Potential X50/X51 buyers: please read!

[dvmed]

The x51v is certainly not bleeding-edge. Its been available to the general public for months and LOTS of people have them. The operating system it runs has been out of beta for almost a year. You could call it 'leading-edge', but even that is a bit of a stretch at this point.

As far as the 'development track' goes, WM5 is sitting at CRITICAL. When you have product already released and in use that has major problems, this becomes a top priority issue. Don't be confused by the 'beta' culture that Microsoft has fostered over the years. Released products should not be this problematic, and lowering our expectations is only going to encourage it further.

Agreed. :approve: I got an Ipaq 4150 a few days it was released(bleeding-edge in it's time), and an X50V with 2003SE(I got a few weeks ago). I never had to use tweaks on these two units just to get them powered up, or to get rid of the missing CF/SD card problem. Dell should have done more testing for quality control.

[Mystion]

I 'll probable not be getting abything else from Dell anymore. The way they handled the x50v upgrade to WM5 is enough to justify not investing any money, time or effort to Dell anymore. A public apology may rectify my strong opinion on the subject. And my x50v (which I would not change for another PDA in the world) did not have any problems (well... apart from the odd Bluetooh-Memory problem and occasional spontaneous hard reset).

What I was trying to stress is that many users are deciding not to purchase Axim handhelds because of some of the comments posted on this site. WM5 has problems, there is no argument here, but Dell still makes good handhelds (who else are you going to go to? HP? huh?), even though it doesn't have a great implementation of WM5.

I keep reading "I won't buy an Axim because EVERYONE says they suck!!!!one!!!!111!!!1oneoneone!!!!!11!!!lolkwtf!! !1!". This annoys me. People did not complain about X50s, matter of fact they praised them. Take an X50v for example, whats wrong with it? Nothing that 99% of the users will notice. The problem is the WM5 upgrade, and the WM5 OS for the X51 series. Unfortunately, many people do not realize this and consider all Dell Axim products to be expensive junk. Like I said in my first post, do your own research before basing your decision on a few threads of upset users.

Why doesn't Dell deal with the problems? It's quite simple, really.
To fix the problems, Dell would have to spend $100,000 (for example), but by fixing the problems, they will only attract a select amount of customers which will give them a profit of $80,000. The others who would also benefit from this fix have already paid for their handhelds - that's where Dell stops giving a sh**. It's simply not profitable for Dell. If it was profitable, do you think they really wouldn't do it? Who walks away from profits?

WHAT A CROCK OF SHIT !!! Do you work at Disneyland? :rolling:
Didn't you READ the complaints before making this stupid prediction? Everyone here LOVES their Axim. It's the WM5 upgrade we have a problem with.

Amazing, now they have internet in kindergarden, too?

Didn't you READ my post before making this stupid reply?

[rdparris]

Although both posts [quoted and posted] above were a little rough around the edges, I have to agree with the thought process [certainly not kindergarten] that most of us DO love our Axim PPC. The issue is not product loyalty, but issues with support after the sale. That's two different things. Most of the frustration is that we love our Axim, but hate being abandoned after the sale. We don't want to start looking for a different PPC because we love the one we have. :love: Love the product, hate the company. :realmad:

Having a great product is only half the job. You have to support your customers to get them to keep coming back. [That is kindergarten]

We just have no faith in the company that sells them right now. We love our Axims, don't understand the lack of interest by Dell overall in customer satisfaction as a viable measure that impacts future sales. The bottom line is great, but if you're only looking at it short term, your sales will eventually taper off. Many of us got a high end PPC for professional reasons as well as the cool things. If I just wanted a toy, I'd buy an iPod or a Portable Playstation. My PPC is for both fun and productivity. But it's not a toy. In fact, for the price of a new X51 I can certain buy a whole desktop PC these days.

It's typical business ignorance 101. When you feel like number one and you're on top of the world, you forget that the people you are standing on, and looking down on, put you up there in the first place. It happened with AOL when it got too big for its britches, and has happened with other companies. It's like being a "buy here, pay here" car dealer. If you sell junk cheap, you'll make lots of sales - initially. If you keep selling junk cheap and leave many buyers stranded paying for something that they cannot use as intended, your sales will eventually taper off to just a few suckers coming in the door that don't know any better. Reputation and customer support is again, Kindergarten business sense. Unfortunately, many of the upper level execs are now out of touch with their customer base having the attitude that if you bought it, it's yours.

Read something the other day about top executives at Dell being asked about the huge number of customer complaints. From what I remember, the answer that came back was that a majority of Dell's customers are very happy and the issues and problems with customer support are very minimal.

I'd call that denial.

As for those who think it's okay to spend a hard earned $40 on an upgrade that when you use it has the potential to literally kill your Axim [right away or even a few months later] that cost several hundred dollars before you add accessories. Or at the very least drastically reduce productivity unless you "geek it" to work - I have to wonder. I know a lot of people who don't have much food, can't clothe their kids, don't have a job, can't afford their prescription meds, have no place to live or are in need of some kind. If you don't care about flushing your money down the toilet, then give it to someone who could really use it. :approve:

[Chesterton]

The problem is the WM5 upgrade, and the WM5 OS for the X51 series. Unfortunately, many people do not realize this and consider all Dell Axim products to be expensive junk.

One poorly thought-out or extremely premature software release can do that. It's silly to argue that the consumer should patiently suffer the consequences while the developer/vendor needs our sympathy and understanding.

From the tone and quantity of those types of responses here, it's not inconceivable that AximSite is populated with a nominal contingent of MS and/or Dell trolls.

[dvmed]

To fix the problems, Dell would have to spend $100,000 (for example), but by fixing the problems, they will only attract a select amount of customers which will give them a profit of $80,000. The others who would also benefit from this fix have already paid for their handhelds - that's where Dell stops giving a sh**. It's simply not profitable for Dell. If it was profitable, do you think they really wouldn't do it? Who walks away from profits?

I don't know if you realized this but you just gave a valid reason why people should think twice before buying a Dell.
To reiterate your statement, since Dell won't be making a profit, Dell stops giving a sh**. Whatever happend to customer satisfaction?

[Plankmonkey]

To those of you thinking of buying an Axim X51 to use it as a wireless VoIP phone or to hook up your wireless headphones and use it as a kick ass MP3 player or to use it as a wireless anything using BlueTooth, then don't. The crippled bluetooth stack is not a problem with just a few select users as the OP is trying to argue, it is a problem with ALL x51 Axim users with WM5 (which it is shipped with). Dell have LIED by advertising it as having bluetooth functionality.

[bluevolume]

Why doesn't Dell deal with the problems? It's quite simple, really.
To fix the problems, Dell would have to spend $100,000 (for example), but by fixing the problems, they will only attract a select amount of customers which will give them a profit of $80,000. The others who would also benefit from this fix have already paid for their handhelds - that's where Dell stops giving a sh**. It's simply not profitable for Dell.

This is a perfect example of why we need a ratings system on this site; to note those of us who contribute good information, and to mark those who submit ridiculous garbage as above. Then we could set filters to simply block out posts that aren't worth reading.

Most of us here are upset with Dell because they are taking so long to get us an update, but we do think that they will eventually get it right. Then there's the above post, supposedly sticking up for Dell, and saying something that is 100 times worse than what any of us are even thinking. Federal laws have 'grown up' over the last decade when it comes to hardware/software, and there are specific charges a company would face if they did as quoted above.

If you want to defend Dell, try to do it in a way that isn't going to make people even more mad at them.

Whatever happend to customer satisfaction?

Unfortunately Dell has never been 'big' on customer satisfaction.

To those of you thinking of buying an Axim X51 to use it as a wireless VoIP phone or to hook up your wireless headphones and use it as a kick ass MP3 player or to use it as a wireless anything using BlueTooth, then don't. The crippled bluetooth stack is not a problem with just a few select users as the OP is trying to argue, it is a problem with ALL x51 Axim users with WM5 (which it is shipped with). Dell have LIED by advertising it as having bluetooth functionality.

The crippled bluetooth stack is certainly a problem, but I wouldn't go as far as saying that Dell has lied. Bluetooth was promised, bluetooth is there, and it works for most simple tasks that people require. It's just that bluetooth isn't working exactly as some advanced users expected it to.

This is a perfect example of why we need a ratings system on this site; to note those of us who contribute good information, and to mark those who submit ridiculous garbage as above. Then we could set filters to simply block out posts that aren't worth reading.

Most of us here are upset with Dell because they are taking so long to get us an update, but we do think that they will eventually get it right. Then there's the above post, supposedly sticking up for Dell, and saying something that is 100 times worse than what any of us are even thinking. Federal laws have 'grown up' over the last decade when it comes to hardware/software, and there are specific charges a company would face if they did as quoted above.

If you want to defend Dell, try to do it in a way that isn't going to make people even more mad at them.

So every opinion that does not agree with yours is 'ridiculous garbage'? You must have a hard time reading information on the internet.

You completely misunderstood everything I said. I am not in any way defending Dell. I'm not a Dell fanboy or employee. As a matter of fact I do not have a single piece of Dell electronics in my whole house. My whole point is that problems exist everywhere, and people treat the WM5 problems as something which is present in all Dell Axims, which is not the case.

As for charges... Dell has actually provided us with everything advertised, like it or not. It's far from perfect, but the advertised features work, or like you said, there would be charges. This is just like buying a laptop which includes "Wireless", expecting to find 802.11g, but finding that only 802.11b is supported. You were promised wireless and you got wireless.

[TFJetfire]

Unfortunately Dell has never been 'big' on customer satisfaction.


The crippled bluetooth stack is certainly a problem, but I wouldn't go as far as saying that Dell has lied. Bluetooth was promised, bluetooth is there, and it works for most simple tasks that people require. It's just that bluetooth isn't working exactly as some advanced users expected it to.


So every opinion that does not agree with yours is 'ridiculous garbage'? You must have a hard time reading information on the internet.

You completely misunderstood everything I said. I am not in any way defending Dell. I'm not a Dell fanboy or employee. As a matter of fact I do not have a single piece of Dell electronics in my whole house. My whole point is that problems exist everywhere, and people treat the WM5 problems as something which is present in all Dell Axims, which is not the case.

As for charges... Dell has actually provided us with everything advertised, like it or not. It's far from perfect, but the advertised features work, or like you said, there would be charges. This is just like buying a laptop which includes "Wireless", expecting to find 802.11g, but finding that only 802.11b is supported. You were promised wireless and you got wireless.

Just as an example look up Lemon Laws - by your definition there shouldn't be any lemon laws because you purchased a car and it can start up, you may have problems with it but it can/did start when you drove it off the lot.

If you're going to argue legal points please research them first.
More examples of corporate cases - State of New Jersey vs Blockbuster - deceptive advertisement - remember the no late fees? - Sure the fine print was there stating that customers who did not return the video in a timely fashion now bought the video. Hmm but from your point of view no one was lied to.
http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/in...140.xml&coll=1 - for follow up reading.
Yes blockbuster settle the matter AND stopped this practice.


Sorry getting back on topic

[bluevolume]

So every opinion that does not agree with yours is 'ridiculous garbage'? You must have a hard time reading information on the internet.

You completely misunderstood everything I said. I am not in any way defending Dell. I'm not a Dell fanboy or employee. As a matter of fact I do not have a single piece of Dell electronics in my whole house. My whole point is that problems exist everywhere, and people treat the WM5 problems as something which is present in all Dell Axims, which is not the case.

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when you totally make something up and don't preface it with "my opinion is...", that presents a problem.

Every Axim x50v that has been upgraded to WM5 has problems. EVERY ONE. Each of us have different symptoms because each of us use our Axims differently, but they all suffer from the same issues rooted in the build. Case in point, the VGA-out does not work on ANY upgraded x50v. Not many of us use that, so not that many know about the problem. Go back through the threads and find all the "I love my upgraded x50!", and then look at newer posts by the same person, and see how their tune has changed.

If you don't have any Dell products in "your whole house", then why are you on this site? Isn't this a place for Axim owners to discuss our PDAs?

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when you totally make something up and don't preface it with "my opinion is...", that presents a problem.

Every Axim x50v that has been upgraded to WM5 has problems. EVERY ONE. Each of us have different symptoms because each of us use our Axims differently, but they all suffer from the same issues rooted in the build. Case in point, the VGA-out does not work on ANY upgraded x50v. Not many of us use that, so not that many know about the problem. Go back through the threads and find all the "I love my upgraded x50!", and then look at newer posts by the same person, and see how their tune has changed.

If you don't have any Dell products in "your whole house", then why are you on this site? Isn't this a place for Axim owners to discuss our PDAs?

I never even implied that WM devices made by Dell do not have problems, they do :realmad:.

I'm on this site because owning a Dell Axim isn't a pre-requisite to registration :D. As you can see from my signature, I owned an X3 adv. and X50v before. I like reading PDA-related forums, and AximSite is the best forum I have had the pleasure to come across. Best place to learn tricks, get help with problems, find out news and get the scoop on great deals :D

[1RS]

If you do not make a decision based on the problems encountered by a large community of people fairly familiar with the devices, what do you go by? Dell's blurbs? MS WM5 blurbs?

[TominFreeport]

My Axim got all the symptoms: disappearing CF card, WOD, battery draining, etc. However, the ActiveSync hack (elimination of the automatic sync every 4 hours by switching to manual) solved all my problems. One month after the hack, only one reset due to MS reader problems. So far it is a dream machine! Try it and you should have a perfect machine!!!

[hc2]

I am not buying anymore pure PDA's. There are some good products, multifunction products combining PDA, phone, pager,email client, etc coming out in the nect couple of years. Acer is one brand to watch.
I think the PDA is being phased out, I do not think there will be another PDA from Dell, there may some sort of smartphone, but no x52v. A guess on my part, no concrete evidence that I know of, but no more PDA's for me.