BlackBerry Tour mired by trackball problems, Verizon losing patience?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Sep 16th 2009 8:19PM
posted Sep 16th 2009 8:19PM
"We experienced a small percentage of early production BlackBerry Tour smartphones with trackball issues. As soon as the issue was identified, we worked closely with our partners at RIM to resolve the problem quickly. We recommend any customer experiencing issues with the trackball on their BlackBerry Tour smartphone visit a Sprint Service & Repair Center."The "early production" part of that leads us to believe this might already be fixed on the assembly line, in which case new buyers shouldn't feel bad about marching into the store -- Verizon's allegedly threatening to give more love for the Sholes if the problem doesn't go away, but considering that BlackBerrys and Android devices don't really play in the same space yet, that's a pretty meaningless threat as far as your average business user's concerned.
[Via Electronista]
I'm being cynical here, but I wonder if it's just the investment analyst's Tour which broke? "This Tour is broken and I had to turn it in for this replacement, which isn't. Therefore, that's a 50% failure rate..."
I sent back two sprint tours with stuck trackballs,sux though because the rest of the phone seems pretty well built.
OMG! i was gona get this phone now it makes me think 2wice about getting it =(
Any 1 have any info regarding this problem? let me know thnks =D
When I got my tour from verizon the trackball was aweful, I couldnt scroll right to left hardly at all it was so hard. I got a certified like new replacement from verizon and it works perfectly now, Iv had it two weeks and its still flawless.
kinda glad i ddnt get a Tour, bring on essex!
just an fyi. i have a curve track ball in my tour and it works like a champ
3 weeks ago, VZW received a letter from RIM stating that the Tours were defective. VZW completely replaced their inventory with new stock. The new stock will have a green circle sticker on the side of the box. That is how you will know the new, updated stock is good, for those shops/stores that may not have already swapped inventory. It was an issue RIM has acknowledged. If I'm correct, the erroneous stock was from China, and the new stock is from Mexico. I went through 4 Tours before getting a green Tour. The green one I've had for 2..5 weeks and it has been perfect, with the exception of the muffled sound and bluetooth playing the directions in your ear when using turn-by-turn GPS. It's also low when connecting to a car. Those issues can be addressed via software upgrades.
If you go to a VZW store, make sure there's a green sticker on the side. I can't speak for how Sprint is handling the replacement inventory.
was going to mention the same thing that bluehorsehoe said. makes ya wonder who is testing these things at RIM before they go out the door.
We sent my wife's back to VZW about a week ago. She got her original when VZW released the Tour. VZW sent us a certified-like-new replacement and the trackball works perfectly.
Overreacting, I think. In our store we've sold about 200 of them and the return rate on the first 30 or 40 was probably 25%, but since then it's dropped to about 5%... for both returns and replacements combined. The trackball problem has been fixed for months, but the people who got the first batches had the problems.
@Steve. If the return rate is %25, then trust me, there's a problem........
Good thing it's dropped to 5% then!
Verizon Has already addressed this problem and has marked phones made after the problem with a Green sticker on the box... Not sure about Sprint... Seriously RIM is a great company... If it were any other Cell phone manufacturer they would still be denying a problem exists but not Research In Motion!
I work selling mobile phones at a retailer that sells both Sprint and VZW (i'll let you guess where) and my experience does not seem to be inline with what the official statement says. Either Sprint is shipping us their old inventory in a shady business move or this is a bunch of hot air from their PR people. Another interesting thing I have noticed is that there seems to be a spectrum of trouble with the track ball on the Tour. I have seen some devices that it is only a slight annoyance when you try to scroll left or right, and others where it will scroll left or right less than 1% of the time leaving the device utterly useless. Anyway this is just what I have seen so take it or leave it.
My boss had to return two Tours in the space of a week. This was a couple of weeks ago.
I'm currently on my my 3rd Verizon Tour, the trackball is smooth and 10x better. It's a replacement phone that had the "Certified - Like New Replacement" sticker on the screen. Hopefully this is it because, minus the trackball problem, I love this phone.
I have a very early build Tour on VZW. After 60 days of use, the horizontal scrolling is almost non functional. Called VZW and they immediately agreed to swap out. Unfortunately the replacement unit arrived and it was the no camera model, even though I explicitly told them (and my customer record would show) to send a camera unit. Called again this morning and another replacement is on it's way. hopefully it will have no issues, but I'm a little concerned.
I have the blackberry curve 8900 javelin (it looks almost identical to the tour) and it got stuck ONCE. but it worked after moving it around for a few long seconds. It works fine now and i love my crackberry.
I change my mind. My curve is prettier than the tour.
If you buy a BB Tour from VZW and the box has a green dot on the UPC, that means it has the new-and-improved trackball.
The headline and blog content don't match.
What's with the bit about Verizon losing patience?
More unsubstantiated sensationalism.
i ordered a tour from sprint at the beginning of september and the track ball seems to work well.