Did Anyone Buy a LinuxDA PDA?

segoave asks: "It's been a while since this story was first posted. I was just curious if anyone in the slashdot community bought one of these. Does it work well? Did you have any trouble receiving it? I admit I was hesitant when I saw their SDK license agreement." It's always nice to know what others think of a product, especially before you sink hundreds of dollars into it. How well does the LinuxDA live up to its name, and would you recommend them to your friends and peers? Update: 10/18 17:00 GMT by C W : You might want to wait on this one, one of our readers has already reported problems with delivery due to what the company is calling "high order volume". The company expects to ship the units in "early November". More as we get it.

foo_48120 writes in with his ordering experience. You all might be interested in this: "I thought that the idea of running Linux on a Palm like device was a cool idea. The story ran here. I traded some email about the features with their technical staff and despite the fact that their device currently only syncs to Windoze and not Linux itself (supposedly that is coming soon) and despite the lengthy promised delivery date of 3 to 8 weeks, I put my money where my mouth is and ordered two.

My credit card was immediately charged for the order. This did not really sit well with me but perhaps they were shipping imminently and the 3 - 8 week disclaimer was boiler plate for FTC Mail Order compliance. OK, we'll wait a while.

After receiving my BookPool.com order, placed the same day, I decided to inquire about my order. Three or four emails sent to several of their email addresses went unanswered. Finally my most recent email from last Friday was answered. Copy below.

It has now been about 3 - 4 weeks. My credit card has been charged and no shipment is on the horizon before 'early November' which is perhaps another 3 - 4 weeks away. If LinuxDA were honest about shipments, notified Customers periodically about the state of order processing and DID NOT CHARGE YOUR CREDIT CARD 8 weeks before delivery in violation of the FTC Mail Order Rule, I might recommend ordering from them.

Linux DAs Response with my reply to them requesting an immediate shipment or refund:

Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 11:23:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: REDACTED
Subject: Re: Invoice #88100527
To: "sales" <[e-mail]>

Please either ship my order immediately or cancel my order and issue a full credit to my credit card immediately. While I agreed to accept a waiting period of 3 - 8 weeks for delivery, I never accepted that you would immediately charge my credit card and then delay delivery for eight weeks. That is in violation of the current FTC mail order rule.

Do you understand the amount of fines that your company can face for its improper treatment of Customers?

Copies of my correspondence will be forwarded to Slash Dot.

David J Sussman

Sales replied:

Dear David Sussman:

In response to your email, the order quoting invoice #88100527 has been received and is in queue for PDA delivery. At this time, due to the high volume of PowerPlay III PDAs being purchased, please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery.

Shipping of the PowerPlay III PDAs is to commence, at latest, in early November. The PDAs will be shipped by our company's contract courier.

Please contact us if you have any additional questions or concerns. We appreciate your patience, and thank you for your interest in Linux DA.

Best Regards,
Linux DA Customer Support Team

As it is, I cannot recommend their company at all. I am wondering now if I need to contact my Credit Card company to obtain a refund of $191.98 for the two units I never received. LinuxDA cannot tell me today definitively what date this product will ship."

If any others have had similar experiences with this company, please state so in the comments.

I bought two

[tzanger]

... about three weeks ago.

I believe they said there's a 6-8 week wait, so I am not too worried... yet.

I would BUT...

[iforgotmyfirstlogon]

... I probably wouldn't do it over the web. When I can go down the street, pick one up and use it, and compare it to the other ones on the rack, THEN I'll consider gambling on it.

- Freed

Buy Sharp's new Linux/Java PDA instead

[wjohn]

I don't work for Sharp, but I think this is a very nice PDA. I saw a prototype at JavaOne this year & fell in love with it. I'm going to get one of these.
Check it out at:
http://more.sbc.co.jp/slj/index.asp -John

Companies in Arrogance

[akiaki007]

Honeslty, I feel what the submitter feels. I'm sick and tired of companies just doing how they feel. When I got my Sony Clie in Sept. 2000, I was more than annoyed. I ordered, and nothing showed, as it was supposed to in 3-5 days. I called, and they couldn't track my order because they were going through "upgrades."

I don't care what you're doing, I paid you money, so you better be able to tell me where my order is.

Companies now days just take advantage of customers, and their delay-until-we-got-it-under-control. What this means, is that they delay with e-mail, which takes 3-4 days (I thought e-mail was faster than traditional mail), and by that time, most companies have sorted things out, and pretend that nothing went wrong when you finally get a chance to talk to them.

When did all this happen? Why do companies think they can just trample over you? Pretend nothing went wrong because if the consumer "gets their product" they will be happy, regardless of how long it takes. Hey, they did buy the thing, why would they return it. This mentality works especially well for the expensive products, because one just doesn't buy an expensive item for the hell of it. One buys it because they want it.

There should be some way of enforcing a "I get money back if any ONE thing goes wrong" policy.

As for the guy that got the LinuxPD, make sure you follow up, and report them for this. This is more than just a small problem. It's a HUGE legal issue.

Refund was issued

[foo_48120]

Well my credit card refund cleared today...

No word on their changing their business practices or actual shipping dates.

David