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Categories: Blackberry, South Africa

BlackBerry Announces “Buddy” Kiosks in SA Malls

Published by on Aug 21st, 2012, 30 Comments

Great news for BlackBerry users in South Africa – RIM has set up “BlackBerry Buddies” support kiosks in major malls, which help with BlackBerry support, give advice, and even update software.

We visited the kiosk in Canal Walk last night, and was impressed to find it full, despite it being 19:00 on a weekday night. Users of all ages were being helped with their BlackBerry devices, and they had the entire range of the latest BlackBerry phones on display to try out.

The “BlackBerry Buddies” are there to show users how to use their devices more efficiently, help them set up shortcuts, download apps, set up email accounts, and download the latest updates.

The BlackBerry Buddies are based at designated stands in the following shopping centres:

•            Sandton City – Johannesburg

•            Menlyn Park – Pretoria

•            Mimosa Mall – Bloemfontein

•            Canal Walk – Cape Town

•            Gateway Shopping Centre – Durban

Its great to see brands like BlackBerry making an effort to improve service levels in SA. Despite BlackBerry’s declining marketshare in first world countries, it is efforts like these that will increase the brand loyalty in SA, who clearly still love their BlackBerrys.

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Comments

  • lar

    This is amusing – Its because Blackberrys are so un user friendly they need people on hand 24 hours a day showing you how to work it

  • fintel

    This is hilarious. If blackberry could make a user friendly phone they wouldn’t need this retarded buddy system. Blackberry have sealed their fate as far as I am concerned.

  • Ryan

    And what do you think they do at Apple’s stand alone stores (of which BlackBerry doesnt have any in South Africa)? Look at you, laugh and just ignore you? No, they provide the exact same service which RIM is now offering. Good on you RIM

  • Shistirrer

    This is a clear sign the RIM is in deep trouble and will go to any lengths to keep its last bastion of support – the South African sheeple.

  • Brad

    well I have just given my iphone to my kid and gone back to Blackberry… Data costs in SA are too expensive to run any other phone other than a Blackberry

  • blackberry fan

    Blackberry is still the most appropriate mobile device for business in SA.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701295683 Theunis Jansen Van Rensburg

    Surely if you can afford an iPhone you can afford a data package that covers data heavy phones? 500MB/1GB per month?

  • Brad

    yeas well, my wife knocked up a data bill of R5k the month I decided to get rid of it…. I was quite angry

  • http://twitter.com/xmahlangeni Xolani Mahlangeni

    And if you weren’t retarded you wouldn’t comment on stuff you know zilch about. BBOS is actually an OS not a glorified app-launcher.

  • Denis Dendrinos

    Brad – that’s too right – that’s why blackberry and for some reason Nokia (shudders) are still so popular.

    Data in SA is ridiculous!
    Sadly the iPhone and samsung’s SIII (wow – that a phone) will only ever be yuppie toys and never enjoy mass following like they do in America, Europe and Asia.

  • http://twitter.com/xmahlangeni Xolani Mahlangeni

    And this post is a clear sign you are a douche. Sheeple is a term used to describe Apple Sheep. It is just inapplicable to BBOS.

  • Stephen_81

    Well Done RIM SA, Apple has the “Genius Bar”, which according to recently released information has 50,000 appointment made every day for people who need help with Apple products, it is good to See RIM understanding that though many of us find BlackBerry to be simple and easy to use, some people need help, some people can’t understand a world with more than 1 button, and these Kiosks are there to teach people you CAN do more with your smartphone, and you don’t need to spend a lot on Apps to do it.

    I hope these Kiosks are successful and RIM deploys them to other countries

  • Brad

    Denis very true. One would imagine that the phone manufacturers would pressure local service providers to be reasonable in their data prices in order to capatalise in a market. Yes the SIII is beautiful. I travel at least once a month overseas on business, and I saw it in Korea recently. There, btw, they enjoy mobile download rates of 1Gig/sec… and cheap, my business colleague pays $10 (US) per month un-capped, un-throttled for data. Included in the $10, he even has his Samsung phone as a portable wifi hotspot, so others can bounce data from his phone, and as its un capped, he doesnt care, so doesnt even password his connection!

  • http://www.facebook.com/terry.burne Terry Burne

    I would have got rid of the wife……. LOL.

  • http://www.facebook.com/lydonmcg Lydon Daniel McGrane

    Getting rid of my Blackberry and getting an actual smartphone was the best decision I ever made. Never again!

  • fintel

    I had a black berry for a year you tool. I just decided to evolve and get something that works.

  • fintel

    why you think he is using apple is beyond me. there are other phones out there. take off your blinkers.

  • Krylik

    Actually Xolani, Sheeple is a portmanteau of the words sheep and people, a disparaging term for people who simply follow others like sheep. When considering that these days one of only two reasons to buy a BlackBerry is because many people have one, and thus meaning BBM is more convenient than SMS, it does certainly seem that the term “Sheeple” very much applies.

    But then again, you probably know this, and from the way you seem to be so vociferously defending BlackBerry (or BBOS, which is the operating system they run, not sure why you care about that though) perhaps it hits a little too close to home?

    On topic again though, It does seem like they are making sure that they don’t lose any further market share in the few third world countries they still dominate.

  • http://www.bandwidthblog.com Minnaar Pieters

    No. This is giving good service to your best customers. Simple.

  • http://www.bandwidthblog.com Minnaar Pieters

    No. It is RIM giving good service to their best customers. I think these initiatives in SA should be encouraged.

  • mduduzi2976

    If they r buying bb’s bcoz BBM is more convenient than SMS then they r not simply following others like sheep and therefore cannot be called sheeple.

  • Theunis Jansen van Rensburg

    BBM is no reason to stay with a Blackberry. There are many many other instant messaging apps out there which are available on all platforms, i.e. Whatsapp.

  • mduduzi2976

    Whatsapp??Give out my cell number??no thank you. Point is everyone has the right to choose whatever suits their needs.

  • ponny-mc

    That’s good news for those who live near those mentioned malls.

  • Theunis Jansen van Rensburg

    Well, to each his own, I guess. I can’t understand why people want to text others that they don’t know or trust enough to give their number to. But hey, that’s just me.

  • BVR

    Today, about 3months after this story I tried to get hold Blackberry Buddies by phone…. They’re only available in ONE mall in Cape Town and I’m nowhere near there, at the moment. I did go there once at a “quiet” 8:30am and was 2nd in the queue. 45mins later I was STILL 2nd in the queue and there were a few people behind me – the staff member couldnt stop taking calls and helping with other queries. So I thought I’d leave and phone them. A few minutes on google trying to find some phone numbers I actually found that

    You cant:

    1) Visit the blackberry buddy URL (provided on other sites). Its dead.

    2) Phone the blackberry buddy people (Duh – there’s no info with a dead url)

    3) za.blackberry.com has contact information for their Canada office (as if I want to call them in Canda)

    4) There’s no obvious contact details on the “contact us” page for za.blackberry.com

    5) You can go to rim.com or blackberry.com and find the address for the Joburg RIM office…. but no phone numbers or anything else of real use. It nogal says “Get directions to here” as if someone in Cape Town is gonna drive there.

    6) I cant even find a flippin online fillout form somewhere that offers me the possibility to send a message to a South African location.

    I’m getting the impression that they dont WANT anyone to contact them.

    ———————-
    In comparison, if I google “Sony Ericsson south africa” I can find contact details one mouse-click away from Google!

    Synopsis: Besides the fact they’ve got a bad rep for the BBM catastrophe and their phones becoming unfashionable. They now also have an evasive company contact policy…. so bly weg!

  • hellosweetworld

    I like their return policies though… haha I got 3 blackberry torches in 10 months.. Every time a brand new one. Yes it gives some software problems, but is still a fairly nice phone…. THE ONLY REASON i still have one is the DATA PLAN. peace

  • safwaan

    Can anyone tell me how much it costs to update your software at Blackberry buddies in Canal Walk please

  • Karin

    Got my Z10 on Friday and just set got my system guys at work to set up my BES. Alarmingly, I have noticed that my data usage is dissapearing fast. Will I pay for work emails through BES on BB10?

  • Theunis Jansen van Rensburg

    You do pay for data on BB10, yes. You don’t have the luxury of BIS, even if it goes through the email server.

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