The LackBerry Bold

Last week my Dash crashed on me. That sucked. Instead of having access to my contacts and my calendar at my fingertips outside the office, all I had was a phone. Couldn't access the internet and couldn't "sync" it up with Outlook.

A former client of mine is a phone dealer. I told him I wanted the new Dash 3G. He told me I should get the new BlackBerry Bold 9700. He told me it was the most advanced phone out there and that I'd love it. So I told him to get me one.

I picked it up from him on Saturday morning and was excited to play with it. That's when the nightmare began. It was so "technologically advanced" that it was impossible to set the clock without calling tech support. Due to household chores and a housewarming party it was nearly impossible for me to do much more than charge the battery on the phone over the weekend.

I did try to set up my e-mail but, no matter what I did, the icon for managing e-mail would never appear on the screen and I couldn't find any other way to set up my e-mail accounts otherwise. On Monday morning I called tech support about setting up my e-mail and was told I would have to upgrade my internet service to BlackBerry internet in order to receive e-mails on the phone. Then she told me it would take between 2 and 48 hours to set it up. That's a worse time frame than the damn phone company.

That was it. I decided to get a Dash instead, but the nearest dealer was out. So I called a store by the house and drove out in the pouring rain to get the new Dash. The customer service rep told me she could get me hooked up with the upgraded internet service in less than 2 hours -- which still made the phone useless since I had to head down to Galveston in a little over 90 minutes.

After handling the jail docket on the island I was able to set up my e-mail on the phone. Now all I had to do was "sync" up Outlook so I could get my contacts, my calendar and my e-mail. Unfortunately the phone would only download my contacts, calendar and tasks from Outlook. It wouldn't "sync" up my Outlook e-mail inbox.

I called tech support and was transferred to RIM (the manufacturers of the software that runs the BlackBerry). Then I found out the terrible news -- there was no way to "sync" up my Outlook e-mail inbox to the BlackBerry. This meant that once an e-mail from my internet server was forwarded to Outlook, I could no longer access it on the phone. Absolutely unacceptable.

Now, after spending hours trying to set this phone up how I needed it set up for my work situation, I have no choice but to get rid of this expensive paperweight and head back to the store to pick up the phone I wanted in the first place.

And before anyone tells me how wonderful the iPhone is -- I don't want one. I have never wanted one. I don't want a touch screen phone. Besides, you can't get one for T-Mobile (and I'm not changing carriers).

Excuse me while I beat my head up against the wall.