BLACKBERRY

Our blackberry is an essential part of our communication arsenal. It has lessened the stress in our life and we have in the space of two years worn the bugger out. Well , we have worn the trackball out. the rest works fine.

It was just out of warranty when we first started getting problems with the wee ball sticking. So we went on line and found a myriad of sites dedicated to helping with the problem. Anyway - we opened it up and pulled out a wadge of fluff and it went again. Sadly its now beyond repair.

We went on line and found an off shore site that sells the track balls and worked out that the little suckers were quite cheap. US$ 10 bucks.

So today we toddled on into the ORB store on the Terrace. A happy bunch of very helpful young people are always there with a smile and some advice. So we rock on up to the counter and ask to order a trackball kit.

"Has to be sent away sorry." the girly says.

Nah I said, the phone is out of warranty and I know how to replace it - all I want is the kit.

Ahh says the lovely girl behind the counter - She will ring and ask.

She does.
She tells the " authorised dealer" what she wants and I am impressed with her reply -

" Nah thats too expensive"

She gets off the phone and tells me it was going to cost $250 to get a replacement trackball fitted.

I am due to upgrade my phone in 3 weeks so I decide to hold off and the staff promise if they get a broken blackerry with a good trackball they will ring.

Anyway tonite we went online to trademe. $20 later and we have a trackball kit on its way from Porirua - including free postage.

So when we fit the trackball and its all okay we will be asking some pretty tough questions of Telecom.

Interestingly there are whole websites overseas who just sell trackballs. cheap - with instructions -
So are we being ripped off here in NZ ? We think so.