Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 11

I've laid out the numerous problems I have had with Handspring in other threads but here's a quick recap:

Oct 6 -- Placed order on web site for Ice Visor Deluxe, received confirming email showing all info correct.

Nov 19 -- Credit card charged.

Dec 1-6 -- Contacted Handspring CS because I was nervous that unit had not arrived; each rep I spoke to had a different story.

Dec 7 -- Emailed Donna Dubinsky & received a reply the same day; my case was assigned to one of her top executives.

Dec 13 -- Visor finally received but was defective; won't power on without a soft reset.

Dec 14 -- Promised a replacement "in two days."

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Now for the update to my comedy of Handspring Horrors.

After silence for a week, I had no fewer than five Handspring employees call me within 24 hours.

Each had a different version of events, which didn't exactly inspire confidence. I had not one but two separate RMA numbers and the promise of a free leather case. I also had the cell phone number for Handspring's Director of Quality and Field Service in case anything else went wrong.

Of course, it did.

Turns out that Handspring once again truncated the shipping address on the replacement unit. Does this company ever learn?

Fortunately, someone at FedEx had the wherewithal to call for the correct info this time.

For the record, the promised case was not shipped with the replacement. Not that it matters because the replacement itself was DOA as well.

I wasn't really surprised.

This time the Visor powered on once, allowing me to set it up and hot sync my data. Then after sitting for about 15 minutes, the display only showed vertical stripes and the device emitted a high pitch squeal.

To her credit, my contact called me right back despite it being after 5 on December 23. She promised to make things right on Monday.

I remain dubious.

If you are trying to decide whether to order a Visor, do yourself a favor. Buy a Palm. I wish I had.

Instead, I have two dead Visors, a fistful of empty promises and several outright lies to show for 11 weeks of wasted time and innumerable hours of frustration. Handspring may have some bright ideas but the company has serious operational problems and, so far, seems incapable of fixing them.



[This message has been edited by JHromadka (edited 12-28-1999).]

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 12

Mark, I had to doublecheck to see who had posted this message because I thought it might've been me. Actually, there are similarities to my situation but also a number of differences:

Similarity: I too ordered on Oct. 6. Ordering online was a big mistake. Of course, they promised to ship orders in the order they were received, but even when they knew they wouldn't be doing that, they didn't admit it until over 6 weeks had passed.

Similarity: They truncated the shipping address on my unit. They included my apartment number, but not my street address. Airborne Express called me, confused. Airborne Express? I thought they were using UPS. Oh yeah, well, their people thought so too. The day after it was shipped, some clueless CS rep gave me an airbill number and said it was for UPS. UPS, of course, had no record of such an airbill number. Oh, and although I'd paid for overnight shipping, it was sent by 2-day (and took 4 days because of the address screwup).

Difference: Mine (Graphite Visor Deluxe) worked when I got it. But no serial cradle (backordered), and ... the CD was cracked and unreadable. I called right away and was told it would be sent right out. I asked for it to be sent overnight and they refused.

I've been lied to so many times since then, it's just..... beyond words. These are generally institutional lies, by which I mean that they aren't all due to an individual person telling me something that s/he knows is not true. Rather, the company keeps its contractors and employees sufficiently in the dark that they tell what they believe to be the truth (e.g., "There's no such thing as a $10.63 shipping charge") (e.g., "It will be sent out within two days") (e.g., "I'll escalate it and my supervisor will take care of it first thing on Monday") but bears no resemblance to the truth.

Can I shorten the story and say that I still haven't received a CD? It's too frustrating to write too much about. I can't begin to count the number of times I've heard that awful word "escalate."

Difference: I never did try e-mailing Donna D. or Jeff H. There's nothing on the web site that suggests doing so. Silly, naive VisorVictim; I've tried ways to bust through the helpless contractors on the phone, but I should've gone right to the top by e-mail. I should try that soon, since I still don't have a working CD.

Similarity: I wish I'd bought a Palm. The Visor is great, but I still can't sync it to Outlook, so I'm still not really using it. Had I walked into a retail outlet on October 6 instead of ordering a Visor online, I'd be in much better shape. I have expressed the same sentiment as you in another forum (a CNet review): The company has some great ideas and one good-sounding product, but you get a lot of crap that you haven't bargained for. The service problems are not worth the hope that the Visor will turn out to be a superior product.

Anyone who has recently ordered, give some serious thought to cancelling your order and buying a Palm. The Palm V has advantages other than its size and durable case. It is backed by a strong and proven company that knows how to treat its customers.

Maybe Handspring will decide to become a wholesaler. Retail is a real business and maybe this company just can't handle it.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: MERRIMACK, NH, USA
Posts: 8

These people are pathetic. I think I'm going to call and cancel. My father ordered one on November 18th...1 hour later, he called and ordered one for me. He recieved his a week ago. I do NOT have mine. We both ordered the same thing.

I just got off of the phone..."well sir, may I get your credit card number?" WHY?! Don't you have it? Can't you find my order? "Yes we have it but I need it again." I can't give that to you because it was ordered for me by my father. "Well...it hasn't shipped as of the 18th." No kidding! I don't have it! "Please wait another week." Then that puts me past the 6 week deadline. "Correct. At that point call us up and we'll place a new order." ???!!?!?!?!?!?!?

I'd have better luck taking this up with my 18th month-old son.

I will never purchase anything from this company again regardless of the product quality.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Chelmsford, MA USA
Posts: 62

Handspring is plagued with problems from not only the outsourced customer service/order taking organization, but with shipping.

I ordered my Visor via UPS Standard and it was shipped Fed Ex Overnight. Guess what, the paperwork on the Fed Ex slip clearly stated ship date 12/13 to be delivered overnight by 12/14. It arrived 12/15 and was the last package the guy had to deliver.

On top of that, I think the customer service group Handspring has hired has more damage and cost Handspring more money than it ever intended. The CSRs cannot take the information down properly and do not have the brains to obtain as much accurate information as they can. It is their job to speak to a supervisor to escalate issues and not tell a customer "wait a week and if you still don't have it order again." I've also read where reps are refusing to allow customers to speak with supervisors. This is completely wrong and sounds like reps are trying to cover their own...jobs. Apparently they are too stupid to realize that the Visor Customers who have fallen victim to their inability to provide any service have figured out how to get in touch with the head honchos who hired their pitiful company, and may be regretting that decision.

I'm one of lucky individuals who got their Visor and serial cradle within the shipping timeframe (although folks who ordered after me got their orders before me). My only complaint is that after 24 hours 2 small scratches appeared on the Graffiti area of the screen. I was careful to keep the screen clear of dust and such, and didn't write hard, so it was a surprise to see the scratches.

Other than that, I'm extremely pleased with the unit. I had to test many PDAs for a former manager so I tried a variety of them. The last time I saw his Palm Pilot it was in a drawer under a bunch of accessories for his laptop. I've been using mine regularly since the day I got it.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 8

I don't know why all of you are so displeased with Handspring. They have treated me royally over the past month I have sat around waiting for my Visors to arrive.

I got to listen to hour upon hour of top 40 on-hold music. Plus, I've been treated to one of the most comedic acts since I've called Packarcd Bell tech support.

I haven't been waiting for my Visor quite as long as you all have, but I feel your pain. I've been chronicling my adventures with Handspring on my web site. A weekly tribute to the ineptitude of the average Handspring Customer Screw-over department.

I was told today that My Visor will arrive tomorrow. But I could not be given a shipment tracking number. I'm amazed at how attuned the customer service people are with the intimate daily routines of UPS. Or is it FedEx? Or Airborne? Who knows...

What I know is that if I call today near closing and there is no tracking number, I will most certainly head down to CompUSA and pick up a Palm-OS system that is not vaporware. And I'll probably cancel my order, too, come to think of it.

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 11

For the record, a replacement Visor did arrive on Tuesday as promised. It seems to be functioning normally.

Handspring was out of ice units so I opted to take an orange one. Ironically, I intended to order orange in the first place but made the wrong selection on the web form. Then I didn't try to change the color because I didn't want to chance messing up my order.

Now that I have it, I'm not that impressed. It certainly was not worth the wait or the trauma Handspring inflicted.

If I had it to do over again, I'd buy a Palm Vx. I still might.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 8

Well, I called back, and as it turns out, my credit card was charged. So even if I wanted to cancel, I would have to return the Visors on an RMA - the Visors that have not been shipped to me yet.

They also don't have a tracking number for my order, which is strange because they have taken payment for it.

I have taken a couple of interesting notes, though...

1) Calling the toll-free sales number is the same as calling the long-distance Customer Service number. The toll-free number is 888-565-9393, in case you didn't see it on their web site.

2) Calling the financial department toll-free usually gets someone to pick up the phone immediately, even if they can only tell you whether you've been charged for the order and verify the billing and shipping address. Dial 888-243-3972 and pick option 4 from the menu (the only one that doesn't refer you to the long-distance service number).

3) Insisting that you want to talk to a supervisor will get you nothing but an exasperated operator.

4) Customer Service personnel don't know anything about the operations of their own ordering computers. Don't bother to ask them how their system works, because you'll get a different answer each time.

5) If you have any problems at all, and feel you haven't resolved anything by the end of your call, simply ask to have your order "escalated". This apparently means that a supervisor will eventually look at your order and hand it back to an inept operator.

6) Buy a Palm.

7) The Customer Service operators don't seem to work anywhere near the shipping or financial branches of the company. In fact, I would be surprised if their Customer Service department was not located in the heart of Mexico.

8) The operators will also admit to knowing nothing if you reason with them. I found it very gratifying to hear my last operator say, "honestly, I don't know anything".

None of this information seems to have helped me so far, but your mileage may vary.

Off to work on my 7th hour of Handspring on-hold music...


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Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 117

I remember seeing a story on 20/20 a year or so ago about these prisons in california that had set up contract customer service departments using prisoners as customer service reps for a wide range of companies.

hummmmmmmmmm

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Life is to short for boring food

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 434

Canned Worms,

Wrong border... the order centre is in Canada. Actually, it's on Bloor Street in Toronto (long street). The kicker is that I live a block from Bloor St., and I have waited on hold for several hours total. It would been easier and faster for me just to go there in person. (It's almost 10 weeks now and I have received nothing.)

The only benefit of the Toronto site is that, like, you don't have to listen to the, like, California talk, dude.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 8

The only reason I assumed that the center was in Mexico was because everyone I've spoken to has a latino name and barely speaks English. The operators distinctly did not sound as though they spoke english as a native language, and didn't have any inflection that seemed Canadian.

Which is even more strange, now that I ponder this... Why can't they ship to Canada when their order center is there?

Talking to Handspring Customer Service on the phone is becoming my new full-time job. Whee, fun.

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 12

Has anyone ever spoken to a supervisor? Whenever I've asked for one, I've been told that there are none there, or none available. This happens at all times of the day, any day. Just another one of the lies?

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 8

I was told that they exist, but there seems to be only one on duty at any given time, and since there are so many problems they are unable to attend to you directly.

Most operators seem reluctant to pass you on to a supervisor, if only because you will tie up their phone for hours while you wait for them, thus tieing up phone lines, thus making me wait more because you want to talk to a supervisor... I would assume that the supervisor can't immediately tell you anything more than what the regular reps would, except they seem to have the power to call the shipping department. I'll let you know if the one that I've been escalated to (although never spoke to) ever calls me back.

Either that or there really aren't any. There really weren't any when I tried to get a refund at Radio Shack the other day. I only go there to buy batteries any more, and you'd think they could get that right? They're almost as bad as Handspring. Almost.

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 3

No problems at all. Ordered 2 and a serial cradle on December 4th, received everything 2 weeks later, and both have worked like champions. I don't want people visiting this board to get the impression that this is happening to everyone. If you order now, you will probably get it in 2 weeks. Excellent product. I am finding it harder and harder to believe that the same people continue to get bad Visor's. Could this be a smear campaign???

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Chelmsford, MA USA
Posts: 62

kcav,

No the folks posting about defective units are not waging a smear campaign. I believe Handspring even acknowledged some of the problems with shipped units.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 8

kcav,

It's great that you Visor order worked perfectly.

I'm sure the Visor *works* fine.

I'm also sure that although I ordered mine THREE WHOLE WEEKS before you, I still can't make that evaluation.

And I don't even cap the iceberg as far as length of time for wating for orders to come through.

I think it's the volume of bad order fulfillment that Handspring is propagating that is causing so many people to lash out at them.

In other words, there is no smear going on, unless Handspring themselves is screwing everyone over so that they give themselves a bad name.

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Arlington, VA, USA
Posts: 4

I assure you I have no agenda other than getting what I paid for about 6 weeks ago. Here's the quick listing of my situation:

Oct. 30 Ordered Visor Deluxe

Nov. 28 Received Visor Deluxe, but it doesn't work, requiring a soft reset every time I turned it back on, then just not working at all. I sent it back to Louisville, where it arrived Dec. 2. I was told I'd get a replacement in a week.

Dec. 16 Called when a replacement hadn't arrived in two weeks. I was told it had been "escalated" and that I'd get it "by the end of the week."

Jan. 2 Called when the replacement still hadn't arrived. Again was told it would be "escalated" and that I'd get it "by the end of the week."

[This message has been edited by JHromadka (edited 01-03-2000).]

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Posts: 4

No Handspring smear campaign going on:

Here is my story...I placed an order by the web on November 1, 1999 (order # 991101-74xx) As of today, Jan. 1, 2000, I still have not received it. This was a Christmas present for a family member. I placed several calls to their customer service dept. (11/29, 12/6, 12/9, 12/13) requesting the status of my order. Each time, (after an hour or so on hold), all the operators could do was my shipping information and the product I ordered. They told me to wait another week and call them back.

I began worrying that it would not make it to my house before December 22, as I was leaving town for Christmas, so I called again on December 17. I was then told "wait six weeks and call back." I then reminded the CS guy that six weeks had passed, and now I was in week 8. He seemed upset I was still on the phone, so he told me he would have his supervisor call the wherehouse and find out why my order wasn't shipping. Several days passed, and I still didn't receive my Visor Deluxe. So I called again on December 21. I talked to a nice (for once) lady, who told me that she would do everything that she could to get the order shipped to me that evening, so I would have it before Christmas. It never arrived, so I expected it to be waiting for me when I arrived back home after Christmas.
(I ended up buying this person a Voodoo 3 3000 card for Christmas, based on a hunch that the Handspring Visor Deluxe won't arrive, and I was right)

Before taking any more action and making more phone calls (mainly to prevent a $100,000 phone bill next month), I waited a few days to see if anything would arrive. Nothing did, and even though I do not need this product anymore, I've become resolved to get it. On December 29, I sent Barbara Grossman an email message explaining my situation. (Donna Dubinsky, the CEO, is supposedly out on vaction until Jan. 3, 2000) I have not heard back from her, but I if I do not by tomorrow afternoon, I will call their corporate offices to complain.

Dan

--sorry for the long message, I've just become really frustrated

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 95

ARRGH! <RANT>

OK, I'm amazed by the people who complain most loudly about their visor being X weeks late, but can't even COUNT properly.

Case in point, Smitty825:
Ordered 11-1-1999
Called 12-17-1999 and told phone rep that he'd already waited 8 weeks. In truth, he had actually only waited about 6 1/2. See below:

Ordered: 11-01-1999
Week 1: 11-08-1999 Week 2: 11-15-1999
Week 3: 11-22-1999 Week 4: 11-29-1999
Week 5: 12-06-1999 Week 6: 12-13-1999
Week 7: 12-20-1999 Week 8: 12-27-1999
Week 9: 01-03-2000

Yes, his Visor was late (assuming that it wasn't already on the road somewhere, which it presumably isn't). Yes, he has every right to be annoyed that his Visor hasn't arrived yet. BUT, those CSRs probably have calendars on their desks they can glance at to check dates, and can reasonably be expected to take your call less seriously if you lie to them about how long you've waited.

</RANT>

As for a recommended course of action? E-mail Donna Dubinsky & relay your information (make sure it's correct) and you'll likely have your stuff inside a week. It took 8 days for because there was a bit of phone-tag going on.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 8

I'm sure that the difference between 6.5 and 8 weeks is not what the problem is with shipment. Considering that no CSR could tell me where my Visors have been since December 26th (which is 6 weeks to the day after when I ordered - see I'm using dates), their problems must be much more severe than that.

AND when I called this morning, I was told the same thing I've been told since early December (when I was verifying my order and was consistently hung up on after spending hours on hold) which is, "it's in the warehouse waiting for a tracking number". The box is sitting on the floor next to my chair - arrived today.

Hopefully their incompetance leads to them sending me an additional set of Visors, which I can auction on eBay.

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location: MERRIMACK, NH, USA
Posts: 8

Ordered on November 18th. Where is it? I've been calling and emailing for two weeks. I've given them my credit card number again since, "that'll ensure it'll go out right away."

That was a week ago...still hasn't shipped as of today. Today I just went ahead and placed a new order.

This is the worst purchase experience I've had in my life...literally. Buying a car is easier than this!