Handspring Charging for Support Calls

Posted By: Ed Tuesday, October 30, 2001 8:56:27 AM

Handspring is going to charge $20 for telephone support calls that take place 90 days after the product has been registered. They are free for the first 90 days. Customers who are paying for their call will get priority service. Calls that result in warranty repair will not cost the customer anything.

Email support will continue to be free and Handspring has extensive support information available on their site.

While this change took effect October 1, Handspring won't actually begn charging for these calls untll January 2.

Standard Support, available at 716-871-6448, lets customers speak with a technical support representative for answers to installation, configuration and general usage questions. If customers would like to speak with a technical support representative after 90 days from date of purchase, they can opt for priority personal service with Premium Pay Per Incident support, available at 888-345-5150. It is this second option that will cost $20.

In a statement, a Handspring spokesperson said, "When we began our first technical support program, Handspring was a new and unproven company, and it was important to offer free support to help establish our product line and trusted relationships with our customer base. As a larger and more established company, we intend to uphold this quality of service, but it is financially and operationally prudent to manage the cost of these programs as they grow in scale."

Charging customers for support has become more common as profit margins on handhelds get cut to the bone.

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Does Palm Charge?

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 10:06:49 AM #
Does Palm Charge for support? I don't think so!
I know some companies charge for tech support for software and hardware, but I know none in the Palm community that does (Sony, Palm, Hand-era, etc.). I think based on the cost of the units ($200-$450). This is not justififiable, mainly due to the the high percentage of calls are simple questions that can be answered by tech. support very easily and quickly. Actually I am so glad I bought my palm, and now am selling my handspring. Gives me one more reason why I switched my unit.

RE: Does Palm Charge?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 10:30:34 AM #
Actually, Palm is about to start charging $25, and without an 800 #!

RE: Does Palm Charge?
ptevesjr @ 10/30/2001 10:38:06 AM #
When will Palm start charging for support?! :(

RE: Does Palm Charge?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 11:04:18 AM #
Palm has been charging for calls for a long time from what I remember, and their return policy changed dramatically right around the time their stock started to plumit.

RE: Does Palm Charge?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 11:35:09 AM #
This is the URL to Palm's new policy:

http://www.palm.com/support/contact/support_policy.html

RE: Does Palm Charge?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 12:53:03 PM #
Yes, unfortunately Palm is now charging for the support calls after the 90 day free support. If it turns out ehe call is for warranty repair, they then reverse the or do not submit the charge on your credit card. What I have a problem with is that they ask for the credit card number before they will talk to you. And this is for a Palm M505 which top dollar was given. Palm and other handheld companies are having a difficult time as we go deeper into the worldwide recession if not depression! (worldwide I might add) the financial woes are continuing everyday and are getting worse.

morningstar1844@hotmail.com

RE: Does Palm Charge?
ptevesjr @ 10/30/2001 1:42:08 PM #
Yeh! I hear you! We just lost a major project that I was working on! Oh well I will work on proposals and play on my palm!

RE: Does Palm Charge?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 5:23:32 PM #
I bought a Palm m505 shortly after it came out, in the late spring. I called Palm for a tech support problem (ended up being a hardware problem)in August. That was the first time I heard they were charging for tech support after 90 days. I never saw any warning that there would be a charge until I called.

The Palm tech did me a big favor and "just this once" took care of my problem without a charge. But I was annoyed to find out about the after-90-day charge for the first time when I called. I wouldn't have been happy about it at any time, of course.

As a consumer, I think that when I buy software and hardware it should be easy to use and work properly. But I may just be a few years too early in my thinking.

How Dumb can you be?

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 3:06:31 PM #
What kills me more than anything is the price they are charging. Don't get me wrong... I know for a fact if I were a company it would only make sence to charge for tech calls after apecified amount of time. I mean why waste money when you don't have too. But what gets me is the price. $20 bucks? $25 bucks? 2 things here. If I were to buy a Low end Palm or Visor... and than have to spend 20 to 25 bucks.. That means I just spent about a forth or a fith of what the unit cost to have my dumb questions answered. I can understand 10 bucks or even 15...bu t anything more is a rip off. Thank goodness for Message boards.

And last...........
If the unit isn't broken...
What can possibly go wrong on the Palm that anywould ever need to call Their PDA tech support? If you do back ups often..
There is nothing that can go wrong that a soft or hard reset can't fix.
There.. I just gave everyone 93% of the answers thatPalm and Visor will tell you on almost every single question that comes up in a tech support call.

If anyone wants too...I will post my email up here with my PayPal info and anyone who finds this helpful, as helpful or even more helpful than Palm or Visors Techsupport, can send me $10.00 for fixing their PDAs.

:-)


RE: How Dumb can you be?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 3:24:51 PM #
Email support is still free. So this is only for the super impatient who have to have an answer /now/.

RE: How Dumb can you be?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 3:49:46 PM #
If most of the customers are as smart as you, then there would be no need to have a technical support department inside the company. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of computer illerates out there playing with their Palm and don't want to read the manual. My co-worker is a great example: "So... how do I start MS Word after I turn on the computer again?"

RE: How Dumb can you be?
Raishe_werk @ 10/30/2001 4:39:21 PM #
who runs these companies? a team of monkeys?
on a serious note, i do have a tech support question for someone [anyone].
i can't get my digitizer to work. it is 'seeing' my stylus about 5 mm higher than my stylus really is. this is fine except for the drop down menu's at the top of the screen are now 'virutally' 5mm higher than the palm is.
what do i do? i have tried every kind of reset.
thanks,
keep up the good work Ed.


-Raishe
"Monster Pig kills Jesus
More at 11"

RE: How Dumb can you be?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 4:42:20 PM #
There is even a chatroom that is simple enough for all of you idiots. Palm needs their users to actually think before calling into some line. Palm chat and email support is free so stop complaining. If someone has an M100, use the chatroom your moron.

RE: How Dumb can you be?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 5:28:48 PM #
"Computer illiterates"?

Most consumers just want a product that is reasonably easy to use. Product manuals are shrinking in size. Don't blame consumers if they can't get a manual to consult in the first place. Try telling your grandma to search for the manual on a CD or the internet.

Hey Raishe - What is your problem???
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 8:53:20 PM #
Is that "Monster Pig Kills Jesus" tag really necessary? I find it very gratuitously offensive. Are you trying to be funny or trying to prove something? What is your problem?

RE: How Dumb can you be?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/30/2001 11:27:35 PM #
Raishe_werk

Well.... Her is my suggestion.

If a Hard Reset doesn't fix the problem (without doing a restore from your back up), than it's not a software issue. By doing a hard reset, you are essentually setting your palm back to the manufactures specifications with no other software being loaded. If after doing a hardreset and the problem is solved, and than you do a back up and the problem comes back, than it's one of the softwares you have loaded onto your Palm. If this is the case... Than Palm will tell what I will tell you...

Contact the vendor of the software that caused this and see if the have a fix. If you don't know which software caused the problem, than there isn't anything else Palm can do to help.

If a Hardreset doesn't fix the problem...than you are looking at a hardware problem..at which case it would need to be serviced by Palm or the PDA manufacture.


$10 bucks please...

RE: DigiFix
Ed @ 10/31/2001 11:54:02 AM #
Get DigiFix, which should cure your Mad Digitizer Syndrome:
http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=31915

No charge.

---
News Editor

RE: How Dumb can you be?
Raishe_werk @ 10/31/2001 5:23:20 PM #
thanks for the 411 Ed and the other guy. i will try it out.
keep it funky and keep the news coming

-Raishe
"Monster Pig kills Jesus
More at 11"
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