Quality and Education

My clients know that I firmly beleive in educating them, myself and any others about my services and products. They also know that I strongly beleive in delivering a quality product!

Does this mean that I have to charge exhuberent prices for this? Yep! Nah, just kidding. I am as competitive and fair as possible, yet my clients know they get what they pay for as well. My work and services cannnot be compared to some, it must remain an apples to apples comparision.

With that, many new clients/ prospects, of which were not referred (this is why I love referrals, you get to skip this step), they cannot understand why my rates are more than that of Sears or some other. Well, I'm not one of those other companies. Yeah...this introduction is turning into a whole nudder posting....so I'll leave it at that and move on.

I spend a lot when I am upset. Too much! Some people get depressed and intoxicate themselves, me...I spend. I was at the airport and saw a couple of books I wanted. I bought them. They gave me a free tote, so I felt like I was getting some huge deal. Could I have just gotten one? Surely, but I may have forgotten about the others! I haven't read the first one, lol!

I also love salespersons. I love to watch their interaction with people. I love learning from it. I'm not talking about the pushy pricks at used carlots and that sell vacuum cleaners. I'm talking about sincere people that want to provide you with a product that in some way will make you happier and your life better.

There is an electronics store there. First of all, I compared prices to this device and found that much to my surpise I did get a good deal. The airports usually have a reputation of being ridicously overpriced. That's only for the $3 water! I know I opened up with talking about quality...no, this is just water. The same stuff sold in regular stores for a buck.

So...I found this device. It's an Archos 605. I'll tell you upfront that it's a media player. It has built in Wi Fi that you can use to download movies and such as well as surf the next. Provided you're in a hotspot.

Well, I walked up, saw a Sony PSP and asked some question about it. The guy was enthusiastic and appeared knowledgeable. Thinking the Archos 7something model (due to it's large 7" screen) was some sort of DVD player, it caught my eye. I asked about it.

I was told it was a computer.
-It plays music, movies, games, blah blah.....

Huh? It's a computer?

Yep! Even comes with a wireless infrared keyboard.

Hmm....okay. So....it's a computer, right?

Yep! Sure is.

Okay, what type of OS comes on it.

None.

Huh? How does it work?

You take it home, go to the website and you can choose either WIN XP or Vista.

And that comes with it?

Yes Sir!

Why the option of both?

To give customers another option. Some like one over the other.

Ahh...I hate Vista, so that's a good thing to have a choice. And this is no charge, right?

Nope, none at all! Comes with it for purchasing it.

Okay. Well...it's a computer, right? I am a photographer. This has a large hardrive, could I plug my card reader into it to dump it?

Sure, provided it has a USB port.

Nice. So....being a computer....I can work on Excel documents and stuff too right?

Yep, you sure can. You will have to have the program though, but you can purchase that.

Okay, but other programs through Windows, I'll be able to do, right?

yep.

I don't know, man....I mean, if it'll do all that....I just don't know much about this product, I've never heard of it.

Well, I'll tell you I haven't had one return. Also, we have a 30 day warranty. If you're not around, you can mail it to us. And the product comes with a 1 year warranty from the manufactuer.

So...even if I don't like it I can return it prior to 30 days?

Yep, sure can! Like I said though, I haven't had one brought back yet.
Tell you what, I'll give you 3 dvd downloads and 10% off this and a case.

(I found out later a case was included in the box)

Hmm...so what comes with this thing?

A charger *(later find out USB powered only), stylus and instructions. I'm going to give you some coupons to download some movies too. Plus, my card with my personal number on it. Incase you have any problems or questions. Call me too to tell me how much you like it.

I will do that for you! Tell you what....if it'll do what you say it will, throw in one more movie and we have a deal.

WHACK* Credit card hits the counter and the sale was made.

Looking at my timepiece I notice I have mere moments before my plane departs. Told you, I live being sold.

I slept most of my flight, but did manage to look at a quick start guide, read the box and power the unit on. It came with a couple of preloaded songs, so I listened to 25 seconds of an artist I luckily had never heard of. (Luck ran out today)

The device itself contains in PDF format the manual. I began reading this. Page 4,5,78,99,104...end of file...no mention of putting an OS on here. Hmmm....that's odd.

Flight lands. Walk through airport and attempt to connect to WiFi. Never conects. Odd. I drive home. Stop for lunch. Try WiFi again....nothing!
I thinks to myself for a second....was there something else I needed to purchase? Hmm....they gave me the phone number to call for customer support.

I calls them up. They said, no you don't have to have anything else for WiFi connection, I must've had a bad one. Okay....I'll buy that. I asked them about the operating system. Explained what I was told along with my concern due to the lack of instruction on the procedure. In short, I was told I was misinformed. I said, you know...I do like the product for what it is...but am sorely disappointed that it doesn't do what I was told it would do...that I was mislead and misinformed.

***Note for those in customer satisfaction*** This is buyer saying he'll keep the product (you keep sale), if you just scratch his back a little. Time for some free or discounted suff here to make up for it! Something to make customer's wounds heal and to feel like he didn't get over on.

So...frustrated I told him thank you and went on my way. Decided I'd try out some if it's other features.

Mr. Salesman in ATL told me that I could drag and drop files to this device. Great! I have a tone of PDF files I need to read, nice for photos/ viewing, etc. I'm still looking for the USB port though.

Almost home. Aha! There's a hotspot near my house. I walk in, try it out....NOTHING!

Home.

Let's play with the new toy a bit. I got a handful of movies here. They say "Rental"! Huh? How is this going to work? I was told I was buying them! However, when I was told they're 3-6 bucks apiece, I was a bit shocked at the price, but figured that was because they were made for the device. A device only movie. Didn't really think it was a rental. How long is the rental good for? Heck if I know.

Okay...hook up to the PC. I'm given one option. To sync with Windows Media Player. Fair enough. But...I can't put my DVD's from home on here (like I was told I could).

Let's see what this free rental is all about. I go to site, find a movie I want to see and sure enough...it's free and pretty easy. I get the movie. Well, since I downloaded via the internet on my PC, it's on my PC. I later learned that in order to watch it on the Archos device it must be downloaded on the device, through the device via WiFi.

Alright...well, let me read that manual on there to see how to put photos and such on the device...maybe that will justify the money I spent on this increasinly semmingly useless product.

Open manual. FREEZE!!! After 45 minutes the device shuts down. Didn't allow me to do anything.

To the company that sold this and the manager:
Learn your products, listen to the questions and answer appropiately.

To the company that makes this:
Make it work!
Make it where it can hook up to the internet without WiFi
Include a regular charger in the box!!
Put a scroll wheel on there and a back button!
Make it an actual hard drive that acts like one. Does something more than sync.
Put a place on there to hold the friggin stylus!
Make the stand work while the charger is connected.
And...make it actually work.
Put a regular USB 2.0 port on there for transferring of files. This way, I can empty my memory cards via a USB enabled card reader. I can tranfer songs from one MP3 player to the other. I can quickly place PDF's on here for viewing on my travels. Back to making it an actual hard drive.

The one I have is 80 gigs! I'd like to be able to use it. I'll never get anywhere with rented movies. Oh yeah...I can't get those, WiFi doesn't work!



The instructions indicate a slot for an SD card. Hmm...mine's sealed up! Don't exist! So much for external memory!!


Guess what? It's getting returned! After it froze on me, the camel's back broke.