I know that the Professional Golf Association as a "Q" school so you can qualify for the PGA Tour, based on this info over at MobileWhack, Verizon might need to start their own "Q" school. One of MobileWhack’s commenters posted a memo (presumably internal to Verizon) indicating that there are a large number of Motorola Q returns. Most of the issues don’t seem to be technical, which is often the case, but instead appear to be due to "improper customer expectations" (read: "confusing marketing") and "incomplete training".
In the memo, the lowlights highlights show issues like:
- Battery life expectations
- Understanding that the Q will run Office Mobile
- Reuse of mini-SD cards causing problems that don’t appear on new mini-SD cards
- Thumbwheel doesn’t work like a Blackberry
- Confusing interface
- Touchscreen not working (I’d be surprised if it did work, since the Q doesn’t have a touchscreen)
- VCast not working (again, the Q doesn’t have that function)
- No headset jack, which is true because the Q uses a mini-USB interface
This phone has been in the works for such a long time, that it’s really a tragedy to have Verizon employees and marketers lacking in these areas. The real shame of it all: the phone is a fantastic device and these business issues just take away a little of the luster.
Thanks to jkOTR reader, Philip, for the tip!
UPDATE: I wrote this before I read this. Chris, does this count as Freedbacking? If not, here’s some "freedback" for Verizon Wireless: get your sales teams trained on smartphone and PDA device functionality; it’s not just a cellphone-world out there where the most difficult question is: "how do I get this ringtone to play when so and so calls?"
-kct
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