how can you tell a fake?
 

How can I tell if a Blackberry bold is fake or offical from RIM?

Does it have a PIN/IMEI?

did they make fake blackberry?

go to options then about if it doesnt have official RIM OEM software then its a fake

I have yet to see a fake BlackBerry. There is the BlueBerry.

All the fakes I've seen looked like total crap. Amateur hour.

well i've been a BB user for a few years...and every having dropped my 8700 too many times to mention...decided that the bold was the new model i wanted...not wanting to pay rogers $700 for a no contract bold...i checked out ebay...and of course craigslist....the prices on craigslist were incredible! anywhere from $300 - 700...made me go hmmmmm....so to make a long story short...picked up a bold for $400...it seemed brand spanking new with a box and everything...

the 'gentlemen' claimed it was a t-mobile branded BB from the US...i asked why it had a rogers faceplate...he answered that since he paid with a credit card...they had to replace the faceplate with rogers..?!?!?! but the thing is when u turn the phone on/off it actually says t-mobile...

well the camera worked fine and the speaker phone etc...i called rogers and had them switch the PIN to my account and presto started receing my email right away..paid the 'gentleman' his $$$ and walked away.....

a few days later (as i'd been too busy at work/home to look closer) i noticed that the pin and imei #'s didnt match the box he had given me...and then i noticed that the keyboard was NOT QWERTY...but in fact QWERTZ!!! all the keys work fine but the y and z are perfectly transposed and works as Y when Y is pressed and the Z is a Z...but why would they be switched unless this is a perfect clone or some kinda test model...


Any thoughts???:?

QWERTZ bold...from Germany...that's your answer.

ahhh that explains the funny currency symbol....any chance of changing it back?

cnn.cn will probably have a qwerty keyboard

They certainly will have QWERTY keyboards, but changing the keyboard will NOT change the internal QWERTZ hard-coded keyboard functions. You can't change that. The Storm is the first device with the user programmable QWERTY to QWERTZ, etc.

i know the QWERTZ keyboard is on all German speaking country phones. that's not such a big deal.. i've got a bold from Swisscom (Zurich) and the Y & Z keys are switched. took a while to get used to, but oh well..

the rest.. sounds a bit dodgy!!!

thanks...but like the last reply said...if i cant change the 'software' what would be the point...speaking of software..to actually change the corresponding letter when pushed to be a different letter...does anyone know if i could download a sftware patch of some sort or is this a hardware issue..sorry for hijacking the thread - maybe i should start a new one:oops:

I would just try to sell/trade it and get a QWERTY Bold.

No, you can't change the software or patch it, and you don't need to start another thread. This one is so nice as it is.