AT&T customer support & updating my replacement Blackberry Pearl
December 11, 2007 11 Comments
Saturday morning I woke up to find that my Blackberry Pearl did not charge all night long. I was a tad puzzled so I check my usb charger/data cable, and I also tried a couple of Motorola chargers I have lying around the house. Well, none of 
them would give my poor Pearl a charge. This is the first time I have needed AT&T Customer Support while living in an area that actually has AT&T Support Centers. I ran down town to stop by one to see if they would exchange my phone out and give me a new one on the spot (that’d be cool huh). Well, to no avail, they gave me a pamphlet with the AT&T Customer Support Center 800 number on it instead! I could have done that from home and never left the house and brave the holiday traffic!
So when I got home I used a friends phone to call the support center and went through all the selected menus, I was put on the phone with a person I could barely understand. It didn’t help that it sounded like she was talking through a digital voice mask software. Well after telling her my dilemma and putting my IMEI number in the computer she realized she was dealing with a “High End Phone” and needed to transfer me to someone in the High End Phone Claims Department. If that was going to get me to someone that I could understand I didn’t care if I was talking to a 10 year old. So after holding for a couple of minutes I was put on the phone with this nice Customer Service Rep, Sarah I believe. She hooked me up, we went through the customary dummy reset and I explained what I had already done for the lady that I couldn’t understand. She read me my rights (all the fine print), and she gave me the option of waiting 5-7 days for my new Pearl or over-night shipping for 12.95 (12 something) added directly to my next bill. I was reluctant but I wanted that new phone in my hands so I caved and had her overnight it.
I can confirm that I received my new Pearl before 12 o’clock noon. I have already put all of my contacts back on it using Desktop Manager, synchronizing with Microsoft Outlook 2007. All of my media was saved on my microSD card so I just had to put that in the back of the Pearl. The only other thing I had to replace was the Google Maps and Google Search.
I went to www.google.com on my Pearl and there was a new application to download. A Google Download Manager! I was ecstatic about this new app so I downloaded it and it gave me the option of installing a host of Google Mobile Applications. I will be covering all of these apps in more depth as I get to use all of them. I can tell you the only one I didn’t download was the Gmail app because I use the messaging system set up in the Blackberry Pearl for all my Gmail accounts.
All in all a positive experience, going from a dead Pearl to a working one in 3 days I think is a damn good turn-around time. Feel free to leave your comments on your experiences with cell phone carriers.
Tech 2 Stuff 
my blackberry curve is not opening when i type my pass word. also when i type pass word, it types words instead of star. please help me in this regards. however my curve is receiving phone calls fine, except i cannot make call since it is locked.
regarding my unlocked at&t blackberry curve and the pains i am getting to activate the data service.The curve has just been introduced in trinidad where im based and all curves available through my provider appear to be able to connect to the blackberry service that my provider (tstt) offers except mine.I have entered their APN,signed up for the blackberry service but edge still remains in common letters.I unlocked my phone thinking that it would unlock both data and voice but now my provider is telling me that my phone may be data locked by at&t and may need to be data unlocked?..is there such a thing or are they just messing me up.
I would like to transfer the e-mails from my outlook receiver to my blackberry.
How can I do that?
Thank you
Mary,
You need to set up your blackberry e-mail forwarding account. For AT&T use this address https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=mycingular . If you have a different mobile service just Google for your service and Blackberry Internet Service. (i.e. “T-Mobile Blackberry Internet Service”) This should put you in touch with the website you will need to create an account on and it will help set up your email account information. If you have any more questions please let me know.
Darin,
I apologize, the only number I have for at&t is a 800 number. This is the direct dial to Trinidada and Tobago – 1-800-872-2881. That is listed as the direct dial number for at&t here at http://www.consumer.att.com/global/english/access_codes.html. I do know that at&t has a business department that deals with blackberries you could try to contact them through that number. From there you should be able to see if they can release the data plan from the phone. Good luck on that, keep me posted.
Sal,
“From what I read If you enter an incorrect password 10 times the device will do a master reset and wipe all user data off the device. From there you will need to start from scratch but SHOULD have use of your BB again.”
It isn’t a bad alternative if you have backed up all of your information.
If that does or doesn’t work for you please let me know if I can help any more.
When I first got my pearl I was having the same exact trouble. First make sure you have a blackberry data plan. A regular plan will not work through a blackberry. Second. Even after that make sure to call tech support of your provider and tell them that you cannot receive capital edge letters they should be able to help you fix that. Also try a reset by pulling the battery when the phone is on. Let it sit for 30 or so seconds and boot the phone back up. Try those things and are if that helps any.
Well I just received my replacement phone after waking up to an uncharged phone! I put my sim card in and unfortunately none of my contacts came up, do I need to go to the store??
The easiest way to get your contacts back is to take it to your cellphone carrier’s store and see if they would be so kind as to transfer your contacts from your old phone. Another possibility is to put the sim card back in the old phone and transfer all of the contacts to the sim card. You loose alot of functionality/detail with your contacts when you keep them stored on the sim card though so I would re-save them back to the new phone after you transfer them so you can keep multiple phone numbers, email addresses, pictures and such on there. I hope this helps.
Thank you for the detailed answer!! I will visit at&t store today for sure and see if they can help me out.
My BB Curve does not automaticallyreset time to the network. Why?