I've been using a Treo 600 for about six months now. I originally bought it because I didn't want to have to carry both my Nokia phone and my Palmpilot around - I wanted one small device. I was pleasantly surprised when I got it and discovered all kinds of other features that I hadn't realized would be so valuable. The Treo 600 at $450 is a premium brand product and so far I was having a premium product experience.
The first unit I got suffered from a minor hardware problem, so I had them send me a replacement model. It took over 30 days to arrive, but since the one I had worked that was fine.
But this week I had an experience that makes me want to
seriously reconsider dumping the Treo and going back to just a simple and reliable cell phone solution.
The touchscreen on the Treo went out, which made using the phone very difficult. It was still usable (barely), but since I access all kinds of functions I need to be able to tap the screen to use it effectively. Worse yet, the phone started to lock up and get more sluggish even after a hard reset, and finally just got stuck on the "Tap the Stylus" calibration screen. I called PalmOne - the bottom line was that after 3 phone calls with reps that struggled to understand what I was saying they indicated they would have to send me a replacement unit.
Here's the part where the concept of a whole product solution breaks down (a whole product solution means that a company provides ALL of the components that customers need and that match their customer promise).
PalmOne told me it would take 7-10 business days for the replacement to arrive. Keep in mind I use this phone to run the 280 Group all day every day - without being able to answer client calls, check email on the fly, and access my calendar etc. I stood to potentially lose several thousand dollars worth of business. Worse yet, PalmOne indicated that advance replacement costs $25 (even though the product is fully under warranty). When I asked to speak with a supervisor I was told none were available. So I asked to have one call me back: "Sorry, that's against our policy". So I asked for the Supervisor's name and direct number "Against our policy to give this out". Okay, I thought, I'll go ahead and put in the replacement order and then talk to a supervisor later today. "Sorry, but if we place the order now we can't modify it later even if the Supervisor wants to do something to expedite it".
At this point I finally gave up. I ordered the phone and went to the wireless store, got a cheap loaner phone (which is quite reliable and only cost $70), and started to consider whether I could dump the Treo altogether.
As it turns out the phone arrived within a few days and Palm waived the $25 fee. Unfortunately the magic synchronization that Palm hooked me on as a customer years ago failed this time, and I lost all of the category information I had carefully entered over the years for the more than 900 contacts in my address book. With a few hours of work, research and struggling I was able to recover from this as well.
So now I'm out about 5-6 hours of my time (which is worth much more than the cost of the Treo). I've had a horrendously bad customer experience even though I paid a premium price. And the product that originally thrilled me because it worked so seamlessly now has left a very bad taste in my mouth.
Don't get me wrong - I think the Treo 600 is a brilliant product, and I don't want to have to give it up. But the phone itself is only a small part of the solution that I paid for. Without the support and quick turnaround replacement policies that a professional needs it is only 1/2 of a whole product solution.
