BlackBerry® Bold™

[smash_inc]

Tonight, my L key/button fell off my Blackberry Bold 9900 - which I bought Monday, February 20th, 2012, LESS THAN 6 MONTHS AGO! 

The 1st thing I did was send a message to my T-Mobile Rep at the store I bought my phone from.  The next thing I did was contact T-Mobile directly from my phone.  I used the "call back" feature and once I explained that the key/button had just fallen off, I was informed that it was "physical damage" and would have to submit a claim via my phone insurance, aka, dish out another $130 for a phone I'm still in the process of paying $500+ for!  So, that rep connected me to Blackberry...  That automated system WAS A NIGHTMARE!!!  So, I called T-Mobile again.

This time, I was connected to Blackberry again and spoke with someone who informed me that the key that had fallen off was NOT covered by Blackberry Warranty!  He (Rob) then proceeded to tell me that when Blackberry sells phones to T-Mobile, the warranty is also sold to T-Mobile as well, so that it should be T-Mobile who covers the exchange/repair or whatever.  (Sorry, his English was poor...  I kept having to say "Sorry?" in reference to get him to repeat himself.)  He got a T-Mobile Rep on the phone and I was back at square one - and even SHE contacted Blackberry and was told the same - all this after nearly an hour and a half already of being on the phone.  When she was turned down by Blackberry for a warranty exchange/repair/whatever, she said my only option (again) was to submit a claim with my phone insurance.

THIS PHONE IS NO MORE THAN 6 MONTHS OLD and a key/button fell off the keyboard!!!  It's never been in water!  It's never been dropped! It's got BOTH a screen protector AND protective case, so it hasn't been abused at all! (Unlike my LAST Blackberry Curve which had seen its choice of accidents and lasted me close to 2 years!)

I'M SO FRUSTRATED THAT THIS $500+ PHONE isn't holding up as well as EITHER of my old Blackberry Curves!

Are there any resources for repair of these phones/keypads/buttons in Arizona/The Valley of the Sun?  (Rob with Blackberry sure didn't seem to know! And neither did any of the T-Mobile reps I spoke with either!)

[sdgardne]

Hi and Welcome to the Community!

Wow...that is a horrible experience. Unfortunately, all that they say may well be completely true. 100% of your contractual and financial arrangement is between you and TM...RIM is merely a secondary entity, and can override if they choose to, but doing anything without physically seeing the device is very challenging.

So, what I'd recommend you do is, rather than ringing them up anymore, go to a TM shop and talk to someone with good BB knowledge...and, even if there is no one in the store, plead with them to contact their TM dedicated BB support group, and the in-shop rep can then be the "eyes" for those BB support folks, and perhaps a different conclusion can be reached.

What I can surmise from your report here is that 100% of what they had to evaluate from was what you told them. If a TM person sees that there are no scratches or other visible damage, then they may be swayed to change their present judgement.

Good luck!

[db-bold9900]

RIM has acknowledged this problem (keys falling off) and has extended the warrenty for these issues.

RIM will repair your keyboard free of charge, see this page for info on the warrenty extnension.

http://www.bgr.in/manufacturers/rim/rim-acknowledges-blackberry-bold-9900-holster-flaw-offers-extend...

Same happened to me... my phone was working perfectly except for two missing keys - RIM allowed it to be returned, but then claimed that there was water damage and refused to repair it!

Hope this works out better for you.

Dan

[sailingmonkey]

The same thing just happened to my 9900.  I called today and got the run-around from RIM saying they just covered 'software issues' and AT&T said they won't cover it since it is 'physical damage'.  Definitely a disappointing learning experience.

[hfeliu]

Hello, I just had the same issue happen with my bold 9900 today, my return key popped off while slidding it into it's holster. I called both AT&T and Blackberry to which both are denying any such issue with buttons popping out. besides that link, would you have any other site or places i can get more info to assist me?

[12357]

same issue here! any one have any idea's as to what can be done? I'm trying the customer retnetion department at my carrier company to see what they can do... I was going to call RIM, but that doesn't seem to have worked at all.

If anyone has any idea's other than be out close to $1000 after purchasing 2 phones... that would be great

[wsblevins]

I have AT&T and my phone is insured. They wanted $150 to replace my phone. Alternately, I found a replacement keypad (that's what it requires) on Amazon for $11.00 and some change and that's shipped. To hell with AT&T and RIM. I was going to upgrade to the BB10 when available. Needless to say, that isn't going to happen now. I'm simply going to join the rest of the cellular community in making RIM a distant memory.

[sailingmonkey]

Let us know if the $11 keyboard was easy to install and if it works.  Thanks.

[wsblevins]

I watched an instructional video on it and with the right tools (also available on the cheap) it should be a no brainer.

[hfeliu]

Just a heads up guys, i just recently purchased a replacement keyboard for my 9900 and installed it myself. it's pretty simple, and straight forward to install. First i purchased the keyboard from ebay for only $7, the quality is pretty good, and it was delivered pretty quickly too. here's the link to the auction - Ebay auction for keyboard. from there i went to youtube and saw a video on the break down of the 9900 - Breakdown of 9900. Good luck everyone. hope this helps, beats the heck out of paying your service provider another $300 for a new phone.