Hi, my name is Sean Dalgety. I live in South Africa, and 9 months ago, I bought a palm IIIc after my laptop was stolen. Being paranoid after having my laptop stolen, I almost never used the palm or took it anywhere for fear of losing it, it has been charged four times in the nine months since I got it, that should be an indication of how little I use it :)
Anyways, I am horrifed to see that the rear cover of the Palm is cracked badly around each little screw and also a large crack has spread up from the keyboard/cradle connector to the centre of the casing. I contacted palm about 8 times, got only one response and there was no sympathy there...
To make matters worse, the company that supplied the palm to the chainstore I bought it from has liquidated, so they werent willing to help me either.
Please understand that the exchange rate is ten to 1 in favour of the dollar, so I wasnt going to fork out to courier my palm to the USA, and then pay them a thousand bucks ( $100 ) for a second hand replacement, what a cheek!
Here then, is the crux of the matter...
South Africa is a unique combination of first and third world cultures, which means that we have access the all of the most sophisticated equipment money can buy and also cheap labour to go with it. With that in mind, I set out to find plastics experts who could design a new casing for the palm. I now have a replacement casing, which is made from superior quality plastics to the original, has a ten point brace internally to strenghten it, (you should be able to drop your palm like you can a good cell phone without it exploding) yet looks and fits as well as the original. I had to buy production time in an automotive plant to gain access to three dimensional scanners and plastic injection moulders, and needless to say, I could not only make one cover.
So, bottom line is, for all those folks out there who have a Palm IIIc either with a cracked cover (thanks for making this all possible, I thought it was just me until I came across your site, I never would have gone to all this trouble without you) I can supply them with replacement cases far better than the original for well below half their cost, and they wont be second hand. Also, I dont know if any other model palm has the same exterior case as IIIc. If anyone else has a newer PDA of any type that also needs a case, and they cannot find a replacement, I would be willing to have one manufactured for them, should they be prepared to send us the old cases.
Please pass on this info to those out there who are in need.
Regards
Sean Dalgety
(ps, can also supply cases in colours others than black)
