Hi,
Well, I refuse to send mine in every year. It's simply gone much too
long for that. Because I bought a dealer demo, I had more than a year
on the warranty at the time. When that was about up, I did send it
in. About a year and a half ago, nearly two years no actually, I
began to have trouble with getting meaningless braille on the
display. I think that was why I sent it. They did some things, but
the problem eventually got worse, so bad, in fact, that I decided to
upgrade the display and get rid of the Teman. Although that was
working, it would go down frequently, and my wireless card would send
it into blivion whether or not the BN was plugged in or not and
regardless of the level of charge in the battery. Now I have the new
display and a one year warranty. Actually, I should have mentioned
that in all this, I did upgrade to an MPower. The upshot of all this
is that I have had warranty coverage most of the time I have had a
BN. My buying a dealer demo saved me enough money to cover the MPower
upgrade, which I did near the end of that first warranty period.
Chronologically, this is all a bit confused. I must say that when I
sent my unit in for the Braille display replacement, I had it back in
about two weeks. I went through my dealer to do it though. I think
one of the problems we face is an increasingly rapidly evolving
technology relating to computers and the high expense of braille
displays. I'm not especially interested in a separate display, thus
neccessitating the need to carry two units and hook them to each
other to use them. When I want to use braille, I want a device that
is optimized for it and therefore starts quickly and allows me to get
going fast. That is why I have never been interested in some of the
competition.
I had plenty of trouble with Braile Lites in their day and still have
one as a back-up, but as I said earlier, I carried maintenance
agreements because, with the inclusion of the annual upgrade, the
true cost of the agreement seemed reasonable. I think I would not
want to pay $550 for each year now. Of course, these things are a
gamble. Each one of us must assess the odds and determine our actions
from there.
. I believe there are pros and cons to each unit on the market. I
could sit here and write about the things that bug me about the BN,
but that is counterproductive when the positives vastly outweigh the
negatives. I wish with all my heart that this stuff didn't cost so
much. I realize though, that if I could see, I likely would have
spent as much on cars in the last twenty years as I have on adaptive
technology.
Evelyn
At 04:04 AM 7/29/2008, you wrote:
Hi,
I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had enough problems with
my BrailleNote that a maintenance agreement was absolutely essential. Now,
if someone has an older unit, and they want their braille display cleaned
and their unit serviced, they have to pay for it every year, right? How
much does that, in itself, cost? Also, if I have a unit beyond 3 years old
and I send it in for maintenance, am I at the bottom of the list? Do I get
service after other individuals who have newer units with maintenance
agreements? I am concerned because I've had my unit 2 years, and I'm just
starting college this fall. If I have a problem with my BrailleNote during
college, I want a maintenance agreement, and I want FAST SERVICE from a
company I can trust.
I know there aren't necessarily answers to these questions. I'm just
posing them because I believe everyone will be worried and have similar
concerns.
Thanks,
Craig Warren
On 7/28/08, Evelyn Weckerly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:23:17 -0400
>> To: rhonda stogner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> From: Evelyn Weckerly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Subject: Re: [Braillenote] important: please read what we found out about
>> Maintainance agreements
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I used to buy maintenance agreements for my Blazie units, but that always
>> included the annual upgrade. Since upgrades are not included
with Humanware,
>> I have never bought a service agreement and don't intend to.
>>
>> Evelyn
>>
>> At 07:55 PM 7/28/2008, you wrote:
>>
>>> This is bad news for those wanting to sell their units. Those people who
>>> have only used their units a few
>>> times really cannot sell them for much money, if the unit runs 6.2. That
>>> would mean that particular unit is
>>> three years old, and wouldn't meet guidelines to be fixed, without the
>>> individual paying out a lot of
>>> money. I'd say this will make it more difficult for someone to get much
>>> money out of an older unit.
>>> On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:46:24 -0500, Chuck and Sharon Campbell wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> >Tonight, I'm writing with what, I feel is a very important
>>> >message. Chuck and I spoke with Julie in Customer Service this
>>> >afternoon at HumanWare. We were told, much to our shock that you
>>> >cannot purchase a maintainance agreement for your unit after
>>> >three years. People, even if you buy a new More-power tomorrow,
>>> >if you keep up your maintainance agreements, if you use your unit
>>> >with care, if you have it serviced, you will not be eligible to
>>> >get the maintainance agree for the fourth year. If anything
>>> >happens to your unit on the day or after the end of your third
>>> >year, you're responsible to foot the whole cost. In other words,
>>> >it doesn't matter if you have a Kgs or Tiemann display. She also
>>> >told us that this was a ruling passed down by Dominick on June
>>> >19, 2008. We then asked her why no one was notified on either
>>> >the BrailleNote list, or on the BN Announce list? She didn't have
>>> >an answer other than to say they had the information there, and
>>> >she couldn't speak as to whether it had been sent out or not.
>>> >Now, I think Chuck and I understand better why people are
>>> >selling their BrailleNotes, they must have called in and received
>>> >this same information. It's beginning to make sense.
>>> >We just feel that everyone out there has a right to know what's
>>> >going on.
>>> >Living in the Present One day at a time, This is enough. Do
>>> >not look back and grieve over the past. For it is gone. And do
>>> >not be troubled about the future. For it has not yet come. Live
>>> >in the present, and make it so beautiful. That it will be worth
>>> >remembering.
>>> >
>>> >___
>>> >Replies to this message will go directly to the sender.
>>> >If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a
>>> >copy to the list as well.
>>> >
>>> >To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
>>> >[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> >To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
>>> >http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
>>>
>>> ___
>>> Replies to this message will go directly to the sender.
>>> If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a
>>> copy to the list as well.
>>>
>>> To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
>>> http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
>>>
>>
>
> ___
> Replies to this message will go directly to the sender.
> If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a
> copy to the list as well.
>
> To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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> http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
>
>
--
Craig Warren
818-0510
___
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