I’ve always been a fan of technology.  I got a Ham radio license before I went to college.  I’ve had a PDA.  I use my iPod Touch religiously.  I’ve also been looking to upgrade to a smart phone.  For the past few months, I’ve been giving Research In Motion’s various lines of BlackBerry devices some serious consideration.

That was until Wednesday.  On Wednesday, my Mom was told by a customer support tech to upgrade her phone to the latest OS (version 5.0) to make things work more smoothly.  Considering the reactivity problems she’d been having with her Storm, this made perfect sense.  The process for upgrading, however, didn’t.

First, we had to download software from the BlackBerry website.  Then it had to install on the computer.  Then we had to reboot the computer.  Then we had to attach the device to the computer (this was an assumed step, the software came with absolutely 0 instructions other than “Click here to check for updates”).

Next, the software ran us through a few screens of options.  “Install this, upgrade that.”  We checked all the boxes next to apps she’d been using and clicked “next.”  About 30 minutes later, the software told us we were done and had to configure the phone.

I unplugged it and started going.  I wanted to check that it worked, so I called my brother.  Check.  Then I wanted to check incoming calls, so I called the phone with my cell.

Problem #1: The phone rang, but without the custom ringtone or photo Mom had set up for my number.

I hung up and pulled up the contact list to make sure things were still associated with my number.  This was where things seriously started to go wrong …

Problem #2: The contact list was empty.

I don’t mean one or two phone numbers were missing, there was nothing in the contact list at all!  The scary part was that not once during the upgrade and “alleged” backup process were we told contacts would be removed.  I started looking around a little more for her custom apps (Facebook, Sudoku, etc).

Problem #3: The apps were gone!

Now I was getting really upset.  So I pulled up the file list to see if I could manually find things.  Sure enough my custom ringtone is still there, my photo is still there, even Sudoku was somehow saved on the memory card.  But aside from several photos, 3 ringtones, and 1 app, I could find nothing from before the upgrade.  I decided to cut my losses and just re-download Facebook.

Problem #4: The “App World” app was gone, too!

It’s pretty bad when you need an app to get apps, but here we are.  I went to the App World website to download it manually.  It gave me two options: 1) Download on the computer or 2) download on the BlackBerry.  Since I was already there, I decided to download on the computer.

Problem #5: The “browser detection” scripts are broken!

My parents only use Internet Explorer.  While I personally despise the browser, I’m forced to use it when on their machine.  Ironically, the BlackBerry app downloader only works with Internet Explorer.  It even told me so … in the “You’re using an incompatible browser, please try again with Internet Explorer” message!  I gave up trying to convince them that, yes, I was using the crappy browser … so I turned to the BlackBerry itself.

Problem #6: The browser was inaccessible!

After a few minutes of panicked searching for the Browser icon I found it hidden in a “Settings” menu.  I clicked it and got an error along the lines of, “Your phone is not configured to browse the Internet, please contact your service provider.”

So here I am … two hours in to what should be a 15-minute upgrade of a popular mobile device.  I’m tech savvy, frequently test beta software, and develop interactive web applications … and I couldn’t even figure out what was going on.

I have no doubt that people will continue to purchase BlackBerry devices in the future.  However, I can guarantee that a new Tour or Storm will not be on my list any time in the foreseeable future.