Not that happy with my 720...

[CESkins]

Originally Posted by Ripper014

I got myself a Toshiba e830... and I was not that impressed either... until I loaded in oz_vga... Until then I was not sure I was going to keep the device... now I can say... I love it... and it will be around a long time... Now if they would fix their BT Stack... I would be a happy camper...

Ripper did you realize this was a Loox 720 forum? Just kidding. Welcome to the VGA club. You may want to check out the FirstLoox site and see if some of their BT/WiFi utilities would work on the Toshi. BTW, Rip, how does the Toshi compare to any other VGA device you have seen/used?

[CESkins]

Originally Posted by Ripper014

I got myself a Toshiba e830... and I was not that impressed either... until I loaded in oz_vga... Until then I was not sure I was going to keep the device... now I can say... I love it... and it will be around a long time... Now if they would fix their BT Stack... I would be a happy camper...

Ripper did you realize this was a Loox 720 forum? Just kidding. Welcome to the VGA club. You may want to check out the FirstLoox site and see if some of their BT/WiFi utilities would work on the Toshi. BTW, Rip, how does the Toshi compare to any other VGA device you have seen/used?

[Ripper014]

What can I say... wanna be a Loox user... settled for a Toshiba...

[teq]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys

Yeah, I like it too. I've even sent a lot of posts here on PPCT using it from home

...and the design of the Stowaway just perfectly matches the 720's design - now these two really seem to have been made for each other.

teq

[CESkins]

Originally Posted by teq

...and the design of the Stowaway just perfectly matches the 720's design - now these two really seem to have been made for each other.

teq

I felt the same way about the Stowaway BT KB and the Loox...the gray color of the keys perfectly matches the Loox grey color...one would think they were made by the same company.

[leeraud1]

Worry about the SUPPORT!!!!!!!
Here is my experience with a screen which broke 7 days after I bought it.
Still working on it and have contacted all the sites and finally have a resonse from http://www.fujitsu-siemens.de/contact.html Just sent the email.back to him


Dear Mr. Harle,
Here is a list of my contacts. No one ever sent me an email at all
and did not call back so I had to keep calling them in America.

Table of events

July 16th 2005
Received Fujitsu-Seimens Loox 720 in Post from England

July 19th 2005
Accidentally broke screen after putting the unit in my pocket with sunglasses

July 20th 2005
Called the service number at Fujitsu-Seimens USA at number
1-800-838-5487 They got all the information and told me that someone would be
calling me back. No one did and I had no messages in my EMail.

July 21st 2005

Called service number again and all information was collected again and they
then told me that I was to be given a Service number which was not given before
#40555447042. I asked for the service department number and they gave
it to me.
I called the servicenumber 1-888-241-4060 and was told that they were
waiting on
Customer Service to respond and let them know what the cost would be.
I was told that I would be called
in an hour by a "Tony". I was not.

July 22nd 2005
Called Service department and asked for Tony. I was told that the
replacement cost for the screen of the unit would be
about $600 US Dollars plus shipping and handling totalling about
$650.00 . I told them that I had just Paid that for the device.
They said that that was all they could do as this was Fujitsu-Seimens policy.

July 25th
Called Fujitsu-Seimens site in the UK at 011441344475125 I was told
that the policy there
is the same as in the US. They said that the cost would be about 300
Pounds plus shipping and handling
That came out to about $670.00 Americican. I then asked for the
service number and called 011441870-5359752
and the service department told me the same price. I asked to buy the
screen myself and They told me they
were not allowed to sell the screen. At that point I then mailed an
email to you. You are the first to have responded
with a return email.

Think of it this way'

I go buy a car for 45,000 USD. I drive it for a week and somehow do
somethig to cause the engine to burn up.
I take it back to the dealer and admit that it is my fault. The
dealer then tells me that it will cost 45,00 USD
to replace just the engine!!!! That is in effect what Fujitsu-Seimens
is doing!!

The end is that Germany referred me back to the English site again
The First Look forum is starting to fill with broken screen reports. They are very fragile.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

A broken screen is pretty extreme, but WOW... that's a ton. Actually, why do they even bother with a screen replacement at that price? They might as well just offer to sell you a new one!

[Ripper014]

Maybe that is the point... they do not want to do repairs. It is much easier for them to just have you buy another unit. Consider the time it takes to catalogue the request for repair... the cost of shipping... (assuming they cover it coming and going)... the time spent by technicians to evaluate/confirm the problem... the ordering and cost of parts... and finally the handling and reshipping of the product.

The whole process can be a bit of a bear, so I can see why they would drag their feet.

Bottom-line is the manufacturer has no obligations to repair damage caused by the user... nor are they responsible for OS upgrades... (just putting in there because I am tired of seeing all the complaints). Pocket PC's are as-is devices... as long as they work as initially advertised... we are getting what we paid for, anything else I would consider extra.

[Take1]

It was interesting reading this post. The original problems listed, apart from the non-charging sync cable are fixable and/or simply MS's fault. No real shockers there....

What surprised me was the cost of the screen repair and the pathetic customer service FS -provides. Always good to know about a company's support behavior when considering one of their devices!

[Duncan]

This is a difficult one.

I would certainly dispute that the Loox screen is very fragile, or that the FirstLoox forums are filling up with broken screens. Neither reflects the facts (indeed - I've seen the official stats and, while I can't quote them to you, repair rates - even warranty repairs - are very low).

That said it is a great shame that the cost of replacing a screen is so high for anyone. My understanding is that is really is that expensive for the company to do (and screens are not covered under standard warrantys). it has to do precisely with the econimies of scale in specially ordering screens as replacements as opposed to ordering in bulk when units are produced en masse - plus labour costs etc.

Generally such breakages are covered under home insurance so it simply isn't an issue (I've broken two screens out of c. 13 Pocket PCs over the years and both times paid no more than the £50 insurance excess - one was a Loox 600 that fell, with me, down the stairs).

The norm then is that FSC don't lose out, and the buyer has a relatively small cost and a little inconvenience.

Where this particular situation is problematic is that the buyer is in the US - so I'm guessing that home insurance won't cover it. Fujitsu USA (who do have an agreement to honour FSC warrantees but are a separate company) seem to be a less than stellar organisation when it comes to responding to people. I know that FSC are not happy with them on this either - but they're kind of stuck with each other.

That leaves the full cost of repair to be borne and the need to return to the UK.

Not a happy situation I'll grant you - but not really one where FSC are actually the bad guys (yeah - I know that Dell offer a full repair service - but there are reasons they are able to bear that loss) - even though I can see how they look like it when you are the one facing the huge expense.

[Menneisyys]

Originally Posted by leeraud1

The First Look forum is starting to fill with broken screen reports. They are very fragile.

I would certainly debate this. A guy over at www.ppc-welt.info has dropped his loox 720 4 times on concrete (see the 30.07.2005, 22:20:45 post here - German), another guy over at PDAMania.hu has dropped it 4 times, last time without even a case, the screen facing down, on concrete - no damage (see post number 70 here - Hungarian).

Furthermore, Neo 720 and Oxy42 over at FirstLoox (see here - English at last) have also dropped his PL720 while in case - no problems at all.

So, it just can't be said the screen of the PL720 is more fragile than those of other PDA's. The more frequency of threads like 'how to get a new screen' over at FL is because people outside Europe have a hard time getting a replacement screen and also post on forums to inquire where to get the screens from. Users of other, domestic models (HP, Dell for people from the US) don't need to publicly ask for screen sources - they only need to call their reps.