Guest ripnet Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 Hi, I posted this to iMates offical forum yesterday, and they deleted it! since then, they have failed to call be back yesterday (which they promised to do). If you are in the UK make sure you AVOID IMATE - their customer service is rubbish. george (original message posted, then censored on the offical iMate 9502 board) Hi, I bought a 9502 on release day from Clove, for around £500. It lasted all of 2 and a half months, before the buttons stopped working. Clove recommended sending it to sbe limited for repair, which I did, 3 weeks ago. Firstly, they tried to quote me £150 for the repair. I emailed them, and got no response after a week. So I phoned them, and was told that it would be repaired for free, and be back within a week. Ive now waited 3 weeks, during which I sent sbe 3 more emails, all of which have been completely ignored. I phoned them up today, and after being on hold for 25 minutes, they finally answered, and said they are awaiting parts, and will call be back with more info... I will post here if they do, but I doubt they will! They told me they have a massive backlog of emails to get through - thats a shame for them, but its not good enough for iMate to be successfull in this market. Ive since bought a HTC Touch Pro, and, guess what? it works... I will never buy another iMate device again, and i suggest noone else does either. The device itself doesnt work very well at all (keeps hanging, slow, reminds me of the failed toshiba g900, but not QUITE as bad as the tosh). The Touch Pro, despite being practically the same chipset, works very very well in comparasion. On the iMate ultiamte, the old Windows Mobile problem that it cannot keep up with my typing occurs. I have to literally tap one key, wait for it to respond, and then tap the next key and so on. The Touch Pro has the innovation of a keyboard buffer - if it cant keep up, it remembers what I typed, and processes the keys when it can. We were also promised an official WM61 update in august... suprise suprise, that hasnt happened either. The battery life is also crap compared to the Touch Pro (even though the iMate has a higher capacity battery). I put this down to lack of graphics accelleration on the iMate - you can literally see it struggle to redraw the home screen, whereas on the touch pro, it just happens instantly. If you want any support at all on your phone DO NOT BUY IMATE. They are obviously too small a company to offer proper support (disclaimer - ive never had to use HTC's support, because their devices work, so I cannot comment on it, but I doubt the networks would let them get away with this poor level of support). I will post an update tommorow (or before if SBE actually bother to ring back). Does anyone have an email address for iMate themselves, so I can complain about sbe - surely iMate will want to know their reputation is being trashed be SBE??? their web page doesnt seem to offer any email address (a good way to keep pesky customers off their backs i guess), and their live support is only available for a couple of hours in the morning - i will try it tommorow). A mobile phone is only valuable for 12 months IMHO (as I replace mine every year), so I have lost at least 1/12 of the value of the iMate, just by not having it for this time. Even if the repair is slow, a good start would be to use a repair company that actually has the staff / resources to answer emails / phones. I dont feel like a valued customer. ps. IMate - if you delete this forum message, I will make it my business to post it on as many mobile phone related forums as possible (modaco, xda developers etc). /disappointed george
Guest Looby Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 I used to have I-Mate phones in the days when they sold HTC devices. I had no problems with them and found their device support excellent. It is not their fault they no longer have access to HTC devices so maybe they are as disappointed as you. I feel your comments were rather harsh and unfair on a Company that is still trying to survive in a very competitive market. ;)
Guest ripnet Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 I used to have I-Mate phones in the days when they sold HTC devices. I had no problems with them and found their device support excellent. It is not their fault they no longer have access to HTC devices so maybe they are as disappointed as you. I feel your comments were rather harsh and unfair on a Company that is still trying to survive in a very competitive market. ;) Hi, What was unfair about my comments? they are a simple statement of fact. The worst thing iMate can do IMHO is get a reputation for poor customer service, on top of their reputation for unfinished devices! they should be shooting for HTC standards, not a race to the bottom towards Toshiba! g
Guest awarner (MVP) Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 ps. IMate - if you delete this forum message, I will make it my business to post it on as many mobile phone related forums as possible (modaco, xda developers etc). George That's unlikely to happen as we are not affiliated with Imate in any way, they have no control over what is posted here and no MoDaCo staff member works for them. Unless you are just copying your initial post from the Imate forums? EDIT just re-read the first post and realised it was a copy of the original post :wacko: 1, Task of the day to learn to read and understand more before hammering the keyboard. 2, Yep this message will not be deleted from here ;)
Guest ripnet Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 George That's unlikely to happen as we are not affiliated with Imate in any way, they have no control over what is posted here and no MoDaCo staff member works for them. Unless you are just copying your initial post from the Imate forums? Hi, I realise that... i am a big fan of Modaco, and know u are a respected, independent 'good guy' ;) the message was a copy/paste from a message i posted to iMates offical board, which they did indeed remove quick-smart... ive started another thread at http://forums.imate.com/Bad_customer_servi...e/m_3559/tm.htm on their board, and am waiting for them to notice and remove it... sheesh! cheers g
Guest ripnet Posted September 10, 2008 Report Posted September 10, 2008 They have deleted my message again... iMate must be ashamed of their customer service if they cannot handle a true account of my experience on their board. They havent blocked my account yet, so ive re-posted at http://forums.imate.com/m_3569/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm#3569 g
Guest ripnet Posted September 11, 2008 Report Posted September 11, 2008 They have deleted my message again... iMate must be ashamed of their customer service if they cannot handle a true account of my experience on their board. They havent blocked my account yet, so ive re-posted at http://forums.imate.com/m_3569/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm#3569 g Deleted again. Reposted at http://forums.imate.com/IMate_Service_Leve...K/m_3583/tm.htm g
Guest ripnet Posted September 30, 2008 Report Posted September 30, 2008 Deleted again. Reposted at http://forums.imate.com/IMate_Service_Leve...K/m_3583/tm.htm g Still an ongoing saga. Written up full story at http://www.georgestyles.co.uk/imatecustomerservice.htm (Posted to this thread as its number 3 in Google search for iMate customer service)
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