"Half" of US BlackBerry Storms are returned

Take that headline with a degree of caution, but the Boy Genius Report has it from what it calls, "three extremely credible sources", that over in the States the BlackBerry Storm is being returned in droves by unhappy customers.

It says the return rates it's hearing range from 35% to 50% in certain markets and regions - an extremely high dissatisfaction rate by any standards. Click through for more.

While reception has been muted for the Storm, high sales figures have confounded most of the mixed reviews it's received since its high profile launch. Issues with the (ahem) "innovative" push-screen typing and glacial screen rotation have been the main grumbles.

Given that there's been such a big marketing push, these high return rates - if accurate - would indicate that, although people may be convinced by the advertising pitch, once bought, many users regret taking the BlackBerry Storm home.

In response, Verizon Wireless, the US carrier has told Boy Genius Report: "The Storm has the lowest return rate of any of our PDAs and, at this point in its life cycle, it has the lowest return rate of any PDA we currently sell."

So make of that what you will. We've contacted Vodafone to ask if there has been an unusually high number of returns here but we're yet to get a response. We'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: Vodafone's told us that return rates in the UK are "nowhere near" the figures quoted above - see our full story here .

[ Boy Genius Report]