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Stupid phone
shmokes:
So, I have a Blackberry Pearl. I carry it in my pocket, so I always lock the keys so I don't pocket-call people. Unfortunately when the pearl (the little trackball/button) is pressed it brings up an option to make an emergency call. If the option is selected and the pearl gets pressed again it will call 911 even though the keys are still locked.
I've pocket-called 911 maybe 6-10 times over the last couple years. Once it happened twice in one night. It's incredibly irritating. I think the emergency call feature is a good idea, but for god's sake why tie it to the Pearl navigation? Why not require something sensible like a series of key presses -- you know, like what is required to unlock the phone (press star and then the green phone button). The whole point of that feature is so your phone doesn't become unlocked inadvertently. Why not say, "Keypad is locked. Press * [green button] to unlock, or dial 911 to place an emergency call." Problem freaking solved! It's such asinine design.
Normally when I pocket-call 911 an operator calls me back and asks if there is a problem and I apologize and that's that. Tonight, though, the Miami-Dade police dept. called, identified themselves and then asked if I have any children. I said I have a little girl and they asked if everything was alright. I said, "Yeah, did you get a 911 call? My stupid phone can call 911 from my pocket even when the keypad is locked."
They said they were going to send the police to my place anyway just to be sure. I was like, "Well . . . I'm not even there. I'm on the road right now" But they wanted to send someone anyway. I had to call my wife and tell her that the cops were on their way over. Then to make matters worse the cops went to my neighbor's door instead (duplex) and they said someone from my number called and asked the cops to come to their house. So the neighbors called me in a panic (not recognizing the number) and asked why I had sent police to their house. Needless to say, I told them that the police were supposed to go next door and that they weren't even supposed to go next door -- that the whole thing was an absurd mixup.
LMAO. The whole thing is so stupid it's hilarious. But also pretty obnoxious.
edit: typos
hypernova:
Get a new phone? At some point, don't they start charging you for these false alarms?
I agree...it's a good idea, but bad execution. Certainly you're not the only one who has this problem.
shmokes:
What? Of course I blame the phone. It is designed in such a way that even when the keys are locked the phone has called 911 6-10 times (from my front pocket, FWIW). You think a customer, who locked himself into a 2-year contract and paid a substantial sum of money for an otherwise excellent phone, should have to go out and buy a new phone (this time without the benefit of a contract subsidy)? You think that's a reasonable solution to this problem. Instead of, say, a firmware update from the company? Don't be absurd.
SavannahLion:
Heh... it used to be if you dialed 911 on my phone it actually locked the phone. Throws it into this sort of "emergency" mode that, I guess, enables the GPS(?) and prevents both incoming and outgoing calls unless they're from emergency personal. It took several minutes of panic through the manual to find how to get it out of that mode. Eventually ended up entering the service menu and disabling the complex "exit" sequence.
I get why they did it, but requiring the manual to get it out of the 911 mode is really not what I want or desire in any phone.
Blanka:
Maybe you can load it with a European firmware. Then it dials 112. Not a big problem in the USA I guess?
They should do it like on most phones. That you can press 1-1-2 or 9-1-1 in that particular order when locked, so you need to press 3 buttons at least in the correct order.
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