Disappointing Ectaco Customer Service

[NatCh]

Something everyone might wish to be aware of with the Customer Service US retailer for Onyx, Ectaco's.

I purchased one of their Monte Cristo 3 devices, received it Tuesday (two days ago), and was unable to get it to connect to wifi.

Hoping there was some trick to it, rather than its just being a defective unit, I called Ectaco's Tech support Tuesday morning. After a ~twenty minute discussion, the tech told me that he would need to do some research, and would call me back in about two hours. Not having heard anything back by yesterday afternoon, I called them again, and was told that I should be getting an email with in half an hour.

This morning, having not received any such email, I called again. Up until this point, I was dissatisfied with the situation, but nothing more than that.

The self-identified operator declined to actually connect me to the tech support folks, but did think it was a good idea to quiz me on the exact phone number I'd called (which I didn't know or have in front of me, because I used redial from my previous calls). He put me on hold, presumably to confer with the tech support folks himself, after which he returned with a suggestion from them that I set my router to 20MHz.

I pointed out to him that nothing the 802.11 allowed for a 20MHz router setting, but rather 2.4 or 5 GHz. At which point he started to get kinda snippy.

I was in the middle of explaining to him, firmly but not impolitely, that I was going to attempt to find anything at all in the router settings that related to 20MHz, and if I couldn't I was going to return the device when he just hung up on me. Now I'm actually more than just dissatisfied with the situation. Enough so, that I'm taking the unusual step (for me) of actually sharing the experience here.

Turns out, after reading the email that they (finally) sent me (while I was on the phone with this operator guy) that what they were actually suggesting was to set my router's channel bandwidth to 20MHz (the default), and Operator Guy just didn't have the technical chops to even repeat it correctly. I figure if you insist on carry messages back and forth, rather than letting me talk to the tech folks themselves, you kinda let yourself in for some questions when you garble the messages to the point of incoherence.

It further turns out that my router is, and always has been, set to the default channel bandwidth of 20MHz, 'cause I don't change default settings on routers just for kicks.

As the device is apparently defective, I'm returning it. They did offer to give me a $50 refund to keep the device. Given that that's only about 20% of the original price (making it a massively overpriced non-networked reader), and that it still won't do what I need, the offer seemed kinda insulting. But that may be my annoyance with their tech support operator talking.

I probably will still purchase another Onyx device after the Holidays, but I'm thinking it will not be from Ectaco.

[sealbeater]

I just pulled the trigger on the purchase too. I'll update with my experiences.

[NatCh]

Ended up ordering another MC3 from a vendor on Amazon ... who drop-shipped it from Ectaco.

Got all excited because it connected to my wifi without incident, then realized they'd sent me an MC2. Returned it because it wasn't what I ordered, they then sent, after the incorrect one made it back to them, an MC3.

Initially, the new one wasn't having any with my wifi, but I gave up overnight (intending to try setting up another router to see if it liked that better), and this morning it connected without complaint and has been working fine since.

I'm happy with the device, but still would have rather actually bought it from someone else -- hazard of buying things that aren't widely available on your continent, I suppose.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by NatCh

hazard of buying things that aren't widely available on your continent, I suppose.

<thoughts>
Is the problem availability?
I heard a Chinese businessman at the neighbouring table at a restaurant saying to his local partner «In China we say, in Europe we are making everything but the children!».

I recently met a very interesting product, a game named "Shenzhen IO": it is an "engineering simulator", but the story is that of a Briton that after graduating in engineering moved to China because in his areas, geographic and thematic, no production of goods is carried out...
</thoughts>

On topic: you cannot use the European reseller?

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by mdp

you cannot use the European reseller?

I probably could, or a Chinese one for that matter, but I was looking for something less complex to deal with (for me), also for faster shipping.

I just didn't realize that the "independent seller" on Amazon was just going to drop ship the thing from Ectaco. In retrospect, I should have at least realized it was a possibility.