Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 46

Hey no offense to anyone...just an honest question here....

I responded to a post today...and in the few hours since that time...it has been removed from the board...vanished...gone....

The topic of the vanished post...email addresses for Handspring execs.

Again...no offense to anyone...but could I get some clarification as to why this topic is verboten...

I'm a marketing professor..and as such...see very little wrong with the posting of such information...it seems to be in the public domain...as it were...and if a firm's products experience problems...then consumers have the right to complain...or voice their dissatisfaction.

A personal note...I tried to cancel the order for my Visor. Traditional methods yielded no results...so...I emailed Donna Dubinsky. Here friendly and concerned response is the only reason I did not refuse delivery when it came. Now...I love it...but...had she not personally emailed me...I would not be a customer...and I would be bad-mouthing the firm to everyone I know....

Anyway...perhaps if there is a formal policy re: this issue...it could be posted in the FAQ...

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 72

Yes, i assume it was removed. There was another post that was stopped because it featured the e mails. The reason is, those e mail addresses are personal addresses. You cant have everyone in this forum e mailing the exec. I suggest that you put a post stating that anyone in dire need of the address, i.e someone who has been waiting 10 weeks, can e mail you for it. Only give it to those who really need it however. Hope this helps.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

The topic was removed because posting anyone's email address without their permission is not allowed.

If you look on Handspring's website, the email addresses of their senior executives are not listed. Consumers do have the right to complain. Go to Handspring's website or call the 800 number and complain all you want. Voice your dissatisfaction in our Ordering / Shipping section.

What is better for consumers, calling a phone number where someone will answer or sending an email to someone that may or may not be in the office that day?

You can post general email addresses (info, support, etc) all day long, but do not post or request any email address without the owner's permission.

If you read back through past postings you will see postings on this.

------------------
James Hromadka
VisorCentral.com
Personal Website: http://www.Hromadka.com

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 46

Yeah...but, as far as I know, this one did not list any e-mail addresses...it was just some poor soul asking if anyone knew them.

And again...my response would be that if Donna and the other execs don't want to get snowed with email...then spend the money on a decent customer service system with a toll-free number...shorter waits...etc...

I e-mailed her because my emails to the "correct" customer service/sales e-mail addresses were not answered...

And...I know some HandSpring folks lurk here...why no responses from them. There's another board that I frequent where a couple of product manufacturers were getting slammed...within a day...both CEO's were on the forum...responding to the complaints...I even got some free stuff from them...cool.

Why aren't the execs on this board...then the point about their e-mail addresses would become moot.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 46

James,

I would say e-mailing Donna was the only time I got a cogent answer from anyone at HandSpring...so...I would prefer to e-mail...than to call the 800# where I may or may not get a lucid response...and I'm guessing she's not out of the office too many days...

Again...HandSpring needs to have a Corporate Presence in this forum...or have a "complaint" e-mail address...I didn't particularly want to talk to Donna...I just wanted someone who could accomplish something....anyway...I'm a guy...and guys hate the phone....

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Enumclaw, Wa
Posts: 268

quote:

---

Originally posted by JHromadka:
Consumers do have the right to complain.

---

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Redwood City, CA USA
Posts: 162

D ev R ay 4Real:

I think if you look closer, you will see that James said that consumers "do" have the right to complain.

Lynn:

VisorCentral's policy is to not post anyone's personal e-mail address without consent, period. We all agreed to this when we signed up as members. The following is an excerpt from VC's Rules, Policies, and Disclaimers:

"When posting messages, do not post anyone's e-mail address without their consent. If you are posting an e-mail you received from a specific person at a company, do not post their e-mail address. This includes employees of Handspring or any other company. You can, however post general e-mail addresses, such as [email protected]."

I read this before I joined and agreed to abide by this as a member. Did you read this before you joined, or did you just click the Agree button?

If you read it, then why are you contesting it now? If you didn't read it, and are just now becoming aware of their policy on e-mail addresses, ask yourself if it bothers you enough to quit being a VC member. It is simply their policy, we all need to take it or leave it because we all clicked Agree.

One last thing. Donna has helped many people who have e-mailed her, but certainly not all. Probably the only reason she has helped anyone at all is because the volume has been small enough for her to handle (she reads all her own e-mails, BTW). If the floodgates were to open and everyone and their mother were e-mailing her for help, she'd probably get so inundated that she would give up responding to them at all. After all, how many CEO's out there have handled as many e-mails from infuriated customers as Donna has?

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 46

rtalain,

I just clicked agree...

Seriously...with regard to the topic that was deleted from the board...when I posted to it...no e-mail addresses had been posted...at least the last time I checked...

The topic was "What is Donna's email address?"...and I guess my point does not so much have to do with the posting of email addresses...but why the entire topic was deleted. It's one thing to post an email address...and another thing entirely to discuss the issue...don't you think?

My bone-to-pick is why not just delete the "offending" email addresses from the post(s)? Why delete the entire topic? It seems a bit heavy-handed...and my point was...is discussion of the "issue" of contacting HandSpring management "off the table?"

Again...this issue would be moot if all the HandSpring corporate lurkers would show some spine and interact with us here on this board...


[This message has been edited by LynnBob (edited 01-13-2000).]

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 10

I posted a comment that if you were in dire need you could email me and I would give you the email addresses of the Handspring Execs. But low and behold it is gone.

I ask a visor adm. what had happened and still no response.

I wasn't going to publicly post the email addresses as I had stated if you want the email address just email me and I would give it to you. Why was it removed from the list?

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 1883

I agree with lynnbob that just the e-mail adress should be deleted and not the complete posting.

Personally I figured out the adress myself... it is not to hard to figure out...

Anyway somebody posted the adress in a different forum.
I wonder if it is 'legal' to post a link to a site witht the adress....
http://www.visorvillage.com/boards/...ssages/120.html

MIND YOU, only use it when yuo really need it, not when you haven't received you viisor within 2 weeks or something...use your judgement!!!
Also the regular channels do work, allthough a lot slower...so be patient...

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Mililani, HI, USA
Posts: 256

Here, as in another subscription service that I belong to--a mailing list--people get get "censored." The servers in both cases are privately owned, and the admins of those servers have the power and right to control content as they wish. We might try to ask them for their policies behind their censoring, but whether or not they give us sufficient reply is--as is our opportunity to use their BB--a privilege and not a right.

I don't know whether those posts should have been deleted, but I just wanted to add that it's not outside of the admins' right to censor, and we shouldn't be surprised to see that to be the case here and on any privately owned BB that we belong to.

People have often remarked that the Internet is a democratically "governed" space. With regard to private discussion boards, this notion is wrong. I think the record shows that once you participate on discussion boards that resides on somoene's private property, you're no longer in a "democracy" but in a "dictatorship." We might not like it, but that's how it goes.

Registered: Aug 1999
Location: Inverness, FL
Posts: 428

You guys have brought up some very valid points here.

From now on we will only "edit" individual posts that display private e-mail addresses, not delete the whole thread.

This was in fact our original plan, but there seems to have been some Inconsistencies when applying it.

Marcus

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 11

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ToolkiT:
[B]I agree with lynnbob that just the e-mail adress should be deleted and not the complete posting.

Personally I figured out the adress myself... it is not to hard to figure out...

That's where I got the address: I emailed Donna that 6 weeks waiting was very impractical in my case, and my IVD was delivered in 4 days!!
Never got a reply from her, but maybe it helped.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

The reason that I deleted the topic was the specific topic was "what's Donna's email address." What do you think the postings inside that topic would be?

From now on, if the topic is only wanting someone's email address without their permision, I will post the part of the UBB agreement that everyone agreed to when they registered and close the topic.

If you post someone's direct email address or how to figure it out, the posting will be edited.

------------------
James Hromadka
VisorCentral.com
Personal Website: http://www.Hromadka.com