Registered: Nov 1999
Location: New York City
Posts: 24

You would think that some of the HS Execs would ad least post a message or two on this board. Even with all their problems, the Execs probably have time to check out this board and answer some question. Trust me, i should now. My older Brother is a "lowly" associate at a major 500 company, and he along with 90% of the whitecollars regularly invovle themselves with some aspect of public relations.

Hey for example, 800.com (an online retailer) has a regular employee asnwer questions/comments on the hometheater online forum

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

Why on earth do they need to monitor this board, when everyone here is sending them email anyway?

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Vancouver, BC. Canada
Posts: 57

I've seen a board where an employee posted, and I can see why they might be a little worried. For one thing, whatever the employee said would be taken as the corporate policy, and companies usually scrutinize the hell out of any document they release, making it hard for them to say anything that could make them legally liable (such as anything that was brutally honest). Also on the board I saw, the person spent most of their time defending the companies decisions.

It would be far better if HS just regularly updated their site and told everyone exactly what they were doing, which at least they are doing more of now than a month or so ago. Lack of communication kills on the Internet...

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 434

I'd think probably the best place to disseminate information is on their own website. The majority of the Visor world is likely NOT on this board. It would be nice if they DID put out MORE information though, whether it be there or here, or through their newsletter.

[This message has been edited by Eug (edited 12-02-1999).]

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: New York City
Posts: 24

Think about it...


If The HS Execs started to post on this board and answer questions, they would be relieved from a substantial amount of emails all asking the same thing (WHEN THE HELL IS MY VISOR COMING). THus they would even have more time to sit around and pounder possible solutions to their goof-up and come up with even more excuses. I dare say alot of the questions are the same and alot of the "answers" are the same. Why not save time and simply post it here for everyone to read?

Yes I know not *every* email can be answered in a public forum, but I bet alot of it could

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: New York City
Posts: 24

<<<The majority of the Visor world is likely NOT on this board. >>>

On any other consumer electronic item, I might agree with your underlying premise...but for the Visor I would dare say that a significant amount of people who are pissed off enough to email HS more than once (and espescially those that ordered via WWW) *ARE* on this board or would be here if HS were here as well...The visor is not a product that the average consumer purchases...although I have no emperical evidence (yet)I think consumers of emerging/new/technical gizmos are on the inet. And the fact that many of HS customers
are at least somewhat "awed" and usually very interested at the technology, I think they found (or would find this board easily).

Now if it were a VCR we were taking about, I would agree with you.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Redwood City, CA USA
Posts: 162

1. How do we know that HS employees aren't posting without identifying themselves as HS employees. In some of these threads, admitting employment by HS would be like giving the lynch mob that's chasing you some rope.

2. Rubberdemon has a good point. Anything that an HS employee posted as a representative of the company would probably have to be strictly scrutinized before it got posted, not exactly the free flow of information and opinion that we've come to expect from these threads.

3. I'm the one that has a friend at HS. I make it a point not to ask her direct questions about Handspring, but when I mentioned I was a member of a discussion group, she immediately asked, "Visor Central?". Although they may not officially post any comments, they do have a person who is responsible for gathering feedback from VC and generating a report on the highlights. This would be expected; after all, is there any better place to get a more direct idea of how their customers feel about their service and products (good or bad, all feedback is vital!)

[This message has been edited by rtalain (edited 12-02-1999).]

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 84

On the previous note it was actually a handspring rep who referred me to this site. I asked where I could get reviews and news about springboards and he said go to VisorCentral. Just thought you should know

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: randolph, WI USA
Posts: 15

Of all the 'Visor' dedicated boards, I think this one is the MOST used, MOST visited board around. I check this board EVERY day and some of the others I've found visor zone, visor village maybe once a week as they don't have near as much action and posts as Visor Central here does.

Kudos to all the people who work with and on this board. IT'S GREAT!!

Art Schregardus

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: dynamic!
Posts: 189

While members of this site probably represent a nice microcosm of users as a whole. There are what?.. <2000 folks registered here. So using the term "majority"?... nuh-uh, son.

Do you think they'd actually pay an employee to post messages here (of all places)?

C'mon.. Let's get serious. What kind of monumental waste of time would that be?
I'd rather have them concentrating on shipping, rather than making "small talk".

Do you think you're going to see/hear something actually different than what's on the handspring site and/or phones?

It's my belief that (at this time) there should be a daily update of info on the handspring site. But what exactly do you expect to hear/see?

With all due respect, to suggest that handspring actually officially post on this site is ludicrous. If you owned a business, would you promote a service (such as this making a profit off of you while at the same time it's) supporting flames and negative comments about your practices?

C'mon. Lemme hear you say, "yeah".


----------
RE: the following message (below) from 'PDANewbie'.

Nope. Not referring to you in that instance, anyway. My bad. I don't have my reading glasses. I did not pick up the 'NOT' in a poorly written sentence.

I try to "think" about things (including reasonable grammar) before I post.

The thread structure here is ridiculous, and does not clearly indicate which person, to whom you're replying.

As far as you go, if you re-read my message it does apply to some of your rambling. I may not agree with your opinions, but I can respect you for having your own.

---
..and to another poster down below, I refer to most others as "son". Not out of disrepect. I'm an old man. Heh heh.




[This message has been edited by mrknowitall (edited 12-03-1999).]

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: New York City
Posts: 24

mrknowitall,

<<<While members of this site probably represent a nice microcosm of users as a whole. There are what?.. <2000 folks registered here. So using the term "majority"?... nuh-uh, son.>>>>>

UH....are you refering to me? WHen did I mention the word "majority"? Please think before posting .....son If you read carefully, you will notice I said that i think a *significant* amount of HS customers are on this board(or dould easliy find it).

Furthermore, it seems that 800.com is getting alot of good feedback/comment because of the their representative that is on the home theater forum online. Whats to say HS wouldn;t benefit in the same manner?

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: New York City
Posts: 24

rtalain,

Rubberdemon's "point" is logically flawed.

Why? Well because HS already responds to personal email concerning product status. Don't these emails (obviously written by HS employees) go through the same amount of "coporate scrutiny" that a public web posting would go through?

So now that we have established that HS does respond to emails concerning there practices (which obviosuly must pass some sort of scrutiny [although it must be really light scrutiny given HS's lack of adherence to their own responses]), wouldn't it save HS time just to post here? Plus posting here would give HS the added advantage of at least looking like they give a damn...rather than having customers customers constantly emailing them (many of which go unasnerwed) .

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: West Palm, FL
Posts: 53

PDA Newbie,
So I see by your posts you beleive the <2000 people registered here are the *SIGNIFICANT* portion of HS customers.

Now isn't this *FLAWED* high school freshman thinking...son? Ah, to be a child again and think 2000 customers is alot.


[This message has been edited by QL2 (edited 12-02-1999).]

[This message has been edited by QL2 (edited 12-02-1999).]

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

The < 2000 people here are not the majority of handspring owners, but I'd be willing to bet they are the majority of handspring *enthusiasts*. As such, they spend a lot more time than the average user thinking about the product, how it should work for them, and how Handspring should be catering to its customer base. Isn't that worth something to HS?

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

If I remember correctly, I've seen page views range from ~3-6000 page views a day on the front page at one time. Note that not everyone hits the front page. Some come directly to the UBB, so the avg. # per day is even higher than that. That was about a month ago, before we started having server problems, so it is probably more now. I have noticed that the numbers went up a lot recently, most likely because more people are receiving their Visors.



------------------
James Hromadka
VisorCentral.com
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/jehromadka

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: New York City
Posts: 24

QL2,

<<<So I see by your posts you beleive the <2000 people registered here are the *SIGNIFICANT* portion of HS customers.>>>

Wrong...as usaul. Please read carefully. I said that I beleive that a significant amount of HS customers are on this board.

Notice I used the word "a" [meaning that there could be a number of other significant portions of customers not on this board]. Now contrast that with your misinterpretation (ie *the* significant portion of the HS customers...)

No where did I say that the posters here constitute *THE* significant portion of HS customers. However, I still hold that the posters here consititue *A* significant portion of HS customers. If you disagree, do you then consider the posters here an insignificant amount of HS customers?

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: New York City
Posts: 24

QL2,

<<<Now isn't this *FLAWED* high school freshman thinking...son? Ah, to be a child again and think 2000 customers is alot.>>>

Uh..lets see (2000 customers x $200) and I am being generous here taking into account all those vast numbers of people that purchased Visor Solos...yeah right.

Now I guess you think $400,000 is insignificant? Sorry bud

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: West Palm, FL
Posts: 53

PDA Newbie,
No son, 2000 customers or 400,000 dollars is not significant realitive to the size business Handspring has. That 400k won't even cover a portion of the R&D, or licensing fees.

Based on your last responce I guess you really do mean "the" and not "a".

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Chelmsford, MA USA
Posts: 62

I think it is a little too much to ask to have this new company that is struggling with shipping and customer service issues to seek out unofficial and non-affilliated sites and start replying to posts. This is not common practice.

There is a slim chance that someone may come over to just take a look at what the comments are - may be easier than sorting through the ton of email they probably get.

But to suggest they start posting here is a bit outrageous. As they work their kinks out they may decide to create their own message board - noting the added value of fellow customers helping each other out.

To have anyone from HS start posting now is just opening the door to a flood of posts demanding to know where the Visor's are and when they are shipping.

They have started a FAQ and have been attempting to provide shipping status. What else could they really add right now?

I'd rather they save the body for getting the Visor's shipped and their customer service fixed.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Schaumburg, IL
Posts: 151

Shadow:

I think you've got the right idea. Handspring should continue to focus on getting the product out the door. While having someone post updates to this site on a regular basis wouldn't be a bad idea, I'd rather they keep EVERYONE focused on job #1 which is shipping Visors.

However, it would be a GREAT idea if they put up a newsgroup for support and and announcements. The software company I work for hosts over 50 different newsgroups which are freely monitored by our developers and support engineers. And often the best answers come out of a collaboration between customers. If a customer has a question, they know that they can go to the newsgroups and most likely see an answer within 48 hours.

Also, the newsgroups in conjunction with our corporate web site function as an excellent means for communicating updates, beta opportunities, and general news. But, if Handspring is still struggling to keep their e-store up, there's no question they would have trouble supporting a high volume newsserver.

I think VC does a good job of providing this kind of support though I'm occassionally turned away because the BBs tend to be dominated by newbies and flame fests. If you could do something like /. where filtering and scoring was possible, that make VC a more helpful enviornment. So, a Handspring sponsored newsgroup would lend a more authoritative tone to the discussions.