A Poll on Your Pocket PRO by Robertb

[Robertb]

Dear All:

This is my first attempt at a poll on here. I want to try to get some information to see how people feel and to see how we are doing. This is my first attempt so if it does not work please have patience.

[rock]

First, I love the support the Amazon evil forces choice.

Anyways, I haven't chosen an answer yet, because I will wait to see what happens with mine (thank you for helping BTW).

Here is what I think. You care about the members on this board, and that is great. Though if I haven't gotten a hold of you, I wonder how long it would have taken for support to get back to me after they made suggestions to me, if I was not on this board and had access to you.

My paint peeled about a week after I got it. Though I was one who didn't want to send it back just because I heard people got a new one and it still happen. Now my battery seems to be bad (as per tech support claim).

I suspected the battery was a little flimsy looking when I opened it up, and wonder why Polymer was used, but that is just my personal view. I see other members on here having similar issues as me.

I think as a company you guys are great. You have the right idea (provide a reader with many choices of formats), and really seem to care about the customer. Though right now I am wondering how well the reader holds up.

Also this may have been addressed before, but why is their a Sim Card slot?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by rock

Also this may have been addressed before, but why is their a Sim Card slot?

It is just a space (no contacts) for a non-US model, built on the same platform.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by rock

First, I love the support the Amazon evil forces choice.

Anyways, I haven't chosen an answer yet, because I will wait to see what happens with mine (thank you for helping BTW).

Here is what I think. You care about the members on this board, and that is great. Though if I haven't gotten a hold of you, I wonder how long it would have taken for support to get back to me after they made suggestions to me, if I was not on this board and had access to you.

My paint peeled about a week after I got it. Though I was one who didn't want to send it back just because I heard people got a new one and it still happen. Now my battery seems to be bad (as per tech support claim).

I suspected the battery was a little flimsy looking when I opened it up, and wonder why Polymer was used, but that is just my personal view. I see other members on here having similar issues as me.

I think as a company you guys are great. You have the right idea (provide a reader with many choices of formats), and really seem to care about the customer. Though right now I am wondering how well the reader holds up.

Also this may have been addressed before, but why is their a Sim Card slot?

Dear Rock:

Astak is going in so many directions at once. I cannot begin to mention some of the (good) things going on here but you do know about our new eBook Store (www.EZread.com). We are working night and day on that. There is a ton riding on it. Then, you know we went on a 700 mile round-trip to UCLA over the weekend to talk with authors. Most of us have not had a day off in three weeks now. So, we are exhausted and cannot relax or recharge our batteries. I cannot tell you the secret stuff going on here; but big changes are happening.

Now part of what is going on requires a technical guy to be in China for a while. This same guy heads up our Astak tech-support. He has been gone four weeks and it is dragging on. He normally answers the emails and is just not there. Frankly, I HATE this. I cannot imagine HOW someone so critical can just fly off for weeks. But, there are some major things going on that are critical to Astak and he is needed. That is for sure. In his absence, the PM is doing a great tech job but is NOT answering tech support emails incoming regularly.

Are we growing? Yes, and likely a lot in the future. But, right now we are understaffed and everyone is doing five jobs.

Our devices are outstanding and very solid. The paint problem drives me to tears 8 days a week. They tell me it is all fixed. But, like some regenerating monster, it keeps biting me. They SWEAR it is fixed now. I will believe when I see not a mention. We ARE good about it and do make the exchanges promptly when needed.

[Eatnread]

I consider mine absolutely great and trouble-free, even though I exchanged it twice for the paint problem, back in October. Hassle-free support! It's been looking and running perfectly since then, I keep it in lock and charge it, at best, once a month. It does what I want it to, which is read anywhere and anytime.
The only reason why I am a bit reluctant to 100% endorse it to my friends/co-workers is the update firmware business. I am a nurse in a hospital; the demographics/characteristics of the people who I show this to are intelligent, young to middle-aged women who like to read for enjoyment. I don't see any of them being tech-savey or curious enough to research or read up on Mobileread like I did, or understand about the zipping/unzipping RAR stuff, and deal with the hassles of that. My husband had to totally find and download some unzipping program (free), so that I could download the firmware. And if I had to do it again, I would probably need his help again.
I also only have the Nov. edition. I wouldn't mind having up to 9 zoom levels; I believe I now have 5, but it seems that there are always a few complaints about battery charges, slowing page turns, or some other little idiosyncrasies. I wouldn't want to recommend to others an update and give them other issues to deal with or tell them they need to keep updating something. If it shipped right away with the most current firmware (alot of zoom levels being the most important feature for the casual reader), I would hands-down push it with my friends.
BTW, are the kinks all worked out now?-Should I update for myself?

[GA Russell]

Robert, I commend you for having a poll whose results can be seen publicly with plenty of opportunity to give the company the thumbs down.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Robert, I commend you for having a poll whose results can be seen publicly with plenty of opportunity to give the company the thumbs down.

Dear GA:

I think we learn from both compliments and criticism. One sided polls are no fun. I do not expect everybody to LOVE our product (although I want that). Thank you for noticing. We love what we do... but we need to get even better at doing it.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Robert, I commend you for having a poll whose results can be seen publicly with plenty of opportunity to give the company the thumbs down.

+1
I agree too, unfortunately too many polls nowdays are written with questions that only put a positive spin on the company. Good work Robert, once again you are proving that Astak is a company that listens by providing a poll where we can be honest about our impressions whether they be good or bad.

[irenas]

Robertb, why they clear the search text box after the Start button was pressed, so i need to re-type my search word(s) ? What if i misspelled something, or i want to add author's first name in addition to the already typed last name?

[Blossom]

I got my PP the first week of March. It has been pretty problem free for me. I am using December's firmware and on my second charge still and I only use PRC/MOBI format as that is what I prefer and the reason I bought the Pocket Pro. I wanted a unit that could read my books without having to deal with Kindle prices and Amazon issues.

The only problem I had so far is and this has happen twice that the battery gauge is blank when going into a book. Turning the unit off then back on seems to fix it so it must be a refresh screen issue.

I was reading a particular book and suddenly midway kept getting kicked out. It turn out to be a font issue as the font I was using didn't support the special characters so I remade the book and that problem was solved.

Overall I am very happy with my purchase and would defiantly buy another one in the future as long as it continues to support MOBI/PRC books. I have had small amount of paint rub off onto the case on the back by the page switch but it doesn't seem to be getting worse.

[binbinbook]

Now part of what is going on requires a technical guy to be in China for a while. This same guy heads up our Astak tech-support. He has been gone four weeks and it is dragging on. He normally answers the emails and is just not there. Frankly, I HATE this. I cannot imagine HOW someone so critical can just fly off for weeks. But, there are some major things going on that are critical to Astak and he is needed. That is for sure. In his absence, the PM is doing a great tech job but is NOT answering tech support emails incoming regularly.

I think this is why I sent 3 emails about another ghosting issue with my new replacement, but have not got a reply yet. I will keep waiting and see.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by irenas

Robertb, why they clear the search text box after the Start button was pressed, so i need to re-type my search word(s) ? What if i misspelled something, or i want to add author's first name in addition to the already typed last name?

Dear Irenas:

Yes, I think I understand. If you mis-spell and then hit start you have to start all over again. I will bring that up; but not sure if there is an easy fix. Will try.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by binbinbook

I think this is why I sent 3 emails about another ghosting issue with my new replacement, but have not got a reply yet. I will keep waiting and see.

Dear bibbinbook:

I am really sorry about this. Three emails is too much. I will try to have the meails checked by somebody else during the absence. GOD, I hope it ends soon. I want to get back to reacting promptly.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

+1
I agree too, unfortunately too many polls nowdays are written with questions that only put a positive spin on the company. Good work Robert, once again you are proving that Astak is a company that listens by providing a poll where we can be honest about our impressions whether they be good or bad.

Thank you. Solicitous. Yes, I also see too many polls where all you can do is compliment when you want to mention problems. Yesterday I got a survey from Avis. I had rented and was unhappy. They give you ten characters to state the problem! TEN letters!! How in blazes do I convey anything else but "no good".

[Davimee]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Now part of what is going on requires a technical guy to be in China for a while. This same guy heads up our Astak tech-support. He has been gone four weeks and it is dragging on. He normally answers the emails and is just not there. Frankly, I HATE this. I cannot imagine HOW someone so critical can just fly off for weeks. But, there are some major things going on that are critical to Astak and he is needed. That is for sure. In his absence, the PM is doing a great tech job but is NOT answering tech support emails incoming regularly.

This explains things. I received my replacement Pocket Pro in the mail yesterday. There was a slight problem with it (nothing major, and not with the Pocket Pro itself, but the case), so I emailed customer support. Since it is nothing major (and I have found a temporary work around) I can wait, if need be, to hear back from customer support. I will wait a few days to vote because I'd rather say "great, all problems fixed," than "fine, still awaiting to be fixed," especially since it just came up yesterday, and I want to give sufficient time to have it taken care of. Because from what I've experienced so far, the device and customer service are both terrific, and I don't want to skew the poll.