[Adam Zeis]

We've just made it through the longest BlackBerry outage in RIM's history. Some are mad and frustrated, others made it through with business as normal. I'm sure many of you have plenty you'd like to say to RIM -- be it to express your frustrations or to back them up in support. Well we want to hear your thoughts! Whatever you have to say, use this forum to write your own letter to RIM. Tell them how angry you are, how frustrated you've been, or show them your support and let them know you're still BlackBerry through and through. If we get some good ones, we'll post them up in the blogs or even try to get them over to the right people at RIM. So let's hear what you have to say!

[warn]Please post only one letter. Lets try to keep this thread clean and organized, so please, no discussion, trolling or flame wars.[/warn]

[Firmenchef]

On the whole, I think RIM has done a good job at getting their system up and running within a reasonable period of time. If you think of the volume of messaging that goes on worldwide then it is staggering how much data their servers process on a daily basis.

I did listen to a portion of the press conference this morning and I think the 2nd or 3rd question involved reparations for service outages. Are you kidding me? People need to take a serious step back and listen to what they are saying. When there is a power outage and you lose your electricity, no one asks for reparations, you are just darn happy to have your lights back on.

I have used a BB for many years starting with a 7105t and I have always considered my BB as a convenience for checking emails for business, not a necessity. Yes it is inconvenient when you can't check your emails from anywhere but I am willing to bet that most BB users have other resources available for messaging.

Granted, RIM stumbled but they have not fallen. I am sticking by BB as they are still providing a good product to customers as well as delivering data in a more economical way than their competition.

[Yousif Abdullah]

My $0.02 Zimbabwe dollars.

Had there been an option to access social networks, BBM et al. bypassing BIS and therefore DataSmart and BlackBerry Push Service, there would certainly be a bit less frustration aboard. Email I can understand, for that truly is bound to the servers, but applications such as Facebook and Twitter do not necessarily need BIS. Neither does BBM if you factor in that governments can ask for (and have been granted) access to eavesdrop BBM traffic, making it no more secure than any other IM solution. Apple's iMessage is a similar service yet requires no special, commercial service such as BIS.

I think, personally, it is time for RIM to open up a bit and allow for more functionality when BIS is not at hand. Even a so-called 'featurephone' can do more than a BlackBerry without BIS. But hey, I'm not blaming anyone since I live in a country with no BlackBerry service at all. (I live in the home of Santa Claus, Finland.) Makes you actually wonder whether the BlackBerry ecosystem would grow bigger if BlackBerry smartphones weren't dependent on BIS...

~ Yousif Abdullah

[siha]

The only things that were down seemed to be BBM and E-mail, which there are ways around (texting, webmail, etc), I was able to surf the internet all day on my BB as needed as well as use twitter and FB apps intermittently (seemed to work over wi-fi as well).

I dunno, this is the ultimate luxury and they worked to make calls still, so I don't care, I can't see myself ever owning another phone just to avoid getting frustrated once every 18 months rather than getting frustrated hourly by other phone companies.

Keep doing what you're doing RIM, your phones are perfect for the target demographic, I don't need a 6Ghz processor to send emails, BBM, text and make calls and I'm not watching video on it so why kill my battery and charge an arm and a leg for it?

Kinda all over the place here, but thank god my BB is back up and running!

[SK122387]

Dear RIM,

I have been using your devices exclusively since 2006, right after I graduated high school. No, my first BlackBerry wasn't something that was given to me for work or that I was forced to use. I was getting tired of the Sidekick3, and the BlackBerry Pearl at the T-Mobile stores always caught my eye whenever I'd go inside. So one day, I went for it.

I started with a Pearl, moved onto an 8800, an 8820, a titanium grey 8320, a gold 8320, a Curve 8900, a Bold 9000, a Bold 9700, a white 9780, a black 9780, got the PlayBook because I wanted it so badly, and then got the Bold 9900 on launch day. I have taken my BlackBerry everywhere I go. I captured videos at Versailles in France on my 8900, turned the WiFi on for free web browsing in French cafes, emailed people as simply as texting, and even bit the bullet a couple times and made some expensive calls back home to my friends in L.A. In France I saw countless BlackBerrys. Everyone had Bold 9000s, the selection of accessories in Orange stores were vast, I even picked up a 3pack of silicone skins for my 8900 at the Orange store on Champs Elysees, a well-known street in France with many high end, flagship stores.

In the two years since I have been to France, I have seen my BBM list shrink from about 70 contacts, to 35 now, as many of my friends have switched to Android or iPhones. My mom and sister were both Verizon customers, but since I begin paying my own phone bill at 15 years old, I have found that T-Mobile is the most affordable and offers the phones I like. My sister switched to T-Mobile and got the white 9780, and my mom ditched the venerable RAZR and picked up a black 9780 as well.

I have been a BlackBerry customer and honestly, an addict to BlackBerry phones and news for the last 5 years. I laughed when the iPhone got copy and paste capabilities. I laughed harder when they allowed the text message tone to be changed. I laughed again when I read about iMessage, and then had another good laugh when I read that the "BBM killer" that is iMessage, ONLY works in WiFi. I can't touch an Android phone without accidentally hitting the Google Search key, interrupting whatever it was that I was doing on the phone. I can't stand the LED embedded INTO the speaker. And in all honesty, I think all Android phones look identical. Long story short, I love BlackBerry the way it is now, I know we have the QNX changes coming, and my PlayBook has been warming me up to the change that I know is imminent, and that I know will propel RIM's share prices up, and BlackBerrys back into the hands of the people that may have traded them in for a phone with a kickstand or a singe Home button.

Having said all this, the outage over the last couple of days was annoying to say the least, but it's kind of like someone's favorite athlete. They might not be having the best season this year, they might have a couple consecutive really bad games (games that bring email and BBM to a screeching halt...), but at the end of the bad games, I'm still wearing the BlackBerry jersey, with my BlackBerry hat, and will get into my car with the BlackBerry stickers and maybe an obnoxious BlackBerry flag or two flying out each window.

Let's just try and keep the bad games to a minimum, so we can huddle and rally and beat the the other teams that we know that we are so much better than.

Sincerely,

Sean Kelleher

[bknowles5]

I think this outage shows how much blackberry matters all over the world an I think its great timing for rim to step it up and show off at devcon

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mysticmeg]

The three day crisis of a BIS outage was nothing compared to in July when I faced a complete service meltdown on the o2 network but then again that wasn't RIM's fault at all. Anyways I've been a fan of Nokia phones mainly but I've gotta admit no matter what problems RIM face and no matter how many outages there are, I will always be a Blackberry user! Never going back to other phones as my Blackberry 9900 gives me all the planning power I need on the go

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[martinjdub]

If it was that easy to manage and maintain a carrier class global network, we would all do it. Unlike some, I can appreciate the intricacies and the engineering marvels behind the BB magic.

Thanks RIM!

PS- iClouds burst too, its only a matter of time.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[ianchristie1972]

While I didn't notice anything wrong with my service. I will personally be staying with BlackBerry for a long time. They have a strong reputation for security and data efficiency.

With our demand for the security and data efficiency, there are problems that we will run into that are inherent to using various services. To obtain the efficient data and security everything goes through RIM servers and if there is a problem with a server, things will go down.

I heard on the radio recently the DJs talking about the BlackBerry issue and one jabbed the other saying "don't you wish you didn't get a BlackBerry." Also saying that maybe he should have got an iPhone or an android phone. But as iCloud and other "clouds" become more common, possibly even required, Android and iPhone could run into similar disruptions.

So, saying I won't buy a BlackBerry because of it won't hold.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com