The Official VIENNA CHANNELS "I ordered and I'm Waiting For My GSM 650" Thread

**magicman** · 02/15/2005, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by cglaguna

For some of us, the thing that bothers me the most, is that I am made to look a fool in front of my big boss, because I offered this program in the first place. This is not my immediate boss, but the head of the whole big organization with many different units. I emailed Jeff and Joe with my feelings on this. Jeff was kind enough to sympathsize and say he was doing what he could. Joe never responded to my email.

You emailed Joe - how about giving us that email address so we can inundate him with emails. One from you might not elicit a response, but 200 (of the 519) odd might make him realize that P1 needs todo something (and something that is probably easy to dom and does not cost much - i.e. ship 520 units to VC. He can worry about compensation e.g. 1GB SD card later

)

**wskteo** · 02/15/2005, 02:18 PM

Please post Joe's email - its ben more than 3 months now since we attended and a marketing program like that is downright ridiculous. They really must hear from us.

**mullva** · 02/15/2005, 02:53 PM

I would like to have the address as well.

Spending my personal time to get to the show, and then pitchng the vaporware product from a promotion that still has not happened has not left the best of taste in my mouth!

**LewisL77** · 02/15/2005, 03:24 PM

joe.fabris...... right????

**gt5l** · 02/15/2005, 03:37 PM

I posted before do a search for the name

**Rome** · 02/15/2005, 03:47 PM

This post is getting ridiculous......Joe said specifically at the road show that VC is NOT a store. If you want your Treo 650 as quickly as possible, you should order it from your carrier or P1 directly. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

**wskteo** · 02/15/2005, 03:55 PM

I got my Treo. Just want them to know not to waste our time by trying another stupid marketing ploy like that, makes them look really bad. What did they say the purpose of the roadshow was ...?

**silverado** · 02/15/2005, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by wskteo

I got my Treo. Just want them to know not to waste our time by trying another stupid marketing ploy like that, makes them look really bad. What did they say the purpose of the roadshow was ...?

To call it a ploy is giving it too much credit

It's a marketing fiasco. Lucky for them, I am someone who wasn't negatively affected by this flop of an effort, but I can imagine it achieved quite the opposite effect of marketing on many participants.

**criminal** · 02/15/2005, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by Rome

This post is getting ridiculous......Joe said specifically at the road show that VC is NOT a store. If you want your Treo 650 as quickly as possible, you should order it from your carrier or P1 directly. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Just curious where you work... I think think it's pretty interesting to review the tenor/nature/content of your posts.

I couldn't disagree with you more -- there is a SIGNIFICANT difference between not being a store and handling customers well. This has been a marketing fiasco -- look at the treonauts.com site covering this issue/look at the posts here and the fact that a LOT of P1 customers are reading it....

Just as it's terrifically beneficial to give telephone customers that are on hold an expected wait time, it would have helped to provide better ongoing expectation setting to the VC customers.

At this point, when P1 is shipping LOTS of unlocked GSMs, why can't an estimated time be given (for that matter, why can't they be shipped...)? A big part of the problem is the history of the way VC Sprint customers were handled -- it took an awfully long time to address those at the tail of the queue. Those waiting for the unlocked GSMs see the bodies already strewn...

So,to P1, why not provide the best customer service experience possible? (And, especially with people that took their own time to hear both P1 and P1 partner pitches.)

**cjdaniel** · 02/15/2005, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by Rome

This post is getting ridiculous......Joe said specifically at the road show that VC is NOT a store. If you want your Treo 650 as quickly as possible, you should order it from your carrier or P1 directly. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Excuse Mr. Friggin know it all, but he may have said it at your roadshow, at ours they made it sound as if we were getting phones first. I later heard this after boston or DC but in Long Beach there was no such mention of this.

**Rome** · 02/15/2005, 07:02 PM

I am not affiliated with P1 in any way, if that's what you are asking. I went to the Dallas show and ordered my Sprint Treo 650. I received my Sprint Treo 650 about 6-8 weeks after it became available. No complaints from me.

The purpose of these roadshows was to introduce Treo 650 and its partners to corporate IT folks, and that's why I went there. Sure, a discounted Treo 650 was nice, but that's not why I went there. I went to the show on company time and got reimbursed for my expenses because it was business-related. By the way, I learned a lot about Treo 650 and its wireless app partners. The discounted Treo 650 was just icing on the cake. The information I gained at the roadshow was more valuable than a $200 discount on a phone.

**tbhausen** · 02/15/2005, 07:05 PM

Ditto that, Rome.

Todd/Indy

**cjdaniel** · 02/15/2005, 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by Rome

I am not affiliated with P1 in any way, if that's what you are asking. I went to the Dallas show and ordered my Sprint Treo 650. I received my Sprint Treo 650 about 6-8 weeks after it became available. No complaints from me.

The purpose of these roadshows was to introduce Treo 650 and its partners to corporate IT folks, and that's why I went there. Sure, a discounted Treo 650 was nice, but that's not why I went there. I went to the show on company time and got reimbursed for my expenses because it was business-related. By the way, I learned a lot about Treo 650 and its wireless app partners. The discounted Treo 650 was just icing on the cake. The information I gained at the roadshow was more valuable than a $200 discount on a phone.

Well I am glad you went and took advantage of the discount and talked to third party vendors who I am sure are thrilled. I put my name on the line, have a scheduled a 30 day trial with a 3rd party vendor who was under the impression from Palm One that the phones were shipping in December, all of them. My company cancelled a Blackberry deployment because of what we were told. So even if I can wait (I got a treo Cingular for $350), these third party vendors trotted across the country with P1 for some reason other than to talk to people, and it cost them a lot of money, and they are as po'd as many people on this board. I have my phone, but am very disappointed in the way P1 has handled VC.

**skillllllz** · 02/15/2005, 08:35 PM

<RANT>

I'm going to go postal soon if I don't receive the fully functional Unlocked GSM Treo 650 I ordered. This is just not right... I took the whole day off to attend that advertising charade they labeled the "RoadShow."

</RANT>

**illustreous** · 02/15/2005, 09:57 PM

Skillllllz, how are you dude? I sent a scathing email to an executive at P1 and...I actually got a response! This time it wasn't canned. However, as are marketing people are trained to do - he didn't answer the question.

When are we playing pool man?

**criminal** · 02/15/2005, 10:12 PM

There seems to be a feeling that because Joe mentioned at the roadshow that "they are not a store", then all should be forgiven as to execution. While I believe that the execution has been poor irrespective of any expectations like these, isn't the roadshow the wrong time to set these expectations? That is, once you are ALREADY there?

If you are going to draw people in for a marketing event -- set this expectation before people come. That is, we are going to give a discount, but, keep in mind, that there will be no priority to deliver to you.

What if IBM advertised that they were going to give you a discount on their laptops if you attended a presentation? Then, you get there and they say -- here's your discount coupon and did we mention that you shouldn't use it if you want it quickly? In fact, we can't tell you when you might be able to get it -- nor will we set any of your expectations appropriately through the process. That said, if you do decide to take advantage of it, you should hang in there, we'll get them to you as soon as we can. Believe me, I want this almost as much as you do.

**skillllllz** · 02/15/2005, 10:20 PM

Hey, whats up? At least you got some type of response, hopefully they are listening to our cries.

I'm down for a game of pool anytime my friend

Speaking of which, I haven't been by there in a while... was thinking of heading down there tonight.

**skillllllz** · 02/15/2005, 10:30 PM

Criminal,

I could not have said it any better myself. When you think about the way everything was handled it makes you wonder about P1... very unorthodox business practices.

Has a company like IBM or Sony ever done anything like this? I can't say I've ever heard of anything bizarre like this before. Honestly, how P1 is still in business is unfathomable to me. Not that I expect or wish for their downfall, quite the contrary actually. For now I'll play along but I don't know if I'll ever have the same gung-hoe fanaticism for P1 as I used to.

**IamFromFuture** · 02/15/2005, 10:32 PM

Originally Posted by criminal

There seems to be a feeling that because Joe mentioned at the roadshow that "they are not a store", then all should be forgiven as to execution. While I believe that the execution has been poor irrespective of any expectations like these, isn't the roadshow the wrong time to set these expectations? That is, once you are ALREADY there?

If you are going to draw people in for a marketing event -- set this expectation before people come. That is, we are going to give a discount, but, keep in mind, that there will be no priority to deliver to you.

What if IBM advertised that they were going to give you a discount on their laptops if you attended a presentation? Then, you get there and they say -- here's your discount coupon and did we mention that you shouldn't use it if you want it quickly? In fact, we can't tell you when you might be able to get it -- nor will we set any of your expectations appropriately through the process. That said, if you do decide to take advantage of it, you should hang in there, we'll get them to you as soon as we can. Believe me, I want this almost as much as you do.

Very good point. Looks like people will start seeing their VC Treo 650 GSM phone, just a few months before the annoucement of a newer Treo 700!!!

PalmOne (PO) - This is not the way to lure your loyal customers and then keep them hanging forever.

Rome- I agree with your earlier statement, but it has been over 15 weeks, since the start of the road show and so no one should tolerate being treated like this. I am in the same boat as you are, I went to the road show to evaluate the offering by PO...I really don't care if I receive the VC phone or not. Based on discussions on this forum, PO will not be a recommended solution for my clients.

Even though Treo 650 may be a great phone, business customers care equally about the vendor and their service.

"Joe from palmOne" - isn't it time for you to give an update to the demo and sales customers from the Road Show?

**MisterEd** · 02/16/2005, 07:47 AM

Wanna order a demo .... LOL

I wonder how fast they'll get theirs?

http://www.viennachannels.com/palmone

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