Is BlackBerry intentionally being deceptive to potential American Z30 buyers?

From the March 19 press release, which I first read in Adam's CB article:

The BlackBerry Z30 smartphone from ShopBlackBerry.com is compatible with GSM-based 4G LTE and 4G networks in the U.S. (AT&T, T-Mobile) and other countries around the world with carriers who operate supported GSM networks.

According to Michael Clewley and later ShopBlackBerry (SBB) itself, the Z30 model that's for sale is the STA100-5, which has the following LTE bands: 4/5/7 (1700/850/2600.)

AT&T's primary, nationwide LTE network is on band 17 (700 MHz.) At least in some large cities, they do have an LTE network on band 4, and in even fewer places, they have an LTE network on band 5.

So is BlackBerry being deceptive by proclaiming LTE coverage on AT&T under such limited conditions? Mind you, the Z30 model# was not up initially when the listing went up, it probably went up when SBB started getting flooded with calls (a lot of which were poorly answered, but that's for another thread.)

The very-small-subset-of- the average user is not going to know from the press release that there is such a caveat emptor for AT&T buyers. IMO, when they read that press release, they would be expecting the STA100-1 model.

Nah. It's just BlackBerry being BlackBerry. And by that I mean not clearly thinking things through before doing something lol. I will say though, I've traveled to quite a few places with my STA100-5 and never had any issues with LTE on AT&T or T-Mobile. Gets LTE on both from my experiences. Chicago, Arizona, New York... LTE the whole way.

I wanna know will I get LTE in the Bay Area and what bands are out here for both AT&T & T-Mobile! I'm thinking of buying 2 of them but would love if the dropped the price by about 100$.

Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by Bla1ze

Nah. It's just BlackBerry being BlackBerry. And by that I mean not clearly thinking things through before doing something lol. I will say though, I've traveled to quite a few places with my STA100-5 and never had any issues with LTE on AT&T or T-Mobile. Gets LTE on both from my experiences. Chicago, Arizona, New York... LTE the whole way.

Sure, the -5 will have no problems whatsoever with TMO's networks--it is 100% radio compatible. But, they should have not included the words 'AT&T' and 'LTE' together in such a fashion. CB has a very knowledgeable reader base, and the first question a lot of people asked was: "is this the STA100-1?" which they probably wouldn't have if the presser was clearer. Some even placed orders before it became clear what model this was, and will now have to deal with the hassle of canceling orders.

BTW, I'm not sure to what extent I buy BlackBerry being BlackBerry, when, after putting out the STL100-3, SQN100-1 and heck, even the SQR100-1, they know about band 17.

Originally Posted by Blackberry_Boss

I wanna know will I get LTE in the Bay Area and what bands are out here for both AT&T & T-Mobile!

You still have a Z10? Does it get LTE? If yes, check out the LTE link in the second line of my sig.

If you know for sure there's TMO LTE around you, then it's definitely on band 4. This model has it.

Originally Posted by raino

Sure, the -5 will have no problems whatsoever with TMO's networks--it is 100% radio compatible. But, they should have not included the words 'AT&T' and 'LTE' together in such a fashion. CB has a very knowledgeable reader base, and the first question a lot of people asked was: "is this the STA100-1?" which they probably wouldn't have if the presser was clearer. Some even placed orders before it became clear what model this was, and will now have to deal with the hassle of canceling orders.

BTW, I'm not sure to what extent I buy BlackBerry being BlackBerry, when, after putting out the STL100-3, SQN100-1 and heck, even the SQR100-1, they know about band 17.

It appears some were given outright wrong information there are some saying the reps they spoke with assured them it was the -1 they were buying...

Originally Posted by raino

You still have a Z10? Does it get LTE? If yes, check out the LTE link in the second line of my sig.

Yeah I'm stuck with a Z10 from AT&T until April of next year. I want a Z30 for me and my dad. Then when the Z50 or whatever come out I'm snatching that up on contract (hope that beast come with a octo-core and all the other goodies I read about).

Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by Blackberry_Boss

I wanna know will I get LTE in the Bay Area and what bands are out here for both AT&T & T-Mobile! I'm thinking of buying 2 of them but would love if the dropped the price by about 100$.

Posted via CB10

People have been begging for BlackBerry to offer it online in the U.S., and now people want the price to be lower? haha jeez. There's no pleasing some people. It's $699.99 on Best Buy's website!

Originally Posted by raino

Sure, the -5 will have no problems whatsoever with TMO's networks--it is 100% radio compatible. But, they should have not included the words 'AT&T' and 'LTE' together in such a fashion. CB has a very knowledgeable reader base, and the first question a lot of people asked was: "is this the STA100-1?" which they probably wouldn't have if the presser was clearer. Some even placed orders before it became clear what model this was, and will now have to deal with the hassle of canceling orders.

BTW, I'm not sure to what extent I buy BlackBerry being BlackBerry, when, after putting out the STL100-3, SQN100-1 and heck, even the SQR100-1, they know about band 17.

All I know is that I hope the canceled orders mean that they won't be on backorder anymore, so I can get mine to use on T-Mobile and not have to wait for them to be back in stock...

Originally Posted by randall2580

It appears some were given outright wrong information there are some saying the reps they spoke with assured them it was the -1 they were buying...

That's bad! But from my understanding, those reps are Digital River's, and not BB's? Regardless, not good :cant-watch:

When I called, I was repeatedly told this is compatible with GSM networks, and I was never told a model# even after asking repeatedly. One rep even went as far as saying that this is the GSM version, and would not be compatible with any LTE networks...

Originally Posted by raino

BTW, I'm not sure to what extent I buy BlackBerry being BlackBerry, when, after putting out the STL100-3, SQN100-1 and heck, even the SQR100-1, they know about band 17.

You don't have to buy it. It is what it is. How many other times have we seen BlackBerry do things that have left us scratching our heads and wondering why or wtf before? You'd lose count. Happens all the time lol. As for the reps, they've been through all of this before as well.

The same thing happened with the other BB10 devices. People called and they had no clue what they were even talking about. It's a GOOD thing BlackBerry is offering the devices but really, they need to take hold of the customer service portion of it because Digital River is as bad as store reps saying BlackBerry doesn't even exist any more.

It sucks that that's the case but ehhh..... what ya gonna do? At least people like you are here to help other out, so thanks for that.

Originally Posted by raino

BTW, I'm not sure to what extent I buy BlackBerry being BlackBerry, when, after putting out the STL100-3, SQN100-1 and heck, even the SQR100-1, they know about band 17.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

The key line is "carriers who operate supported GSM networks".

Technically that includes AT&T since it's GSM network is compatible, it just happens to be that one of theirs LTE bands is not supported by the device, but you still can get LTE if your are in the right place.

Is it right NO, but is BlackBerry man, as Bla1ze said, this is not the first time they do something like this, and it will, unfortunately, not be the last time

Originally Posted by Wiki Cydia

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

IDK man...I get what you're saying, but for a company that's been making handsets forever, the stupidity argument is harder to believe.

Originally Posted by ealvnv

The key line is "carriers who operate supported GSM networks".

I took that as talking about international carriers, as in, it'll work on some of them. Look at the preceding words: "other countries around the world with carriers who operate supported GSM networks."

But note they say "supported GSM networks" and didn't say anything about LTE when referring to those international carriers. So someone knew to couch the readers expectations.

Good lord I'm turning into a conspiracy theorist :cant-watch:

This thread deserved a whole story by Crackberry to make sure the American customer was informed and to get true and accurate information from BlackBerry about whether this phone works on AT&T's LTE network (instead, they have left it to the forums, which still leaves me confused on whether this phone does or does not work with the majority of AT&T's LTE network). I also think there needs to be a separate article by Crackberry about how badly Digital River handled this sales process. Let me run through what happened to me as example: (i) Press Release came out, no mention of model #, but it says it works on AT&T's LTE network, so I buy the phone within the first couple of hours, (ii) 3 hours later, I get an email saying the phone is backordered (despite Michael Clewely saying that it was not and that was a glitch, (iii) I find out that it won't work on AT&T's LTE networks in most places so I call to cancel my order, but I am told that I cannot cancel the order because it is backordered and I can't cancel a backordered product (the shopblackberry website clearly says that you can cancel same day) - I demand to speak to a supervisor who then tells me they will submit the cancellation, I also go online and fill out the cancel form as well, (iv) the next day, I get an email from Digital River saying they received the cancellation to late and that the product has already shipped and my only recourse would be to reject the package; however, I live in a doorman building in NYC and it is hard for me to explain to my doorman which package to reject, but I try to do that, and guess what - my doorman rejects a totally separate Amazon.com order package I was receiving (so now I have to call Amazon and argue why I don't have to pay shipping on that cancelled order, and I had to reorder it and wait another 2 days!!!). It is now 3 days later and I still have not received the z30 (which I tried to cancel), even though I had paid extra for expedited 2-day shipping. So if it already shipped, and that is why I couldn't cancel it, then why is it not here yet? BlackBerry really goes out of there way to **** off even their most loyal customers. They are responsible for digital river. Also, I am pretty upset with Michael Clewely - I used BlackBerry Channel messages asking him to clear up whether this phone works on AT&T's LTE network and he responded that it was - when I keep reading here that it is not. We need the truth crackberry.

I had an almost identical experience an dust an hour ago received a shipping confirmation email with a FedEx tracking number. I ordered the phone first thing last week with expedited 2-day shipping. Due to the backorder and lack of being able to cancel my order, I now won't be home when they tell me the phone will be delivered since I a flying out of town that morning. On top of that, they are requiring a "Direct Signature" and I can't change the delivery address...this is Stupid. on top of all this, I don't think I will even get LTE on AT&T here in LA.

Unlocked Z10 on AT&T, 10.2.1.2228