Treo 600 Problems

[oskis]

Although my initial opinion of the Treo 600 device was positive and to many extents, still is, I do want to warn owners of the T600 out there of the issues I have personally experienced.

First off, the unit itself looks great, feels comfortable when on a call and with the exception of Bluetooth, it has got just about every option we would want from a phone/PDA device.

Now, on to the issues...

First ond foremost, if you do own one of these, PLEASE be extra careful with the handling of the unit. As it is a phone, depending how much one uses it, there could be quite a bit of handling of the T600. Although none of us really wants to intentionally drop our phones, unfortunately it happends... I dropped mine at home ONCE... on the carpet from a height of about 2 feet... the end result was that the screen cracked. One would figure Palm did their homework in regard to quality testing the unit for drops, etc. Furthermore, as ATT does not offer insurance on the PDA's... I was basically out 600 bucks... or so I thought.

I did call PalmOne and was able to purchase a new unit for an additional $200.00 (this just became an $800.00 unit). A few days later, I had received the replacement unit. I thought my problems were over and I could finally get to using the device. All was fine an dandy until one week later when while on a call, I lost the sound of the person I was speaking with. Make a long story short, the internal earpiece on the unit shorted and once again, I was out of yet another unit. Fortunately, this time PalmOne agreed to replace my unit for free. That was well over two weeks ago and I still have not yet received the replacement device. With New Year's approaching, realistically I am looking at one to two more weeks before I receive my unit.

I've called PalmOne Customer service and they were simply awfull to deal with. No one seems to be able to help or want to. I've spoken with representatives, Supervisors and Managers to no avail. I have been placed in a position where I needed to purchase another phone while I wait for my new T600. Considering I have purchased Palm's flagship model, paid 800.00 bucks for, I would expect to have been treated better. I am absolutely disgusted with the way they are handling this issue.

In closing, if you own one of these, PLEASE buy a good case to protect your unit as much as possible... the screen is EXTREMELY fragile. Furthermore, the finish on the unit is very easily scratchable and a good care will prevent that from happening.

If you do not own one of these... look at all of your options before you decide to purchase one. Although as I said, it is a versitile unit with lots of potential. I think PalmOne needs to weed out some of the bugs and more importantly, they need to weed out some of the people, management included, which represent the company.

If I had to do it all over again, I would not have purchased a T600. My $800.00 could have been better spent on a company which pampers their customers and tends well to them when issues arise.

[oskis]

... and a good day to all... again... I thought some may like to hear either an update or a conclusion to my previous story... that said, here it goes, of course, with a bit of a recap of the entire story...

As a gadget lover, once I found out about the Treo 600, I could not wait for the opportunity to own one. Oct 2003, I ordered my Treo and when I finally received it a couple of weeks later, words could not express my excitement. All was well until I dropped the unit (at home, from a height of 2 feet, onto the carpet)... the screen cracked. Words could not describe my dismay.. one would figure such tests had to be done before putting this unit on the market... after all, it is a cell phone as well, and sadly, cellphones get dropped from time to time. I am not blaming Palm for the dropping of my phone... that was a bit of advice for anyone that purchased a very expensive unit with the expectations of durability and quality... so far, the Treo 600 has not proven either.

Anyway... as warranty would not cover the unit for such occurance, I was stuck with resolving this problem. Believe it or not, the nightmare had not yet started... it began the moment I started dealing with PalmOne/Handspring Customer Care reps, supervisors, managers, and so on.

In a nutshell, I had to pay $200.00 for a replacement unit... so, after a two week wait I received my first replacement... it was deffective. The ear speaker was not functioning and I was unable to hear any of the callers unless of course I would use the rear loud speaker. I had not choice but to call PalmOne and request yet another replacement.

Being told I should receive my replacement within 3 - 5 biz days, I was again anxiously awaiting the new unit. Well, the 3 - 5 day wait wound up being 6 weeks. To my shock and amazement, I had the same exact problem with the third unit... no sound while on a call. It seemed as I was stuck in the Twilight Zone with no end in sight and I had to go through the motions again. I contacted PalmOne and ordered my 4th replacement... waited yet another month for it to arrive and when I finally received it last week... another deffective unit. This time, the battery was not charging and the unit would reset itself each time I tried using it.

The last incident took place last Friday, Januery 23rd. I am now waiting for my 5th unit. To make matters worse, I have spoken with several dozens of people on this from phone agents, to supervisors, to their managers. I spent days tracking down PalmOne's Corporate contact numbers and fianally was able to leave messages for upper management at PalmOne such as Mr. Angel Mendez... Senior VP of Global Operations who regretfully, opted on not returning my calls or emails. He instead delegated this issue to his personal assistant Ms. Dorothea Davis who by the way, also did nothing to help.

It is not solely the Treo 600 issues which have become the nightmare...the nightmare is related to the incredibly poor level of customer service from the desk level staff to the SVP level at PalmOne. At this point, I have kissed my 800 bucks goodbye (200.00 for the initial replacement). I've wasted way too much time on a product which is pathetically represented by its creators. My advice.... if you own a Treo 600, PLEASE take good care of it as if you do not, there's a good chance you will fight your battle alone.

If anyone else is experiencing a similar issue with PalmOne customer service, below are some of the contact numbers I've spent days on gathering... hope this helps.

PalmOne Corporate - (650) 230-5000
Dorothea Davis - (40 503-2285
Angel Mendez - Located at Corporate number

On the 30th I received an email from PalmOne advising me that there is now a 4 - 6 week wait... I should receive my 5th replacement in time for X-Mas 2004.

[ojleblanc]

Wow! An amazing story. So sorry for the hassels PalmOne has put you through. Shameful!

[oskis]

********* UPDATE TO LAST POST ************

Ok... I will keep this as short as possible... after another lengthy wait for the Treo 600 replacement I finally received it. This time, it was not a "refurbished" replacement but a BRAND SPANKING new unit... in a sealed box.

All was fine for the initial 1st week then the usual same old problem started again... first the sound quality worsened while on a call, then about two days later the sound died all together. I have had enough... I tried asking ATT and PalmOne for a full refund however, so far to no avail. I must say that PamOne is actually considering my request and hopefuly they'll get back to me next week with positive news.

Regardless, I have had enough and as a result, I've switched to another carrier and as well went back to the ole' faithful SonyEricsson brand.

Bottom line is that as per my experience over the past 4 months, and 5 Treo 600 units later, I could safely state that this is a piece of garbage product and anyone which considers buying one, should give it a lot of thought first.

[keyofr]

You might want to look at This Thread (http://discuss.treocentral.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51360) on treocentral.

The earpiece problem is apparently medium-easy to fix yourself if you are brave and careful and have a teeny tiny torx bit.

Or a friend who meets all of the above. :)

The problem is such a simple mechanical problem and easy enough to rectify that it's hard to imagine waiting all that time for new units when in an hour or two you could have it fixed.

I agree, After paying top dollar for the Bently of pda's you should NOT HAVE to repair your own unit, but when the choice is between an hour or so of careful work and months of waiting just to get more units that are mass-produced with the same problem anyways... I choose to do the work, especially if someone else took all the real risk by being first and figuring out the hard way whether or not taking the phone apart wrecks it. :)

I've had mine about a month and a half, and have dropped it from chest height actually 2 or 3 times already (it's very sleek and rounded and smooth as you know, also it's heavy because it's made out of pure newtoynium ;) ) but always manged to break it's fall with my foot so far. I've had no problems with the earpiece so far, but from the description in the thread linked to above, I can only assume that I will at some point since the weakness is in the design not in one or two units that got manufactured less than perfectly.

[CWolf]

I really hope they release a Treo 601 soon!

[Ms. Rogers]

Originally posted by oskis
Although my initial opinion of the Treo 600 device was positive and to many extents, still is, I do want to warn owners of the T600 out there of the issues I have personally...

Hi there Oskis,
I just wanted to let you know that I read your thread a very long time ago and was terrified of dropping my Treo 600. I thought that what happened to you would happen to my dearest phone.

Well after a while of handling my T600 like a baby, the inevitable happened...that's right, it fell. I thought that was the end of it.
But nothing happened. I even looked extra carefully at the functionality to see if anything fault. But nothing. I thought I was lucky and went about my business.

I still treated it like a baby but more like a toddler this time than an infant after the fall. Then, one day I was coming up the stairs to my apt and had a weak knee...and guess what....I busted my *** in one of the steps and landed on my hands and guess who was in one of my hands, that's right...my T600. The lick was so hard that I swear it was over for my T600. I thought I killed it!
I immidiately called my boyfriend expecting him to hear echos or worse me not hearing anything. But guess what....that's right, it worked as though nothing happened to it.
Immidiately after I thought of this thread and thought I owed it to the T600 users to report what happened.

The result of that last fall was nothing but a chip on the left hand corner which is hardly visible if not pointed out.

I'm not trying to disclaimed what your saying as untruth...I'm just simply pointing out to you that you were plain out unlucky.

Hope you give the T600 another try (eventhough I read in another thread you posted that you gave up on it and think that is trash).

Good luck. :(

[mattjumbo]

Although I am sympathetic to Oksis, I am forced to conclude that he is somewhat of a klutz or simply cursed. My Treo is feels very solidly built, has performed perfectly, and has survived two pretty big drops. My friend Harry also has a Treo 600 and has the same experience. I have personally always thought that folks who go through 3, 4, 5, electronic products maybejust regret the purchase and wnat their money back or they are just really hard on electronics. The Treo 600 is, after all, a tiny computer not a football. There is a limit to how tough it can be. And the screen, being much larger than that on most cell phones, is certainly going to be more vulnerable to damage.

[Calinate]

Wow, I don't blame you one bit for junking your Treo, Oskis. I would have done the same thing. I, however, have dropped my Treo at least once onto a linoleum floor with no ill effects. Overall I've been very happy it, but now I'm starting to worry about dropping it or if my speaker is about to go out :) Guess I'll just get one of those aluminum cases and hope for the best.

- Nate