Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 90

Ah, and I was so excited to note that my card had been charged as of 10/28. This must mean that my Visor has shipped, says I!

Well, when it didn't show up today (I'm in LA, it would have taken at most 2 business days to ship), I finally decided to place my first-ever call to Handspring. Call #1, after 36 minutes on hold, yielded confirmation from CSR Jason that (1) they think my order shipped on the 21st (2) my shipping address was correct except for a missing suite number (3) and here's your tracking number, ma'am.

Tried tracking number on UPS website. Doesn't work. Called UPS to try again. No dice.

Called Handspring back. After about 48 minutes on hold, learned from CSR Terry that (1) there are two orders in the system for me! Whoops, no, sorry, he just read that wrong. (2) They've been giving out incorrect tracking numbers due to some system problem. He will get his supervisor to confirm the correct tracking number "or something". (3) I've joined the fabled ranks of The Escalated! (4) I might, just might, get a call back with the correct tracking number. Or an email. "Or something." He thinks his manager will do something to fix the problem. Or something.

Ah, and I thought if I just sat tight and didn't bother calling Handspring, I might be OK. I ordered October 5, via phone, Ice Deluxe, and I'm just not as sanguine about all this as I used to be....

[This message has been edited by Nitpicking Department (edited 11-03-1999).]

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Bellevue, Wa, USA
Posts: 72

Welcome to halls of the "escalated," "Jumped Status," and "manager forwarded!" I feel for you ND, you know I am sitting here waiting for my Ice Visor Dlx, with the fuse getting shorter and shorter. I have only called once, and I got the same runaround, so I figure what's the use!

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Indianapolis, IN, USA
Posts: 36

Nit,

Don't fret. I ordered the first week possible. My credit card was finally charged around 10/25. I called on the 28th and the CSR told me my visor had shipped on the 21st and gave me a tracking number. Well I tried the tracking number all day and no go. The next day I decided to try it again before I called Handspring (for the 3rd time). It worked! The problem was that UPS hadn't had it in their system yet. My visor didn't ship until 10:30pm Oct. 28th. The tracking number wouldn't work because my Visor hadn't really shipped yet!

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 90

Belch,

Thanks for the suggestion...I did try that tracking number again today and it still didn't work. The second time I called Handspring I got told *immediately* that they gave me the wrong tracking number - before I told them what the number was - so I assume they must have had a bad batch of tracking numbers that they already knew about.

If I'd been really on the ball, I would have checked that tracking number while still on the phone with CSR #1 (since I'm at work and wouldn't have to hang up to log on) ... and thus saved myself a second phone call with even longer on-hold time. And I thought they had improved their on-hold times (bitter laugh)...I guess it was better than being on hold 2 hours, anyway.

From what the UPS rep said on the phone, I gather it's not entirely unusual for packages to be picked up *without* the tracking number being scanned - thus making the tracking number useless until the package *does* get scanned - which might be, oh I don't know, upon delivery? I've said it before, but it bears repeating: I have known UPS to lose many packages in the past, long before I ever heard of Handspring.

Today, I guess I'll wait for the UPS man before I do anything further. Any point in calling again, post-escalation? I am really not holding my breath waiting for Handspring to call, or email, me.

[This message has been edited by Nitpicking Department (edited 11-04-1999).]

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 18

The problems with the UPS Tracking # are 99% likely to do with handsprings data corruption. This was the impression I got from a Handspring official. They in NO way want to blame UPS.
_ Mike Lee _

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 187

If you have been escalated, your UPS tracking number is probably history, since they are sending them out overnight. Since it seems that all of these have been FedEx, UPS numbers don't work. Even if they used UPS overnight, the tracking number would likely be different when it was changed from ground to overnight.

Don't forget that CSR's have no way to get information about your order (at least as of last night) once it has been escalated or identified as a problem that HS is fixing. At this point it appears that any further information that you would get from a CSR would be pure specualtion of the operators part.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 90

So...I guess I'll go back to what I do best...waiting patiently...

Meanwhile, the guy I supposedly bought a laptop from on Ebay won't return my calls...and my iMac DV Special Edition remains on interminable backorder...

It's enough to make a cat laugh. Here I am trying to spend untold thousands of dollars on computer equipment and I can't get no satisfaction!