BlackBerry PRIV

[Robert_Isaac]

What plans does Vodafone have for the forthcoming BB Priv?

[amdavis]

Hear hear. And any decent company is aware that meeting customers' needs and maintaining relationships with their customers is how to retain business.
With their current handset and tablet choices, it is clear they are not committed to all of their customers; namely the hundreds of thousands that value Blackberry for its enhanced security and features.

[drey_p]

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@amdavis wrote:
With their current handset and tablet choices, it is clear they are not committed to all of their customers; namely the hundreds of thousands that value Blackberry for its enhanced security and features.

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I think you are massively overstating the number of customers that Vodafone would have for this handset.  Just based on the last quarter sales, Blackberry sold around 700,000 units worldwide which is a very tiny % of the global mobile phone market.  Whilst the majority of those 700,000 sales are likely to be the Priv, not all will be, so the actual uptake of the phone is low in terms of the total market.  So it is highly unlikely that there are hundreds of thousands of people that would be interested in this phone on the Vodafone UK network. 

These figures are publicly available on places like Digital Trends

[jeffkinn]

I would imagine that sales would be counted in thousands and not even tens of thousands. I have only ever seen one person in the wild with a Blackberry passport. You still see a number of legacy Curves and Bolds that are quite old in phone terms.

[Az10]

The Blaclberry Priv is now available online through Vodafone. Has anyone actually tried to order it though...Spent half my morning going round in cirlcles with their staff. Called up and was told 'we don't sell Blackberry anymore' after I informed them they do, the advisor checked and said yes we do but the Priv is only available online. Tried to order it online but as you guessed the Vodafone website is quite possibly the worse of any major corporation hardly ever works and I kept getting logged out of my account everytime I tried to upgrade, tried online chat after being told 'we have specialist upgrade team here for you blah blah blah...' again 'we don't sell blackberry' only to check again and come back with for 'business customers only'...even though it is available for personal customers on their website, I went through the whole order process upto payment point just to see if I could order and it seems I can, however I want an upgrade and not a new contract, incompetence across the board. Just wanted to know if anyone else has tried to upgrade to the Priv and has been successful??

[mikepilcher]

Yes I am a business customer and have been through, web site, call center and a store (as each pushed me to the next place) - no joy - they are incompetent,

[DanAzz]

I have had the 'we don't see Blackberry's" line too, after explaining a Z30 wasn't Android and that BB10 came out a number of years ago and there were actually more than one phone produced by Blackberry and they hadn't gone bust the operator asked who I worked for and I should work for Blackberry!

She said they didn't stock the Passport even though it is listed on their site.

[LordLanky]

Good news! (Almost)

I noticed on Blackberry's CES 2016 blog that the two VF UK Shopping links are:

Personal: http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/soho/contracts-and-deals/mobile-phones/blackberry-priv/sku89305

Business: http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobilePhones/phones/details/phoneDetail.jsp?showType=excVat&skuId=sk...

[Az10]

FINALLY.... managed to get through to a competent member of Vodafone team and the priv should be arriving tomorrow....TIP; If they say 'we don't sell blackberry' chances are they're not even bothering to check on their system, insist that they do and yeh they will feel bit foolish.

Good Luck!

[jeffkinn]

It speaks volumes about two things:

1. The standard of CS training

2. How popular Blackberrys are now - i.e. not popular at all

[Lis_H]

Az10, did it arrive??

I managed to upgrade to the Priv by phone, all seemed to go well, but this was last week and I'm still waiting for delivery... I was promised it would be here by Tuesday, but instead I'm receiving "Your order will be sent as soon as we receive it from the manufacturer" emails every three days. 

Have contacted them by both phone and online chat, and no one seems to have a clue when it's likely to be! Am quickly losing my initial enthusiasm for the Priv and tempted to just cancel the order.