Registered: Mar 2000
Location:
Posts: 97

Three views.

I've been reading this thread with some interest as of late.

First, I think that there has been a thick air of hostility in this forum recently. I guess its a left over from the flame wars about screen protectors.

As for the thread topic, agreed, there are three schools of thought.

(1) "Handspring really doesn't owe us anything. No one else offers rebates or loyal customer incentives, why should they?"
(2) "Handspring owes us everything. And if we don't get the rebate that we so richly deserve, we'll leave them. They're a horrible company for not doing this."
(3) "Handspring doesn't owe us anything. We don't have a right to or deserve anything. But it would be nice, as a marketing gesture and also as a investment in their market share and continued foothold in the PDA market. As I suggested earlier, they could donate or sell the trade-ins to an academic institution to being some loyalty in a new generation of potential customers."

As for my comment on #1, I do not argue it's validity. Just it's wisdom. But if they chose this route, and it seems they have, so be it. My VDX is still a great unit and I plan to keep Handspring in mind for my next purchase.

As for #2, I personally think that we in America have a warped understanding of the difference between rights and privileges. I can't agree that if Handspring doesn't do this nice gesture of customer attention, that they are a horrible company or that they don't care about their customers. Let's look at their recently released balance sheet... come'on folks, they are still not doing well. Even with a great product. Maybe they just can't afford this program at this time.

So I think that while it would be nice, I stand in the #3 corner... I can't agree that if people don't do what you think is your God given right... that you should throw rocks at them. Come on folks. Is the Visor a better unit than Palm's offerings? Sure. And has that changed because of their policy on no trade-in rebates? No.

Case settled. Next topic?

__________________
Pocket PCs, Palm... next victim, MS Windows!

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 1883

I'm with option #3 too.
It sure would be nice...but I see their point if they won't...

Hey they are out there to make money, not to pamper us (unfortunately )

Let's all just save up, sell our Vdx on Ebay and hope you get a good price for it...

__________________
<IMG WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="50" SRC=http://www.visorcentral.com/images/visorcentral.gif> VisorCentral Discussion Moderator
Do files get embarrassed when they get unzipped?

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Burlington, VT, USA
Posts: 127

The ironic thing about how heated this discussion has come for some is that a quick check of eBay shows Visor Deluxe units in good condition are selling for an average of $225 or so. (Which is insane in itself--some people are bidding over retail on new units there.) Every bid was over $200 except for one at $197.50.

At any rate, you can take a little time and put together a nice eBay ad, and sell your VD for a mere $75 under the cost of a Platinum.

The time to place the ad and to pack up and send the unit to the new buyer is not dramatically different than what it would take to fill out a trade form and send your Visor back to Handspring.

I'm not negating the trade-in argument, just pointing out that at alternative exists NOW that's at least as good, and in many cases financially even better.

__________________
Denny Atkin / [email protected]
Editor-in-Chief, Handheld Computing Magazine / www.hhcmag.com

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 3

ebay=upgrade path!

Yes, it would have been great if Handspring had an upgrade path, or if they at least told us that they were planning on a color version. But the next best thing is ebay! I got $200 bucks for my Blue Visor Deluxe and I had used it for a year. Not a bad deal and it was in excellent condition. If you are still figuring out what to do with your deluxe and thinking about upgrading, ebay might be an option for you.

Tamim