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major problem with BBerry 8900, August 16, 2009
By Bill.D

"The BlackBerry 8900 is a NIGHTMARE. No matter how careful I am to clean my hands and to carry tissue to keep my fingers clean when using the trackball, I've only had my 8900 since June and I continue to have problems with the trackball getting stuck and not wanting to move-- the trackball needs to be able to move the cursor up, down, right and left, and if it stops being able to move in any direction, you lose your ability to access or enter some part of your data.

The BlackBerry 8310 I had before this one had a chromed ring around the trackball that could be popped out easily to clean or replace, and when it stopped working the first time and I brought it to the AT&T store, they did not tell me that the trackball was so easily serviced. They made me order a refurbished phone via FedEx that I had significant problems transferring data from the old phone. They gave me X number of days to send the old phone back before they would have charged me $300. I was forced to transfer some of the data manually, so was feverishly backing up data before sending in the old phone... then a few months later, when the trackball went out again, I was fortunate to have someone tip me off to the fact that there are third-party repair facilities that would sell me the tiny trackball for $15. and show me how to replace it myself.

Neither BlackBerry nor AT&T cares enough about their customers to tell them how to avoid all this trouble by simply popping out the trackball for service, allowing us to continue using our phones and saving us days of unnecessary problems. Why? What did it gain them, unless they are sadists?

They knew the tendency for these trackballs to give trouble-- whenever I went to the third-party store for help, I saw others there that were having problems with BlackBerries, usually with the trackballs... yet, when BBerry came out with the 8900 model, rather than keep the same design that allowed easy, tool-free service of the trackball, they redesigned it in such a way that special Torx screwdrivers were needed to replace it, and if you did so, you were risking voiding the device warranty.

DON'T BUY A BLACKBERRY OR ANY OTHER DEVICE WITH A TRACKBALL WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING WITH THE SALESPERSON TO SEE IF YOU CAN CLEAN OR REPLACE A STUCK TRACKBALL YOURSELF!!!

AT&T knew of this problem, but rather than provide prompt service in-store, which would have been easy and appreciated, they make their customers jump through hoops. I have several phones on my contract, and pay hundreds of dollars per month for service, but as soon as my contract expires I will take my business elsewhere, and hope their entire business implodes just like Countrywide and others did recently.

Is there an attorney or attorneys out there that would be willing to bring a class-action lawsuit against BlackBerry and/or AT&T for breach of contract? Their service contract is USELESS if you can get better, much faster resolution of your problems through a 3rd party store!"

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