Frustrated with 8120 Pearl and TMobile

I switched from Sprint to TMobile about 2 months ago. I was initially unhappy with Sprint, both with the phone and the customer service. I knew upon switching I wanted a Blackberry. I hesitated at the store on a Sidekick, but went back to the Blackberry 8100, blue (my husband with a red one).

When we got home, we discovered we had NO signal in our home. After a few days, we contacted TMobile, as well as the store we purchased the phones from, and were upgraded to a 8120 (Frost and Indigo) that would connect to our wireless router at home.

Since this time, I have had nothing but problems with my personal phone, the Frost Blackberry Pearl. I would like to add here that my husbands phone, the Indigo, has had NONE of these issues.

The First 8120 (but the 2nd Pearl) had the following issues:
*It would freeze up. I would have to pull the battery to restart it, I could not simply turn it off.
*It would NOT go online, giving me various error messages such as 'contact your provider if this problem persists'. The Indigo BB Pearl went online each and every time.
*When it DID go online, it would be very very slow, sometimes timing out.
*It dropped calls like crazy. Always having full or almost full signal bars at the time.
*I would not get calls, simply a notice that I had a new voice mail. The phone would never ring, and I had no missed calls. Also had full or almost full bars.
*I would not receive messages that I sent, or that I was sent, sometimes until hours or days later.


I can't remember any of the other problems, because it had so many. I think I have listed the main ones. The software was upgraded on this phone, as well. I called PDA support and was issued a replacement phone. I dealt with the poorly working phone for a few more days until the replacement arrived; when I tried to switch over to my replacement phone, I discovered that it kept powering itself down. There was no rhyme or reason, no certain amount of time, it would just do it randomly. It would not stay up long enough for me to use it at all. I switched back to phone number ONE and called support, who sent out a SECOND replacement phone that day.

When I received the THRID phone, the SECOND replacement, it seems to work ok. I upgraded the software on it as instructed by PDA support. After a week or so of using it, I discovered a few issues it was having. I called to complain, and was on the phone with TMobile for 45 minutes. I will list below the complaints of phone number THREE.

Phone Three:
*Tended to run slow when going online.
*It would sign off of AIM by itself, with me in the middle of a conversation with someone.
*It would erase converstions that I was in the middle of.
*It would send multiple messages on both AIM as well as Text Messaging, sometimes sending the same message up to FOUR times when I sent something.
*Kept dropping calls when I had full bars of service.

After speaking with PDA support, They were going to send me another phone. However, 15 minutes later my phone didn't work at all, saying 'Sim Card Rejected' and 'Sim card not allowed'. I called them back on my husbands phone, spending another 30 minutes on the phone with them, getting a new SIM card instead of phone number 4. The next day I went to a Tmobile store and picked up another SIM card. In the store, the employee there could not figure out why my phone would not connect to the stores WiFi connection, stating that it might be an issue with the phone. That was about 2 weeks ago. Today, around 12:30, I noticed that once again, my phone read 'Sim Card Rejected' with no signal.

This will be technically the FOURTH Blackberry Pearl that I have had, the THIRD Frost Blackberry Pearl 8120. Each phone has giving me problem after problem. TMobile keeps wanting to give me another of the SAME phone. Now, they are saying there is something wrong with the 'settings' on my phone that caused it to work FINE for 2 weeks with the new SIM, but all of a sudden the SIM is rejected again, so the SETTINGS must be messed up. I have touched none of the settings. I really like my phone when it works. I wondered if anyone has any suggestions or comments on what I should do? I've only had this phone less than 2 months, and am so far VERY unhappy with Tmobiles service.

TMobile management has not been helpful so far. I've went to various supervisors, and emailed a VP, with no results. I even asked for a Curve, which is the SAME price for a new customer, which i consider myself to be since I've only been with them for 2 months, with nothing but problems. I was told, however, that if they send me a FOURTH phone and it doesn't work properly, I am eligiable for a swap program that involves my choice of ONE other phone, which was not a Blackberry, or even a Bar PDA phone. They keep wanting to work on my phone, but it's not helping, and I have been without a phone for 5 days now. I know it's been a holiday, but this is ridiculous, and I am not accepting another non working pearl. Any help would be appreciated.

I deal with insurance adjusters ALOT in my line of work and then the adjusters do not do either 1) what they say they are going to do or 2) work to resolve the problem, I get their supervisor on the phone. If they refuse to get a supervisor on the phone, I ask for their supervisors name, and theirs, and I hang up and call again and request to talk to the supervisor by name.

I have gotten as far as the director of claims for a company before I actually got what was needed/wanted... and even then I almost had to go above his/her head..

Anyway with that being said, keep calling Tmo until you get what you want. You are paying for a service and its not working the way it is supposed too. Request to talk to a supervisor right off the bat! Most of the time when a CSR gets a request to talk to a supervisor, they have to do it.

Keep in mind that the call is free from the Tmo phone!

Good Luck!!