Full FeedBlackBerry Tour generating numerous user complaints
Shades of the Storm? Owners of the new BlackBerry Tour hope not, but communities like Crackberry.com and BlackBerryForums.com are full of complaints about the newest CDMA device from RIM. It was released last month on both Verizon and Sprint and was highly anticipated.
It didn’t take long for the complaints to start rolling in, though. Reports of loose battery doors, bad trackballs, screen ripples, muffled sound quality, and poor reception are numerous. Several users on Crackberry.com are on their third, fourth, even fifth Tour. According to Verizon, RIM has acknowledged the trackball issue and more recent shipments are said to be much improved. The upcoming 5.0 OS is also said to contain several software fixes.
I am a Tour owner and aside from a loose battery door (it appears all Tours have this issue - some are just barely loose, others, like mine, are so loose you can slip your fingernail under it and pry it up!) I have no real complaints. Signal quality is definitely not as good as it could be - some say this is because the Tour is a world phone and the CDMA radio must compete with the GSM components, but aside from people like me whose homes, for some reason, get horrible reception, it’s perfectly acceptable.
It is disappointing that a device like the Tour, which retails for about $500 and costs new and upgrading customers about $200, would have such shoddy QC. I haven’t experienced the screen ripple issue. Audio quality is definitely soft but, at least with my Tour, people still have no problem understanding me. Oddly enough even the software CD included with the Tour has generated complaints! It appears that not a single one actually works when inserted into the user’s computer. Mine didn’t, nor did those of anyone I know!
That said, the Tour has an absolutely beautiful screen and interface, it’s fast and it has reliable email and messaging services. There are a lot of great apps available for it and the camera is absolutely amazing! The problems with the Storm are near legendary, and you’d think RIM would have learned its lesson but perhaps not. Do I love my Tour? Absolutely. I just wish the quality was a bit better.
Do you have a Tour? If so leave us a comment and tell us what you think of it! Have you had problems with it?
Read: [CrackBerry Forums]
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I had a tour and returned it. Screen was great but that’s about it. I went back (again) to my 8830 world phone. I also went back to that after trying the Storm.
on August 24, 2009 at 01:57 PM - LINKThe comment about “Maybe the reception is bad because it’s a world phone” is NOT true. My world phone 8830 has GREAT reception. The battery also last about 4 times longer on my 8830.
I HOPE the next phone has wi-fi, and they can iron out some of these complaints.
I am now on my second Sprint Blackberry Tour within two weeks for the same problem, the trackball. Sprint is aware of this issue and yet they continue to sale these defective phones daily. Any solutions or luck with Sprint customer service? My complaint is why do they continue to decieve their customers? Did they do no testing before launching these phones?
on September 1, 2009 at 01:00 PM - LINKKamisha, your anger is grossly misplaced. Verizon customers also have complaints about the Tour. The problem lies with RIM. The first batch of Tours had absolutely horrible QA. From what I’ve heard the current shipments at stores and the inventory at Sprint.com is much, much better.
Sprint isn’t decieving anyone. Not all Tours have problems. I’ve had mine since 8/10 and it’s just fine.
on September 1, 2009 at 02:54 PM - LINKTodd,
The comment about the reception issues being tied to it being a world phone is not my opinion, but that of others at the link provided and elsewhere.
FWIW, my battery life is pretty darn good. As for WiFi, if you have great 3G coverage it’s useless really. CDMA doesn’t yet support UMA and WiFi radios are battery killers.
on September 1, 2009 at 02:58 PM - LINKIt is a shame that the consumer gets stuck with a defective product. Verizon and Sprint tested this product and surely must have encountered these issues before launching this cell phone. Im on my third Tour/9630 and it now sits in a drawer. I reconected my 8830. Great thought went into making a great Blackberry and at the end a useless product was made.
on September 1, 2009 at 04:59 PM - LINKI’ve had my Tour for about a month. My last phone was a Palm Treo 800w with MS Windows for mobile. I hated MS Windows for mobile and like the blackberry OS much better. The Tour is beautiful and outside of the very poor reception, an awesome phone. I am holding out for the OS upgrade, hoping the reception will get better.
on September 20, 2009 at 07:52 PM - LINKI am on my third Tour within 3 months. My first one had issues with mic. I have to say that my third one has the same issue. The placement of the mic was not well thought out. Instead of having it on the lower portion of the front face plate, it’s located on the bottom edge. The biggest complaint I hear from callers is that either they can’t hear me or it sounds like I am in a cave. My second phone worked fine until I flew to Los Angeles and back. When I returned to Michigan, my phone would not allow me to make or receive calls. Verizon said that the flight may have done something to my phone.????
on September 27, 2009 at 12:28 AM - LINKI have a Blackberry Tour which i recently purchased thru the upgrade, verizon was kind enough to send out a second phone when the first had ripple issues in the lcd because of the pressure you need to place on the volume knobs and quick app buttons but that one had the same issues , so I refused a third one and said i want a different model.. Verizon offered me another Blackberry Tour and i laughed so they said how about a downgrade and i said i want to talk to rim without paying their tech fees and they said let us resolve the problem and i said this a manufacturing defect flaw that only rim can handle .. i gave verizon so many oppurtunities to do the right thing by letting me opt out and terminate the contract since it has only been like 40 days since i renewed but no go , they will terminate only after the early term. serv fee is payed. What a crock , so what do i do !!!!!!!!
on October 6, 2009 at 06:01 PM - LINKI had purchased a blackberry 9530 on the 30th of October’09 at Hyderabad from one Mr. Ahmed who introduced himself from Blackberry directly ( mobile no : 99893 33750 ) by paying him the complete amount, and with an assurance that he would provide the invoice and warranty certificate the next day. While on one hand Mr.Ahmed never handed over the invoice and the warranty certificate till date, he completely started avoiding my calls when I had called him wrt a defect in the piece and has not responded to any of my calls and the numerous sms’s sent to him, resulting in my blackberry not working even today. While blackberry could be a good instrument but how strong is their service back up and that too with staff/people like Mr. Ahmed, who are probably cheating so many people like me. Taking money and vanishing in thin air. I cannot much comment about blackberry as an instrument,since I have not really experienced the same, but with people like Mr. Ahmed who only know how to collect money and disappear it is better I or numerous people like me stick to our old handsets or go in for NOKIA, for which service is available everywhere.
on November 15, 2009 at 03:22 AM - LINK