Registered: Oct 1999
Location: SF, CA
Posts: 8

Anyone know when the Visor is going to hit retail stores(or internet stores for that matter)?. My Girlfriend and I are planning on buying VisorDeluxes but are not interested in waiting 4 -500 weeks for them to arrive. With christmas coming I can wait till Jan or Feb. I figure better to just wait then tohave a $250 hold charge on my credit card with nothing to show for it. I'm sure they are hardpressed to just meet initial demand from their site, but they would be foolish to not have them in stores for the Christmas rush, or for after christmas when everyone wants to buy the gifts they didn't recieve =)

Thanks for any info on this

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: East Lansing, MI, USA
Posts: 126

hopefully sometime Q1 2000

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 25

Ordering seems to be cleared up as far as new orders. Order now and I'll bet you'll get yours in less than four weeks...dammit.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 31

>>>>With christmas coming I can wait till Jan or Feb. I figure better to just wait then tohave a $250 hold charge on my credit card with nothing to show for it.<<<

If you can wait until Jan/Feb why not order now? It seems they are on track to deliver in 4 weeks these days, some even sooner. I don't think your credit card is charged until a day or so before they are shipped, but I'm not 100% sure.

Buck

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: San Francisco, USA
Posts: 75

"If you can wait until Jan/Feb why not order now?"

This one's easy to answer:

1) Handspring could still lose or corrupt the order. Their online ordering system is still a work in progress - the Forbes article said they are busy working on a detailed order tracking system right now. Who says the next time they update their website, it isn't going to swallow another couple thousand orders?

If it were just a matter of waiting the 4-6 weeks, I would place an order right now. But I'm honestly afraid to use their online system. Handspring used to have a feature where you could type in your order number and get some shipping status, but they took it away. Why? How is this supposed to make me feel more confident about placing an order?

2) It's much less stressful to wait when your money isn't on the line. I can sit and wait until it's at the store, then walk in and buy. I'm not worrying about when the credit card is dinged, or whether the tracking number they gave me actually works.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Columbia, MO, USA
Posts: 68

I ordered online October 29th and have already received my order. (last week)

You don't get charged until within a day of being shipped, so you're not out anything in the interim.

LarryD

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: SF, CA
Posts: 8

I am still a little concerned about their online ordering system, but if you credit card doesn't get dinged until the day or so before they ship I just might go for it. Thanks for all the responses

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: San Francisco, USA
Posts: 75

There's still the possibility that they will garble your order, or lose it in the system. It's happened to lots of people. I can't count the number of messages I've read here, from people who called up HS customer support, waited on hold, and discovered that the credit card info was wrong, or the zip code was messed up. And then there were the people who got their credit card billed multiple times, or who got billed but never received the goods until much later.

They supposedly have these problems fixed. But how can we be sure? Their shipping status page is light on info, and they took away the feature that lets you check order status.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 31

>>>>They supposedly have these problems fixed. But how can we be sure? <<<<

There's a possibility I could get run over by a truck tomorrow so should I stay inside? From what I've been reading on the boards of late those who have ordered most recently are having a pretty good success rate. How can we be sure? How can we be sure of anything?

Buck

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: San Francisco, USA
Posts: 75

Buck, you have a very good point. I guess what I'm just trying to say is that HS hasn't earned itself a sterling reputation, and that's a factor to consider.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: norman,ok,usa
Posts: 6

I ordered a Blue Vdx with USB connection and
backup springboard on Nov. 16 via telephone.

The Visor was received on Nov. 30.
The backup springboard was received Dec. 3.

I waited and waited to see signs of the
delivery times to improve. I finally decided
if I wanted to have a chance at getting the
visor before Christmas I'd better order. They did better than 4 weeks, with only 9 business days they delivered the visor. The shipping date was Nov. 27... so HS personnel were working on a Holiday weekend that some people had off.

Gregg

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 23

I was lucky enough to get one of the few that made it to Canada. I don't think the Visors will be going retail anytime soon with the shortage handspring has been having. Check out the article on Forbes.com:

- http://www.forbes.com/forbes/99/1129/6413126a.htm


------------------
Richard Kettner
Handspring Weekly Editor
- http://handspring.listbot.com

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 70

Handspring didn't take their order status page offline... they just moved it -- how tricky of them.

It still doesn't show anything more than a confirmation that your order was received, though. If you have the confirmation email then there's no point to access this page, but it's still online.
http://www.gottasurf.com/handspring

I kinda had to weasel this out of a CS rep so I don't know the exact reasoning why it's on a different server. Traffic perhaps? I'm sure there's little to none on it right now.

_______________
William