I have a blackberry that I love. But it stopped sending picture messages (MMS).
Mid April 2008: Cancel my data plan for 2 reasons: changed jobs, so they wouldn’t be paying for my data anymore; and was going away for a month to a foreign country.
Mid May: I realize I can’t send or receive picture messages.
Beginning of June: Call Rogers to complain about the picture messaging and my astronomical phone bill. End up changing my voice plan, my text plan, etc. I was told that a $20 a month plan that included enhanced voice mail, call display, and MMS ability. I call right after to setup my voicemail number, and the lady turns out to be a bitch, trying to get me to change my plan because what I have is not good. I tell her I just switched it, and if she can offer something better, she says the plan I supposedly have doesn’t exist. Realizing that woman had no idea what she was talking about, I get the voicemail set up and tell her I don’t want my account changed, thank you.
End of June: Still can’t send/receive picture messages. Call to complain and I’m told in the process, that I went over my text messages and my long distance bill. I had send over 2500 free text messages, and my long distance bill was up to $400. I say that’s not possible, because I have the MY5 Canada wide. Somehow, someone (quite possibly the deranged lady from before) deleted the plan off my account, which is how I went over. The guy was amazing and gave me credit for all the over expenses. As to the MMS, he says that I have the wrong $20 plan, that because I have a blackberry, I need a blackberry specific plan. So I switch plans.
Mid July: Still can’t send picture messages. I call, from a friend’s phone, while at the cottage, I was the only person there who wanted to send a picture to a friend accross the country, but couldn’t. I call technical support, the girl tells me that there’s nothing wrong with my phone, but that I need the highest priced plan data plan to get this to work. I argued with her, that I don’t need a 7MB plan to send 40k pictures. She says it wont work otherwise. So I tell her okay, whatever, put me through whoever I need to talk to activate a data plan. She puts me through another lady, this one is really nice, and says I don’t need the highest one, she thinks. So I activate a $15 data plan to send 40kb shitty blackberry pictures.
Early August: Nop. Doesn’t work. I call again. This time I’m on hold forever, I talked to 2 different people who couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I am pissed. I ask to be put through retentions, and tell the really nice girl whats the problem. She *has* to fix this. Halfway through what I think will be a conversation that might end with something positive, the phone call dies. Either the phone, or network, or whatever. She doesn’t call back.
Last week: I call, once more. Hugh gives me the number for Blackberry business technical support. The guy says that I *do* need a data plan to get it to work, because apparently my version of the Pearl has an old opperating system that doesn’t allow the phone to send picture messages over the phone network (like every other phone out there), instead, it uses the blackberry network. But he goes a bit deeper, and figures out that there’s something actually wrong, that is not the data plan, or the voice plan, or any plan. Its the phone and/or settings. We manage to get it to send pictures, but I can’t receive. In the process I find out about http://www.rogers.com/mypix, where all the pictures you send and receive will appear. He upgrades my issue to a 2nd tier of technical support. Says someone will call within 2 days.
I get a call today, a guy called Tony, says that its more likely my SIM card, which apparently is 5 years old (that’s how long I’ve been with Rogers). I should go to the store and get a new one. So I do, thinking, they’ll swap it, and that’s it.
Noooo.
I wait 40 minutes in lineup at the Eaton Center location. I get to the front and the guy tells me that I have to buy it. $40. I don’t want to spend more money, just on principle. I leave, waiting for the “callback” from Tony. He called 5 minutes ago. I told him that for the last 5 months I’ve been strung around, without a solution. And his solution, that my SIM card is busted, is not guaranteed to work. He doesn’t offer me any other options.
I sighed. Told him I would buy it tomorrow.
So now its the end of the summer, and I don’t need the damn MMS functionality anymore. The only person I was sending pictures to, and wanted to send pictures to, comes back next week.
And here I am now paying for a $15 data plan —that of course doesn’t provide enough data to check my email once a day, so off course, I’m paying an extra $40 alone in extra data charges. And now another $40 in a SIM card.
Pissed is not a word big enough to describe how I’m feeling.
