stodol@diku.dk (David Stodolsky) (08/21/89)
aem@ibiza.cs.miami.edu (a.e.mossberg) in Message-ID: <telecom-v09i0301m05@vector.dallas.tx.us> said: >A month after we had bought the system, they upgraded the software and ROMs >on the board. They charged us two hundred dollars to upgrade, though the >upgrade was merely bug fixes, serious enough to delay the project. >I liked the idea of Watson. Unfortunately, we found it to be poorly designed >and extremely overpriced. ("Well, we only make a small number"-- Less than a >month after putting it in a closet, we saw Watson from mail-order houses for >less than our "dealer-incentive price") I purchased a Watson board at a "special introductory price" and was in the process of putting it through type approval in Sweden when there was an upgrade (I think this same one). After first being told that they did not exchange boards, they agreed to do so since we were trying to establish their product in a new market. We also purchased an additional board at the same time. Because of a shipping problem, where they thought they might have to pay for customs clearance or something on the returned board, they refused to ship the new boards, until we agreed to cover the expected costs (it turned out there were none, to either them or us), even though authorization had been given to charge the new boards in full. After many long distance calls, the upgraded boards were finally shipped. However, the credit for the old board was not given. When I called the VP for sales he checked his records and found that the return had been recorded. After still not receiving the credit a month later, I inquired again and was told that the return had not been received. I finally issued a stop payment on my American Express Card. After having to deal with their billing department, I finally was credited with the then current price of the board, which they claimed had not been received (you guessed it, less than the special introductory price), but was billed for some additional software, the order for which had been cancelled. Quoting from my letter to American Express: "However, a second shipment was never authorized and receipt of my telex cancelling any back orders was confirmed to me by Eric Binder, VP Sales by phone. However, he took no action. Thus I am due $234." Finally, I had to sign a form saying I would discard the development software in question (for a product we didn't want and could not legally use or sell in Sweden). This is not the whole story, but you get the idea of what it was like to deal with them. I again could use a good voice-mail system, but from a *good* company, please. David S. Stodolsky, PhD Routing: <@uunet.uu.net:stodol@diku.dk> Department of Psychology Internet: <stodol@diku.dk> Copenhagen Univ., Njalsg. 88 Voice + 45 31 58 48 86 DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark Fax. + 45 31 54 32 11