Calm in the Blackberry Storm

frozen blackberry storm The art of patience. I may not be a master, but I’m pretty darned close. That is what many say. You are so PATIENT. Perhaps I’m too much of a pacifist. When I see someone in public yelling at a sales clerk or screaming at their kid it is almost painful to me. I would much rather keep quiet then stir up trouble. For many, this would be considered a fault. That’s OK. I own my calm. I embrace it.

Last week, I almost embraced my calm around someone’s neck. This is a long drawn out story. I will relieve you of any pain by making it short. Just read on, knowing that each Verizon visit was no less than one hour each and reached up to 2.5 hours – totaling about 6 hours in a 24 hour period.

My blackberry storm stopped working Thursday night. It was fully charged, but would freeze and then turn off. The only way to turn on the Storm was to take out the battery, put it back in and pray to the guardian angels of Verizon. I was leaving town Saturday at 5:30 with three kids in tow and wanted… no, NEEDED a cell phone with me.

The process:

Can you leave your Storm here and pick it up in an hour? No, I have to pick it up tonight. OK, that’s fine.

Later that night. The battery was dead. We put in a new one. It should be fine now.

On the way home, it dies.

Drop off my daughter, go back to Verizon.

Oh, let me let the tech look at it. Sit. Wait. Sit… I’m back! Turns out we had a bad box of batteries. Four people have already returned with Storms today. We’ve put a new one in. Here you go, and goodbye!

Ummm… isn’t my Blackberry supposed to at least turn ON?

Oh, yes. Let me show it to the tech.

Psstttt! Pssttttt! (The sound of canned air behind the mysterious tech door.)

I start folding business cards and flyers and building a card tower. I made four. I left them there all over the counter. I am such a rebel.

OK Mrs. Murray, it should be OK now. Just charge it overnight.

The employee and I lock eyes. He sees my angry eyes. Mrs. Potato Head packed them for me that morning. He hangs his head and says, “OK, you and I both know it is not the battery. But I can’t do anything about it. If it doesn’t work in the morning, come back for a new phone.” (Translation: “It is 9:30 and we closed at 9. The tech wants to leave. Carry your sorry no-blackberry behind home.”) As I walked away I heard from behind me, “Thank you so much for not chewing my head off.” Yes, I have the force of the calm.

10 a.m. Saturday. I walk in, hold the phone up in the air and glare. They take me immediately and replace the phone.

By the way. Although this is a brand new Blackberry Storm and your first one died, the warranty does NOT start fresh with the new Storm. It continues from the first BAD one. SERIOUSLY.

I am a computer tech. I know dead equipment when I see it. But I remained calm. And I got my new phone. Would yelling have helped the situation? Nope. Would it have made a store full of innocent bystanders feel bad? Yes. So I stand my ground and again, I own my calm.

Wayne Dyer would love me. He said that when you see someone react badly to you, don’t fight it. Simply look at the situation in an unbiased manner, noting how someone reacts to various situations. And then say to yourself, “Hm. Curious.” Curious indeed.

But I got my new Storm. I had a phone over the weekend, and I made a really cool card tower. Yup, I own my calm.

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Joy

You are a vision of calm, by your storytelling. I had the same thing happen to me with a brand name I will never repeat nor buy again. I had about nine replacement phones (no joke), including an upgrade to the next generation. I implored the telecommunications powers that be (my carrier) that this manufacturer is clearly not up to snuff when it comes to PDAs, and that a unit that works for only two months is a defective unit by any standard. I expect them to give me a phone that works for at least the warranty period of a year. Anything else is just pawning off bad merchandise on unsuspecting consumers. The unit that works for a year is likely a good unit. The unit that works for less than that is defective, regardless of when the warranty period began. My final phone lasted well over a year, despite my dropping it in the sink. So I encourage you to stand your ground should your new unit also be defective. Appeal to their sense of logic. Asking, "Wouldn't you feel the same way?" helps. All with the calm for which you are so clearly a master.
Katherine Murray

Your story made me so mad for you! You know what I HATE? When you start looking up problems on your phone/tv/whatever and it says, "this is a known issue!" Yours was obviously a KNOWN issue and yet they are still selling the stuff! That should be illegal!