Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 39

Below is the response I got from Donna upon Emailing a variety of email address' at Handspring. My Email (with problem list) is below it.

Rich,

Thanks for your note, and my apologies for all the confusion. Indeed, we
have not done a good job in our start-up here, and we absolutely will fix
these problems. By copy on this email, I'm asking our customer service
manager, Sandy, to get back to you with an update as soon as possible.

Since you've copied so many of us, my apologies also if you get more than
one response. We're all anxious to get problems fixed. But we need to
centralize our effort so that we don't contradict each other. I'm confident
that Sandy can make that happen.

Donna


----

Handspring,

Upon reading the incredible reviews / hype about your new Visor I
promptly placed an order in mid September. Unfortunately, this order is
turning out to be the cause of numerous problems. Yesterday, I was
faced with an issue where I had to make an expensive purchase ASAP.
However, my credit card, which currently has a $0 balance, was DENIED
Authorization. Upon further investigation with my credit card company I
found that the problem lied in repeated Authorization Holds on my credit
card from *Handspring*; To the sum of approximately $819. This would
be enough for atleast 3 Visor Deluxes! I only ordered 1! The Visor that
I purchased in order to help me organize my schedule is causing me
numerous problems with such daily activities and it isn't even here yet!

Furthermore, I would like to know the status of my order. I called
UPS this afternoon and gave them the Shipping Information for Logistix.
I was told that there was only one package headed to my zip code, and it
was not mine. I have been trying to call Customer Service for the last
few days to get a status report but am faced with either a hold time
greater than 2 hours (which I unfortunately don't have the time to wait
for), or a busy signal after a few minutes. I have tried atleast 4
times this morning and have been met with nothing but a recording played
once or twice followed by busy signals. I was told (at the time of
purchase) that my credit card would not be charged until the product
shipped, yet the card has been given an authorization hold for 3 times
the amount of the purchase, and from what I can tell the product has not
shipped.
I understand that Handspring has been swamped with orders and am
very understanding of the problems that this causes as I have worked in
firms that have faced extremely similar issues. I am eager to receive
my Visor and begin some application development I have planned out.
However, I have some minor requests that would result in satisfying
several customers (myself and many others who are in my situation)
If you aren't going to make the original promised ship date of 4-6 weeks
(which seems to be the case atleast in my situation) I do feel that the
customers should be informed (I believe there is a law mandating this as
well). Furthermore, I would like an explanation as to what is going on
with my credit card. I do not think these are unreasonable requests.

Since I can't get through to anyone else I am writing this E-Mail to you
begging for information as to what is going on. I need the credit card
situation straightened out as soon as possible so that I can make
necessary purchases.

I hope you can help.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Buffalo NY
Posts: 40

And here is the note I sent also, with Donna Dubinsky's reply. I'm impressed that they do not seem to be form letters at least. Sounds like they do have a whopper of a problem out there though. My original note is below:
---------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. _______,

Thanks for the time and thought you put into composing this memo. Yes,
believe me, I am very aware of these issues. We have not done a good job on
our start-up here, and it seems that everything that can gone wrong has gone
wrong. We are working around the clock to fix the problems, including
getting the full web site operational, increasing the staffing on the 800
number, and correcting shipping problems. I believe that we are making
progress on all fronts, but some of these fixes take time, and at this
stage, I feel a fix must be tested before being implemented, since
over-rapid implementation has been the source of some of the problems. I
hope that our customers and fans will bear with us through these birthing
pains. We are all dedicated to fixing the problems, and are 150% focused on
it.

Thanks for your support,

Donna
---------------------------------------------
Dear Ms. Dubinsky -

Right now I'm sure that you are very busy trying to keep up with the recent launch of your company's Visor PDA. I think there are alot of us out here who are very excited about the product; some ordered the first day it was announced on September 14, others (like myself) ordered on the online store on October 6 during the brief time it was open. Now many of us are discouraged about the
many problems, misinformation and mistakes which seem to be cropping up as the first Visors are moving into shipment.

I know the response to the product has been overwhelming, so this is really a positive dilemma; however there are glaring issues which cannot be overlooked:

1) The continuing outage of the online store
2) The interminable waits on the customer service lines, upwards of 3 and 4 hours at times, at which some calls are summarily cut-off
3) Lack of a toll-free line for order status (even temporarily)
4) Instances of rudeness by representatives
5) The misinformation being distributed by representatives about shipping,dates, etc.
6) The mistakes made in credit card numbers, addresses, billing names etc. that came about due to the initial manual ordering process
7) Double and triple authorizations on credit cards
8) Differences in the billing amount quoted on order and what is actually charged to the credit card
9) Visors arriving before a charge is even made to a credit card
10) Inability to change/cancel orders when they've supposedly gone for shipping
11) No attempt to contact customers with"problem orders"
12) Lack of promised "first in, first out" policy for shipment. Some phone orders from last week have already arrived before the orders take the first week!
13) Lack of any e-mail communication of shipping or anything else for those
who signed up for this service
14) Lack of acknowledgement of these deep seated problems from Handspring, or
substantive details on solutions. When people are not given information under these circumstances, rumor abounds, teeth are gnashed and corporate reputations suffer.


I don't know if you've had the opportunity to see the discussion boards at VisorCentral (http://www.visorcentral.com), but they are rife with your customers detailing all these issues. Some of them are absolutely
horrendous, and I would think you'd want to know about them. These are the "faithful"
who have purchased a product sight unseen, based solely on the management team's
reputations. Disillusionment has set it. These are also your unpaid salespeople, and I know that I, unfortunately, cannot recommend ordering a Visor until some of these problems are addressed. There are nearly 700 people registered to post at the site; how many more don't know about it and are waiting without any knowledge of these problems? They may never receive their
merchandise as a result.

We want to see Handspring and the Visor succeed. I can't wait to receive mine! I
want to buy them for my wife and family. But I can't until we hear more about what's going on.

Starting up a company can't be easy, but buying your product on faith isn't easy
either and getting harder by the day. I hope that you, Jeff Hawkins and Ed Colligan can soon restore that faith.

Thanks for listening,

[This message has been edited by JAK (edited 10-22-1999).]

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 54

Let's see...she apologizes for the confusion and for potentially sending you more than one response? Tell if I'm wrong here, but isn�t she missing the point? I thought this women was a Harvard grad?

How about:

"I'm really sorry that we screwed up your order."
"I'm terribly sorry that you were not able to conduct an emergency purchase because we are apparently incompetent. Not to mention potentially violating the law.�
�Gosh, I�m so sorry that we can�t to implement an order tracking system that works � after all, you�d think that us fairly experienced computer folks would have it down by now.�
�Gee, you mean there�s a problem with contacting us? You don�t say!�
�Holy crap! Our customer service line has been cutting people off all day? Well, I�ll get right on that.�
�Golly, I wasn�t aware that the CSR company we hired doesn�t have a clue about what is really going on. Maybe we should at least come up with a consistent BS story.� �Hey Jeff! Did ya hear that? Consistency?�

Feel free to add what you would like to hear from Donna. But then, seeing as how the whole ship now seems to be resting on Sandy�s shoulders. There�s the ol� leadership thing going! Delegate your problems�.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 52

zephyr, is it ironic that you're so hard on a "Harvard grad" when your own grammar and spelling need improvement?

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

Please, give Dubinsky a break. Both of the personal email messages she sent are just what you should expect a corporate CEO to say.

She acknowledged there are several big problems, she apologized for the problems, she outlined (briefly) what steps they're taking to fix the problems, and also what they're doing to prevent the problems from happening again (i.e. testing the fixes before they get put into action).

What else do you expect from her, other than follow-through on her promise to clean things up?

And yes, it's perfectly appropriate for Dubinsky to delegate work to the people who report to her. If she didn't do that, then she might as well fire everyone, including Hawkins and Colligan, and design, build, test, market, sell, and ship the damn thing herself.

Dubinsky should be thrown out to the dogs only if "Sandy" doesn't fix the problem, and Dubinsky doesn't hold him/her accountable. That's the way modern companies work.

[This message has been edited by mportuesi (edited 10-22-1999).]

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 54

Yes, Kozak, that is terribly ironic. You win the �gI can identify irony medal�h for today. Feel better?

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 39

Ms. Dubinsky responded in a way that fulfilled my highest expectations. I didn't really expect much of a response from any of the executives. That has become all too typical in modern companies. However, what I received was what I felt to be a heartfelt apology for the way things were going. As CEO, Donna has infinitely more pressing problems to be dealing with than one individual order (I.e. finding a new company to handle the calls, firing a handful of people that have caused these problems, etc). She did the best (within reason) that she could, which was put me in contact with their Customer Service Manager.
I hope to hear from her soon! I got a reply from Ms. Dubinsky within minutes, been a few hours and nothing from Sandy yet....although I bet she is swamped. I'll give her a few days before I get worried/angry about it.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 39

Just got a call from Sandy. (The Sandy Donna fowarded my Email to) She apologized profusely for any screw up, and said she is going to look into it now and give me a call back...
Talk about a turn around, to go from complete darkness to getting a call at home when she got the email about my issue....I'm satisfied. Hopefully she'll get things straightened out.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 187

Cudos. You got a heck of a lot farther with your email than I did yesderday. I expected that email directly to Handspring would get some action. I only got "We'll look into it". What I would expect from a good customer relations based company is someone to say, "I will personally see to it that you package is placed on the truck today with overnight delivery". Anything less is less than good customer service. Are they going to have to take a bath on paying to stop shipping at once and send out a BUNCH of Visors vis "overnight"? You betcha! Would it pay for itself in the long run? Many times over! Right now one of their biggest problems isn't the phone staff and production and everything else - It's those of us who pre-ordered and have gotten nothing but the run around.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 39

Upon the 8pm mark (5pm at Handspring) I dropped an Email to Sandy letting her know that I was hoping to hear a response today so that I could rest easy about my credit card over the weekend. I received the following:


----
Rich,

We've identified your order.

Shipping address is
<Shipping address was here
with only mild typos that
shouldnt hinder UPS>

We are facilitating removing the authorization's through the bank right now.

The one piece I do not have yet is the expected shipping date of your order.
I'll let you know when I get it. Since the credit card went through the
authorization process it should be about ready to ship. I apologize for not
having more up to the minute information, but our systems leave a little to
be desired at this moment.

Sandy

----

If everything was fine, how come it didnt ship?
Owell, atleast the bank charges are being fixed

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Buffalo NY
Posts: 40

Got my fingers crossed for you RichF!

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 39

Just checked with my bank, all of the authorizations were removed. So now I have *ZERO* authorization holds from Handspring, watch me now get *ZERO* Visors...wouldn't surprise me at all now. Although I suppose I should stay optimistic, tis quite hard given the circumstances.