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- 12-18-2008, 06:15 AM #1Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469RGuest
I bought a Sprint WORLD EDITION Blackberry 8830 in the summer
of 2007. This device was advertised as containing a built in
autonomous hardware GPS. Mr Mike Atkinson of the Hillsboro
Oregon store assured me the GPS was operational overseas. He
specifically assured me it would work in Barcelona Spain, the
first stop of the next trip.
Before going overseas I had Mr Atkinson enable international operation.
He assured me all was ready.
At Dublin I switched the Blackberry to GSM but there was no service.
There was no service when we reached Barcelona. We were having a
terrible problem locating our baggage in an airport where little English
was spoken and the promised service was sorely missed.
Sprint did not list any customer service number for Spain. I had to
purchase a prepaid Vodaphone in Spanish to call Sprint in the states
to complain about the lack of service. This exhausted the Vodaphone's
minutes.
I was given a number of things to try to get the GPS working but nothing
worked overseas. Google Maps worked wonderfully when I was able to
identify my location by reference to obvious landmarks, which wasn't
very often. Sprint's refusal to activate the GPS in my Blackberry
kept us from finding some of the places we had wished to see.
Upon returning to the states I sent a complaint letter to Sprint which
was never answered.
On the next trip the phone worked for voice as promised but the GPS was
still dead.
Again I was promised the GPS would work for the next trip overseas.
A friend bought an 8830 in the Tanasborne store. The salesman there
promised the GPS would work in Europe just as Atkinson had in the Hillsboro
store.
Needless to say the GPS quit working as soon as I left the states.
I bought a Bluetooth GPS at the London Gatwick airport. It worked
with the Blackberry but it's a cumbersome setup that continually
had to be reset. I presume that was the Blackberry's fault as the
Bluetooth GPS is solid with a laptop running Kismet. This time
Sprint admitted the autonomous hardware GPS was disabled overseas.
Guess you'd have to get your GPS Blackberry from Vodaphone.
On the last trip I discovered that the phone as modem function no
longer worked overseas. This had worked previously. Sprint customer
service said it wasn't supposed to work overseas. That's nice to hear
after paying the overseas surcharge.
So we have the incredible shrinking Sprint Blackberry.
The technology is there to make a killer product but Sprint can't
get it right. And they don't bother to respond to my customer complaint.
--
Chuck Forsberg [email protected] www.omen.com 503-614-0430
Developer of Industrial ZMODEM(Tm) for Embedded Applications
Omen Technology Inc "The High Reliability Software"
10255 NW Old Cornelius Pass Portland OR 97231 FAX 629-0665
› See More: The Incredible Shrinking Blackberry
- 12-18-2008, 09:15 AM #2carcarxGuest
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Blackberry
What have the Blackberry support forums said about US sole Blackberry
GPS and international use?
Is it carrier specific or purely a Blackberry issue?
- 12-18-2008, 01:44 PM #3Joel KoltnerGuest
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Blackberry
In general it's unfortunately a bit dicey to take a phone from a U.S. carrier
and expect much more than voice service overseas. :-( I had a Sprint
international phone and, when I purchased it, asked Sprint if I'd be able to
receive SMS messages in New Zealand, and their answer was they just couldn't
say! (As it turned out it did work...)
- 12-19-2008, 10:37 AM #4BJ_SprintGuest
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Blackberry
Hey Chuck, my name is BJ DeHut and I am a representative for Sprint. I
am sorry to hear about your problem overseas. I do not know enough of
what the Sprint employee told you, but the device would most likely
work perfectly in Europe, but not with Sprint, as Sprint is United
States based. The device would work with a European equivalent
(Vodaphone seemed to have worked). I apologize for the inconvenience
this has caused you. I am writing this so you know that your complaint
didn’t fall on deaf ears, I am also forwarding this onto my supervisors.
>
> At Dublin I switched the Blackberry to GSM but there was no service.
> There was no service when we reached Barcelona. We were having a
> terrible problem locating our baggage in an airport where little
> English
> was spoken and the promised service was sorely missed.
>
> Sprint did not list any customer service number for Spain. I had to
> purchase a prepaid Vodaphone in Spanish to call Sprint in the states
> to complain about the lack of service. This exhausted the Vodaphone's
> minutes.
>
> I was given a number of things to try to get the GPS working but
> nothing
> worked overseas. Google Maps worked wonderfully when I was able to
> identify my location by reference to obvious landmarks, which wasn't
> very often. Sprint's refusal to activate the GPS in my Blackberry
> kept us from finding some of the places we had wished to see.
>
> Upon returning to the states I sent a complaint letter to Sprint which
> was never answered.
>
> On the next trip the phone worked for voice as promised but the GPS
> was
> still dead.
>
> Again I was promised the GPS would work for the next trip overseas.
> A friend bought an 8830 in the Tanasborne store. The salesman there
> promised the GPS would work in Europe just as Atkinson had in the
> Hillsboro
> store.
>
> Needless to say the GPS quit working as soon as I left the states.
> I bought a Bluetooth GPS at the London Gatwick airport. It worked
> with the Blackberry but it's a cumbersome setup that continually
> had to be reset. I presume that was the Blackberry's fault as the
> Bluetooth GPS is solid with a laptop running Kismet. This time
> Sprint admitted the autonomous hardware GPS was disabled overseas.
> Guess you'd have to get your GPS Blackberry from Vodaphone.
>
> On the last trip I discovered that the phone as modem function no
> longer worked overseas. This had worked previously. Sprint customer
> service said it wasn't supposed to work overseas. That's nice to hear
> after paying the overseas surcharge.
>
> So we have the incredible shrinking Sprint Blackberry.
>
> The technology is there to make a killer product but Sprint can't
> get it right. And they don't bother to respond to my customer
> complaint.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Chuck Forsberg [email protected] www.omen.com 503-614-0430
> Developer of Industrial ZMODEM(Tm) for Embedded Applications
> Omen Technology Inc "The High Reliability Software"
> 10255 NW Old Cornelius Pass Portland OR 97231 FAX 629-0665
--
BJ_Sprint
- 12-19-2008, 07:41 PM #5Steve SobolGuest
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Blackberry
On 2008-12-19, ErinatSprint <[email protected]> wrote:
> International - CDMA (888)226-7212
> International - CDMA - Outside US (817)698-4199
> International - iDEN (866)840-9539
> International -iDEN -Outside US (306)662-5202
Uh? I'm pretty sure 306 isn't a US area code.
--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California, USA
It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.
- 12-20-2008, 04:32 PM #6Todd AllcockGuest
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Blackberry
At 18 Dec 2008 11:44:07 -0800 Joel Koltner wrote:
> In general it's unfortunately a bit dicey to take a phone from a U.S.
carrier
> and expect much more than voice service overseas. :-( I had a Sprint
> international phone and, when I purchased it, asked Sprint if I'd be able
to
> receive SMS messages in New Zealand, and their answer was they just
couldn't
> say! (As it turned out it did work...)
It's less dicey with US GSM carriers. I suspect the CDMA carriers like
Sprint just haven't worked out all the kinks WRT interoperability, roaming
agreements, etc.
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