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BlackBerry produce a range of popular mobile phones that have a instant email function. Purchasing a new or used BlackBerry from a seller using Ebay may seem a low cost way of owning a BlackBerry smartphone. In this short article I will highlight some of the pitfalls in doing so, and how to avoid them…

Ebay Seller-Reputation

Of course you should vet your seller who should offer PayPal and have good feedback, for advice on vetting your ebay seller see this article.

PIN

In contrast to other mobile phones which use just a IMEI to identify your phone, BlackBerry smartphones also have a 8 character alphanumeric code confusingly called a PIN which looks like this ‘123AB1AB’. This code is required when you register the phone on the network with your mobile service provider to enable email and data usage.

This PIN is not private like a ATM PIN, and can be freely given out to other BlackBerry users to allow instant messaging and email.

It is this PIN which ties your email account with your phone. If the phone purchased is refurbished/second-hand and the previous owner has registered the phone for email usage, it is possible that you will not be able to re-register then phone for email until the previous owner and/or service provider releases the PIN for your use. This will stop you from using your phone as a email device.

Data Plan

With most service providers in the UK you will not be able to access the internet, (even if you have an unlimited data package), without paying a specific BlackBerry fee or BlackBerry Tax. This prevents you from using the email or internet functions of your phone on Pay-as-you go accounts. You will not be able to access the internet without paying a monthly fee to use the BlackBerry mail service. †

Example:

With a normal GSM phone eg Nokia N73 with T-Mobile(UK) you can surf the web and pay either £7.50 a month for a 1 gigabyte/month data allowance or pay for data at 0.73p/kilobyte capped at £1 per day.

With a BlackBerry, you can only get access to the internet by first paying the BlackBerry fee of £10 per month, which gives you 60 megabytes of email plus a small 2 megabyte monthly internet data allowance.

Any additional data is charged at £7.30 per megabyte, or you can pay a secondary fee for Web’n'Walk.

This makes using a BlackBerry a expensive option if you wish to use the internet compared to other smart phones.

Warranty

BlackBerry smartphones purchased from RIM directly come with a 1 year warranty. If you purchased your smartphone elsewhere, for instance, from your service provider, any warranty claims will need to be filed with them.

If the shop/business that supplied your smartphone went out of business or is not traceable neither T-Mobile (UK) or BlackBerry (UK) will honour a warranty claim.

Even if a phone is “Operator Branded” eg. T-Mobile (UK) and is purchased brand new, do not rely on this meaning that T-Mobile will honour any warranty.

Network Lock

Many BlackBerry smartphones are supplied with a network lock which prevents them from being used on other networks. Some third party companies offer a service to remove a network lock, though this may invalidate your warranty.

Summary

1. The decision to purchase a BlackBerry smartphone should not be taken lightly. Unlike other mobile phones BlackBerry devices are inflexible and can not access the internet via WAP/EDGE/GPRS without paying a monthly fee to BlackBerry. †
2. Any smartphone which you buy should not be locked to a network, unless you intend to use that phone on the specified network.
3. If your smartphone has been used or refurbished, ensure that the PIN has never been registered. If it has and the previous user and network operator does not consent to its release you will not be able to gain access to email and other functions.
4. Consider any BlackBerry you purchase to be without Warranty, unless you buy it directly from RIM, your service provider or you can be confident that the retailer will be in business in 12 months time. For this reason I would only recommend purchasing directly from your service provider.

† O2(UK) offer a pay as you go data tariff at £2.70 per megabyte.