Last week an analyst said in a research note that the BlackBerry Tour, made by Research In Motion and sold by both Sprint and Verizon Wireless, was seeing huge return rates due to faulty trackballs. Both Sprint and Verizon have responded to the report.The report, issued by Gerard Hallaren, director of research at TownHall Investment Research, noted that the Tour was looking at ridiculous return numbers. Hallaren said as many as 50% of all Tour sold to Sprint customers had been returned. Sprint says, "Bollocks."

Sprint was first out the door with an official response: "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 followed up the next day with a statement of its own: "Early on there was an issue with the trackball that affected a small percentage [of] the early production units -- far less than industry norms. The issue was detected early, addressed immediately and is no longer an issue. Returns on this device are some of the lowest among any of our smart phones."

What's interesting is that both companies admitted that there was a problem. The reports of gummy trackballs were at least partially true, even if the returns didn't reach the levels that Hallaren suggested.