[qc_metal]

Well, I finally did it - I convinced my best friend who has been a longtime Treo user (600 -> 650 -> 700p) to convert to a BlackBerry 8703e. I told him he should wait for the Pearl to be released with VZW, but he was getting too frustrated with the fact that most of his older Palm apps (from the 600) was crashing his 700p, and basically he was limited to using it as it came from the store.

In any case, he did try to use the Motorola Q after the 700p - which yes, is a very sexy and slim phone, but he soon realized that the battery just sucked horribly.

Finally, he broke down and bought the 8703e, and is really enjoying it immensely.

The problem begins when my friend tries to get into a new phone (the Q at this stage), and I came in to give him moral support - i.e. tell him he's going to regret getting the Q(!).

Verizon (at least our store) doesn't push the blackberry as a good phone to use for the home or office-savvy user that isn't a part of a corporate network. They said "oh, yeah, that's better for a corporate user, here - try the new EnV."

Another salesperson (I was present when she said this): "We've only sold like 6 BlackBerrys." - - My response: "Well, it sounds like you aren't a very good salesperson, then are you?"

The crux of my buddy's issue is when he wanted to move his contacts from his Treo to his BlackBerry (since he only had the Q for a couple days, he got rid of it before I could give him a hand).

First off, they couldn't even get the Palm to sync to bring the contacts over to their PC - - why? Because wireless sync was enabled, and you need to enable 'alternate sync programs' (I'm paraphrasing) in the Wireless Sync settings, and then Hotsync the Treo to a PC.

Secondly, when it was discovered that not all of his contacts were even on the Treo because they had deleted some (presumably by trying to sync the Motorola contacts the wrong way - but I'm not sure...), my friend realized that he was missing over 400 contacts! He gave back the Q in lieue of the BB, and we were left working with the (partially complete contacts) Treo and the 8703e.

Finally, he went to the wireless sync website where his contacts were stored, and realized that they were all there! Hooray, right? Verizon phone tech said that there was no way to move these contacts from the website to his BlackBerry.

If you surf through the wireless sync pages, you will stumble across the Wireless Sync PC client which pushes the contacts from your local install of Outlook to the Wireless Sync website, which then pushes them to the SmartPhone of choice (not BlackBerry, however).

But...this synchronization goes BOTH ways. So, we just needed to download the tool, and then run it to pull the contacts into Outlook, then use the BlackBerry desktop manager to pull them into the BlackBerry.

Not that this was the most simple thing to figure out, but jeez, the software was ON the website, and the technician couldn't or wouldn't (obviously he lacked the knowledge) help him. My friend had to go through 3 layers of BlackBerry support at VZW to just get the "sorry, that's not possible" when it certainly was (and really wasn't that hard).

Aaaaaarrrrgh. Verizon obviously has a real problem when it comes to supporting BlackBerry. It is quite apparent that they are more interested in selling the teeny-bopper phones than the professional grade models.

</rant>

[apple85]

yeah sounds like typical verizon and it's not any better with their in store "Techs" who know absolutely nothing and wear a ugly colored polo shirt

[bradhs]

Just read through your post and not sure if you need anymore support. If you do, send me a private message and I'll help you. I've done tons of TREO to BlackBerry migrations.

Bradley

[qc_metal]

Originally Posted by apple85

yeah sounds like typical verizon and it's not any better with their in store "Techs" who know absolutely nothing and wear a ugly colored polo shirt

Yeah, the guy who was perplexed by this situation at the store was their "top BlackBerry tech" - puhlease. I really wouldn't consider anyone a top BlackBerry tech if said person didn't know that you could hit space twice to type a period...!

[qc_metal]

Originally Posted by bradhs

Just read through your post and not sure if you need anymore support. If you do, send me a private message and I'll help you. I've done tons of TREO to BlackBerry migrations.

Bradley

Bradley - thanks for the reply (and offer!)- we finally got it. I've found that the new Desktop Manager is great for migrating Palm information, but the real trouble was when we discovered that the Palm wasn't the true accurate contact source!

Basically, my friend was using Outlook to sync with the BB, then I moved his contacts in Outlook to a temp folder, then installed the wireless sync for the Treo and it then automatically pulled the contacts back into Outlook. After that, we just ran the BB Sync and all the contacts reconciled. Very cool!

Again, thanks for the offer!

Later,
Rob

[Rushjerzee]

Hey....verizon is not easy to deal with. When I first set up my BB and had a question for the in store tech....they waved me off to the 800 line after waiting at the store for 20mins(the 800 number didn't have my answer either---my IT person here att he office knew more which is usually how it works)! I have another beef with them but honestly....it's not worth my time. Their coverage is very good and that's what matters most in the long run.

[Aroc]

Jeez, what a surprise. I mean someone paid only a little more than minimum wage isn't a mobile device guru? You get what you pay for. I opened this thread thinking it was about tech support over the phone (and the secret there - regardless of carrier - is to ask for "Wireless data Support" that always gets your tranferred IMMEDIATELY to the right people, so you can stop wasting your time).

[dwp1975]

Originally Posted by Aroc

Jeez, what a surprise. I mean someone paid only a little more than minimum wage isn't a mobile device guru? You get what you pay for. I opened this thread thinking it was about tech support over the phone (and the secret there - regardless of carrier - is to ask for "Wireless data Support" that always gets your tranferred IMMEDIATELY to the right people, so you can stop wasting your time).

I agree, for some reason VZW does not deam it important to have support for PDA/BB's in store and have their CS reps read from a script. I remember when I purchased my treo and someone was there who was undecided on a BB or a WM phone, and they totally crapped on the BB. But the wireless data folks aren't always the best either, as they are hell bent to blame the device for any issues related to data. I know, it's the reason I am switching to a BB, having no help with my WM treo fustrated me to where I gave up.

[*&))]

Originally Posted by apple85

yeah sounds like typical verizon and it's not any better with their in store "Techs" who know absolutely nothing and wear a ugly colored polo shirt

yes i agree the shirts are ugly and all their techs are about as useless as my treo.

but you have to think about this no one in the tech world wants to end up fixing cell phones on a daily basis. Well not in this kind of setting any way, i did it for a few weeks and that was almost worst the flipping burgers. But the more i think about it when you become a network admin, you find yourself having some of the same conversations.

[Rushjerzee]

but can't at least 1 or 2 people there know what the heck they are doing??? I mean really...if you sell the phone...you should be able to service it. Just my 2 cents

[*&))]

i thing thats the problem its only one or two people who know how things really work. but they are usually on break or somewhere when i come in the store