The BlackBerry/RIM network was down again this afternoon for the second day running and angry customers turned to Twitter to vent their rage, as RIM provided no real explanation for the outage.
Twitter users Chloé Daniels, @ChloeStyles_, got straight to the point, tweeting "dear blackberry, we hate you, make bbm work! from, every blackberry customer :D"
Following a day of interrupted or non-existent service yesterday, the service resumed sporadically this morning, only to drop out again this afternoon.
BlackBerry/RIM's official statement this afternoon said: "Some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are experiencing messaging and browsing delays. We are working to restore normal service as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused."
Twitter was flooded with complaints. @gsmarena_com tweeted "BlackBerry Internet Service is down again, the Enterprise Server seems OK: RIM has managed to make angry million... bit.ly/pA8Dxd". Alastair Campbell, @campbellclaret, tweeted "Amazed that Blackberry can be so good at Blackberry stuff, but so bad at crisis comms to customers #getmybloodyblackberrybackon
The lack of detail, or in fact any kind of explanation left many BlackBerry users frustrated. @AkiAnastasiou tweeted "The way Blackberry is handling these outages is going to become a PR case study on how NOT to deal with a crisis."
The complaints were not without humour. @MarkSimpsonHUFC tweeted "And iPhone users everywhere smile smugly and search for the "I Told You So" app... #blackberry #BB's", @eljmayes tweeted "What did one BlackBerry user say to the other Blackberry user? Nothing." @A1 tweeted "Its thoughtful of BlackBerry to honour Steve Jobs by having two days of silence. #BBM"
The BBC reported a a Microsoft Exchange consultant at Sembee as saying "Blackberry runs two infrastructures," explained Simon Butler. "The understanding I have is that the BIS service has crashed."
More updates added as they come to hand.