[anon3230140]

I need to get my garden shed taken down and disposed off so I signed up to a site called RatedPeople.com here in the uk where you can post a job and tradesmen contact you to quote and win the job if possible. Just got a few builders already contact me and the one thing I noticed is.. they all ask if I have WhatsApp so I can add them and send them pics of what the shed in question looks like so they can give me a proper quote.

Nobody asks for BBM.

The same thing happened when I was looking for someone to build my wardrobe last year. All pics sent via WhatsApp.

Dunno how you guys see it but anyone who says whatsapp is not usable a sa business tool is largely uninformed and needs to cut out the bias. The ease of adding contacts and sending things is just so easy and fast that if BlackBerry do not go the phone number route and advertise like mad.. chances of them regaining what they lost is 0.

I love bbm and blackberry but it is so evident that as things are.. it cannot compete.

As a side note.. the app for the website was only android and iPhone. Downloaded it and it works but I cannot post the pics on my job ad which is obviously a BlackBerry problem which is frustrating. I can view my gallery but when I select the picture it just can't. It's built for Android though so I'm not surprised. That's just proof of so much business going on that people stuck on BlackBerry have been missing out on and possibly will continue to.

At this point I'm verging on the BlackBerry should go Android route cos time and progress waits for nobody. Brand loyalty will get you nowhere but make the brand richer.

BlackBerry screwed up.

BTW.. I use a Passport and love it but something has to change real soon.
Posted via CB10

[Soulstream]

I never understood this "giving away your phone number is bad", "PIN is better". In such cases as the one you described, you would have called them anyway and they would have had your phone number anyway. Whatsapp is "internet SMS". It uses the same principle as the SMS of old.

[jelp2]

What happened to contractors coming to your house in person and viewing the site? It also gives the homeowner a good look at who may be working on their property. Tell them to get off Whatsapp and stop over if they want the work.

[SunshineStateFlyer]

Who has ever said BBM is better for business than WhatsApp? I personally prefer BBM somehow but I find them both to be good messengers. The clear advantage of WhatsApp, however, is its ubiquity. As for business use, I don't see any particular advantage in BBM actually.

Posted via CB10

[ljfong]

The war was over long time ago with Whatsapp being the winner. BBM could have crushed Whatsapp when it was still a tiny fish in the pond but BlackBerry was too busy at the time doing other things.

Posted via CB10

[Tre Lawrence]

What happened to contractors coming to your house in person and viewing the site? It also gives the homeowner a good look at who may be working on their property. Tell them to get off Whatsapp and stop over if they want the work.

LOL.

[sentimentGX4]

The war was over long time ago with Whatsapp being the winner. BBM could have crushed Whatsapp when it was still a tiny fish in the pond but BlackBerry was too busy at the time doing other things.

Posted via CB10

BBM never caught on as a cross platform IM app except in the remaining few developing nations still using a sizable number of Blackberries at the time. The move to cross platform came much too late. BBM is pretty much extinct in the US and non-existent on iOS and Android smartphones.

The biggest problem for BBM, like BB10, is that it doesn't actually offer consumers a compelling reason to use it over the app/product that they are currently already using.

[paulwallace1234]

The war was over long time ago with Whatsapp being the winner. BBM could have crushed Whatsapp when it was still a tiny fish in the pond but BlackBerry was too busy at the time doing other things.

Posted via CB10

Too busy with bloody stickers lol

Posted via CB10

[Fidel Mercado]

I tried to get friends back on BBM. I was sending everyone invites. After about a month I had uninstalled it. Nobody was biting. Too make matters worse I have yet to see a Passport-outside of a store, here in the states.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[dcal1701]

I use bbm for conversation with my girlfriend because I'm involved in a couple of never ending whatsapp threads with "the lads" and I accidentally sent a couple of messages that were meant for her to the wrong thread, bbm saves that from happening since she's the only contact I've got on there.





And no they weren't risqu� pics but they were embarrassing :-0

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[bap3221]

Giving your number is dumb in the first place. Its a meSsenger, not text. If whatsapp gets hacked you get all their info whereas what do you really get with someones pin?

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[luancuvi]

Giving out your mobile number has been a natural thing to do since the mobile phone became widely used. Whatsapp just added functionality to your phone without extra hassle, if you've got my mobile number you can call me, text me or Whatsapp me... BBM should ditch the PIN thing, it is just a useless extra step to contact someone thus an unnecessary extra hurdle... why bother?

[Gatmyer]

You really shouldn't use any messenger app when using a contractor. There is no paper trail and I don't think they are admissible in court.

Email is the best option here.

Posted via CB10

[Thesmartmale]

It's very simple! Do what Snapchat does! They give you an option to use the username by default but you also have the option to use the phone number if you choose to enter it in the Snapchat app! How hard can this be?

It's the best way!!!

Posted via CB10

[Dave79]

When I get phone numbers from ladies in bars and club and text them - they also ask me why I'm not on whatsapp and that means business too!!

[lnichols]

The WhatsApp base is way larger than BBM. BBM cross platform rollout was your typical BlackBerry debacle. They were late to the party, the first versions were horrible, and they cheapened the whole thing with stickers and the shop (so professional!). I don't use WhatsApp but BBM seems to get worse features every update. Tired of getting told about the latest sticker packs.

Posted via CB10

[sk8er_tor]

I much prefer email. At least you can reference it even if your phone is destroyed. I use my phone for business but I do NOT want any colleagues contacting me on instant message. Hence why I don't use WhatsApp where anyone would then be able to contact me.

[Tre Lawrence]

Keep in mind, Whatsapp is only used for initial contact and estimating (as I understand it); I assume more formal documentation can be used when a contractor has been selected.

If this is truly the case, I have no problem with messaging being used to initiate the transaction.

[wincyUt]

Who really cares. Use whatever makes you happy. BlackBerry is not having a rat race with WhatsApp and also nothing stops anyone from having both WhatsApp and BBM on the same phone at the same time.

[RLTurn77]

I'm stubborn and when I got my BlackBerry and BBM went cross-platform anyone that sent me a text would receive the default "add me to BBM" message with my pin. They'd send another SMS and get the same response. And again and again. Anybody contacting me knows that they will not get a hold of me unless they call or BBM me. Went from 0-30+ contacts pretty fast.

Most of them actually enjoy BBM and have asked me why BBM does not link with phone numbers in their contacts and my answer is of course the added layer of security which I prefer. If I meet somebody at a bar/club and they want to continue talking with me I give them my BBM PIN. Call me a BlackBerry fanboy, but I have admittedly become one and don't hide it one bit. Just my contributions to BlackBerry here in the good old US!

Posted via CB10

[DenverRalphy]

You really shouldn't use any messenger app when using a contractor. There is no paper trail and I don't think they are admissible in court.

Email is the best option here.

Posted via CB10

Actually, instant messaging, SMS, etc.. Is very admissible. Many a person in court has been burned when after they deny phone correspondence, the other party pulls out their phone and shows the SMS/Instant Messaging interactions to the contrary. Digital correspondence is admissible as it's considered a document with verifiable content, time stamps, and verifiable origins/receivers.


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[ljfong]

Too busy with bloody stickers lol

Posted via CB10

Lol. But no. Whatsapp started in in 2009. At the time, BlackBerry was still at more or less the top of their game and BBM was the exclusive crown jewel of BlackBerry. The Co-CEOs were still busy telling people apps did not matter, compression of data was the most important thing and keyboard was king, plus who would want colors when reading their emails? Imagine if BBM went cross platform in 2008...one can only speculate.

[RyanGermann]

This is where you say "I use BBM: it's free so please install it and let me know, then I can send you the pictures". You're the customer, you have power here: if they don't want to bother with BBM (unlikely) then you can pick another contractor.

I get by with only SMS, Skype, and BBM, and if BBM had "internet calls to landlines" and a real Windows client, I'd ditch Skype in a second.

If you're a BB fan, tell your contacts to try BBM. Get a handful of them on BBM and get them to add EACH OTHER and then group message them etc. and eventually you'll wear them down. I have found success with that approach, and once you remind people that WhatsApp isn't free after the first year, you might be surprised how they react.

You don't HAVE to hard-sell BBM: just encourage them to try it, spend a bit of time making sure you have a core of 5 or more users all being connected, so if you exclusively use BBM then they'll have reason to continue to use it, and may even ask others to come onto BBM. Just be your vivacious self, and people will want to join YOU on YOUR network, you "Tipping Point Influencer / Networker" you!

[Captain_Hilts]

Part of the silliness with this whole thread (aside from the initial generalization that "because my landscaping contractors use WhatsApp, BBM is dead") is thinking that BBM and WhatsApp are not only in competition solely with each other, but that they are also the only two messenger apps out there. Come here to Japan and ask people to WhatsApp you and you'll get nothing but quizzical looks. Here it's all LINE. In China, WeChat is much more ubiquitous now. Go to Korea and it's all KakaoTalk. The West is not the only place in the world, people.

Posted via CB10

[gnirkatto]

Even if you force (ask, urge) people into installing BBM to connect with you, it doesn't spread any further.
Out of the ~15 contacts that I have on BBM, not a single one 'convinced' anyone else to connect via BBM. They don't even know how to find and connect to new contacts.
They all use it just to do me a favour.

Give BBM users THE OPTION of connecting through phone numbers, or else this will be over soon.

P.S. the new feature of finding friends via email addresses that came with the latest BBM release is pointless (in its current form). It brought me not one single new contact. And it mainly shows people who left BB and BBM long time ago.