Last September I bought my first Blackberry. I was really exited to have a phone that could do email, IM, etc.

Right out of the box, I knew this phone was not going to last long.
Noticed that OEM holster was missing logo when the box was first opened. After a week, the stitching started coming apart. No biggie, I was going to go and get another less bulky and better made case anyway.

Right after putting the battery in, and putting the paper thin plastic cover back on, it breaks. Went to get another one at Sprint. Had to pay myself because it was "forced" back on.

Two weeks later, Phone no longer rings. Just viabrates. Check all settings. Nothing set to quiet. Take into the sprint store. They tell me it's water that damaged it. Interesting considering that it's never been in water or in high humidity, or left out in the car. Decide not to spend my own money to repair this lemon I'll just let it viabrate for the next 2 years.

This weekend I got out of my car, Phone in New OEM case falls out of pocket and lcd cracks. Rendering phone unuseable. Called sprint, Have to pay $119.00 to get new piece of garbage 8830 World edition. Not sure what I am going to do now. Eat the early termination fee and go to another provider, switch to a different brand completely, or suffer with a "new" crapberry for 1 and 1/2 years.

I thought Blackberry would put out a much better product than this. I've learned a very valulable lesson. I'll never buy another Blackberry.

Wow, nice rant and welcome to the forums.

Ok, I had a Verizon 8830 for about 18 months. I loved that phone, never had any issues with it. From what you describe, it sounds like carelessness with the device. I've never broken a battery cover putting it back on, I am sure others may have, but I would say they're in the minority.

The water damage indicator wouldn't lie. When odd things like that start to happen, it is likely due to moisture. You could've tried to reload the OS up upgrade it to see if that would've helped.

If you dropped any other phone, do you think it would have suffered any physical damage? You can get a new LCD screen if you would like. HorizonWirelessOnline.com - Horizon Wireless, The World’s Cellular Repair Center ß.

BlackBerry devices are not for everyone, maybe they're not for you. That's for you to decide. Well, regardless, I wish you well with your new phone.

Wirelessly posted (Its All About the U!)

Depending on the repair costs, it may be better to check out Ebay.

Love my 8830. I take my battery door off all the time. No problems so far and it's a year and half old.

Suprised this thread hasn't been moved yet....

Had my 8830 for over a year, have it to my father so I could upgrade

I thought it was a great phone never had a problem with it.

I would have went back to Sprint at Day 1 if the OEM holster was damaged, maybe Sprint got one on you, giving you a defective unit.

As far as the new Holster going, was it of good quality or something cheap?

Sounds like you might have broke the phone when you got out of the wrong side of the bed.

My 8830 has been a rock star. Running solid for 2 years. I've even dunked the thing in water by accident and still don't have any problems. A friend of mine, however, did have an issue where all of his call logs and SMSs were being deleted (supposed to be due to lack of free memory) which was never resolved.

The only issue I've experienced with all the 8830's I've supported is the USB port going bad.

Other than that, any other issues have been user-initiated from carelessness - not using a holster and getting the wheel gunked up, dropping them on the floor/in the toilet/in a bucket of lacquer (true story)/in the lake/off a cliff (ok, I made that last one up).

I've had my 8830 for almost 2 years now and it looks as good as new. Has never given me any problems.

I know of MANY people who feel the same way. It's a good phone.

Since its your first post at the time I responded, allow me and my colleagues to say welcome,

It surprises me to see how badly your BB broke and stuff.

I dropped my blackberry 8830 world edition to concrete floor from heights like 6 feet. It only resulted in dents on chrome sides. One time it even hit corner so hard it went up and spun like a top, and everything was fine, other than new batch of tiny dents on that corners chrome side.

I agree with crap holsters, however. Stock one broke within a few months, and new (and rather expensive) one after only 5 months. :P

About the water damage, did you leave your BB in restroom during bath or something like that? That is known to cause marks to go pink indicating it was wet when it really wasn't...

We've had over 70+ phone's here, out of the whole lot of the 8830's we have, only maybe two or three were defective, but that was replaced quickly by Verizon with no hassles.

I can vouch that the 8830's have been really good for us and great work horses over here. Yes, sometimes you may get one that could end up being one of the bad ones of the bunch, but trust me, these blackberry's are great! You may also want to consider, that you're with Sprint... ugh I hate them and their customer service.

Wirelessly posted

Wow sorry to hear about your bad luck, I drp my world at least once a day by accident and I work in a abusive job, and this phone has been bullet proof for me, and I don't even keep it in a skin or holster

Kind of late now since the screen is broken. The water damage thing bothers me. If you are telling the truth and the store is telling the truth then the vendor sent a damaged/abused phone. That I would have raised H about. I would have accused the store of calling me a liar and pushed the issue. The world phone has great features.

I would say $119 is a good deal for a new BB 8830 from Sprint. You will be spending over $200 if you try to buy a new one somewhere else.

I have had my blackberry 8800 for two years now and have not experienced any of those problems. In fact the phone has been so freaking awesome I can't justify upgrading any time soon.
The holster is sorta cheap, but it lasted me over a year before it started showing some wear. I'm thankful that RIM provided one, because most cell phone companies would rather you spend money on such an accessory that would deteriorate in the same manner.
For a long time I switched sim cards between a music phone and the 8800 and never felt like the battery cover was going to break.

It sounds like you were incredibly rough on your phone, and I'm sure you'll own many "crap" phones in your lifetime!

Blackberry phones are incredibly durable, and parts on them are easily replaceable. Replacement LCDs can be purchased online. My girlfriend dropped her iphone and cracked the glass over the screen... and the repair cost is more than she paid for the phone.

My original 8830 holster is still in one peice granted it exetremely beat up, but it's on the verge of falling apart due to usage lol... Holster are cheap anyway you cna get them for 10 bucks at NewEgg.com.

I have beaten the crap out of my 8830. Dropped it many times, been through 3 cases. This this is a champ if you ask me. All but 3 of my users have 8830s. I have had 1 USB port go bad and another which had roaming issues out of the box. Other than that they have been great for us.

By your attitude I would say your troubles were self inflicted.

I think dropping the phone and breaking the LCD is really all about luck. I've had an iphone before and I would toss it around, don't really take care of it, dropped it a few times and still perfectly usable. My friend on the other hand dropped it once and shattered the LCD leaving it a POS paperweight. Considering how many products they make Im sure there are a few out there that are not made to the best it can be.

I've had three 8830's and support a large number of 88xx devices. While they are not as durable as the 87xx series and not even close to the tank-like durability of the 72xx series, I cannot complain about them at all.

In my experience, the 87xx series was more sensitive to humidity than the 88xx series and yes, putting your BB on the bathroom counter when you shower is never a good thing to do. Eventually the humidity will adversely affect it. To me, the 83xx series is the most fragile of the recent devices, quite easy to scratch, break, crack, etc. But I digress...

The Blackberry is not the be-all and end-all mobile device that will cure cancer and end world hunger. Some will love it, some obviously will hate it. Thankfully, the Blackberry is not the only game in town. If it works for you, great. If not, there's always the iPhone, G1, Palm, MotoQ, Nokia, etc., etc.

Some are the glass-half-full types, others are the glass-half-empty types. I'm one who is thankful for just having a glass of water.

I always say the glass is not half full or half empty, it's just twice as big as it needs to be.

I got my new 8830 (Black Sprint) and I love it!! Customized with all the apps (Messenger, google maps, telenav, ESPN, CNN, etc....). I bought a 4 GB SDHC card to expand the memory. The only one problem is the battery covery being loose!! Very trivial but annoying!!

I called Sprint today and was told that up to 30 days they can send me another one and a shipping kit to send back the week old one. I'm getting my new new one tomorrow. I just have to re-customize it with the images and apps I like

Welcome to the forums.

No you don't. Install Desktop Manager and do the Switch Device Wizard. It will copy all of your settings/apps from the old device to the new one.

Hurray! Thanks for helping the novice (My first post and first BB device). I have not touched the CD. Can you tell me more please? I'm fairly computer savvy! So, if I install the DM on my laptop it will transfer my current apps, setting and numbers?? Then when I connect the "virgin" device it will tranfser an image back to it??

Dude, you would have saved me a bunch of time!!

Basically, yes.

Install Desktop Manager. You will see a few options, Backup/Restore, Switch Device Wizard, App Loader, Etc.

Click On Switch Device Wizard and select Blackberry to BlackBerry device. Connect your current device to your PC and select next. It will pull all of your data/apps into a backup file. Once done, it will prompt you to connect the new device. Do just that and click next. It will then restore all the data/apps to the new device.

GREAT! Thank you! EASY enough! I will let you know how it goes when I get my new one tomorrow!!!

Any other tips? LOL

I actually remembered something, I'm planning on transferring the 4 GB to the new device. Shouldn't that have the info?

There are tons of tips on this site. Browse around the forums and check BlackBerry FAQ - BlackBerryFAQ.

Does anyone else a problem with a loose cover (Very minor). Im afraid it would be dejavu with the new one.
I got my wife a 8330 curve and it looks much more compact, like a one piece than the 8830!

I had an 8830 with Verizon and I loved that device. The back cover wasn't lose on it at all. I now have the 8330 and I love this device as well but the back cover seems a little loose at times. No biggie to me.

The only thing that will be on the 4 GB card is any media, etc., that was explicitly placed on the card.

Sorry to hear the OP's first berry experience has been a rough one, but I'm not sure it's representative of the 8830. I was first in line for the vzw 8830 when it came out 2 years ago. After 2 years of heavy use (and abuse), I've only had 2 problems: toward the end of year 1, the headset jack went bad. Got a free replacement 8830 under the 1 year rim warranty. At the end of year 2, the USB jack went bad. I don't have insurance so I had to pay $50 for a replacement 8830. Had no issue paying it, cause other than these 2 issues it's been rock-solid, and the best pda I've had. With that said, I do plan to be first in line July 12 for the Tour

Does anyone know for sure how much is the default memory that comes with the 8830? And how much can you expand it too?

I know that the total memory varies by OS. Current OS is 4.5.0. I read somwehere that 4 GB is max (SDHC) but I have also seen a max of 8 GB elsewhere.

Even though my 8830 has few small apps and a couple of images, it is showing only 3176680 as internal memory (Under Status/File free). Does it really come with such low storage memory?


My Media card is showing 3.6 GB which is close to the 4 B SD card I installed.

Is there a better way to determine the total memory?

The SDHC is only for storing media, perhaps some documents and the like. It is NOT used for programs and the like; all of that must be stored in the internal memory of the 8830.

Your memory is extremely low, and you will almost certainly begin to lose emails if you don't rectify the situation. Follow the instructions in this thread to maximize your memory.

http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...ee-memory.html

That sucks man! Why would a GREAT device like that come with ONLY 96 MB of internal memory?? Memory is cheap! I added a 4 GB SD card for $15 but this is not the same as internal memory.
My device is a day old (Oh, well I transferred data from a week old device because of a loose batt cover). I only added 300 kb worth of images to it, 50some addresses (Phone numbers only), few apps (Just links like Facebook, CNN< ESPN, Weather, etc..) and a dozen texts (I delete text often)!!! Why would it be showing only 7 MB memory left?? I shouldn't have to jump through John Clarks 20+ page instruction just to save some memory??

It's like buying a computer with 20 GB HD and your OS is taking 19.5 of those????

The key portion of John Clark's instruction is in his first post. How much memory is freed up if you remove the battery (while the BB is on) for 30 seconds, and then re-insert and check the memory again. Have you deleted the stupid video that is included? There are some very easy things that you can do to help rectify this situation.

SO is this lack of memory on the device or a problem reading it? I don't think my device has ANY images or videos except the 300-400 kb worth of images and the default ring tones! I'm Sprint like you, I'm surprised I don't have such a video. Oh. I also installed TeleNav & Google Maps, they can't be is that big!

Did you try removing the battery, and if so what did that do? Some applications have memory leaks that cause this problem on a persistent basis. For example, the Wall Street Journal Mobile Reader used to have a leak. Google Maps can chew up memory, especially if you leave it on constantly.

Ideally, you want to get to the range of having 10-13 mb of free memory available. You can get by with less, but then you need to be prepared to monitor the memory status quite often. I in fact removed Docs2Go simply because I couldn't afford the 2 MB that it required for the installation. Unfortunately the 8830 -- which is an older device -- doesn't have a lot of free memory.

Thanks, I will try the battery trick and maybe remove google maps. It MUST be a memory leak because it went from 7 MB to 3 MB in a couple of hours without adding anything! BTW: I bought a CURVE for my wife at the same time. It is showing 40 MB free and it also came with 1 GB SD card installed,

I tried the John Clark trick and the memory went up from 1.5 mb to 8+! Better but not as I would like it to be! Not sure if RIM dvelopers know about these memory issues,

I will delete DOCS to go and Google maps and see if that helps! I can always get them back from the backup