Re: Is Call of the Wind Down?

From: Edward W. Scott (shred@netcom.com-DeleteThis)
Date: Fri May 02 1997 - 09:06:41 PDT


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Subject: Re: Is Call of the Wind Down?
Date: Fri, 2 May 97 09:06:41 -0700
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From: "Edward W. Scott" <shred@netcom.com-DeleteThis>
To: "Wind Talk" <wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis>
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For the record, and because I think Jim gives an overall good service,
let me summarize my history with the Genius so there's no
misunderstanding.

I told Jim I wanted one when I saw the prototype at the Coyote Point show
party last year. This was mostly due to the size. I got one in the
first batch (40 or so), and it developed a dead spot on the display
shortly after I received it. I told Jim it was no big deal, so I just
waited until the next batch came out (the ones with the "off" autosort
feature - to retain your preferred order of sites). The battery lasted 2
days. I went through 3 batteries in the first week. That problem was
fixed within a week or so for everyone I guess. I, too, keep batteries
at home, work and in the car. You really need to anyway, otherwise you
feel like it might be blowing somewhere and don't want to miss it.

He sent me a new one. The new one worked fine for several weeks. I
noticed the problems with the warning time on the battery, but it seems
to retain your personal preferences even when the battery dies. However,
this pager completely died a couple of weeks ago (beeps upon insertion of
battery but won't power up) shortly after I checked pages on it.

Jim had a new one sent directly from the factory. It didn't function at
first cause the baud rate was set wrong. No problem. It worked about 2
weeks, and now it's dead again, same symptoms as No. 2. Again, it was
working a mere 15 minutes before it went out. I wonder how the
non-volatile memory in these things is retained? Could it be a battery
or capacitor backup that's somehow failing?

Anyway, he's now sending me another one, express from the factory. I
really like the features and the size of this device, I just a little
concerned about the quality. As long as I don't miss any good days, and
Jim stands behind his product, I'm OK with it. Btw - I paid $273 for
mine.

>I'm an my second one. The first one worked OK, but it used up the
>battery in 2-3 days. With my second one, the battery lasts 7-9 days.
>When the battery warning comes onyou have to act fast. If it comes on
>in the afternoon and you don't see it-your battery and volatile memory
>are gone by morning. You have to keep batteries in your car, at home
>and at work. Reception is OK but could be better. A fair number of the
>text pages are truncated. Most of the wind speed pages are coming
>through OK. I too like the format of the genius better, but I'm not
>sure it was worth the $180 I paid to upgrade. The Advisor got slightly
>better reception and the battery lasted about a month.
>
>Edward W. Scott wrote:
>>
>> The third Genius pager I'm on just died (replaced battery with new one,
>> still not powering up). I've been calling 1-800-Windcall for the last
>> 1.5 hours and the line is busy. Is anyone else having trouble? Maybe
>> I'm not the only one.
>>
>> Anyone else having reliability problems with these pagers? I like the
>> features, it's just that I'm on No. 3 looking at No. 4, and not sure if I
>> want to put up with the hassle anymore or just give up and go back to the
>> Advisor.
>>
>> -Ed



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