issue.

now you are trying to back track cause people called you out. and iddnt think it was funny.

i was not implying this at all, i think your own prejudice predisposition has you thinking that someone with a name like Sharifa MUST be black... not nice to stereotype. i will let your ignorance slide this one time my son.

[cray1000]

i was not implying this at all, i think your own prejudice predisposition has you thinking that someone with a name like Sharifa MUST be black... not nice to stereotype. i will let your ignorance slide this one time my son.

lol well played, but i still think ur full of it

[Raidboss]

if the story was true, i wonder how far back they had to go.

lets pretend it is true, they found a flow.

maybe they were like 10 generations ahead of what we have now, realized the flaw, and then realize it was back as far as 10 revisions.

so to make the date, they just flashed a firmware 10 versions old.

lol, and now they are trying to work back to where they were at, without adding the flaw.

i would actually really be happy if this was the case.

It would be great to know that they had all that code written and now they just have to take out a bug, this means we will get updates faster, I hope

[dante13]

I think something like this may be true. How long would it take to build an update? .75 is already leaked out with rumors of a .76. Not to mention some storms shipping with a sticker with .82 or . 85. some of this has to add up. All of it can't be coincidence.

[someone]

I stopped believing what was said right after "CSR rep said ....".

I was told the storm was coming out in mid Nov, end Nov, early Dec, and Late Dec.. all by CSR's...

[oakindustries]

Reps say a lot of stuff; its difficult to decipher what it the truth and what is not. All information from any rep must be taken with a grain of salt.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

How do you know when a rep is lying? Their lips are moving. They'll tell you whatever you want to hear to get you out of the store and not complaining.

[d5coupe]

well i guess i am the only one who found the shafira comment hilarious...because its true... 99% of the time, and I know this because i memorized the CS phone number from calling it over 100 times.

99% of the time you get slow lazy shafiras and 1% of the time you get speedy, helpful Tom's.


CSR's have alot of power. They can credit your account balance, change your NE2 date, pretty much anything. it all comes down to how nice and helpful they want to be, and for some reason everytime I get shafira I get NO help.

tom's are always great though... Moved my NE2 from april 2009 to nov21, so I could save $50 on my storm on release day.

So my advice would be call CS and if they dont help, hang up and try again with another one. Eventually you'll find someone who has a clue and is willing to click a few buttons on their computer to help you out.


...end rant

[tracey616]

i was not implying this at all, i think your own prejudice predisposition has you thinking that someone with a name like Sharifa MUST be black... not nice to stereotype. i will let your ignorance slide this one time my son.

I spoke to a woman by this name on Saturday evening. She was a very pleasant woman and told me also that there are alot of devices with problems. Since I had returned a phone to get the Storm I could not return the Storm, but she said since the Storm has so many problems that she would put a note in my account to to make an exception and let me get a new phone. She heard my children in the background and asked about them and said she had a 1 year old and she understood the importance of having a reliable phone for a woman with 2 young children that commutes 80 miles a day and works full time and the Storm was not that phone.

I think the presumptions that have been made about a man who you have no idea about are absolutely ridiculous. And I will add, I am so happy I got rid of that piece of crap Storm that most people are trying to convince themselves into loving....and happy that Sharifa answered the phone on saturday. She was helpful and I could care less whether she was black, white or polka dotted. She was more honest with me than the people who worked in the store when I returned the phone and tried to play it off like there was no problem with the phone when they own display models were totally frozen.

[scougarb]

the problem I have with Tech Support, is they rely on emulators and simulators more than they do their knowledge of the product...they are responsible for troubleshooting EVERY Smartphone...wouldn�t it be wise of VZW, to have certain teams be responsible for certain phones...when we call in and press 1 for this and 5 for this, instead of using it for polling, maybe they should really step up their Tech Support Teams and dedicate some people to Blackberry and the others to Windows Mobile....

my $.02

While I do think that we would get a lot better support this way, the fact of the matter is that it costs a LOT more to do this. So unless you want everyone's rates to go up, it ain't happening.

[jmw102602]

well i guess i am the only one who found the shafira comment hilarious...because its true... 99% of the time, and I know this because i memorized the CS phone number from calling it over 100 times.

99% of the time you get slow lazy shafiras and 1% of the time you get speedy, helpful Tom's.


CSR's have alot of power. They can credit your account balance, change your NE2 date, pretty much anything. it all comes down to how nice and helpful they want to be, and for some reason everytime I get shafira I get NO help.

tom's are always great though... Moved my NE2 from april 2009 to nov21, so I could save $50 on my storm on release day.

So my advice would be call CS and if they dont help, hang up and try again with another one. Eventually you'll find someone who has a clue and is willing to click a few buttons on their computer to help you out.


...end rant

this is entirely too true, any time I called VZW with some sort of BS reason why I needed something, if I talked to a female I got nothing, if I talked to a male they were willing to give me whatever I wanted and more.
ie I asked for a curve at 2yr price when I wasn't eligible for upgrade, and I ended getting one for a penny