The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Well folks, I must say I'm a fan of the PlayBook but as some of you might know, I've had the worst luck with the damn thing.

A little summary of my unique issues. BTW I'm not eager to return it for replacement, but most likely will be forced to soon.

Initially I had a few weeks of operation with no issues at all.

Then all of a sudden I was having what seemed to be an issue with the battery. I'd have it all of a sudden drop from a charge to 0%.

At 0% the playbook would actually work for quite a while, and it was strange but not that bad.

A secondary issue came up which was my AppWorld login credentials couldn't be verified. Because the PlayBook (and I think this is a horrible fault) does not let you change your AppWorld information, I was forced to use the de-brick reinstallation of the OS.

When I did that, my battery issue seemed to go away and everything was fine.

Well, through all of the updates and everything I've now "de-bricked" my playbook something like 6 times.

Most recently I went from an 80% battery to "dead" and the PlayBook shut off. When I turned it back on, the battery still reported being dead but the AppWorld issue came back... another "de-brick" OS install.

This morning my battery was at about 13% so I turned the PB off and went to work. I turned it on this afternoon and the battery was dead.

I've had it plugged in the wall charger with wi-fi and bluetooth off for about 20 minutes and so far it says it's charging but I've yet to see it go past 0%

Whatever it is, this is a very intriguing and frustrating issue.

If I can't get it to display past 0% I'm going to send it in next week... UPDATE: It is now showing 16%, so the initial charge from "0%" took about 30 minutes to reach that.

I can't tell if I somehow caused this, or if I just so happened to get a faulty device (though another person at work got the same model as me, 1 digit off the S/N which I'd assume means it was built in the same batch and they've never had a single issue)

I still enjoy the PlayBook incredibly but I am pretty upset with these issues and seemingly no resolution other than sending it in and waiting for a new one.

Just thought I'd share :)

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

With that one.

Return it and get another, and we can all find out if it was that PlayBook or you.

Seriously, it's that PlayBook. Return it already.
Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Yeah, I have to agree. Take the PB back and get a working one.

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Didn't we all tell him that a month ago?

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Yeah, and I actually thought he did exchange his...lol

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Damn Cooper,

Your luck is as good as mine, I burn up screens with my fat sweaty fingers. I understand you not wanting to deal with the customer service and getting a replacement. The 6-8 week wait is almost worth buying a new one.

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Yeah I know... I AM being stubborn everyone.

Customer service was actually great, we did initial e-mail troubleshooting and then when I said "I think it's just broke" the girl gave me a reference number and said "call and get a replacement" it was that easy.

Being that I work like beside RIM, I'd hate to have to ship this to Toronto or something. Can't I just walk it over somewhere?! lol

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Cooper, I am not sure I understand the process. They take you through some troubleshooting and then you have to call another department to get a replacement?

That doesn't seem very customer friendly to me. I would hope that if they are authorizing a replacement they would at least connect you to the proper party if they can't just initiate the return and replacement.

It would seem they have to speak with you to do a return? No email replacement?

Am I missing something?

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

You are not missing anything here.

I got through to e-mail support. They gave me the standard troubleshooting.. "let's try one last thing" aka the "de-brick"

I replied saying, yeah tried that, and it is still wonky.

I was then given a reference code and told to call a phone number and use that, then they would issue an RMA for me.

Not sure why they don't let you go completely through e-mail but that's how it was.

One thing though, when my ticket was open I'd get a reminder every few days saying "you have an open ticket, if you still need assistance please reply, if not we're closing it out an X date"

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Update:

I've given up, I'm only 5 months away from the warranty expiring.

After 45 minutes on the phone with a support person who didn't have the best english skills, and put me on hold about 4 times he finally gave me an RMA number.

Now I'm shipping it down to Tennessee (free shipping form RIM once I receive my box from them) hopefully for a replacement.

Unfortunately I'll still need to write a letter to go with it because the support person on the phone didn't really understand. I explained the situation (suddenly at any given time it just shuts off and I cannot get it to come back without de-brick, or if it does come back, app world no longer works) but he put on the RMA that it "randomly resets"

The thing is completely dead right now so I'm going to leave it like that.

We shall see how well the RMA process goes, they use Quanta who are usually pretty good... I mean they make most of the laptops in the world.

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

How in the world is this still going on? How long ago was it suggested that you return the PlayBook? Unreal.

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Work bought it. I never use it. I never cared much in recent months because it was just a matter of getting around to it.

I usually don't have time for phone calls lasting almost an hour, I've got 200 clients to support so usually there are no breaks during my day.

I knew I would have to return it, it was just a matter of when I felt like spending the time on getting an RMA.

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Did you return it yet? What's taking you so long to return it for another one? :)

A.

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

You should see the RMA 'Package' they sent me....

There's a shipping box and bag, there's like 4 different declarations (it has to go form Canada to the US so stuff for a wi-fi device, the battery etc) commercial invoice, waybill and also a document instructing on how to ship it back.

The best part is of the declaration is that they call it a "Portable Automatic Data Processor"

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

RIM support (3rd party Quanta) called me back....

Looks like my problem is so unique that they don't see anything wrong with the device and just might refuse replacement.

Thanks RIM.


--- I'm on the phone waiting on hold (been 15 minutes so far) to speak with the rep assigned to my case. More or less In a phone message they've told me I have to provide more details (I sent a whole page description of the issues) on the problem I have... which I originally spent almost an hour telling the guy in the first place.

Sadly, I'm completely unimpressed by this level of service I'm receiving. Feels like they've been programmed to do whatever they can to not repair or replace devices, yet some people I've seen send their in and have it replaced just days later

And now I've just realized that the rep who was "transferring" me had actually hung up on me.

I'm going to let them ship it back, then beat the snot out of Mike L with it.... cause that's about all its good for now.

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Sounds like an ongoing problem Coop. Hope you get worked out before the 2.0 drops (The way it is going, probably)

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Too late to know for sure, but if you returned it four or five months ago when the problems began you might have had a better time. Back then RIM seemed to be ready to do anything for the early adopters.

I hope it works out for you.......

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

Twice now I've called back to tech support because they want *something* from me before they'll repair or replace the unit. Each time the person on the phone said they had to transfer me to to rep assigned to my case and twice now I've been hung up on, I really don't have time for these games.

xxxx it, RIM can keep my PlayBook...

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

They've sent it back. It's upgrading to 1.0.8.

No details as to what they did, same device (S/N matches)

I'll be using it during my week off from work.... Sadly, I'm expecting my issues will come back. At that point I'm going to go see Mike L and tell him to give me a new one ;)

Re: The most uniquely broken PlayBook?
 

So far so good. Admittedly I've barely used the thing but I played some NFS and Tetris, ran the demo video in a loop.. more or less I'm trying to take it through charge cycles.

Battery was 5% last night, I turned it off, it came back on and I'm charging now.

The only thing I can see at all is it looks like they 'fixed' my power button. Initially it was below the bezel almost sunk in, it seems a little more flush and I don't have to press incredibly hard to make it work.

Why this would cause the issues I had, no idea (I would expect random power off and on maybe but not completely dead device) Here's hoping this is really fixed :)