Registered: Nov 1999
Location: South Riding, VA
Posts: 33

I emailed Donna, Jeff, and Ed with some questions that I have seen floating around VC that I thought might be interesting to us all. Here is a summary with Donna's response.

1) How many visors have been ordered/shipped so far? How do order numbers work? What is your current production rate?
Donna: "We don't release the details of our shipping and production numbers. We are
updating the web site, hopefully tonight, with the latest shipping information."
They did update the site right after her email by the way, including some info about ongoing ramping up of production and a significant jump after New Years.
2) I asked about the rumors that the initial orders were taken by hand, about the nature of the "corruption" and about the cause of the continuing delays. To be fair, my questions were kind of rambling, and she has no reason to trust me or spend a lot of time responding to my third degree. This was the closest to an answer I got to these though: "we're trying to be as open as we can with
information as we feel confident that we can stand behind it."
3)Are there really only 8 employees? (I thought I read this back in October)
"there are over 60 Handspring employees, with
more added every day"
4)Where did the name Visor come from. (There was an old post speculating on this, but I never saw an answer with much authority. It turned out the one I was sure was wrong was right!)
"Visor came from "Advisor" and was proposed by Jeff's daughter!"

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 70

Thanks for trying to pry a little information. I know numbers and shipping are often closely held secrets, but it seems a mite suspecious under the present circumstances, given how hard it is to find any correct info.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 70

Thanks for trying to pry a little information. I know numbers and shipping are often closely held secrets, but it seems a mite suspecious under the present circumstances, given how hard it is to find any correct info.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: South Riding, VA
Posts: 33

True, but I don't blame them. After all the bad press they have gotten they don't want to add any fuel to the fire. And someone would take almost any answer to those questions and turn it into bad press. They also I'm sure are aware of competitors who could use the info maybe...

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

geofh,

I don't know how seriously you'll take me, but I will tell you that the "pen and paper" order taking upon the opening of the phone lines is not a rumor. I ordered just hours after the phone lines opened, and I wasn't certain that I even wanted a Visor. The CSR urged me to order one anyway, saying that their phone lines were really backed up. I asked him whether they would be able to pull up my information on a database if I decided to cancel my order a few days later. He confided in me that their computer wasn't yet running, and that he was recording all of my information in a paper tablet. So my information would not go into a database, at least not immediately.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Boston, MA, USA
Posts: 90

I asked Donna to explain some of the systems they used so that the (techie) community who've ordered her product could better understand their problems.... She avoided the issue all together.
And what's this on their web site about their being limited supply. I mean, we've all expected that being the first to order there maybe a limit to the supply, but wasn't that why they didn't go straight to retail and why they took orders before they had a stockpile, so that they could build up supply. I smell a rat... They are laying down the foundations for a new excuse not to ship once all the order database mess has been sorted out.
One quote from Donna's reply...
'It looks like there is nothing I can do other than disappoint you.'
Got that right at least...!

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: MA
Posts: 19

I too got a little information out of Donna. I finally emailed her when my order did not arrive yesterday (the end of the 6 week period) and here is what she said:

We have been waiting to quote exact delivery dates on web orders until
we felt confident we could deliver them. I'm pleased to tell you that I've
just confirmed that we started shipping the early web orders just this
afternoon. Given our shipping capacity, it should only take us 2-3 days
to
ship all the orders placed that week of October 4th.

I appreciate your patience, and apologize for the inconvenience caused
by
this delay.

Donna

So, take it as you would. I have a bit of restored faith in the company - I hope that it stays that way and I get my visor in the 2-3 days.
(ordered on web Oct 7)

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Dallas, TX, USA
Posts: 70

Yep, and I ordered 10/6 via web, and my CC was dinged yesterday.... is it too much to hope for? I'm getting excited!