Furious BlackBerry users today demanded compensation after the company's supercomputers crashed again, leaving people across four continents without email.
Millions of users have been hit by an unprecedented series of problems after makers Research in Motion's systems at its European headquarters in Slough went into meltdown, bringing chaos to the City, where many banks rely on their BlackBerry messenger systems to communicate.
One executive said: "No departments have been able to talk to each other, we can't get anything done."
The dependence on BlackBerrys has been massively increased in recent years by the trend towards "remote" working with staff constantly out of the office rather than based at a desk.
Telecoms analyst Ian Fogg warned the company's future hangs in the balance if the problems continue: "Consumers are very unsatisfied and likely to jump to other phones. In the UK, its particularly bad news for young people. BlackBerry messenger and Facebook support was first to be hit and those are the very services they rely on."
A source at RIM said: "Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested.
As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service."
Thousands have taken to Twitter to vent their anger, with many calling for compensation or threatening to switch to rival phones. Lord Alan Sugar led the protests, warning of "massive damage" to the firm's image.
