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Claire got a BlackBerry for her birthday!
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67 Comments

RIM is rebuilding their fanbase one person at a time

By Michelle Haag on 18 Jul 2012 01:42 pm
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Earlier this month Bla1ze passed along a story about a mother looking for a used BlackBerry smartphone on Kijiji for her daughter Claire's 13th birthday. The mother works in marketing, and passed along some suggestions for RIM, poking a bit of fun at teenagers and apps in general while doing so. Shortly after posting the story, the woman's ad quickly received over 20,000 hits, drawing quite a bit of attention to the family and the girl's birthday wish.

Well, Claire has had her wish granted, but not in the way you might imagine. Research In Motion contacted Claire's mom and gave her a brand new BlackBerry to give her daughter for her birthday! “Her birthday gift would have been delayed. I wouldn’t have been able to afford it for a little bit longer, so you know, RIM just made her 13th birthday for her,” Cynthia told CTV News. I'm sure it's a birthday that Claire and her mom will never forget.

RIM has been very generous lately, handing out not only BlackBerry smartphones, but other random gifts as well. Last month, CrackBerry member david_nbyla responded to the question "What is your #boldmove?" on Twitter, sending the @BlackBerry team a picture of his proposal on the Great Wall of China. In return, RIM sent him and his fiance a huge box filled with two BlackBerry Bold 9900's, PlayBooks, gift cards, and a picture frame with the picture he'd sent in.

Gestures such as giving a young teenager her first BlackBerry and sharing in the excitement of a newly engaged couple are moves that most companies probably wouldn't take the time make, but are ones that will help to build up a loyal following. Kudos to RIM for these acts of kindness, as well as those we haven't heard about.

Source: CTVNews

Topics: Research In Motion From The Forums News & Rumors From The Forums...

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67 comments

martinjdub

Great story and welcome to #TeamBlackBerry Claire, its great to be us!

Mirst :)

Zizzzzy

And if that's you in this picture, take the shipping plastic off your camera lens :P

EchuOkan1

I second that. Happy birthday Claire! Enjoy your new BB.

Foreverup

“Her birthday gift would have been delayed. I wouldn’t have been able to afford it for a little bit longer, so you know, RIM just made her 13th birthday for her,” Cynthia told CTV News

Shouldn't have RIM sent the birthday Blackberry a day late? You know, just to be consistent.

Just a joke everyone.

gspeng

Cute, LMFAO, be ware of Troll hunters:):):):)joke,joke. Congrats and Happy Birthday, enjoy.

mikeo007

RIM have been very generous as of late. Even with all of the other problems going on, nobody can dispute that.

sk8er_tor

Nice to hear! Good going RIM.

OniPod

They usually have been quite generous in the past, no reason to see any of that change anytime soon. Way to do it RIM!!!

david_nbyla

Holy crap... that's me!

imcurved

Picture please!!! I want to see that special moment too.

TMO_9000_32GB_PB

newcollector

That is one nice move by RIM. Now in honor of the Olympics, they should start giving any of the Torch family of phones as prizes.

drjay868

I like what you did there... and RIM should like it too and do exactly that!

belial1996

or just stop snubbing the 9800!

312Lorden

Hey, a great takeoff on the Torch phone. C'mon RIM!

Houshinto

Even if it's a few people at a time. The consensus will eventually catch on.
Keep it up RIM. This is how you slowly clear the Fog of BS against you.

Superfly_FR

Positive stories are always good stories. This one is.
#ILoveThat !

ryanlrobinson

My fiancée and I also won the #BoldMove Twitter contest which we didn't even know was a contest when I responded (except instead of a picture frame we got two gelaskins labelled with our names). We were pretty impressed.

Then today, as a developer they just sent me a $100 Amazon gift card for answering a survey (took about 5 minutes) and taking part in an online chatroom about developer issues (I spent about an hour in it).

9lives353

I dumped my Blackberry for Android/Windows Phone 15 months ago and just returned after discovering the grass isn't always greener. I even wrote about it!
http://nearvana.net/2012/07/11/back-in-blackberry/

BruvvaPete

Read it. Now take all that you love about your BB and add it to what BB10 will offer with the keyboard version.

thecsman

Nice read! You definitely get it.

veeru789

@9lives353,
Excellent post. We are all BlackBerry by choice, but you've written it down so well. Cheers

lynxs_claw

I put an ad into Kijiji looking for a used BB10 full touchscreen phone... I hope my prays get answered. :)

Sparro

Ya, but when I contacted RIM about the two 9860's I have that are still under warranty and have manufactures defects in the hardware "menu" and "back" buttons they told me they don't replace phones and there was nothing they could do for me.
I quoted the story about RIM giving the Ottawa man a new BlackBerry after he lost his and the above story and they had nothing to say.
This is NOT how to keep loyal customers from "jumping ship" to the competition when they can't afford to lose one person and their stock trading at under seven bucks!

BruvvaPete

For warranty issues, should you not be going through the location where you purchased the phone?

crow2k

i only wonder if apple or samsung would have done this for this young lady??? well done RIM.

yaytoast

With the way things are going, RIM won't have a fanbase to keep, let alone rebuild.

BruvvaPete

There had to be at least one of you negative nancies on such a nice, good feeling story. Stop being a moron and be happy for the family.

Perjade

Calling people " nagative nancies", " morons", idiots , on so on, on this Crackberry site this man ( woman ? ) is constantly insulting people day after day ! Is he ( she ?) really a good representative of the Crackberry Fanboys? Does RIM need, or want , persons like this to speak for them ?
Will this kind of trash talking bring more people to the Blackberry team?

Peace !

veeru789

Yes we need him/her to shut a few trolls on this site. It might/might not bring more people to the community but sure will kick out some whom we don't need.

Perjade

Exactly this kind of thinking has put RIM in the precarious situation it is right now. RIM will need to bring back a LOT of people ( even the ones you call " trolls") to survive. Sorry, but the support from just "The hard core BB fanboys" will not save Blackberry.

BruvvaPete

You have a negative view regarding the success of RIM and the optimism of the BB community. I ask again. Why are you a member of the CB community if you have no faith? Contribute with a thoughtful response.

BruvvaPete

That person interupted a feel good story about a family who got a great, lucky break along with some nice exposure and no one should call him/her out on it. That's what you're saying? Should I put on a melody and light candles and say 'tsk, tsk. Play nice...'? You don't rain on someone's parade and not expect a snap back.
.
This nice gesture by RIM gave them some good exposure in the face of all the negative press. You can't buy this kind of air time.

crow2k

RIM has alot cash, they arent going away, sorry to disappoint you!!!

Rootbrian

to jump in that toaster and hit the button!

Thunderbuck

This is a fantastic story. Loved the mom's original Kijiji ad, which I'd say poked affectionate fun at RIM and teens in general.

hoopitz

Love to hear stories like this!

Blackberry_boffin

You cannot help but be touched. Really. I was even more impressed with Great Wall of China proposal.

Locksheema

I'm in South Africa, and have been trying to help people on the BlackBerry South Africa Facebook page for some time. Two weeks ago, I got a post asking for my contact details. I sent them, and received an e-mail back. They said they had noticed me on the page and wanted to send a gift, asking if I had a car charger for my 9900. I replied yes, and suggested a few things I was in need of: 1) JM1 Battery Pack 2) Bluetooth Headset & 3) White Hardshell Case. I was blown away, when I received all 3 the next day. :-D

mrtheend

Cool! ;) gotta love RIM when they do things like that... They're like a very old friend that pisses you off one day and then does something amazing. can't be mad for too long now, can you?
------
Rocking my two berries:
Torch 9810 OS 7.1.0.402
Playbook OS 2.0.1.358

bungaboy

Nice ending to neat story. And only a couple of trollshots so far.

Atta Go RIM!

lewisc1979

I answered a tweet about a #BoldMove and won a $500 Visa gift card, a 16 GB PlayBook with charging pod, a travel bag, and a passport holder. It was awesome.

Darrweng

It is my birthday next week. But I can wait till January for the BB10! C'mon RIM! I'm poor and can't afford a new device. I eat only once a day so that I can save money and pay for my BBM Music subscription.

Poodwahr

RIM is building their fanbase one person at a time; however they are losing customers one thousand at a time (read any business section in today's paper).

Sad, but true.

Rootbrian

News should always be taken with a grain of salt.

BruvvaPete

NY Times reported that RIM has released its new phone (which was in fact the Dev Alpha). Other news outlets picked it up and regurgitated the story without doing their own fact checking. If you haven't seen that this is what is being done over and over again, not just with RIM, but with other news stories, then I don't know what else to say to you.... Other than this: RIM is dominant in quite a few markets like India, Indonesia, etc. Keep believing what you read the media. It's all true, right?

bambinoitaliano

It's nice to have a good ending to the story. This article is like a family enjoying a nice picnic. Unfortunately, a few sea gulls notice and flew over, circling, squawking and finally shitting all over the family. The moral of the story is haters are people who want what you have but have a shitty way of showing it. Even if they get what you have, they still not able to appreciate the way others are able to.

the_sleuth

Nice story! Too bad, more media outlets are not reporting this story, especially in the U.S. Where's RIM's PR team spinning this story for more positive branding?

BB_makes_it_happen

Shades of Pixar's great movie 'Monster's Inc.' comes to mind where laughter and joy greatly out powers the scare factor. This story is one of joy and laughter - while the media revolves around the latter. Keep up the great work RIM.

marko868

Meanwhile in the real world Apple and Android add more subscribers today than Blackberry did in a year...

Rootbrian

They aren't going to be as nice as RIM was to this family.

CarBob

Marko868 - Why do you have such a negative attitude toward RIM/BlackBerry? Did you have a bad experience?

Glad you are enjoying your Apple iPhone and/or Android. In any case, don't come on CrackBerry and "rain all over our parade."

BLACKBERRY FOR LIFE !!

- CB

marko868

Let me know when reality sets in...

BruvvaPete

This is supposed to be all about a family and a feel good story but you had to show what kind of person you are. I've seen you troll before but this move is pathetic.
Surfer. You're in the same boat. Karma is a b.

BruvvaPete

So you edited your initial post so less people would see what you wrote. Stand by your words, as atrocious as they were.

serversurfer

Okay... Oooone (1!) fan more... (RIM is currently just able to impress little girls!) On the other hand Quantas Airways Limited replaced BlackBerry (BES) by apple´s iPhone. RIM loses around 1300 users... IBM Australia also stopps purchasing BlackBerry since january... They´re all not willing to wait for BB10... But how knows- maybe they are all older than 13 years....

LUVMYBERRIES

You know, time and time again I ask myself... is it time to switch? I've been a BB follower and user since the days of the BB when it only had emails ;o) Yes I am old... Then RIM does this and makes me realize that they are good at heart, great hard working people that will hopefully make it through. Makes me proud to be Canadian and a BB user.

Congrats and enjoy your BB. (BBM RULES)

MoPiou

I'm happy for them and this lucky family.
RIM is kind-hearted and congrats to Claire's mommy.
She would do a great BlackBerry's PR !

312Lorden

I read that 12,000 BB users in the Philippines were treated to a Nicky Minaj concert there, and that BB owners were given free tickets to the concert. Wow! we need that kind of publicity in Canada and the U.S. Start with some Canadian chanteuse like Avril or Shania Twain, and in the U.S., Nicky Minaj or Rihanna.

Hey, I'm a retired old crock but I know something about good PR vibes.

Android Market for QNX

Oh yeah! +1 for the BlackBerry team!

depscribe

Well, they can add me to their fanbase by releasing in sufficient quantity that I can buy one -- don't even need a freebie -- the frigging BLUETOOTH KEYBOARD!!!!!

depscribe