[klondike1024]

I have searched this and other forums and have only found one other person having this issue in a BMW using the in car Bluetooth system. The phone is relatively new so I am sure that other instances of this issue will pop up.

I am able to pair the blackberry Bold 9700 to my 2008 Acura TL-S. Normally on any other phone I have connected I just hit the send button on the phone when accessing a phone number from the call log or the contacts. On the Bold 9700 the only way I can get it to work is to use the "Talk" button on the steering wheel and place the call using verbal cammands. The call can not be initiated from the phone. Also if you are on a phone call and start up the car the phone will pair with the car but it will not switch the call to the bluetooth. I have used several other phones and they all can initiate the call using the in car bluetooth from the handset.
Using verbal commands is less convenient for me. In additon, there are two problems with using only verbal camands. First, if I don't know the phone number I want to dial I have to look it up in the phone and then read it from the contacts. Second, If I don't know the name of the contact I will have to look it up in the phone then speak it while driving or if the hands free link does not understand the name of the contact when spoken it will dial the wrong number. In addition, I have many contacts that have long names and they have abbreviations and the hands free link will not understand these abbreviations when spoken. With all other cell phones I have used, I can simply innitiate a call from the phone's call log or contacts using the phone with minimum steps and have been extremely easy to use and useful. Only being able to initiate calls using voice cammands is useless for the reason's mentioned above. I have over 250 contacts (after cleaning out my phone book and removing over 100 contacts) and I don't always have the complete name or number memorized which makes using the in car bluetooth system useless and less safe since a person has to fumble a lot more with the phone when driving to initiate a call (This is because a person must look up the number and then verbally read it off to the hands free system.)

I hope I have described this issue well enough that it can be understood. If anyone else using this model phone has come up with a fix for this please let me know and post it here. I have tried to change settings to make it work without being required to use voice cammands to place the call and neither me or my T-mobile rep could figure it out. I have to have this feature working becuase I use the in car bluetooth system constantly throughout the day and have found it has significantly increased safety and convenience when making calls while driving.

This is the first Blackberry I have had and other than this issue it is an amazing phone.

[contrariwise]

I have the same car, same phone.

Initiate the call from the phone, press the Talk button and say "Transfer." The call should switch right over to HandsFreeLink.

[irishpadres]

I've got a 09 TSX and have the same problem. What I do is use Vlingo to voice dial, wait for the call to start, hang up, and then use HandsFreeLink to redial. It's hack, but it works.

-=Kevin=-

[klondike1024]

I have the same car, same phone.

Initiate the call from the phone, press the Talk button and say "Transfer." The call should switch right over to HandsFreeLink.

Contrariwise,
I wanted to say thankyou for taking the time to read my thread and post a solution. I just went out and tried it and it worked as long as the call was transfered when it answers. (Either when it starts ringing or when somene answers. On my phone there is a silent delay from when you "send" to make a call and before someone answers when calling out. I am not sure why it does it but this never happened when I was on Sprint. On sprint as soon as I hit send it just started ringing. It was almost as if the network was more responsive.

I also was trying out the speaker phone on the BB 9700 tonight while talking with my gf and she said it sounds as good as the car's blue tooth. We even transfered back and forth between the speaker phone and the in car bluetooth and she felt is sounded slightly better on the 9700 speaker phone whish is very surprising because my in car blue tooth is the clearest I have ever heard by a long shot.

So all in all this story has a good ending. I will most likely keep my new Bold 9700 since it seems to be working well. In my area (Tampa, FL), T-mobiles service is not as good as Sprints but T-mobiles is definitely good enough plus now I have solid Blackberry device.

[kromix]

I have the same car, same phone.

Initiate the call from the phone, press the Talk button and say "Transfer." The call should switch right over to HandsFreeLink.

Same car same phone as well. Talk and "Transfer" should work.

[shlee]

Yea but this is something that just shouldnt happen with this phone. Im going through similar issues on my 2010 Acura TSX

[klondike1024]

Yea but this is something that just shouldnt happen with this phone. Im going through similar issues on my 2010 Acura TSX

After using the blue tooth on my car half the day and the speaker phone the second half I agree with you. The way it worked on my last phone was flawless, minimal steps, safe and easy. The way it works on my current 9700 pretty much sucks and does not feel as safe to use when driving.

It seems that at slower speeds the speaker phone seems to work well. Today I was on the bridge at higher speeds (more road noise is transmitted into the car) and it was a little hard to hear my client when using the speaker phone with the volume all the way up. I was able to make it work but it I had to strain a little to hear.

I tried the transfer and it seems to work for me most of the time but it is an extra needless step when I am driving and trying to make outbound calls.

For incomming calls it is a little easier. I just have to remember to hit the talk button on the steering wheel to answer the phone instead of the send button on the phone. As long as I remember to do this, then this is safer for incomming calls.

I think they should fix it so that when you have the blue tooth paired and you hit send from you phone, it automatically connects when ringing the call out. (This is how all my other phones worked) If you hit send and try to transfer it before the caller picks up the HiFi Link says "There is no call in progress" so this forces you to wait until the client or voice mail picks up and then you have to say "Transfer" which is wierd for them to hear. (Or you have to explain you are transfering.)

I will say that other than this issue the phone has been pretty good and the added functionality will add value over a normal (dumb?) phone. Because of this I have decided to keep the phone. I hope there is a way I can contact rim and they fix this in a future OS release. That would just be very cool.

[Jay4833]

I have a 2006 Cadillac STS and I can't get my phone to connect to my car at all.... I had a pearl previously and it worked fine, Id get in the car, it would connect on its own... it would lose the connection every now and then but not enough to get angry. With this new 9700 I had it paired, but wouldnt connect, now I cant even get it paired... asdlfjsljka

[slackerjack]

Must be something with the model year - I have an 05 TL and don't have the same issues. Worst thing that ever happened was I had to right click and select the TM Handsfree option - but that was only one one call - and I had to keep getting in and out of the car...so I'm pretty sure I confused it

Jack

[colemac]

I have my phone paired up with 08 TL Type S with no issue when using the speakers in car. Sometimes when I have someone with me I want to dial from my handset. What happens is that I dial number on bold 9700 and it doesn't ring but when the call is answered on other end I hear. this is a major annoyance because I had a curve before and all i had to do was dial out on device and it would ring and then the person would answer. Does anyone know a fix for this?


Thanks,