PalmGear in Perspective

[tanker_bob]

I sat down last night and wrote an article on PDA Avenue (http://www.pdaavenue.com/articles.php) about the PalmGear situation. I tried to put the current flap into historical perspective within the context of economic theory, society, and the PDA community.

[Alistar]

Exceptionally well written.

[Unregistered]

Thank you for writing a well thought out intelligent article without emotional theatrics. Not one "PalmGear sucks" in the whole thing. How refreshing!

Keep up your excellent work.

[n2ifp]

No matter how it's sugar coated, PalmGear still Sucks!

PS: I never claimed to be intelligent

[Hannibal]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Not one "PalmGear sucks" in the whole thing.

Yes Tanker Bob, very well written and good restraint in not using the term above in your article---although I'm sure the thought came to mind when considering their actions, especially as of late, which clearly indicates that they no longer care about the little guys, as in customers, developers, etc., just the big money picture, and in that respect do fit that term rather nicely. Unless customers and developers, the Palm Community at large, start using other online sources for their handheld needs, likely the big, aggressive Palmgear will continue to dominate the market, spamming customers, messing up their account information, etc. Even after all of these threads and comments from upset users concerned about their account information being compromised, they have yet to drop by and give a status report or apology. It is really a sad scenario from how they began to how they have now become.

[Alistar]

Well, I only use them for software that I can't find elsewhere. Either the developer only lists it there or whatnot. Otherwise I try to buy from the developer or the new sites like PDAGreen.

[wellsjs]

Excellent article Tanker Bob! I can confirm the "developers not getting paid" as several months ago in a discussion about other matters, Andrew Peterson, owner of Interstate Guide (http://www.theheadwaters.com/IGP.html) mentioned his frustration with Palmgear and that he had not received any payments for months.

I hope this recent website debacle and the public outcry will serve as a wakeup call to Palmgear that you just can't treat your customers (on both sides of the supply and demand chain) poorly and expect to maintain a healthy, viable business. The problem that complicates my last statement, however, is that customer service has become so apathetic everywhere, that the PGs of the world can get away with much more than a business could 10 to 20 years ago.

I blame it on gas stations! :eek: (now for a little humor!) Remember (most here are probably not old enough), once upon a time, when you drove into a gas station and one or more attendants came running out to your car? One would ask what kind and how much gas you wanted, while the other would open your hood and start checking your fluids (without you even asking! :) ). If you asked them to check the air in your tires one of them did so. When your gas was finished pumping you paid for only the gas (unless of course you needed oil).

Then came "self-service." Gas stations started offering gas a little cheaper at the self-service pumps, but you didn't get the swarming gas station attendants giving your car the once over! So you had a choice . . . then! Now days, it's hard to find a gas station that offers that choice. In fact the only way to get someone who works at the gas station to come outside is to pretend your going to drive off without paying! That'll get their attention! :eek:

So gas stations "competed" by lowering their prices at the cost of customer service. Today, there is hardly an industry or business anywhere that has not followed a similar degrading of customer service, in order to drive costs down, in order to compete with their competitors. So we customers have never seen our "purchasing power" as good as it is today. But we also have never seen customer service any lousier than it is today! Doggone gas stations! :D

[Alistar]

Actually where I live we have several full service gas stations where attendants come out and do all that. It usually just one guy but he will do all that. You only pay for the gass and the full service gas is the same price as self-serve gas here.

[wellsjs]

Originally posted by Alistar
Actually where I live we have several full service gas stations where attendants come out and do all that. It usually just one guy but he will do all that. You only pay for the gass and the full service gas is the same price as self-serve gas here. That's great! But what are gas prices in Canada? I know gas is taxed to subsidize the healthcare system there.

[Unregistered]

in some places like new jersey, you can't pump your own gas. its not an option. everything is full service.

[Alistar]

Originally posted by wellsjs
That's great! But what are gas prices in Canada? I know gas is taxed to subsidize the healthcare system there.

Current prices are $0.73 a litre.
Its quite high. I was merely pointing out that we still have full-serve stations that cost the same as self-serve ones.
And if I remember correctly about 60 someodd percent of that is taxes.

[kp*]

Great article, Tanker Bob! I stopped buying at PG a while ago, but have continued checking every other day or so for info on updated software, mostly because it's easily accessible on the bookmark bar in my browser. After reading your article I decided that continuing to visit PG even to browse was increasing their hit count and sending them the message that I supported their site, so I replaced PG's place in my bookmark bar with PDA Green. PDA users revolt! :D

[Wolfsmoke]

Well written, Tanker Bob!