Evolving Office

UPDATES #1 and #2 below.

I’m on a mission with Verizon to fix my malfunctioning blackberry. I bought the unit with the understanding that I could ditch my old Bluetooth GPS as the Curve has a GPS chip built in. I have many Blackberry GPS programs. I purchased Garmen and TeleNav. I use free ones like Nav4All, Blackberry Maps and Google Maps. I am even trying CarFinder, amAze and AccuTracking. The problem is, none of these applications actually work with a new Verizon Blackberry. They SHOULD work. If I had a Sprint or an Alltel blackberry they would work. The only application that works? The $10 a month VZ Navigator, which is NOT a product that I would recommend.

It all comes down to corporate greed. When Blackberry released the Blackberry 8830 (World Edition), 8130 (Pearl) and 8330 (Curve) they gave the operators choices as to which features to enable or disable. The Verizon Blackberry 8330 has a crippled GPS unit. Who crippled it? Verizon apparently. Some whizbang top exec apparently felt if they could disable the internal GPS unit, they could make more money by FORCING their customers to use the substandard VZ Navigator program at an additional monthly cost.

So, none of those other programs that utilize GPS can work without purchasing an additional piece of hardware. Imagine buying a car with a built-in GPS unit from Verizon Automotive. The problem? They want you to subscribe to their $10 a month GPS program. So they disable the GPS until you purchase their monthly service. Then imagine when your friend gets in your new car and sees 2 GPS units! He asks why two? You explain “Verizon is holding my GPS hostage until I pay them more money so I had to buy another one”. Why pay $10 a month for a product I don’t want when there are better products for the same money (or even free)?

Verizon has done this before. Back in 2005 Verizon released a nice phone, disabled some of the bluetooth features, then sold it to customers as if it was all good. It wasn’t all good. Verizon was sued and they lost. Now they are pulling the same stuff again.

Mobileburn.com explains:

The case was based on claims that Verizon Wireless misrepresented the Bluetooth capabilities of the Motorola V710 phone. While the V710, the first Bluetooth phone offered by Verizon, had full Bluetooth profile support as originally designed by Motorola, Verizon had certain profiles such as Dial-Up Network and OBEX Push disabled in its offering.

So today, June 6, 2008 I talked with a nice Customer Service Rep from Verizon. She promised me that she would get back to me within 5 business days (June 13th) with answers on why this was disabled. (Two weeks ago I talked to a Customer Service Manager who promised HIS manager would call back within 3 business days. I’m still holding my breath.) Let’s see if she actually follows through. I will update this post with news.

Do you have a Verizon Blackberry 8830 World Edition, 8130 Pearl or 8330 Curve? Do you feel you have been wronged for buying a unit with GPS but not being able to use the GPS? Tell Verizon! Tell me your story. Check back often.

CURRENTLY THE ONLY SOLUTION TO THE VERIZON BLACKBERRY ISSUE IS TO BUY A BLUETOOTH GPS

UPDATE #1: June 25, 2008 To date, not one Verizon rep has called back about this issue. To top it off, we required an update to one of our other lines, and we purchased a Verizon XV6900, which is actually an HTC Touch with a different name. Our Verizon XV6900 also has the GPS disabled. It’s a shame corporate greed has sunk to this level.

UPDATE #2: August 5, 2008 No Verizon reps have called back yet. Repeated visits to stores has showed us that the store reps do not even understand the problem. Additionally visits to Altell seems to indicate they have exactly the same lock downs. I had considered migrating to Altell but it appears they have they have the same limitations.