Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 4

DO NOT LET ANYONE FOOL YOU!!
VISOR SERVICE COULD NOT FIX THEIR WAY OUT OF A BOX IF THEY HAD TOO!!
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR OVER A MONTH FOR A REPLACEMENT UNIT BECAUSE THE ONE I RECEIVED WAS BAD!!!
IT TOOK TWO WEEKS TO GET A NEW ONE AND IT HAS BEEN ALMOST A MONTH AND A HALF TO GET A REPLACEMENT!!! I HAVE CALLED SEVERAL TIMES ASKING WHERE IS IT?? EVERYTIME I GET THE SAME OLD RESPONSE 'OH WE ARE SORRY SIR WE MADE A MISTAKE AND WILL GET IT OUT TO YOU RIGHT AWAY!' HA WHAT A JOKE!! I AM STILL WAITING AFTER 4 ATTEMPTS.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location: Orlando, FL
Posts: 9

I don't think that that is the CSR's fault. Handspring came out very early and may be having some "growing" pains. No need to get so angry.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Hott has every right to be angry. I hear a lot of the "growing pains" excuse I can not understand how people can be sympathetic to Handspring.

There is no excuse for their bad Customer Support. It's not even an issue of CS not being able to help, but just being informed. They never have the correct information on your order, your product, the warehouse, or the status of inventory or shipping dates.

This is unexcuseable. Period.

[This message has been edited by homer (edited 02-25-2000).]

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

Folks things at handspring will only get better not worse. It is already getting better. Complaints on these boards are at a minimum compare to several weeks ago and people are actually posting a lot of positive stuff about handspring now. I am sure handspring is aware of what is going on and is monitoring sites like this one. And I am sure they are doing something to correct problems customers are currently experiencing.

Just my 2 cents.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Yardie:

I agree that things appear to be getting better...which is a good thing. However, they've been very slow to react.

Whatever their CS system is, it's laughable. (I have a feeling it a pencil and paper system).

HandSpring, one of the more "hi-tec" corporations out there has a CS System that:

1) Does not allow people to cancel orders
2) Does not permit the editing of current orders
3) Does not allow staff to check inventory
4) Does not interface with the warehouse
5) Does not interface with the web site
6) Does not interface with UPS (for order tracking)
7) Does not perform proper integrity checks on data (these are basic checks like "ZIP code should be 5 numbers")

Their Outsourced CS center:

1) Does not respond to email
2) Does not return calls
3) Claims that only certain people at CS can credit bad charges. They refuse to forward custopmers to said persons
4) Has little technical knowlege of the product, itself
5) Refuse to acknowlege problems on their end
6) Admit to no "chain of command" (there seems to be the CS rep, and then the supervisor...neither seem to have any real power or knowledge)

Bottom line is that HandSpring should have FIRED this entire company the VERY FIRST WEEK that they experienced problems. There simply is no excuse for continuing with such a poor company.

All that said...I love my handspring. Debbie, the CEO herself has been more than helpful and polite to myself and others. I just can not comprehend the logic of sticking with this CS company for so long.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

Homer:

Your point is well taken. A lot of people here seem to blame everything on Handspring's "outsourced" customer service. If the customer service department was as terrible as the folks here believe, Handspring would have gotten rid of them a long time ago. I am sure there is a lot more to this than the eye can see.

People tend to blame CS because, for the most part, its the only point of contact between the customer and Handspring.

As you can see, Customer Service is getting better. I saw a number of posts that praised Handspring's Customer Service. Were there such posts say a month ago? No. Why do you think there are positive posts about Handspring's CSR today and not a month ago?

Registered: Not Yet
Location:
Posts: N/A

yardie, your comments sound like you were somehow affiliated with Handspring. It's good to have HS watch this forum. On the other hand - why don't you directly help the people here who have problems ???

I personally can fully understand the people here - so please: don't do as if everything was 'just normal' - because it isn't.

HS CS quality is much too volatile.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

Hey Erik Nagel:

Don't get me wrong. Nothing is normal at Handspring. They are still getting a lot of customer very upset and have a lot of work to do to win back these customer's trust. Handspring collectively should be blamed for the bad service some customers are receiving, not just their "outsourced" customer service. Still its only natural for most to blame the outsource company since they are the only point of contact between Handspring and General public (for the most part).

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 23

I have not had any problems dealing with Handspring. I did have a problem with a fatal error that kept coming up and casuing me to have to do a hard reset though. I called Handspring on 2/22 and they said they would send out a replacement unit. I just received it from FEDEX on 2/28. I think that is great response time. I am sympathetic to all the problems some of you have had but I think they are really doing a good job at getting things turned around.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 144

I was quite happy with Handspring CS.

I had a defective unit and ordered a replacement unit about 10 days ago. The guy on the phone was very friendly and promised to ship me a replacement unit right away. As I called on a Friday afternoon, I was surprised that I got the replacement unit the following Tuesday (2 business days does not seem too bad to me...).

Sure, the lady I dealt with at the phone at TechSupport before had some trouble taking down my name and address, and I had to hold the line about 40 minutes in all (with the terrible music?), but nevertheless I got my replacement unit really fast.

The problem is that CS quality is not consistent. I hope they will work that out b/c I think the Visor is great and it would be a pity if people rather buy a Palm instead b/c of the bad CS.

just my 2 cents...

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 20

Glad to hear that you're happy, mc, because I'm not. I also called in on a replacement unit, was given the same "7 to 10 day" promise and now, almost a month later, have nothing. I called again last Friday, and the person aswering the phone was certainly friendly, but could not answer any questions or help me in any way, shape or form... just told me repeatedly that my ticket had been forwarded to customer service and that they "were experiencing some delays." Nor could this individual quantify the delays in any way or offer any revised timeline.

I agree with homer's assessment: something ain't quite up to spec on the CS practices of Handspring or their CS vendor. I've been sidelined for a month now and it's getting really old.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 4

WOW - Look at all the responses that were generated!
Well to end my story I received my replacement Visor Feb 25th. Work ordered was placed on Jan 4th. Not to bad?! Just under 2 month.
Let me state a little bit of reality here for the Pro-Service visor people. Service sells product!!!
And when you have poor service you will have lost sales no matter how great the product is.
A perfect example of what happens to a new idea with poor reliablity and service would be the YUGO.
A new car with a great low price!! Do you see anyone selling YUGOs these days?? Nope!
Was it because people did not like the low price and the lure of a new car? No I do not think that was it!
Was it because of poor reliability and that service sucked!!!?? YES!!
So the Yugo went away!!
So the lesson learned is that if you have a great new idea... yeah it might sell like hot cakes but if you do not back it up with service and reliability well you can just forget it!!!

As for Visor they probably still have time to clean up thier service side of things but it just goes to prove that service sells product!!! And they could have sold thousands more if they would have thought out their service plan before hand.

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

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 51

I think the quality of their service is very inconsistent. I know a lot of you had bad experiences w/ them. But I had very good experience w/ their service. I ordered my Ice Visor mid January, I got it in 5 business days. I noticed a minor crack below the memo button a few weeks ago. I called CS and got through right away. I received a replacement in approx. 10 business days as I was told(w/ prepaid FedEx shipping ticket for me to ship my old unit back).
May be I'm lucky, who knows.
By the way, I don't think Visor is a Yugo. Yugo was a bad product. Visor is a good product.
Bad product w/ bad service, you don't have a chance.
Good product w/ bad service still has a chance if they fix it fast, but I agree w/ you that customers won't wait long especially when Palm will start shipping IIIxe soon.