Like many of you, I am completely fed up with Palm's support for the 700p. Now is the time we band together to do something about it. The Xmas shopping season is nearly here and affords us great leverage if we work together.
My biggest grievance with Palm is their lack of communication with us, the loyalists who have kept them in business with our support by purchasing new model after new model for years. The form emails we have been getting back from their support are insulting to the intelligence. Some state that they are not aware of any stated problems, while others contradict those stating that Palm is aware of the problems but have no information as to when they will be fixed.
This type of communication is unreasonable and out of line with the rest of the industry. Microsoft's support site documents almost any problem they are aware of and lists patch availability, workarounds or simply states we are aware and working on the problem. They also give advanced notice of when Service Packs come out and make available advanced beta versions for those who need them sooner or want to test for them.
THE CONCEPT:
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So the question to ask is
why doesn't Palm treat us with at least the same level of respect that Micro$oft treats it's consumers?
The reason is simple:
Palm fears that if they admit they have outstanding issues for a product, that it will negatively impact their sales.
The Key:
If we can make Palm believe that concealing issues is more damaging to their sales than communication, they will be forced to reverse their policy.
THE CONCEPT: An Informational Campaign
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Many people will state that if you don't like your Treo, use your dollar votes and don't buy one. Problem is, we already used those votes when we purchased our Treos. So I say
let's utilize other people's dollar votes.
We will commence an informational campaign directed at potential buyers about the problems associated with the 700p and Palm's unwillingness to address the problems for six months. We will do this by posting the information as reviews on retailer or industry websites. Please note, this is not a smear campaign. We will be posting the form letters Palm has sent us back to advise potential buyers that these are the shortcomings and if they are major issues for you, be advised of Palm's response to those issues.
THE TIMING IS RIGHT:
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Palm will be hoping for strong sales during the Xmas shopping season for consumers. Now through January also marks the time many businesses will be deciding which tech products they will buy with their 2007 budget. So I think this concept will give us the most leverage to get the update.
THE PROPOSAL
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1) First, I ask a yes vote in the attached poll from those who will support this endeavour. If there are enough we will go forward. If there is no support, then we should stop complaining.
2) Assuming I get enough support, we will decide which retail sites we will target. Off the top of my head (and I don't know if they all have review sites or carry the Treo) are:
- Buy.com
- Amazon
- Tiger Direct
- NewEgg
- Best Buy
- Circuit City
- Cnet.com
- PC magazine (Does this have a review section)
- Please suggest more before we finalize them.
3) Based on the number of people who support this, we will assign sites to individuals to update. We will rotate these sites among individuals so that if for example, there are five reviews by us on a site, they will be from five different individuals as opposed to five reviews by the same person. How often we put reviews up will be determined by the number of supporters.
4) Once organized, I will attempt to send a notice to Ed Colligan via registered U.S. mail explaining our frustration and the informational campaign we are planning to commence. I will explain to him that what we want more than even the firmware patch itself, is communication from Palm regarding the problems. That communication should be through avenues such as Treocentral, Treonauts, etc and include the following:
A) Confirm that Palm is aware of these problems.
B) Annouce their action plan (if any) to resolve these problems. Any such plan should include a timetable, if even only a rough estimate. In other words, we won't hold them to a specific date but we want to know whether were talking weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, etc. Just so we know something is going to get done and they have not abandoned us.
5) The letter will include a specific date that, if no communication has been as of yet been made to the community, we will commence with the campaign. I want to give him some time but right now I am thinking the week preceding Black Friday.
6) I will express that we would rather avoid taking this action but that it is the right of every consumer to voice the facts via whatever manner is most effective. The form letters we publish will show that for over half a year the communication device Palm has in place has been inadequate and unresponsive.
FOCUS:
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We have a better shot at getting a firmware update if we submit a short list to Palm of what needs to be fixed. So I want to limit the list to the most vital problems and that we know are specific to the 700p. In other words leaving out, WIFI card support and simply, "crashes too much" (more of just a POS problem).
I am open to suggestions but want to start the list off with these two which if fixed, we will probably indirectly fix some other issues not list.
1) Lag - What seems to be a memory access problem causes jumping from one application into another such as the Phone to lag far behind the 600 and 650 despite twice the memory and a superior processor.
2) Bluetooth Headphone Support - Many of us have had various Bluetooth problems which the manufacturer has told us have been identified as a 700p problem and referred to Palm. Many of these headphones had no issue on the 650.
SUPPORT FROM OTHER TREO SITES:
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I would like to recruit the users on other Treo websites by starting a (single) thread on each with a link to this thread. If you want to help, please post a reply in this thread and list which website you will post it on.
CONTACTING ED
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- My only idea for reaching Ed Colligan is to send the letter attention of his name to Palm's corporate headquarter with Return receipt.
If someone knows a more effective way to reach Colligan, or if someone else at Palm should be contacted, please let me know. Someone could also point Palm's forum thread to this site.
700P ROM Update Rally!! - Organize, Be Heard!
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