[Bla1ze]

I wonder if totally different, jaded people handle the BlackBerry sales?

Not outside the realm of possibility.

[stinckyfoot]

Here is the support form for phones purchased from ShopBlackBerry.

https://consumersupport.webapps.blac...orm/shopbb_en/

As far as I know, all shopblackberry gets routed to digital river, which is the people I have the problem with on the purchasing side.

[stinckyfoot]

Probably better to buy passport through Amazon. Have you read all the threads about shop BlackBerry?

Posted via CB10

Sadly, any warranty will still need to go thru BlackBerry.

[stinckyfoot]

I've brought several of these cases and similar to BlackBerry's attention. I point them out whenever they arise. What happens after that, I don't know but I do know they're aware of it. In the way of customer service, nothing is going to change overnight and its often hard to correct the past but they're putting more effort into ShopBlackBerry. Just the other day, I posted on my BBM Channel that they were looking for a senior VP of online sales. Just like the others, I will pass this one along as well.

You are awesome Bla1ze! that's all i was asking for. Not saying anything negative about Crackberry, I love it here, but it's sad that I feel that i have to go to a fan blog site in order to be able to get word to the company i need support for. That being said, I'm happy that I have that option, than no option at all.

I really hope they find someone soon. They need it desperately, as well as their Warranty process completely revamped.

[stinckyfoot]

I hate digital river. I love blackberry phones and OS though. I let my first z10's warranty expire rather than get it replaced or fixed under warranty (rare battery drain, freeze, auto shut off). My second one has camera issues and its warranty shall expire soon. I dread dealing with digital river after my previous experiences with them and all these other forum postings. I contacted @blackberryhelp though twitter about your situation and mine. I hope they can resolve your issue promptly and well & let me/us know how to work with digital river customer service and be satisfied with them instead of wanting to yank our hair out and consider leaving blackberry.

You're awesome. I'm going to create a twitter account myself so i can post a complaint as well. This is just sad.

[MADBRADNYC]

Yeah, I've been on there. For the consumer side, there's nothing except for twitter that point to BlackBerry themselves, it goes to a carrier, shopblackberry (digital river) or amazon.

Yes. I posted it for the Twitter handle. They offer assistance for more than just device issues. Don't know if it will help, but many mentioned trying Twitter.

Good luck!

Posted via CB10

[stinckyfoot]

Digital River also runs the Microsoft online store, and I bought a computer through them with no issues whatsoever. I did something stupid on the website and the transaction stalled, so I called their CS and they fixed the problem and completed the transaction. Very nice to deal with. The computer arrived 2 or 3 days later.

I wonder if totally different, jaded people handle the BlackBerry sales?

Posted via CB10 from my awesome Passport

I would guess different contract terms and conditions with BB and DR

[stinckyfoot]

Yes. I posted it for the Twitter handle. They offer assistance for more than just device issues. Don't know if it will help, but many mentioned trying Twitter.

Good luck!

Posted via CB10

yeah, i'm going to open a twitter account so i can post on there and voice my concerns. Thank you for your help.

[Man@Arms]

Contact their CSO Customer Loyalty directly: [email protected]. They should be able to assist.

[curves2000]

I am not sure if anyone has mentioned this or not but I have the company contact information here.

http://ca.blackberry.com/company/about-us/contact.html


This may sound old fashion but I have had some personal success over the years just writing a letter to company's HQ's. If you address it to someone like Marty Beard who I believe is the COO and client services, online sales etc is his responsibility I am sure an assistant will be able to assist or place you in touch with the proper department.

Good luck!



Posted via CB10

[Dave79]

That's always very frustrating. I tried a few times to contact BlackBerry in the past but it's not worth in the anger and frustration it generates.

I had a terrible experience with Digital Rivers buying a pretty expensive Lenovo ThinkPad.

My two cents is just give up, dont bother yourself any further. For the Passport if you dont want it anymore just refuse the delivery when the courier will try to deliver, they will have to charge back the full amount to your credit card. I always do that with everything I buy online I cannot cancel any longer.

For the broken display just give up. I have a long time ago. Even if technically the display it's under warranty it isnt in reality. Companies refuse to repair display under warranty that's it. Surely BlackBerry wont, it's their policy. I guess they have no way to asses for certain if the display failed because you dropped the phone or not. I had a similar experience with an almost brand new 9790 just had to pay 150� to get a new display.

You have my sympathy but dont let those issues ruin your days, not worth it.

[sk8er_tor]

I bought a red passport mid-December. I got the first email confirming my order but no shipping ETA. The next day I still didn't have a shipping ETA so I called and the rep said she didn't know and couldn't look it up. I just told her to not do anything and I'll wait. Luckily, I got an email the next day with the tracking number and got it that same day.

If you don't want the phone, I recommend you just don't accept it when FedEx comes to deliver it. Tell them you reject the order and to send it back to the sender. If you accept it, then you will have to deal with RMAs and other crap.

[ep1]

oh boy I just order the classic with all the light bleed and poor customer service I'm begin to think twice about BB

[EchoTango]

In dealing with call centers, I've learned a phrase that has always gotten me out of the "endless" circle conversations with frontline agents. That phrase is; "thanks for all your help but I'd like to speak to a manager".

Call centers are all script based and the agent has to comply with was is showing on their screens, also many call centers simultaneously handle multiple clients. Agents may answer for several companies all with different scripts and so they may not know what the actual policies are. Further, agents are evaluated on several performance metrics such as; average length of call, customer survey results, pick-up delay and many others. I know several that award small gifts to agents for specific metrics on a shift, if that is an area they're looking to improve. I explained all this because, one metric that may be in place is the number of escalations they have in a shift, which usually means they will hang on to the call unless you say the magic phrase. By saying the phrase, they are bound by the script to escalate the call and will usually not argue the point further.

I use this all the time and it has always helped me.

[stinckyfoot]

Contact their CSO Customer Loyalty directly: [email protected]. They should be able to assist.

Awesome! Thank man@arms

[stinckyfoot]

I am not sure if anyone has mentioned this or not but I have the company contact information here.

Contact Information - Canada


Oh man! This is what I have been you looking for! You are the man or woman! Thank you so much Curves
This may sound old fashion but I have had some personal success over the years just writing a letter to company's HQ's. If you address it to someone like Marty Beard who I believe is the COO and client services, online sales etc is his responsibility I am sure an assistant will be able to assist or place you in touch with the proper department.

Good luck!



Posted via CB10

[stinckyfoot]

In dealing with call centers, I've learned a phrase that has always gotten me out of the "endless" circle conversations with frontline agents. That phrase is; "thanks for all your help but I'd like to speak to a manager".

Call centers are all script based and the agent has to comply with was is showing on their screens, also many call centers simultaneously handle multiple clients. Agents may answer for several companies all with different scripts and so they may not know what the actual policies are. Further, agents are evaluated on several performance metrics such as; average length of call, customer survey results, pick-up delay and many others. I know several that award small gifts to agents for specific metrics on a shift, if that is an area they're looking to improve. I explained all this because, one metric that may be in place is the number of escalations they have in a shift, which usually means they will hang on to the call unless you say the magic phrase. By saying the phrase, they are bound by the script to escalate the call and will usually not argue the point further.

I use this all the time and it has always helped me.

Sadly, I was dealing with the manager! At least that was what I was told.

[GoJaysGo]

I'm impressed 1,522 words. Twitter is killing me for reading anything too long... 7,915 characters, thats approx. 57 tweets.

[Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes]

Digital river are inept and useless scam artists

[skullkid92]

Thank you Stinckyfoot for this thread, it's very good to see I am not alone with problems with Digital River. Please if you like to read my story, I posted it in another thread:

This has been my experience with Digital River. Thank you for posting your story and OP, this is a great thread! If I may share my story, which is still ongoing... (I'll try my best to keep it short.)

Since I wanted to be among the first to own a Passport and I live in Europe, my best shot was placing an order on ShopBlackBerry EU (Digital River) when the device launched. The first problem started already when I didn't receive a shipping confirmation, even though my order status said the items have been shipped (I also ordered a car charger for the Passport). Getting in touch with ShopBlackBerry EU customer support (from hereafter "CS") proved difficult as they didn't answer my email and I waited 3 days for a response, so I called CS and was told since the car charger was out of stock my order was actually put on hold. This was confusing because the car charger was definitely in stock at the time of order and I was not contacted about a possible delay, as I would have gladly removed the car charger from the order if it meant getting my Passport quicker. I tried doing just that on the phone, but CS let me know they can't change orders after they have been placed, so I'd have to cancel my order and make a new one. That wouldn't have been a good idea since the Passport sold out very quickly. So I had to wait three weeks before the Passport finally shipped...

I received my Passport and was obviously very excited about it, so I didn't immediately notice the two dead pixels right in the center of the display. After a week I then noticed other quality control problems (e.g. light bleeding from the sides of the keyboard, uneven finish/coating on the back of the device) so I contacted CS about these problems. CS said they have the 30-day return policy so if I'm not happy with the device I can return it to them at my expense. Initially CS requested I ship the Passport back to the warehouse in Slovakia. I complained to CS that I'm not returning a product because of a "change of mind", but because I've experienced problems that should be covered under warranty so I'm not paying for the return. CS then said they'd provide me with a return label. I had to get back to them a week later since I didn't receive any return label as they promised. CS insisted they're working hard to provide a return label for me and it'll take a bit more time. Out of the blue an email from FedEx came in with a return label pointed out to a company called "BrightPoint" to the US. I first believed this to be an error since I never received an email from CS about the return label, so I contacted them again and they said it's the correct return label. I then let them know after printing the return label that it said "BlackBerry Q10" under description of contents! CS assured me I shouldn't worry about that, even though I'm returning a Passport, not a Q10. Because the return label was pointed out to a company in the US, it only had contact information for FedEx in the US. I kindly asked CS to help me schedule collection for the package in my country, but I'd need the local contact details for FedEx, not their US number. CS said they can't help me so I was on my own, which I thought odd as I believe any other company would have gladly helped me in that situation.

After finally getting down the details to contact FedEx about the shipment I arranged collection, but on the day the FedEx driver came to pick up my package he refused it saying I needed more documentation. Specifically, I was told I'd need a pro forma invoice. CS never gave me instructions on what documentation is needed so I contacted them to ask about the pro forma invoice. CS gave me instructions to print out the order invoice, which is different. I emailed CS back saying the order invoice is not a pro forma invoice, but they didn't understand what I was talking about. After talking with FedEx, who has been very understanding and helpful with my situation, I learned that a pro forma invoice is required because I'm shipping a package outside the European Union to the US and in this case to a different company ("BrightPoint") than the one I originally bought the items from (Digital River). FedEx was helpful enough to send me a pro forma invoice sheet as PDF that I could forward to CS. After a week CS said they're working on getting the pro forma invoice filled out for me. One week later I email CS asking what's taking so long. CS replies saying they've reached out to the warehouse so they can fill out the pro forma invoice. Two weeks later I send CS an email again why is it taking so long. CS says they have now escalated the issue and will fill out the pro forma invoice. Again two weeks later I have received no response yet from CS and I send them an email complaining about their slow response times and asking again what's taking so long. CS said they are still trying to get the pro forma invoice filled out. I sent them an email a week later saying I'm taking matters into my own hands and filling out the pro forma invoice myself as best as I can. I got in touch with FedEx and they were again extremely helpful and explained every little bit of what a pro forma invoice should include. There were still obviously a few things I couldn't fill out because it required knowledge from CS, but FedEx assured me if there are problems they can ask the recipient directly so I shouldn't worry about it. The next day the FedEx driver came to pick up the package and now the documentation was sufficient enough. So far so good!

Last week the package finally arrived in the US and this is where things seriously take a turn for the even worse. I noticed the shipment was delayed due to customs clearance so I contacted FedEx to ask if there was any problem. It turns out the company the package is being shipped to ("BrightPoint") was contacted about the contents of the package, but they didn't know what it was. Therefore, the package had stayed in US customs awaiting more documentation. FedEx said there's a deadline until this Wednesday that if the appropriate documentation isn't submitted, the shipment and its contents will be destroyed. Yes, you read that right. I was instantly alarmed, asking for details on what documentation we're talking about and if I could fill it out. It's the FCC 740 form that is required, which without any equipment that uses radio or wireless frequencies cannot be imported into the US. It requires a detailed account of the device and FCC ID and several things I just don't have the answer to, so I immediately contacted CS prompting them to escalate and forward the issue to the appropriate person for quick action. As of yet they haven't passed on the FCC 740 form to FedEx and it's Wednesday soon, so I'm afraid the shipment and its contents will be destroyed.

It never was my idea to ship the package to the US, as CS provided the return label for me. I also don't know who or what the company "BrightPoint" is and what their role is regarding my return. All I know is that my issue has extended for almost 3 months now and I have yet to receive my money back. I'm now preparing a claim with an attorney so I can sue Digital River in my country. Because I have always acted in a timely manner when required and followed the instructions provided, I can't be held responsible if the shipment is destroyed in US customs. I also have paperwork from the customs office in my country detailing that the package has already left my country and that it's a product return to the manufacturer. I still have a feeling I'm not going to see my money anytime soon, so that's why I have an attorney on my side making sure I can sue them effectively if I have to.

Essentially I have been without a phone for 3 months because of Digital River's bad customer service and policies. It's extremely hard to recommend buying a BlackBerry after this experience, but I'm taking it calmly and understand that Digital River is not BlackBerry, they are just a company whom with BlackBerry has partnered. And that partnership is the worst possible there is. I'm just glad I found flaws in my Passport, because if CS had required me to pay for the expenses out of my own pocket to ship the Passport to the US via FedEx, it'd have cost as much as the Passport itself to do so because of the sealed lithium battery inside of the Passport. This means the package must be shipped via ground, not airmail, which is much more expensive.

I'll try to get a good night's sleep now. It's almost 2am where I live. Thank you for reading this long post. I was very glad to find this thread as it provided me with a bit of comfort knowing I'm not alone out there. Peace!

[aha]

Great thread! I don't think BlackBerry didn't know about this though... to do something about it, that's a different story.

[MADBRADNYC]

Great thread! I don't think BlackBerry didn't know about this though... to do something about it, that's a different story.

I think Bla1ze indicated that he has brought this service issue to their attention several instances. And they know about it... He is also bringing this specific instance to their attention as well.

I've brought several of these cases and similar to BlackBerry's attention. I point them out whenever they arise. What happens after that, I don't know but I do know they're aware of it. In the way of customer service, nothing is going to change overnight and its often hard to correct the past but they're putting more effort into ShopBlackBerry. Just the other day, I posted on my BBM Channel that they were looking for a senior VP of online sales. Just like the others, I will pass this one along as well.

Posted via CB10

[BCITMike]

RMA's are tricky to deal with. At the company I work for, we see 25-40% "no fault found " on RMA'S. That is profit lost on every RMA, and a good percent are not our fault but the users. Either from incompetence or laziness.

Even stuff clearly blown up by lightning, people try and RMA. It's ridiculous what people try.

Usually, the amount of troubleshooting is up to the tech rep, who might know the skills of the user or just approves RMA because they are loud aholes.

If you don't know basic terminology and want an RMA, they'll get more hassle than the guy who lays out the symptoms and the steps he followed.

So when support wants you to do weird stuff, they might have the impression you don't know what you're doing.


Posted via CB10

[stealthbob]

I made a recent mistake by purchasing BBM meetings, quickly found out that it requires BES deployment.

Yea it was a bone head move on my part, I should have known. Within an hour I asked for a cancel to the almost $200 sub....a couple of days later I was told that they would not, that it was listed as a requirement in the description.

Ok, I get it...they don't have to legally refund me but damm? I never got access to the product, it was not used...no transfer of any material value of any kind.

SMH

[ljfong]

Digital River also runs the Microsoft online store, and I bought a computer through them with no issues whatsoever. I did something stupid on the website and the transaction stalled, so I called their CS and they fixed the problem and completed the transaction. Very nice to deal with. The computer arrived 2 or 3 days later.

I wonder if totally different, jaded people handle the BlackBerry sales?

Posted via CB10 from my awesome Passport

Digital River is a large multi-national company specializing in ecommerce and payment systems and they have many large companies that subcontract their online presence to them. BlackBerry is simply one of Digital River's corporate clients. This strikes me as odd too as it seems only when dealing with BlackBerry products they for some odd reason put out the worst customer service possible. Maybe BlackBerry paid them according to the 'lowest' service tier in order to rein in cost. Kinda like fully managed versus largely hands off.