[dbmalloy]

First... feel bad for the OP.... Any company can be a pain to deal with but is not indicative of service in general..... Had two recent issues with my Playbook... the first was the touch function died.... live in rural canada and had it picked up on a Thrusday and was back to me 10 days leter with a long weekend in the middle... great... same Playbook stopped charging a couple of weeks ago... called RIM and was told before I could get an RMA I had to provide a credit card and be billed for the telephone call even though all I wanted was an RMA.... I declined... purchased a fast charging dock problem solved.... for me I never expect service to be perfect and just accept this is the world we live in....

[donmateo]

Are you sure it didn't get lost in the mail? Also keep bugging them, tell your carrier to see. You can try BBProtect to find it. lol

[416to604]

i had a great experience with RIM's RMA process with the playbook. it was probably one of the better customer service inicidents i've ever had. sorry to hear about your troubles.

[filoinstyle]

Are you sure it didn't get lost in the mail? Also keep bugging them, tell your carrier to see. You can try BBProtect to find it. lol

I can check the process online but the status never change and it doesn't say yet that it's been shipped back to me already, its still in their facility with an exact status as when they got it on the 4th of December

[imcurved]

its like this with every company one person has a great experience and the person before or after them has a horrible experience

Totally agree. Just like car rental companies. I like Enterprise and my brother in law thinks it sucks. He likes Budget better and I had bad experience with Budget customer service.

[TomJasper]

Knock on wood, I have only ever once had an issue, was not at phone product but another product via Future Shop. Three months later my product was returned good as new. From that point on (on any consumer product) I have insisted on another new or like item on the spot, no shipping it away and waiting. With billions of consumer product transaction yearly there is bound to be some that slip through the cracks, sorry to hear you were one of them. It happens. Let us know down the road when you get it back, perhaps there might be something of benefit for all , that is if you find out how you slipped through the cracks.

[sk8er_tor]

Would you please provide us with more details? For example, did you send the phone back to your carrier or are you dealing directly with RIM on the RMA? If it went through your carrier, then you need to be contacting your carrier. Also, who's the carrier? Did they give you an estimate of how long it will take to repair it? Maybe it's your carrier that's delaying this due to the holiday season?

[filoinstyle]

Would you please provide us with more details? For example, did you send the phone back to your carrier or are you dealing directly with RIM on the RMA? If it went through your carrier, then you need to be contacting your carrier. Also, who's the carrier? Did they give you an estimate of how long it will take to repair it? Maybe it's your carrier that's delaying this due to the holiday season?

No I went directly to blackberry for RMA, everything was doing okay until the delay started to arise. Ive done RMA before with my other blackberry and it went quick so I didn't doubt that it its will be the same for this one and thats also the reason why i didn't bother going to my carrier because the phone was no longer part of the contract and im not sure if they will do something about it and or I'll have to pay

[TheScionicMan]

The people working on BlackBerry 10 activities are not the same people processing RMAs. Or do you think RIM is a mom-and-pop back alley shop?

"We need all you software engineers to turn off your PCs and report to the RMA department to repair broken BBs and ship them out. Thank You"

Such a silly view of a business this size

[sveDala]

That's strange, my 9900 died all of sudden so I had to take in for repairs, they sent me a brand-new 9900 with a complimentary gift card as an apology. Didn't take more then a week in and out.

[collinc93]

something got bent somewhere......update please

[bbmme]

It's a hit or miss eh. I had a very bad experience with my playbook, but i didn't care eh, I just bought another playbook lol. I'm just happy that other people are getting better service eh

[Alain_A]

maybe they lost it in their facility or misplace it...ask them for a loner

[filoinstyle]

That's strange, my 9900 died all of sudden so I had to take in for repairs, they sent me a brand-new 9900 with a complimentary gift card as an apology. Didn't take more then a week in and out.

Is this through RMA? Or your carrier?

[filoinstyle]

maybe they lost it in their facility or misplace it...ask them for a loner

I hope they don't lost it I wouldn't know because they don't tell me anything

[00stryder]

I hope they don't lost it I wouldn't know because they don't tell me anything

Dude, I know you're pain. I'm in the EXACT same situation with my PlayBook, albeit not as long as you. The whole story goes as follows:

I first had some color distortion and screen issues arise shortly after I upgraded to the PBOS 2.0 back last February. I kinda left it alone expecting 2.1 to fix it, only for it to become more frequent. I first sent my PlayBook in to the RMA center in November on a Wednesday, got it back the following Monday, with the issue fixed and my PlayBook working nicely. The customer service was great the entire time and I was quite pleased with how quickly I got it back

About two weeks later, I noticed that my device wouldn't charge overnight with either the USB charger (the one that came with the PlayBook) or the Rapid Charger I bought to supplement it. In addition, the color issues were happening again sporadically (I noticed that they essentially replaced my screen as it sat slightly raised above the outer border of the device. So I called RIM again, went through their troubleshooting to reload the OS, then received the box to send it in. This was December 11th, and I expected FedEx to deliver it on the 12th as the repair center is conveniently only 40 minutes away from me. I left things alone for a few days, but after checking on the status using RIM's online service, I noticed that the system didn't have any updates on my device and made no mention of the device being received by the center. Mildly concerned, I called customer service to find out what was going on, and they assured me that it was likely not delivered (by FedEx) yet. Okay, fine, I'll give it the weekend to see if anything changes.

The following Monday or Tuesday, I check the status online again and see that there are still no updates. Remember that the RMA center is less than an hour from me; I could have literally driven my device there if they had let me. So I call RIM again and they tell me the same thing, but I'm slightly annoyed by now so I demand that they figure out where my device is instead of dismissing me with the same "oh, it should be received soon" response. They said that I would have to provide the tracking number for them to find the package (FedEx didn't give me one, and as the recipient I would think the RMA center should have access to the information on shipments being sent to them), so when I cannot provide one to them RIM's customer service tells me to call FedEx to get the number on their behalf.

Long story short with a lot of back and forth with FedEx, I finally get confirmation and proof (via a control number assigned to all deliveries going to that specific repair center) that my device was successfully delivered AND signed for back on the 12th! I'm beyond peeved at this point and I call RIM. By this point the customer service rep can't do much to dismiss me so they acknowledge that the center may not have properly notified RIM that they received the device and they would send an email to them. I would hear back from the agent assigned to my case after they received a response from the RMA center.

I came back home after the holidays with still no call or update on the RMA site. I call RIM, doing very little to mask my anger, and the rep apologizes and promises that another email will be sent to the center immediately. This was on Friday so I'm waiting to see if I hear anything on Monday. But like you, I had a great first RMA experience, only for my second one to be utterly disappointing. I won't go as far to say that I'm losing loyalty to RIM (I am a shareholder but I'm not interested in BlackBerry smartphones just because they're made by RIM), but I am disappointed with the way customer service has treated me. I'm hoping to get some sort of resolution out of this but it's starting to look like they're either going to drag this on for as long as possible or send me a refurbished device. With all the delays my PlayBook has fallen out of its original 1-year warranty range, but I'll be damned if the RMA center gets a cent out of me for this "repair" service.

[Cleveland]

The carrier always has a stock of like new refurbished phones to ensure minimal interruption for the customer. Doesn't Apple operate the same way?

They just never told the OP about it, I always ask for a replacement handset, I never ask them to fix my phone.

No with Apple it's replaced at an apple store anywhere, you don't have to send it in and wait

[tack]

It is suddenly a sin to say anything negative about RIM again on Crackberry. Sensitivity is at all time highs. People need to grow up and realize there are legit negative aspects comments to be made. RIM and BB's are not perfect. The word troll comes out as soon as someone is not gushing over BB.

That being said, I have had great support from RIM over the years. I unfortunately have had a lot of RIM phones replaced, sometimes 3 of the same model, which is bad. They have replaced them without question and quickly however.

[filoinstyle]

BlackBerry grew up on me, it's been part of my everyday life to be completely honest, sometimes when things like this happens you can't help out but feel a little disappointment, its true there's always a negative aspect in the business and sometimes its by intention so I completely understand, ive been thinking about it and there's no point of blaming rim for what happened no one seen it coming. I don't think things will be any easy without having a BlackBerry and I can see myself supporting rim still...I just hope that the issue will be resolved as soon as possible and get device back this week.. *cross fingers*

[filoinstyle]

Dude, I know you're pain. I'm in the EXACT same situation with my PlayBook, albeit not as long as you. The whole story goes as follows:

I first had some color distortion and screen issues arise shortly after I upgraded to the PBOS 2.0 back last February. I kinda left it alone expecting 2.1 to fix it, only for it to become more frequent. I first sent my PlayBook in to the RMA center in November on a Wednesday, got it back the following Monday, with the issue fixed and my PlayBook working nicely. The customer service was great the entire time and I was quite pleased with how quickly I got it back

About two weeks later, I noticed that my device wouldn't charge overnight with either the USB charger (the one that came with the PlayBook) or the Rapid Charger I bought to supplement it. In addition, the color issues were happening again sporadically (I noticed that they essentially replaced my screen as it sat slightly raised above the outer border of the device. So I called RIM again, went through their troubleshooting to reload the OS, then received the box to send it in. This was December 11th, and I expected FedEx to deliver it on the 12th as the repair center is conveniently only 40 minutes away from me. I left things alone for a few days, but after checking on the status using RIM's online service, I noticed that the system didn't have any updates on my device and made no mention of the device being received by the center. Mildly concerned, I called customer service to find out what was going on, and they assured me that it was likely not delivered (by FedEx) yet. Okay, fine, I'll give it the weekend to see if anything changes.

The following Monday or Tuesday, I check the status online again and see that there are still no updates. Remember that the RMA center is less than an hour from me; I could have literally driven my device there if they had let me. So I call RIM again and they tell me the same thing, but I'm slightly annoyed by now so I demand that they figure out where my device is instead of dismissing me with the same "oh, it should be received soon" response. They said that I would have to provide the tracking number for them to find the package (FedEx didn't give me one, and as the recipient I would think the RMA center should have access to the information on shipments being sent to them), so when I cannot provide one to them RIM's customer service tells me to call FedEx to get the number on their behalf.

Long story short with a lot of back and forth with FedEx, I finally get confirmation and proof (via a control number assigned to all deliveries going to that specific repair center) that my device was successfully delivered AND signed for back on the 12th! I'm beyond peeved at this point and I call RIM. By this point the customer service rep can't do much to dismiss me so they acknowledge that the center may not have properly notified RIM that they received the device and they would send an email to them. I would hear back from the agent assigned to my case after they received a response from the RMA center.

I came back home after the holidays with still no call or update on the RMA site. I call RIM, doing very little to mask my anger, and the rep apologizes and promises that another email will be sent to the center immediately. This was on Friday so I'm waiting to see if I hear anything on Monday. But like you, I had a great first RMA experience, only for my second one to be utterly disappointing. I won't go as far to say that I'm losing loyalty to RIM (I am a shareholder but I'm not interested in BlackBerry smartphones just because they're made by RIM), but I am disappointed with the way customer service has treated me. I'm hoping to get some sort of resolution out of this but it's starting to look like they're either going to drag this on for as long as possible or send me a refurbished device. With all the delays my PlayBook has fallen out of its original 1-year warranty range, but I'll be damned if the RMA center gets a cent out of me for this "repair" service.

Ive had a problem with my playbook too but I sent this to my carrier as its bonus gift for renewing my blackberry contract. I waited probably about a week to get it back, they sent me a refurbished one though but it's okay...almost every devices I got undergone repair/exchange.. It's weird because im very careful with my stuff and sometimes problems just coming out of nowhere...my bold 9900, my playbook and even my P9981 all are replacement from RIM

[motorbikemaddypaddy]

I sympathise with you, I really do....

Having had blackberry's for over 6 years, there must be something about them I like right?

I've got big hands and hate touch screen phones because I press too many things at once, but somehow I can manage a bb qwerty keyboard just fine!
I've used my bb's mainly for work, mostly emails on the go, and google referencing. I don't use my phone for gaming, and the bb always appealed to me for being a little different, and for having a battery that lasts longer than an iphone!

The more I use them though, the more frustrated I become because the phone's become very unreliable.

I use my phone as an alarm clock when I'm working away from home (Most of the time), and have got so annoyed with the amount of times my phone has decided to reboot itself in the middle of the night whilst charging, and as a result the alarm won't go off until it's sorted itself out. To make matters worse, after updating itself, despite being on charge all night long the battery will only be half full.

I'd say I now have to resort to doing a 'battery pull' every 3 days when the phone freezes and the battery overheats. It goes back to the shop, and comes back exactly the same, except that now any picture I put on my home screen only covers 2/3 of the screen.

when I'm driving and lose network coverage, when I enter an area I know to have strong coverage, the phone takes an age to find reception - unless I turn off the network and turn back on again.

Today my phone wouldnt receive any messages or calls, until I did a battery pull and upon rebooting got about 50 missed calls, voicemails and texts. The latest annoyance is when I talk on the phone, nobody seems able to hear me anymore, regardless of sgnal strength, and they say they can hear their own voice echoing in the background.

I've read here somewhere that someone thinks the speaker on this phone is good? Well maybe I'm slightly deaf because unless you're in a deathly quiet room, it just isn't loud enough, and the speaker is on the back of the phone? Bonkers!

That being said, and for all the annoyance it causes me, despite having to charge it twice a day, I still like the blackberry.
I should have mentioned mine is a bb Bold - about a year old, the one with touch screen as well, but looks almost identical to it's predeccessor (without touch screen).

When you first come to blackberry from another make, you have to unlearn all you know, in order to learn the ins and outs of a blackberry - similar to the first time you get a mac. But it works. And as long as you only expect it to do so much, it does what it's supposed to. Or at least it used to!!

[filoinstyle]

I sympathise with you, I really do....

Having had blackberry's for over 6 years, there must be something about them I like right?

I've got big hands and hate touch screen phones because I press too many things at once, but somehow I can manage a bb qwerty keyboard just fine!
I've used my bb's mainly for work, mostly emails on the go, and google referencing. I don't use my phone for gaming, and the bb always appealed to me for being a little different, and for having a battery that lasts longer than an iphone!

The more I use them though, the more frustrated I become because the phone's become very unreliable.

I use my phone as an alarm clock when I'm working away from home (Most of the time), and have got so annoyed with the amount of times my phone has decided to reboot itself in the middle of the night whilst charging, and as a result the alarm won't go off until it's sorted itself out. To make matters worse, after updating itself, despite being on charge all night long the battery will only be half full.

I'd say I now have to resort to doing a 'battery pull' every 3 days when the phone freezes and the battery overheats. It goes back to the shop, and comes back exactly the same, except that now any picture I put on my home screen only covers 2/3 of the screen.

when I'm driving and lose network coverage, when I enter an area I know to have strong coverage, the phone takes an age to find reception - unless I turn off the network and turn back on again.

Today my phone wouldnt receive any messages or calls, until I did a battery pull and upon rebooting got about 50 missed calls, voicemails and texts. The latest annoyance is when I talk on the phone, nobody seems able to hear me anymore, regardless of sgnal strength, and they say they can hear their own voice echoing in the background.

I've read here somewhere that someone thinks the speaker on this phone is good? Well maybe I'm slightly deaf because unless you're in a deathly quiet room, it just isn't loud enough, and the speaker is on the back of the phone? Bonkers!

That being said, and for all the annoyance it causes me, despite having to charge it twice a day, I still like the blackberry.
I should have mentioned mine is a bb Bold - about a year old, the one with touch screen as well, but looks almost identical to it's predeccessor (without touch screen).

When you first come to blackberry from another make, you have to unlearn all you know, in order to learn the ins and outs of a blackberry - similar to the first time you get a mac. But it works. And as long as you only expect it to do so much, it does what it's supposed to. Or at least it used to!!

Thats true, my work runs on blackberry..without it won't be as productive as i should be, I even chose to stick with BlackBerry for personal/away from work times, I use my bold9900 for work and P9981 as my personal device, so when my bold 9900 broke its quite inconvenient for me. I don't wanna get another device because it'll be a waste of money when my current phone can still be fixed anyway...so now I'm just waiting for RIM to give me back my phone but who knows when

[kill_9]

The blackberry support team has no idea either and the only answer they keep giving me is that "we have send a follow up report to out RMA team and we will let you know asap" same line over and over and I wonder whats wrong with their RMA team why they can't give me an answer, I just want to know whats happening.

First I am sorry your RMA experience has been less than smooth. I have only needed to engage the RMA process on one occasion for my 2-year old, at the time, BlackBerry Bold 9700. I took the device to my wireless carrier, they confirmed the device was under warranty, they contacted Research In Motion and obtained an RMA tracking number immediately. Approximately 2 weeks later I received a call fro my wireless carrier advising that my BlackBerry Bold 9700 was repaired and awaiting my pick-up. Apparently the system board was at fault so Research In Motion provided a brand new, non-refurbished BlackBerry Bold 9700. To be honest, I was shocked the entire process went smoothly and the turnaround time was within the stated 2-week period that I had been promised.

Once Research In Motion approves the RMA request the actual service is provided by an outsourced partner as best as I could determine. In other words, there is no RIM RMA team per se. When you contact RIM for a status update they have to check with the outsourced partner whom may not have updated the service record.

[00stryder]

Ive had a problem with my playbook too but I sent this to my carrier as its bonus gift for renewing my blackberry contract. I waited probably about a week to get it back, they sent me a refurbished one though but it's okay...almost every devices I got undergone repair/exchange.. It's weird because im very careful with my stuff and sometimes problems just coming out of nowhere...my bold 9900, my playbook and even my P9981 all are replacement from RIM

Holy cow, you have a P9981?! Now I'm officially jealous, lol.

But yeah, it's very frustrating. I bought my PlayBook from Staples so the manufacturer warranty was the only one available by this time, but I think that going through a carrier has its benefits as they can provide a replacement device almost immediately. I definitely believe you when you say that you're careful with your devices as my PlayBook rarely stayed out of its OEM convertible case and I didn't keep it plugged up indefinitely or let the charge completely diminish. But either way, I hope we both see a resolution to our situations soon.

[iphone5fan]

RIM should have experts in their blackberry stores