Dear Motorola

Dear Motorola:

Recently, my wife and I dropped our T-Mobile account in favor of Sprint. Not that we were greatly enamored of Sprint, and not that I was dissatisfied with my T-Mobile BlackBerry, but because T-Mobile was giving us a hard time about adding phones for our two grown sons and one son's girlfriend to our account.

So, I chose a Motorola Q for my phone, so that I could send and receive text messages and e-mails, and have lived to regret it.

I was unable to use the e-mail function. I set up a special account for the phone and confirmed via our desktop computer that it was functional. I set up service on the phone, and could compose messages. But I couldn't send messages from the phone on that account.

Your web site contains some pretty advertising, but doesn't offer much in the way of help, although I did eventually find a phone number tucked away in a corner.

A tech support person was able to walk me through the procedure, and I found that there was nothing wrong with my phone or with Sprint's connection -- it was merely that the Q's e-mail system is needlessly complicated in a bizarre and counter-intuitive fashion, involving the use of an entirely separate menu simply to send an e-mail after it is composed.

I am grateful to the technician who patiently explained the ludicrous Q e-mail system, even though he was not very familiar with it himself, but I am appalled that Motorola would design a machine that is so user-hostile and cumbersome.

At my earliest opportunity, I will be ditching my Q, and it will be a long time before I ever consider buying a Motorola product again. Also, I will be sharing my experiences with anyone who will listen.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "You might even blog about it."\\