entourage: serious frustrations with company, product and servce

All

At what point is it warranted to ask, "Is it time for a class action lawsuit?"

Entourage Systems is not delivering on its promised 2.2 upgrade.

Accessories (batteries, adapters, styluses, etc.) are no longer available to North American region. Customers do not know if accessories are even being made any longer - old supplies appear to have been depleted.

It is absolutely impossible to contact anyone at the company's headquarters in McLean, VA. The only person that answers the phone is an off-shore call center who also can not get answers to specific questions.

The product itself is not rooted thereby limiting end users on applications we can download and install.

Entourage's so called 'app market' is a literal joke.

Should my unit ever fail on me, can I expect it to be serviced in any reasonable time - if at all?

If anyone is researching this product BEFORE buying, I would very strongly recommend to wait or go with a product offering by a main stream company before considering this. Though the product, the Edge or Pocket, has potential as a dual-book device it is important to know that's all it is - just potential. It is not a serious contender against other competitors' tablets.

To date, this has been the biggest online purchase mistake I've EVER made. It is a very expensive lesson which I will never repeat.

I hope potential buyers have a chance to read this post before laying out ~$500.

Attila

Sadly, I'd have to agree with this.

Originally Posted by attila.j.horvath

Entourage Systems is not delivering on its promised 2.2 upgrade.

I take it that you don't accept Ermine as the promised 2.2 upgrade?

Originally Posted by borisb

I take it that you don't accept Ermine as the promised 2.2 upgrade?

Sorry, I missed the whole ermine update and now my device says it's up to date. I don't see very much info on it, but is ermine pocket edge only? Or is it saying it's up to date because entourage stopped paying for their update server?
Oops, I guess you have to opt in for it here. Is there an update.zip contained somewhere else?

As you can read from my original post - it's not just the 2.2 upgrade that irks me. It's the company's lack of responsiveness altogether! I'll give 'kudos' for the off-shore call center. They pick up on 2nd/3rd ring and they're very polite. However, they can not provide customer service beyond what the parent company is willing to offer and extend to us indirectly through the call center. I only found out about 'ermine' indirectly through web browsing myself - not directly from the company as an email notification. I run the 'update' app on my EE nearly every day only to see my device is up to date (with 1.5).

But let's face it folks, some of us WILL have devices that WILL fail in one fashion or another. Are you sure, if/when that happens, the company will respond promptly. I purchased a Burton duffel bag on line 2 years ago. The zipper is broken but the company will repair or replace when I send it back. Does any Entourage customer honestly have the same level of confidence that we can/will receive that kind of support? I think not! If so, pray tell us why?

You cannot reach a live person at their headquarters. Customer service can/will not provide any telephone numbers we can call.

Entourage, as a company, is absolutely pitiful! There's just no better description I can give.

I am seriously disappointed w/ my purchase. I should have followed my gut feelings and returned it to Amazon within first 30 days when I had the chance.

If I knew the company was on firm footing and will continue to provide s/w upgrades and reliable product support, I would have bought the accessories (spare battery, 2nd adapter, spare styluses) while they were still offering them. I might still be able to purchase then from Netherlands and eat the shipping and duty costs. However, I'm debating selling what I've got rather than investing in additional ~$150 in accessories simply because I don't know if Entourage will service my device should a screen defect show up or some other h/w fault.

I take it that you don't accept Ermine as the promised 2.2 upgrade?

I don't. It is a beta version and it is not supported in case of problems. And there are plenty of problems.

Let's be honest here. We've known since March that enTourage was in serious trouble and likely to go out of business. There is zero indication that their situation has improved, or will, in anyway.

If you bought an eDGe since then, or are planning to, you must understand that:
- despite any promises otherwise by enTourage, they may shutdown permanently and completely at any time
- getting accessories (specifically spare batteries and AC adapters, as styli can be bought anywhere) is going to be increasingly difficult
- warranty support may not last the full 1 year from your purchase date
- there will most likely be no further firmware patches or updates
- tech support (and this forum) may disappear at anytime
- you may not be able to get your eDGe repaired when it breaks

If this leaves you scared, then don't buy one, or cancel your order, or sell your eDGe on eBay for a good price.

There's been lots of discussion about why someone would still want to buy an eDGe under these circumstances (you can read those threads for yourself if you care).

Caveat emptor (buyer beware).

PS: Suing a corporation with no money or assets, or out of business altogether, is a waste of time, as any lawyer or judge will tell you. Makes for nice bravado on your part, but it's a fool's game.

Originally Posted by attila.j.horvath

At what point is it warranted to ask, "Is it time for a class action lawsuit?"

Seriously?

All the points you mention above are legitimate dislikes, all of which would be well-known by anyone researching the product before buying, but nothing that in any way strikes me as warranting legal action. (Unless you're in the US, where apparently *everything* warrants legal action...)

Even some of us in the U.S. don't see this as legally actionable... annoying, maybe... but not lawsuit-worthy.

I have a 3-month-old PE, that I paid $350 for(!), that has had a hardware problem on the LCD side from the start. Any and all writing on the LCD produces streaks of lines running to the upper left corner for every lift of the stylus. I am absolutely positive it's not a result of me touching or getting anywhere near the screen, and I've tried a different stylus (I also have an EE). I say it's a hardware problem because if you rotate the screen, the area that the lines terminate in also changes to reflect the new orientation, and it persisted across the 1.6 Golden update and the 2.2 Beta update.

Entourage has had a ticket on this problem since early Februrary. Every time I contact them I'm told someone will get back to me or the issue is being escalated and the new level will contact me. No one has ever gotten back to me. I have an extended warranty on the PE through SquareTrade and also from my CC, but neither will touch it because it's still "under manufacturer's warranty". I know I'm not the only one in this situation, any suggestions as to where to go from here?

Originally Posted by Dr. T

Even some of us in the U.S. don't see this as legally actionable... annoying, maybe... but not lawsuit-worthy.

+1

I don't even share the OP's frustrations.

Originally Posted by janhall_us

Entourage has had a ticket on this problem since early Februrary. Every time I contact them I'm told someone will get back to me or the issue is being escalated and the new level will contact me. No one has ever gotten back to me. I have an extended warranty on the PE through SquareTrade and also from my CC, but neither will touch it because it's still "under manufacturer's warranty". I know I'm not the only one in this situation, any suggestions as to where to go from here?

I would ask your credit card company about a "charge back" since the company is refusing to deal with the manufacturer's warranty. I don't know the time limit on this, but you've obviously brought this up with your credit card company before so there's a history of your complaint. An ideal solution would be that your credit card company agrees to issue a charge back, you return the damaged edge, and you repurchase at current prices, if you want to take your chances again.

Fundamentally, it's a dice roll to buy any consumer product with a warranty, because no one can guarantee the manufacturer will stay in business, honor its warranty, have effective customer service, etc. That doesn't mean it's OK for a company to dodge its responsibilities, and some outfits are better bets than others, with recent start-ups automatically being the riskier ones. I suspect with enTourage, it's the staff reductions making it hard to provide the formerly solicitous customer service rather than some sort of knavery.

Maybe this seems less unusual to me because I've bought stuff from obscuro niche audio electronics "companies," where "company" means "a guy designing and assembling pre-amps in the basement" and used open-source software that was always a beta version. Heck, I doubt KompoZer will ever reach 1.0, and it works fine. If my EE or PE goes belly-up anytime soon or develops a big flaw I can't get fixed, I'll be very disappointed but not inclined to phone my lawyer.

Originally Posted by attila.j.horvath

Are you sure, if/when that happens, the company will respond promptly

My experience with the huge Asus couldnt be worst, in this consumist world we want the best @ the lowest price, and dont accept the consequences. At present it's normality for people to buy beta items. You yankees also have only ONE year warranty over items, and seem to like it. Use it and throw it away.

Entourage Edge offers something no one else offers, and this is why I accepted the risk and bought it a month ago. Thats'all.

Perhaps we could put the kibosh on the nationality digs...

The OP didn't mention any warranty claims being unfulfilled, anyhow, which is really the only legally actionable possibility under US law (and if enTourage went bankrupt even that wouldn't be actionable). I seriously doubt that a forum post by an administrator about future OS upgrades can be treated as grounds for a fraud lawsuit either.