BlackBerry

[maddiejt]

I have a Blackberry Bold 9900 which I bought through Tesco, but on a Vodafone contract. From day 1 I have had problems (I bought this phone in October on a 24 month contract) It started off by turning itself off, but both Tesco and Vodafone staff patronisingly and "helpfully" told me it was dimming and it was an energy saving feature. I am not an idiot, I know what dimming is and I know the difference between that and the handset turning itself off. I rang 191 and got nowhere with that either. It seems no one has ever seen this problem on a Blackberry 9900 so in the opinion of the staff I have seen, it doesn't exist. The only help I got was from an O2 staff member in the Hull branch telling me that somewhere in the phone the hardware must be disconnected or faulty and that I should take it back to shop to either be repaired or replaced. (I'd take some customer relations advice from Vodafone).

Seeing as I was getting nowhere fast I had no other choice than to buy a new handset to use, as my phone is vital for daily use. A few days ago I decided to give contacting Vodafone another try. I am sick of phoning Vodafone up, so I decided to go into the store in Hull. The man I spoke to was the most unhelpful person in the world, he didn't seem to care about my problem, didn't even attempt to help and said "You will have to phone 191, it's free on your handset" I told him I had done this and nothing was done and he simply replied with "Oh well I can't help you".

I just want this sorting out now. I am sick and tired of traipsing about and phoning people up.

One thing for sure, after this contract is up I will never be using Vodafone again.

[maddiejt]

I forgot to mention I have contacted BlackBerry to no avail either.

[pau1j]

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One thing for sure, after this contract is up I will never be using Vodafone again.

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Not the best way to get someone from Vodafone to help maddie

The switching off fault could be hardware - a bad connection on the battery (make sure it seats correctly) through to something invisible on one of the printed circuit boards - but it could also be a software conflict.

There were widespread report of problems with early 9900s - mainly battery faults - so it shouldn't have been a leap of imagination for anyone in a customer services roll to realise that this was a genuine problem.

Does the phone immediately reboot or does it switch on when you press the on/off/call end button?

Was there any apparent trigger to it switching off (a certain time/place, when opening/closing a particular app, etc.)?

To rule out a software problem should be simply a matter of updating to the latest OS (use Desktop Manager (on a PC) to update to the latest software).

Since you have your data safe on another phone you can start by doing a complete wipe of the 9900 to take it back to factory settings (actually, if it's been stood a while the battery will likely be utterly dead - start by charging for 24 hours).

Best of luck.

[James]

Hi maddeijt,

To be honest it does sound like the handset is faulty and as such this would be covered under the manufacture warranty which means that a free of charge repair can be made.

However, as you got the phone through a 3rd party it does mean that the repair will need to be conducted through them directly via their repairs process which states;

If your mobile handset develops a fault then you should contact your handset manufacturer in the first instance. The contact details for the manufacturer can be found on the handset user guide or via our Repair Helpline on 0845 300 6660.

However, if you are unable to do this then you can also try to do this via our own repairs process however; this may not be possible as it was not a Vodafone handset.

James