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My BlackBerry Turned Into a DingleBerry
By JLP | October 8, 2008
I finally broke down and upgraded my phone to a BlackBerry Curve 8310. I got it last Thursday. I LOVED it until this morning.
This morning I woke up, pulled my BlackBerry out of its holster to find an hourglass in the middle of a white screen. Then the screen went black and a red light came on for a few seconds and then nothing. Then, a few seconds later it would start all over with the hourglass and the white screen.
So, I opened the back of the unit and pulled out the battery and reinserted it.
Nothing…
I still had the hourglass and the white screen.
So I called AT&T and a very nice customer service rep walked me through a couple of steps—none of which worked. He then said, “Well, you’re well within your thirty days so take in to an AT&T store and they’ll replace it.”
I said, “That’s fine but I’m worried about what happens after the thirty days is up.” My thinking was that if this thing goes berzerk after only six days of use, what are my chances it’s going to happen again? If it does happen again on day 31, am I screwed?
Well, I did go ahead and switch out my handheld. The lady at the store was very nice. She told me she had never seen that happen to a BlackBerry before. I suppose that’s comforting. Maybe I just got a bad unit.
Before I called AT&T this morning I did a little research and found out that I’m not the only one who has had this problem. I also found other references to this problem when I googled “my blackberry won’t turn on” this morning.
Other than that, my BlackBerry experience has been great. I love being able to get email while I’m out and about. I can stay on top of what’s going on with this blog.
Any other BlackBerry users out there? What’s your experience been like? Have you had any problems?
Topics: Miscellaneous |
October 8th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I have the same Blackberry and have had it for about 4-5 months now with none of the issues you describe. Hope you can get it resolved! The Curve is a pretty great piece of tech!
October 8th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Trade it in for a phone running Windows Mobile OS, particularly if you connect to an Exchange Server to get corporate email. The Blackberry OS just adds another layer of complexity.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
what’s the manufacturer warranty? Did you buy it with a credit card that has purchase assurance and/or double the warranty?
October 8th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Um I think they all went and got iPhones
October 8th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
HA! I called Chris’s a dingleberry and he thought I was sooo hilarious. That was back when they were only for e mails. Ask him what he has now, he likes it.
V
October 8th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I am not sure what your previous phone was, but I am more interested in what your motivation was to upgrade?
Did you already have a data plan before? I will admit it is a nice to have (email,web,IM in your pocket), but many data plans are just incredibly expensive.
October 8th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I just upgraded to a blackberry curve 8330 a couple of weeks ago and also love it. It’s convenient and it’s great for when I have down time between meetings, or between work and school. I can’t wait until I can upgrade to OS 4.5 though so I can open, edit, and work on documents, that will be extremely helpful when I’m not near a computer. It’s also great for watching videos and stuff, and the only downside I see is that I can’t take music from iTunes and put it on it (yet).
October 8th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
You should see your Curve work well. I work for AT&T and carried one for over a year. I went to a Windows Mobil device and miss my crackberry. We don’t see many with the problem you had.
October 8th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I heart my blackberry. Always have, always will. I’ve had a couple of iterations of blackberrys, and they’ve all been rock solid. I’m currently on the Curve 8330. Love it.
October 8th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I have the 8830 (not Curve) on Verizon Wireless. I was having some problems with the hourglass after visiting a website with lots of Javascript/AJAX. I didn’t realize until recently that you have to actually *exit* out of the pplications rather than just using the escape key to get back to the menu… otherwise, they’re still running in the background. Now that’s sorted out, everything works just fine.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Eewww! Do you really know what a dingleberry is?
October 8th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Return it ASAP! I’m on my 4th Crackberry with me inching towards my 5th. It freezes, it erases my call log and texts.
Verizon won’t “uncontract” me with it and keep sending me a “new” one. I’m so close to cancelling my contract and going back to smoke and mirrors.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I work for a mining company as their VP of foreign relations, and I got off Blackberrys after a small experience with Verizon.
I had that same error, on my first Blackberry, I took it back to the place I bought it and demanded they fix or replace my phone. After hours on the phone and getting transferred through a labyrinth of a call center, I was finally able to bargain for a repair cost. I was quite annoyed, but I had my phone back after about a week and it worked.
Then I was in a car accident and the phone was ejected from the car. I found it, but it was very damaged as it had fallen down a gully into a puddle.
No help from Verizon, I had broken it myself. Very ticked off, I decided, “Screw it, I want out of this scam.” So I bought out of my contract, I didn’t have THAT much time left and ran over to Rogers. I grabbed myself a nice iPhone and have been overjoyed with it’s performance.
My son “jailbroke” the iPhone so I now have custom applications galore! Hurray for Apple.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I loved my Blackberry Curve and never had any trouble with it. I had it for 6 or 8 months. My primary employer is a real techno geek so we’re constantly upgrading. He recently bought me an iPhone. I would have been happy to keep my curve. I passed it along to a friend of mine and now she loves it!
October 9th, 2008 at 10:59 am
JLP,
The VERY SAME THING has happened to me about 3 times since buying my Curve at the end of August. Like you, I called the guy at the AT&T store and he too walked me thru taking out the battery, etc. Everything seemed to be working well until my husband and I traveled to D.C. last Friday. From the time we arrived, to the time we got home - which was Tuesday - it either wouldn’t turn on or I’d get the dreaded white screen with hourglass. I JUST sent in my $100 rebate, and now I’m afraid that since I’m just barely outside of the 30 days, I won’t get a replacement. I’ve always purchased the insurance for $4.99 a month, but this time I did not. Go figure.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I personally wouldn’t buy this phone without the phone insurance. 30 days goes by pretty quick.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Good news, JLP. After the 30 day exchange period expires from the store, you have an additional replacement period with AT&T of 1 year so long as you purchased it new and not refurbished, didn’t crack it, spill something on it, lose it, etc. My new one will be here in 5-7 days. The number to call is 1.800.801.1101.
Best of luck!
P.S. I originally bought the iPhone 3g, and then when it came in, I changed my mind. I’m thinking maybe that wasn’t such a good idea!!!!!
October 9th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Had my iPhone G3 for going on 4 months now. Not one problem that a quick restart hasn’t fixed. Also, I have Apple computers at home too and their customer service always goes well beyond, even so far as giving me free software in place of a printer warranty that went missing. Never have to deal with AT&T support about the iPhone, just the great Mac Support. I suggest switching, if you can. Though I’ve never used a Blackberry before, so cannot comment on them.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
You’re definitely not the only one to have this happen. It’s especially common on the Curve 8310, and even moreso if you purchase a “refurbished” model from AT&T to save 100 bucks.
I manage my company’s north atlantic region AT&T account, and I’ve had this happen with at least 20 different devices, even some brand new out of the box. My advice: stay away from the Curve. Get a Pearl, or the Bold.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I’ve got a blackberry curve (work issued) and I had the exact same problem a couple months after I got it. The IT people told me to keep it plugged in to see what would happen and when I kept it plugged in, the blackberry worked fine, so they thought it was a defective battery. They said the battery wasn’t “holding its charge” and they replaced the battery. That was about a week ago and it’s been working fine since.
October 13th, 2008 at 8:54 am
I’ve had this issue before with my work Blackberry. I’m about to get a new personal phone and debating on whether to get an iPhone instead and give this a try. Wish me luck!