The Bold Blunders of AT&T

I begin this story by saying that although I am tech savvy, I am nowhere near where others are in their knowledge of cell phones.  I concede that I do not know everything there is to know.  However, I do know one thing.  The Blackberry Bold 9000 is a total pain.  Why do I say this?  Here is my story.

In April of this year (2009), I decided to switch carriers.  I was a long standing customer with Sprint.  I grew tired of some of the cell phone choices made available to its customers.  One day, my fiancée found an online advertisement through AT&T.  It was a “web special.”  I only had to pay the tax for the phone which was approximately $45.00.  Which phone?  The Blackberry Bold.  It was the first step into the “Smartphone” world.  I was excited!  No more flip phones with texting made impossible.  Everything was at my fingertips with this phone.  Needless to say I was thrilled!

I received my Blackberry prior to my vacation in Santa Cruz.  I played with it all weekend long.  Thrilled at the copy and paste, spreadsheets, social networking, texting…I could go on.  I liked the data plan.  It was decent, plus a bit cheaper than the iPhone.  I had the phone for 2 months and then it happened.  The kiss of death.  Yep, you guessed it.  The trackball.  I could only move it up and down, but not side to side.  I couldn’t text at all or use any of the other applications I had downloaded.  I was in a state of panic.  Now what?  I visited the AT&T store the next day and was told that it needed to be replaced.  It was basically useless.  Now, I do appreciate it being replaced at no cost to me.  These phones run approximately $450.00, so I was okay with that.  This replacement occurred in June.

Now of course, and had to reload all of the applications that I had originally downloaded, which was a little inconvenient.  Once the phone was up and running, I was happy.  I had become a pretty savvy Blackberry Bold user by that point.  Remembering to delete messages when needed so that the memory would not turn itself off, as it can from time to time.  Well, then rolled in August.  Would you believe it, it happened AGAIN.  This is Blackberry Bold number 3.  The gentleman at the AT&T kindly replaced the Blackberry Bold yet again, said the trackball is a known issue.  So here I had to go again, uploading the applications etc.  Now I was a bit irritated, but I am not going to complain because I do not have to pay anything to replace this phone.

At this point, I am pretty leery.  I do everything I can to take care of this phone, keep it very clean so I do not have to go through this again.  Until the end of September and it’s replacement time again.  It’s the trackball.  Yes, the trackball.  So yet again, I have to have the phone replaced and I was on phone number 4.  Let me repeat this again, I was on my fourth Blackberry.  Am I frustrated?  Yes.  Here’s what is worse.  Last Thursday evening, I was traveling from one town to another.  The trackball froze again.  I have had it for maybe 2 months total.  I was receiving text messages, but could not respond to them on the home screen because I could not move the trackball to the right.  I would have to go through the contact application, send an SMS which would then lead me to the SMS application to see who texted me.  Was this irritating?  You bet!

I contacted AT&T on Saturday.  I advised them that I am on my 4^th Blackberry Bold since April 2009.  I advised them that I am beyond unhappy with the Bold product.  I am tired of having to reload all of my applications, and being inconvenienced like this.  Wouldn’t it make MORE SENSE to ship a Blackberry 9700 with the track pad?  The Bold is the same exact price as the 9700 currently.  $449.00.  I reasoned with the lady from AT&T advising: we can stop this constant trade in once and for all by using the 9700.  It will not have the problems that I have had with the last 4 Blackberry Bold phones.  AT&T would not hear from me again?  Thus far, 4 phones at $449.00 = $1796.00 AT&T has spent on little ole me.   Well, guess what? AT&T refused.  When speaking to this gal, I was incredulous.  “So let me get this straight? Instead of giving me a Blackberry 9700, which will solve the “trackball” problem, you will continue to ship me Blackberry Bolds every other month which will cost you $449 a pop, every single time?”   Her response, “Yep.”   I was speechless.  Blackberry Bold number 5 will be arriving at my office tomorrow.

AT&T, you were just recently ranked dead last in Customer Service Survey’s nationwide.  There is a reason why.  It is policies like these that put you dead last.  This is a waste of money.