[theanswer3]

I activated VZnav and it does not work, so that failure and the failed GPS test probably says my GPS rcvr is dead. What's a good VZ store in Tampa? The one I bought my Tour from is inhabited by boneheads.

pmed back about store

[theanswer3]

The GPS capability on the phone is disabled until the carrier enables it from the network. You can run all the diagnostics you want but none of them are going to be able to activate it. VZW only activates GPS when a feature needs it, so what you need to do is call into VZW and add either VZ Navigator, Field Force Manager, or Family Locator to your line. After the feature gets added and you *228 your phone you can just have it removed from your account. That's because once it's turned on by Verizon it stays on, and is usable by all relevant apps. Good Luck buddy.

makes alot of sense and explains some things, but what about peeps on here who will say gps worked out of the box never had to activate anything. What you said makes logical sense I'm just curious

[tdrus1]

I'm so naive. I've been thinking all along that the GPS was crippled. I looked through this thread, went and changed it from 911 only to all programs, and then went outside and watched myself walk around for half an hour on google maps. ahhhhh, the simple pleasures...

[Kilgore Trout]

The GPS capability on the phone is disabled until the carrier enables it from the network. You can run all the diagnostics you want but none of them are going to be able to activate it. VZW only activates GPS when a feature needs it, so what you need to do is call into VZW and add either VZ Navigator, Field Force Manager, or Family Locator to your line. After the feature gets added and you *228 your phone you can just have it removed from your account. That's because once it's turned on by Verizon it stays on, and is usable by all relevant apps. Good Luck buddy.

It didn't work this way at all for me. I'm on my second Tour, and on both, GPS worked right out of the box. I don't think this is correct.

Both times I had to go into Options>GPS and turn on the GPS chip.

[wetherb67]

The GPS capability on the phone is disabled until the carrier enables it from the network. You can run all the diagnostics you want but none of them are going to be able to activate it. VZW only activates GPS when a feature needs it, so what you need to do is call into VZW and add either VZ Navigator, Field Force Manager, or Family Locator to your line. After the feature gets added and you *228 your phone you can just have it removed from your account. That's because once it's turned on by Verizon it stays on, and is usable by all relevant apps. Good Luck buddy.

That doesn't sound right...maybe it's true, but....

OP:
Go to the store.
Go to any VZW store with tech support.

End of story. Forget calling, doing tests, adding trial versions, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.....

Take the phone to the store and let the people DO THEIR JOBS.

[Floont]

...Go to the store.
Go to any VZW store with tech support.

End of story. Forget calling, doing tests, adding trial versions, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.....

Take the phone to the store and let the people DO THEIR JOBS.

I spent 2 hours 10 minutes last Monday with these dimwits and they won't even talk to me anymore at the store where I bought it. So the answer I guess is to go to another store until I get one that works. Plus you'll have to use subterfuge to get their attention so they realize the phone or that batch of phones has a problem.

I don't think the VZ store people are naturally born stupid and arrogant. I think VZ trains and pays them to be that way.

FA

[Freedog]

VZW employees are paid to sell you phones and accessories. Working through technical issues so you can activate a feature for free that they offer at a cost is not what they are paid to do. You will NEVER get an employee to do that for you without them risking their job and lets face it, you wouldn't do it if you were in their shoes either. The situation is this; BB's have GPS hardware but wireless providers disable the feature so they can sell you GPS with a monthly charge. Most providers do this. We can debate the ethics of this until we're blue in the face but it won't change anything. I went through this with my World Edition and my GF works at VZW so i'm familiar with this issue.

It sounds like the OP has a hardware issue. If you activate VZ Nav and it still doesn't work, then take the phone back and have them give you a new one.

There are a couple of different ways to enable GPS and have the feature for free. The easiest way is probably to go ahead and activate VZ Nav, cancel it, then install one of the free GPS apps.

As for GPS occasionally being enabled out of the box, it happens with different BB's and different carriers. It appears to be a quality control issue with Blackberry that just so happens to work out for some of us.

[Floont]

...and lets face it, you wouldn't do it if you were in their shoes either...

You always do what is morally right no matter what. You never sell your standards for any employer. And there is no excuse for lying to a customer.

...It sounds like the OP has a hardware issue. If you activate VZ Nav and it still doesn't work, then take the phone back and have them give you a new one...

They won't take it back at the store where I purchased it. They are arrogant buffoons. I have to find another store.

[Kilgore Trout]

VZW employees are paid to sell you phones and accessories. Working through technical issues so you can activate a feature for free that they offer at a cost is not what they are paid to do. You will NEVER get an employee to do that for you without them risking their job and lets face it, you wouldn't do it if you were in their shoes either. The situation is this; BB's have GPS hardware but wireless providers disable the feature so they can sell you GPS with a monthly charge. Most providers do this. We can debate the ethics of this until we're blue in the face but it won't change anything. I went through this with my World Edition and my GF works at VZW so i'm familiar with this issue.

It sounds like the OP has a hardware issue. If you activate VZ Nav and it still doesn't work, then take the phone back and have them give you a new one.

There are a couple of different ways to enable GPS and have the feature for free. The easiest way is probably to go ahead and activate VZ Nav, cancel it, then install one of the free GPS apps.

As for GPS occasionally being enabled out of the box, it happens with different BB's and different carriers. It appears to be a quality control issue with Blackberry that just so happens to work out for some of us.

Not meaning to be disrespectful, but this is absolutely incorrect. I've personally had two Tours and have a co-worker with a third and a friend with a Storm. On each of these phones, GPS worked right out of the box. There was no need to activate VZ Nav or any other software, and there was no quality control problem. Verizon has not disabled the GPS in any way - at least not on the Storm and Tour. The Curve, Pearl, and 8700 series are different issues altogether.

The only thing I needed to do first was Options > GPS and click on the appropriate setting.

You do NOT need to activate VZ Nav and, in fact, that does not do any kind of special enabling of your GPS. All VZ Nav does is automatically change the settings on the GPS - which you could do yourself by just going through the appropriate menu in the GPS.

If you have enabled the GPS in the options screens, and it still doesn't work, the phone has an issue and needs to go back.

[wetherb67]

Not meaning to be disrespectful, but this is absolutely incorrect. I've personally had two Tours and have a co-worker with a third and a friend with a Storm. On each of these phones, GPS worked right out of the box. There was no need to activate VZ Nav or any other software, and there was no quality control problem. Verizon has not disabled the GPS in any way - at least not on the Storm and Tour. The Curve, Pearl, and 8700 series are different issues altogether.

The only thing I needed to do first was Options > GPS and click on the appropriate setting.

You do NOT need to activate VZ Nav and, in fact, that does not do any kind of special enabling of your GPS. All VZ Nav does is automatically change the settings on the GPS - which you could do yourself by just going through the appropriate menu in the GPS.

If you have enabled the GPS in the options screens, and it still doesn't work, the phone has an issue and needs to go back.

15 thumbs up. Exactly.

[tomlevine1]

I have to agree with the above posts...Lots of misinformation in this post. VZNAV is a service provided by Verizon for navigation (turn right in 500 feet...), not for the phones ability to simply read position with satellites via GPS. The phones come with GPS built in, and are going to work with your built-in Blackberry Maps program, along with of course many other programs that utilize GPS including Google Maps, and AMAZEGPS, POYNT, YELP, etc. If the GPS receiver is not working on your phone, there is a reason which you will need to get troubleshot and resolved, but there is no vast wireless Verizon conspiracy because they are out to get you via blocking your access to Global positioning satellites.

Here's a link to VZ Blackberry phone description. NOte that GPS and VZ Navigator are two separate features: Enter your location

Here's a link describing the VZ Navigation service: Capability Details

Here's a link from BB on the GPS feature: BlackBerry - BlackBerry Maps & GPS - GPS Cell Phone - GPS Tracking Cell Phone - BlackBerry GPSEnabling / disabling GPS location - BlackBerry Tour 9630

For those of you who are not successfully enabling your built-in GPS receivers on your Verizon BB 9630 Tour, please call *611 on your phone, or call them at 800-922-0204, and get the right answer. Find out exactly what the problem is, and then let us know what Verizon advises.

[theanswer3]

Well I can say this. You are right I had the settings already correct, and my GPS would not work at all "out of the box". Verizon would not swap or troubleshoot my phone because they said"BB maps is not our program and is not on our network" so one of the fixes they suggested was just activating VZnav to get the gps going. I didn't keep it, I didn't pay for it, but I knew that when it locked on in 5 seconds my gps antenna was good. Then tried BBmaps worked fine. Also I can tell you I had 2 different reps told me 2 different things on this issue one said the gps might not be provisioned and that why its not working. It was worth a shot that y I tried the VZnav trick. But another(and his supervisor) told me point blank the GPS was locked and could only use VZnav. Now we all know that is incorrect and my 3rd Tour proves that as I went back to that store and made that guy(and his supervisor) look like a dumbass in front of everyone showing my 3rd tour did in fact work fine and was not locked. The problem is this issue is not happening to everyone and is not super widespread so any thing that might help out might be worth a shot. I can tell you my second tour would not lock for like 5 mins initally, but the vznav trick got the gps working properly to where it would lock in about 60 secs. Yes there are those of you who have the Tour from heaven, the best keyboard device since sliced bread and gps works all the time out of the box. BUt there are a small percentage of us who had the Tour from **** that didnt work correctly, and Customer service wants to do everything in their power to not have to switch out your phone. SO you try every possible answer to make them happy. VZnav is the ultimate test to see if it is just taking phone awhile to lock, or if gps hardware is not functioning, as some people cant get it to work even on the self test. Just because your phone is the S**t doesnt mean other people's phones haven't acted sh***y since day one. Just trying to spread info to people from people who have already seen this issue

[tomlevine1]

Wow. I'm frustrated just reading that. Crazy, unacceptable customer service from Verizon.

I'm curious if the level of service that you have received at retail stores, is the same when contacting Verizon's corporate support line. I'm also curious if Verizon's corporate tech-line, will provide a cold, hard answer on GPS (for those with the Tour where the receiver is not activating), versus the song and dance that you received from retail sales people locally.

We all invested money for our cool gadgets, and devoted the next two years via contract to carrier ABC. As loyal customers, we should all be treated like gold. When one of us are not, all of us are not. Your Tour should be working exactly like every other tour in the market. If it's not, the issue needs to get resolved. If it is not resolved, then Verizon will ultimately lose customers, when that 2 year contract is up.

So, this thread is leading me to the conclusion that yes we are talking about GPS on the Tour, but just as signficant, what on earth is UP with the customer service from Verizon at local retail stores? I have always had very good results with Verizon on a corporate level. We switched over from Cingular way back when because their service was terrible, and Verizon was so great. But, if the training, and the communication is broken at retail stores, on technical issues for loyal customers, leading to hours of confusion, frustration, and head-banging, well then perhaps that is the core issue here that they need to address. And of course, they really need to get the GPS receiver properly working on every Tour out there.

[Floont]

...If you have enabled the GPS in the options screens, and it still doesn't work, the phone has an issue and needs to go back.

Bingo! Give the man a prize.

I went to a different VZ store today and they told me within minutes that my Tour is defective and they are shipping me a replacement. The technician said he had to replace his twice to get one that worked correctly. He said there are QC problems with the BB Tours they are getting from RIM.

FA

[beasleybiz]

This GPS issue is like a lot of other issues dealing with Verizon. The main issue is believability. You can say quality control, or crippled devices. The history is Verizon has always locked services in some way shape or form on their phones. My Brother-In-Law got one of the first RAZR V3M's from VZW. I had one on Alltel. I could load ringtones on my phone in a snap, for his I had to seem edit the phone to allow this, because they wanted him to buy his ringtones from them, well because they are in business to make money. The GPS was definately locked on my Curve and only unlocked after subscribing to Navigator. Again they want to sell a service, don't blame them, I want to sell computers. But if I start including a DVD burner on computers and selling them as such but then require a subscription to use the burning software that I wrote while disallowing others like Nero to be used until you buy mine, I don't think I would sell many more computers around here. If I were a large enough company say like Microsoft I believe the Justice Dept would be looking into my practices as a monopolistic enterprise in that regard, as I have always said they should do with VZW and their phones. When you buy a phone for certain features like GPS or mp3 ringtones from a memory card you should have the freedom to use that with whichever service you see fit, be it VZW's Flix/Pix, Navigator, or Google Maps and Audacity

But it is all done for the sake of (say it with me) "The customer experience".
After all the years of dealing with VZW and their phones, I cannot say I trust them not to lock the GPS, whether they admit it or not.
I can say that with all of the other manufacturing issues coming from the Tours that there may be some of that included (i.e. BB not properly locking the GPS for VZW, or some being accidentally locked, or just faulty units).

We might find some better answers by having a thread for Tour users with GPS issues which we can look at Mfgr date/location, OS version preinstalled etc and maybe we can find a pattern, or maybe learn that there is no pattern and it is all a big cluster****