[Andrew M]

Hey everyone,

I know a lot of you probably don't see folks raving about RIM in here but I recently have something to rave about.

I've been having issue with my Pearl for a few days now and staying productive without access to email or having at least a phone means I should just stay home because I'll get as much done.

I called my carrier (Cingular) and as much as I'd like to rip these guys apart, I can't. I know that a lot of these people on the phone there have very little knowledge on BlackBerry handhelds because face it, its not their biggest seller and have to deal with a lot of other PDA's as well. Even their Tier II didn't have much of an idea of how to fix the issue, let alone the nature of it. I asked several times if they could escalate this to RIM and they refused. Asking me to try thing I know wouldn't work but I did them anyway.

I finally called RIM myself and spoke to a very nice young lady who explained that she would need to transfer me back to Cingular. Before I managed to get anything out, she mentioned something calls IBS (Incident Based Service) and said it would be $49 for BIS or $249 for BES. I stated that I was BIS and she charged my car $49 and transferred me to a tech support rep who fixed my issue in about 1/2 hour.

A lot of us here can agree that an hour of our time is worth a lot of money. Spending hours on the phone with a clueless carrier isn't making me any richer. Paying $49 to fix a problem works for me, I'd do it again anyday. Call them and pay the $49, this is per incident and not per call. If the problem is carrier related, they transfer you and you get a refund.

Just wanted to let everyone know that this is an option if you'd rather not waste hours on the phone.

Andrew M.