According to an analyst, the BlackBerry Tour is seeing huge return rates at Sprint and Verizon Wireless stores. What's the problem? Failure of the trackball.Do you have a BlackBerry Tour? If so, have you had any trouble with the trackball? For those of you who raised your hands, it turns out you're not alone.

According to a research note submitted by Gerard Hallaren, director of research at TownHall Investment Research, the trackball on the Tour is facing some serious problems. Due to the design, it is easy for dirt and grit to get under the trackball and eventually gum it up enough so that it will no longer work as it is supposed to.

Hallaren notes the Tour "needs customers to clean the trackball frequently, and preferably with compressed air. Not surprisingly, most customers prefer not to."

How widespread is this problem? Try 50% of all Tours sold by Sprint. At least, that's the number being floated about. Sprint's position, says Hallaren, is that the "needed quality control would add 2% to 3% to production costs, which would be more than offset by improved operating expense from fewer returns."

Sprint has responded to the issue directly, and said, "We experienced a small percentage of early production BlackBerry Tour smartphones with trackball issues. As soon as the issue was identified, we worked closely with our partners at RIM to resolve the problem quickly. We recommend any customer experiencing issues with the trackball on their BlackBerry Tour smartphone visit a Sprint Service & Repair Center."

Verizon, it appears, isn't so happy about the return rates. Hallaran reports, "Verizon is angry about this recurring trackball problem and is telling its retailers to expect strong support for the new Motorola phone." (That would be the new Android phone from Motorola, by the way.)

RIM has not officially recognized any sort of problem with the Tour, but reports across the Web suggest that it is a widespread issue.

[Via Barrons]