Verizon BlackBerry Storm Return Rate
Here’s the skinny on this situation… We had heard various return rates on the Verizon BlackBerry Storm from three (actually four, but we’ll discount the last one) extremely credible sources of ours. These ranged from 35-50% in some markets/regions. That is an absurdly high figure, folks. While we trust our sources, we wanted to continue to dig until we wrote up a post on it here. We let a publication quote us on that, because that is what we had heard. No harm, no foul. But we weren’t going to post on it here until we had 100% confirmed it.
Verizon Wireless hit us up and here’s what a Verizon Wireless official had to say: “The Storm has the lowest return rate of any of our PDAs and at this point in its life cycle, it has the lowest return rate of any PDA we currently sell.”
We’ll let you guys do all the talking. Own a Storm? Happy with it? Returned it? Know friends that are happy/returned theirs? Hit us up so we can get some good feedback and your thoughts on this.
I LOVE my storm, granted, there are some bugs that need to be fixed, but it’s great! Also I haven’t had ONE dropped called on Verizon’s network, with ATT, I always had dropped calls!! ALWAYS! For me it’s almost the PERFECT STROM!
It has taken me a few days to come over to the touchscreen world from a Curve. I have grown to love it. It has some quirks, but honestly, nothing out of the ordinary from ANY PDA I have owned. I really wish they could ‘lock’ the screen without having to type in a password to unlock like when on a call. That is my biggest pet peeve, the clicking screen on a call.
I have two friends who both bought and returned a Storm already. I tried it in the store and thought it was rubbish…..and subsequently got a Bold instead.
I moved from my 8830 to Storm at the expense of adding a line. I knew that being an early adopter would have a price to pay. I love the device and I am confident that the “negatives” will be resolved. The improvements seen in .75 indicate to me that the issues will be resolved quickly.
I have it, I love it and I am of course keeping it.
I am a FORMER member of the Apple Developer Connection and yes I worked on the iPhone 3G. Your going to hear it straight from a horses (ass, for al you suckers who are stuck with an iPhone 3G) mouth, mine.
Apple’ iPhone 3G is the MOST FLAWED “3G” cell EVER! As you already know it cannot keep a 3G conection and almost always relies on an EDGE connection, yes that’s right, one of the – SLOWEST EVER – worst networks ever developed. It was obsolete almost 3 years agon an Apple is still relying on this network to pick up the slack when a 3G connection can’t be maintained if one is made at all.
It has more bugs you’ll never hear aboout that the John Wayne Gacy’s old crawl space! So many in fact I decided I wasn’t going to have my name coneected with anything to do with an iPhone ever again! My bug reports went largely unanswered until I finally got so fed up with Apple I ditched everything I ever owned in favor of my old pal Dell.
To this date you’ve only heard about half of the bugs that were reported by developers. The list itself numbered hundreds which I can prove. How, I have the previous BETA builds that are identical to the recently released 2.2 update minus a couple of few performance ehancements. Beyong that it basically the same build numbered differently to cover their assed from the already numberous lawsuits.
Once I get a go ahead from counsel I’ll be glad to provide any and all details with factual proof. I’m waiting on the legality of the trade secret lingo just to be safe and secure.
I’d also have to say everything I’ve seen and witnessed with a BB Storm is a complete success for RIM. The only thing an iPhone has going for it beyong being an iPod is the cult and the hype provided by the anti-christ himself. The rest are just average people getting caught in the wind of the anti-christ’ stomach gas and the hope of fitting in and being cool so they can say “I own a iPhone”.
But money walks!
I currently own a blackberry storm. At first i wanted to give it a try and though the fact of a touch screen blackberry would be amazing and the fact that it comes with an 8 GB memory card installed (to make a blackberry version of the iphone)would be even better. Being a proud blackberry user of the past World edition and Blackberry curve 8330 blackberry has brought nothing but greatness to my life. But now after just after about 5 days of purchasing this new blackberry storm its giving me nothing but problems. it has become very difficult to type and words are never / rarely spelled correctly. It is also a problem that the phone lags when you flip it sideways to switch into the full QWERTY keyboard. All of my friends have returned it and I need to decide wether to keep it or return it for my old blackberry again.
let me know what you guys think because i am going to have to return this soon and need to make a decision.
sincerely your friendly blackberry user (or abuser)
–Blake
Will people please stop saying that the Storm has a locked gps. It doesn’t, if you want turn by turn then you need VZnavigator. BBMaps works fine and uses google search.
Any body who has ever used a blackberry knows how much redundancy the OS has regardless of version. If I could recommend anything to RIM regarding the Storm it would be to simplify the OS. For example, if I have a “Send” button why the hell do I need a GUI based one as well when i’m answering a call?
I have had the phone for almost two weeks and, like my other blackberry, the OS gets smoother the more you use it, typing gets better as the OS learns your tendencies.
Oh, and I don’t care what anybody says, browsing the internet on any phone sucks! I don’t care ho
w well the browser renders websites internet + phone = crap
Websites are meant to be viewed on desktops and laptops not phones with 600MHz processors!
love it…i agree, with the .75 update, its sooo much better…still waiting for future updates to make this thing unreal!
I have had my Storm for about a week.
I would consider my self a blackberry power user.
I once had a Pearl, which I upgraded to a Curve.
I loved the full qwerty keypad, but missed sureType. The Storm seemed like a perfect balance for me.
My Storm had .75 out the box. The phone was slow, I had to do 3 battery pulls a day.
Because of the type of work that I do, I had been using different builds of the device in the office months before the device was released, so .75 was alot better then .61/and .65…
With the phone crashing, poor battery life, the coolness of a touch-click interface, but with mushy click in the corners. I was having a real love hate relationship with it.
I soon found version .76, that coupled with a business card cut up into three pieces, behind the battery door.
I’m now loving the phone!
I got my Storm on launch day and launched it right back after a week of use. In short if you were previously a blackberry user then you won’t like it. If you had a lesser device then you have been bamboozled since Blackberry makes every other one of their phones better. Going the way of ATT for the bold once the contract ends….
You sound like a Crackberry. Why did you even have an iPhone in the first place?
Why did they like it better than the iPHone?
Love the Storm, It is the best phone i have ever owned. And I have owned over 100. Verizon should have waited until the newest OS, but once upgraded it is great. They are still selling for a premium on EBay so someone like them. There is no way the return rate is really high.
Played with the phone in the vorizen store and thought I would learn to like it. Its been a week and this phone sucks. It locks up,its slow,the touch screen is …. They pushed this product on the market to fast and it shows.Try one out in the store before you buy.
Most of the time, everyone’s gripes with lag time and performance are because they don’t close out apps properly. Unlike the iPhone which is unable to true multitask (hence the no background notifications), the storm leaves apps running in the background unless you close them. There are some apps that always run regardless (like phone, messages, browser, IM’s, etc.) but you can close everything else. With more OS updates comes better performance, speed and battery. My only problem is with the click screen issue and having to put a card behind the battery to make it click correctly. Yes, I’ve returned one and I’m about to return a second one because of it but I’m going to keep returning them until they get it right because this phone is dope!!
I bought it the day of release. They shipped me Storm#1 three days later. It was hard to press the edges of the screen so I called and they sent me Storm#2. I upgraded to Storm#2 to 4.7.075. Problem with Storm#2 was battery completely drained in 4 hours even when the phone was off!! So I returned the Storm#2 and got Storm#3 which I promptly upgraded to 4.7.05 also. But Storm#3 is doing exact same power leak in 4 hours even when it’s off! And the interesting thing is it does it intermittently. I have called Verizon and RIM support line literally 50 times and they can’t figure it out either. For me this unexpected power drain is a show stopper. I’ll probably end my affair with Verizon over this and go back to T-Mobile. Strange………….
I bought Storm 2 days ago and I like it.
This is an upgrade from your Pearl 8100.
I’ve had the storm since launch day. Initially I had intended to take it back but after playing with it for 3 weeks now I love it. I’m a former Iphone user and loved it also. The Storm is more business oriented and works like a charm. It does have it’s problems but so did my Iphone when I received it. Not sure why all the bad press concerning the Storm because it’s a solid phone. I miss the Wifi but didn’t use it a lot anyway. The Storms learning curve is steeper than the Iphone but once you master it, you won’t be sorry. I feel Blackberry did an excellent job.
Well the hardware of the Storm is better compared to many other smartphones. The problem was the software problem which RIM has updated and I’m sure RIM is still busy with another software upgrade so people should just chill when the software issues has been resolved you will love the handset. Well I will be getting my Storm very soon and I just can’t wait.
Well, after a few weeks of playing with my Storm, I’m switching back to my Pearl until they get the device closer to a stable environment. Too many bugs and I can ill afford issues while working. When they get it straightened out, then I’ll migrate back to the device. I think it’ll be a solid phone once all the bugs are hammered out. Until then, I can’t call it a Power Users tool.
two friends in the US own it and love it…
i think talk is cheap and everyone is talking cheap.
people will bash this device bc they are apple fanbois. nuff said
I have a Storm and I love it. After the update, my phone was working significantly better. I think the problem seems to lie more in user error of people not closing entirely out of their programs or impulsively purchasing it and not taking a good two weeks to get used to it fully.
Everyone complained the same way about the Pearl and the Curve–and even non-BB devices like the iPhone, when that came out. People always have SOME kind of problem they’re bitching about with phones they don’t want to take the time to learn to use.
I picked up the BB Storm the day it came out. I had my eye on it since I have been available for an upgrade back in May. When I finally got my hands on it and knew the answer to Verizon’s question, “What will it feel like?”, I decided I was not going to let it go. Especially not for any of the other phones verizon had to offer. I am a loyal verizon customer and I am very satisfied with the Storm. With the original OS, the Storm had many different gliches and the battery life was horrific, but since the upgrade to .75, 90% of the problems have been taken care of. I am confident that RIM will continue to work on any problems the Storm has and I am definately going to keep my Storm. I love it.
Just loaded the .83 version leak. It is MUCH faster. You can get the leaked download at Crackberry
I had my Storm for a couple of weeks and returned it. I’m a fast BB typist, and the unpredictability of the keyboard drove me nuts. For people who just like to read emails and surf the web, it’s a good BB. But I am constantly typing emails, Tweets, etc. and the
Storm was just useless for me. I love the new user interface — very clean and sharp. Instead, I went for an interim solution: BB Curve. I’m very excited about the BB Curve II (Javelin) since it’ll have the same UI, a better camera, and a KEYBOARD!!!