Extremely upset with this product.

Question

Another horrible user experience. This time from the IT Director of a medium sized city.
We recently purchased 6 Curve 8530's for our administrators, based on the recommendation of our local telecom provider. They have given me nothing but grief. Administering them and trying to get them working properly has cost me dozens and dozens of hours of time, for 6 phones. Daily I am getting calls from the users (users who are my bosses, and very busy, and to whom this communication device is crucial) with glitches and issues that take up my time making calls or researching solutions.
Email and phone calls is all they use it for. All we are doing is forwarding their exchange emails to the blackberry account. And syncing their calender and contacts with outlook. Here are some of the issues we are having:
The desktop manager gives us more cryptic error messages and failures than it does actual syncing. Of course the solution is to power down the unit, remove it from it's protective case, remove the battery, wait 30 seconds, reverse the procedure restart and presto! It works. The miracle of modern technology means it only takes 10 minutes to sync your calender.
The update service fails more often than not. Currently on some the application loader needs to be updated but fails at the download screen, unable to proceed. The updater shows a bunch of grayed out 'pending' updates that I have no idea what they are but they keep showing up and failing, of course every time they plug in the Blackberry to sync they get all of these error messages.
We switched one user over to IMAP service on our exchange server. I created the IMAP account and then deleted the blackberry account. All was working. but, if you delete a message from the blackberry it also clears it from your exchange account, it does not move it to the deleted items folder, it disappears completely. The user did not like this so this morning I went to switch them back to mail forwarding to the blackberry account. I found out that when you delete an account from the device, it deletes the account from your provider also, and locks the name out for a year so you can't reuse it. So I created another blackberry account with a slightly different name, success!
I deleted the imap account and when I returned to the main screen I found that the old blackberry account was back, along with the new one. It does not show up in the email settings screen but there is an icon for it on the main screen, you can even open it and see some old messages. There is no way to delete this account and whenever the user sends mail, it tries to use this old account and fails. I called the telecom rep and they said they would have to push out some service books. Still not fixed 4 hours later. And sadly, i know what service books are due to my countless hours of trying to deal with other issues.
The sensor pad quit working one one unit within a month making the phone useless, you can't even make a call. I got on these forums and found that hundreds of posters were having this issue with this model, an obvious design flaw. There is even a workaround for it. The way the sensor pad connects to the main board is finicky. I was going to try it but I did not want to void the warranty. Of course RIM is in total denial mode over this. We sent the unit out for repair and it came back as 'water damaged', we are not replacing it. We have the unit back and I can guarantee you with 100% certainty that no moisture has ever come in contact with this phone. I took the phone apart and inspected it with a microscope (seriously). This borders on fraud. Dirty business anyways.
Of course there is a solution to all this. Drop 15 grand on the blackberry enterprise server software, a bunch more on hardware and hire 3 full time staff to administer it, for 6 phones.
We have lots of users with other brands of smartphones that they purchased for their own use but like to get their work mail and sync their contacts and calendars. And none of them have any issues. My iPhone works not only flawlessly, but also integrates my calendar and contacts and all folders besides the inbox, far far better than the Blackberry.
What colossal over site of engineering made you leave out a trash folder for deleted emails?
I have been in the IT business for 18 years and never have I seen such a shoddy conflagration of hardware and software. You may have invented the smartphone but you certainly haven't advanced it. In fact you are sending it back to the dark ages.

Answer 1

Disgruntled... don't be.
You've got several issues that when answered correctly... you'd be "gruntled".
Let's explore.
disgruntleduser wrote:
 the solution is to power down the unit, remove it from it's protective case, remove the battery, wait 30 seconds, reverse the procedure restart and presto! It works.
Nope, you never need to power the unit down.
Do a simple reboot on the BlackBerry in this manner:
With the BlackBerry device POWERED ON, remove the battery for a minute, and then reinsert the battery to reboot. A reboot in this manner is prescirbed for most gltiches and operating system errors, and you will lose no data on the device doing this.
disgruntleduser wrote:
 The update service fails more often than not. Currently on some the application loader needs to be updated but fails at the download screen, unable to proceed. The updater shows a bunch of grayed out 'pending' updates that I have no idea what they are but they keep showing up and failing, of course every time they plug in the Blackberry to sync they get all of these error .
Learn to do a an OS upgrade this way... it's just so much easier and less failures:
See the link below, for the download and simple installation instructions.
First locate your carrier and the OS file you wish to use.
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/download_sites.jsp
Do a backup of your device first, using Desktop Manager > Backup. Close Desktop Manager upon completion.
1. Download the OS file to the PC then install it to the PC by running (double clicking) the file you downloaded.
2. Go to c:\program files\common files\research in motion\apploader and delete the file named "vendor.xml."
3. Plug in BB and double click on "Loader.exe." It's located in the same place as the above vendor.xml file.
disgruntleduser wrote:
We switched one user over to IMAP service on our exchange server. I created the IMAP account and then deleted the blackberry account. All was working. but, if you delete a message from the blackberry it also clears it from your exchange account, it does not move it to the deleted items folder, it disappears completely. The user did not like this so this morning I went to switch them back to mail forwarding to the blackberry account. I found out that when you delete an account from the device, it deletes the account from your provider also, and locks the name out for a year so you can't reuse it. So I created another blackberry account with a slightly different name, success!
You can set the BlackBerry to delete the message ONLY from the handheld device, not from the exchange server. Open your Messages folder > Options > Email Reconcilation > and set delete on either Prompt or the Handheld only. 
disgruntleduser wrote:
I deleted the imap account and when I returned to the main screen I found that the old blackberry account was back, along with the new one. It does not show up in the email settings screen but there is an icon for it on the main screen, you can even open it and see some old messages. There is no way to delete this account and whenever the user sends mail, it tries to use this old account and fails. I called the telecom rep and they said they would have to push out some service books. Still not fixed 4 hours later. And sadly, i know what service books are due to my countless hours of trying to deal with other issues.
Options > Advanced > Service Books... when you deleted the account on the device and the BIS, you didn't delete the Service Book which enables that email folder. Then do a simple reboot, and IF the email account has truly been deleted from the server, it will not push back to the device.
See my note above on how to perform the reboot.
disgruntleduser wrote:
The sensor pad quit working one one unit within a month making the phone useless, you can't even make a call. I got on these forums and found that hundreds of posters were having this issue with this model, an obvious design flaw. There is even a workaround for it. The way the sensor pad connects to the main board is finicky. I was going to try it but I did not want to void the warranty. Of course RIM is in total denial mode over this. We sent the unit out for repair and it came back as 'water damaged', we are not replacing it. We have the unit back and I can guarantee you with 100% certainty that no moisture has ever come in contact with this phone. I took the phone apart and inspected it with a microscope (seriously). This borders on fraud. Dirty business anyways.
I've seen a dozen devices which a user "can guarantee you with 100% certainty that no moisture has ever come in contact", but after drying out PROPERLY, it works. Yes, moisture can involved even being left on a bathroom counter diring a hot steamy shower or bath. Guaranteed. There's electronics involved... beware.
Fraud, lol, No. It's just that you believe your users. Remember, everyone lies.
disgruntleduser wrote:
What colossal over site of engineering made you leave out a trash folder for deleted emails?
I don't think anyone made anyone leave out the "trash folder", but like my own real life and garbage, trash is trash. I don't go digging around in mine at home, nor on my BlackBerry. If you aren't sure about deleting something or not, set the prompt to ask IF YOU REALLY want to delete this.
Or check www.blackberryapps.com for a third party app to get a trash folder, if you must.
And meanwhile, I'll offer this, since I don't work for BlackBerry or RIM... in my opinion the 8520/8530 are consumer level, introductory devices. I'd tell you to get the 9650 if you're stuck on CDMA networks.
Even still, the 8520/8530 are good devices, and aside from your're workarounds for the exchange server and IMAP mess, you've really not had any problems that can't be fixed. Yea, for the amount of overall users, your city probably should provide enterprise servers, but we all know how cheap municipalities can be.
And, if you're not concerned about security of the devices or the information contained on those device, you can use any manufacturer, iPhone included, all you want. Security is a big deal to most, and very well might be minor in your town.
So, my advice for you... open your mind and ask some questions here in this forum. We're volunteers at this and I will bet you $100 we know more than most of your tech support people you've been calling on and getting shoddy advice from.
But ask questions, and a little less complainy/whiney, and you'll get some great help around here.
Good luck.
It sounds like what I have seen multiple times on a device with moisture damage.
Even sitting on a bathroom counter during a hot steamy shower or bath can cause keyboard and trackball problems UNTIL properly dried out.
It really is more common than you think.
1. Remove the battery immediately!! Do not attempt to turn on your BlackBerry.
2. Let the device dry in a warm, dry place for 3 to 5 days* (see below)
3. DO NOT "check it each day" by placing the battery in. Leave it be to dry completely. This takes time. Replacing the battery to check it can only damage it more (moisture + electrical current = disaster).
3. If the device is warm after the drying period, allow it to cool to room temperature before placing the battery back in.
*Suggestions on drying your BlackBerry in a warm place (open, with the battery out):
Place the BB in a container of dry UNcooked rice, and then you might also place it in any of the locations mentioned below.
On top of any dry heat emitting electronic component: TV cabinet or CRT, LCD, cable TV/Satellite converter box or plasma monitor
On the dashboard of your car on a sunny day
1. If any post helps you please click the below the post(s) that helped you.
2. Please resolve your thread by marking the post "Solution?" which solved it for you!
3. Install free BlackBerry Protect today for backups of contacts and data.
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