Rogers Blackberry Warranty Claims *SOLVED*

Figgy

My Blackberry Curve 8320 began freaking out tonight at work. I noticed when I tried to bring it out of key-lock, it kept telling me to use * + Send, and I was. After removing the battery to restart it, I found out that most of the buttons I press will input a random series of keys.

For instance, clicking the orb will input the '+' key, and clicking the 'E' key will input 'U' and 'I' together. The phone is basically unusable.

When I got home from work, I connected with Rogers Live Chat, where they took over remotely on my PC and initiated a restore of the phone, which is in progress right now.

Now, I'm fairly certain this restore is going to do jack squat, since it seems like a problem with the keyboard contacts somehow, not something software-related. I have done absolutely nothing new to this phone recently, so it's not like there could be anything borking it up software wise.

My warranty expires this February, so I guess I lucked out there, but how does this work? Will they send my phone away to be held hostage at RIM for weeks on end? I use my phone not only for personal use but also for work, so will I be given a loaner? Will they let me just swap it out at the store for a new device?

Has anyone had any experience with Rogers in this area?

Figgy

So it looks like the restore actually fixed the issue, but the rep said this is a known issue with this phone.

I expressed concern that this issue will pop up again in the future, and he said then they would replace the phone. Problem is, my warranty is up in a little over a week.

Has anyone had any experience with Rogers and warranty claims? The rep I spoke to led me to believe that I could simply call them back in 24 hours and say that I am uncomfortable with the system restore and would like a replacement mailed to me. Since they've "troubleshooted" with me already, they would send me a phone and I would then send back my defective one... even though it may be functioning "normally" at the time.

Any ideas here? I don't want to be shit out of luck if this problem keeps popping up and I need to undergo a 30-60 minute procedure every time to fix it. I'd rather just return this thing and get a new one, if that's what they do. If they give me a refurb, wouldn't I be looking at the same problem eventually, since it's a known issue anyway?

Wezoin

"Give you a new phone" means add another 3 years to your contract, in all likelihood. Rogers occasionally will do this kind of thing, but it will end up costing you in the long run. Obviously if you're paying a monthly fee you want to actually have a phone to use it with, but my advice would be to run from Rogers as soon as your contract is up - they are a horrible company completely void of any ethical standards.

EDIT: I should mention - I'm not even talking "cell phones hurt the planet!" or w/e, I mean they treat customers awfully. Stuff like with their internet if they find out you have a router they try to double your internet fee (their logic is "YOURE STEALING INTERNET FROM US, WERE SELLING YOU ONE INTERNET AND YOURE GETTING TWO" - they've probably stopped doing it but they tried it on me before), their salespeople lie on a regular basis about the features and price you're getting, and they constantly increase your bill without adding any features, sometimes even making the service worse (@Home days, completely unmetered, and unrestricted, as fast as you could pull data through the tubes you could have it. Now its a 60GB limit and they limit your connection speed.) and they usually make these changes without a new contract - I'm pretty sure this one is actually illegal, if I sign a contract saying I will pay $x amount for y services they shouldn't be able to change either of those.

Figgy

Well, you just described every cell phone, internet, and television provider right there. This is no place for a "Rogers is Evil" debate, because I have absolutely no brand loyalty there, but I've been with the major networks in Canada and so far, Rogers has been the best in my experience (Telus was the absolute worst, with Fido a close second for wanting to up my bill or they would remove towers from my coverage)

In any case, I really don't think they're going to add another 3 years onto my contract for a warranty claim. They are sending the phone to RIM. This is a 1 year warranty with RIM.

I'm thinking your sour grapes has clouded your judgment here. Maybe someone else has some anecdotal evidence about warranty claims with Rogers?

Iceman.USAF

They should just send you a replacement, without any contract extension. I've done similiar things with Verizon before, and there was no 'penalty' as such.

Deebaser

I don't know Rogers from a whole in the wall, but RIM is generally awesome about thir warranties. I have my personal berry from Verizon (Storm) and I've had it replaced with zero problem at the retailer 3 times (fucking Storm). My understanding is that RIM has a pretty much unconditional (except for teh water) warranty.

edit: verizon beat'd

Figgy

Alright, perfect. There definitely is no water damage, and even after over 11 months, my screen is perfectly scratch-free, so I suppose I baby my Blackberry.

While last night's restore solved the issue for now, today the keys are becoming unresponsive again. While typing, the 'y' key took 3 hits before it registered. I'm going to head into the store after work today.

Dixon

I worked for bell and assuming that rogers methods of warranty exchange are the same it should just be a case of walking into the store and sending it out.

Now we always need an invoice for the phone to be sent out or replaced. So either you have to go to the store you got it at or get a copy of the invoice mailed to you.

Thats the biggest thing, check the phone for water damage to before you go in. There is that ink paper stuff on the battery, the battery slot and underneath the trackball.

If you pull the ball out make sure you put it back in the right way.

Figgy

I went into the store and the guy there said I only need to call in and have a phone sent out. I had him check for water damage just in case, and that's all good.

I just got off live chat now and they have sent a new one out to me, so I guess that solves it!