Verizon & Blackberry == awful squared

My wife decided to get a new Blackberry phone. We have Exchange at home (what can I say, I'm a nerd) and so she told them on purchasing that it must connect to Exchange's ActiveSync so it synchronizes her email, contacts, and calender. And at the Verizon store they said - yes, no problem.

1. So I go to options to set email and... no option for Exchange. I call Verizon and get passed to two different people where I'm told to use IMAP. When I explain that no, we want ActiveSync we get passed over to BlackBerry where after a longer wait I am told that you don't set up ActiveSync connections in email btu instead in advanced options. Ok, so 25 minutes and 4 people to find that out.
2. So I try that and this is where I start to learn that BlackBerry essentially has no error messages. It tries to connect and if it fails, after 25 minutes, pops up a message saying there was a problem and see your system administrator. I am my system administrator - what earthly use is a message like that?
3. So call Verizon again where we are passed through to BlackBerry where they then dive in and discover... that my wife's account did not include enterprise access. So the idiot at the Verizon store (is "idiot" redundant?), told that she wanted enterprise access, did not include it in her plan. And the idiot at BlackBerry (redundant again?) the first time did not notice that she did not have enterprise access on her account.
4. So we get all that set and now we're going to... Get the same stupid error again. Ok, this time I get forwarded to BlackBerry tier 2 support (which means an additional 38 minute wait) because tier 1 support has no idea what to do. And tier 2 support, after 10 minutes of asking me a bunch of questions and checking some stuff then tells me that... We have to install BlackBerry software on our server.

Yep, that's right, BlackBerry requires software on our mail server. Which I then have to learn how to configure & administer. And assuming that it is as poorly written as their setup code on the BlackBerry, that could end up being a full-time job.

So I figured that instead we will go with a company that understands how to write usable software. I connected my iPhone and my daughter's iPod to Exchange in under 2 minutes each. My wife will return the BlackBerry to Verizon on Monday and switch to an iPhone & AT&T.

And to the CEO at Verizon who has that nice message at the start of the customer service call - no I did not get what I needed. Not once in any of the 4 calls. If you want to get enterprise level customers, get an enterprise quality product. And that is not BlackBerry.

Comments

[John]

Dude - you're right! I just got the Storm and learned the same lesson. BB won't support ActiveSync because it would cut into their BES revenue. Our Exchange Server is behind an ISA server and BB won't support it. So everyone in our company who has a BB is paying for the BES plan ($15 extra a month to VZW and a BES license on our end). Everyone in our company who is using iPhone or Windows Mobile can access the Exchange services for free.