Palm Conspiracy???

[RedJava]

Yellow Mellow to Fellow Palm Users :))
Here is a thought I've been digesting for a while. Does anyone have a feeling that some places sell you the refurbished Palm products as new? Does Palm iself promote this or is aware of it?
Here's a reason why (just to make clrear that I'm not one of those paranoid types :)) )

Got a spanky new m515 from Staples ( a walk in, because it was close enough) went home, all was fine, but suddenly four days later it would not sync, tried all, all night long (and I mean ALL NIGHT LONG) finally called Palm c service, in short, all the suggestions they gave me, I already did, twice, moving right along, I call again the next day (there was one I thought I missed), I am told to take the hot sync cradle back to the store (seemed obvious it was a problem). I go to Staples, I explain, they test, I'm right, they give me a new package (new M515 et al.) I get home and notice: the cradle is different, lighter (but something rattles inside when you gently shake it) it has a different cable set up, the palm itself was not acting the same way (the screen was not going through these funny black and streak things as the first one did) and yes, the cradle itself was feather lite comparing to the first one. Bottom line -- the new set works great, but why, I ask, why such obvious differences???

[jdposhkus]

I had read some time ago that palm had many problems with the Hot Sync cradles packaged with 505's this amd sense to me as I recall, setting up my first 500, which I owned for 3 days before moving to the 505, the cradle was a slightly different color, and LIGHTER I dismissed it. About 3 months of happy palming went by, and I noticed a delay between pushing the HS button, and the jingling of the chime signalling a sync. Again I dismissed it. I then began getting a shock every time I removed the Palm from the cradle. Then the coup-de-gras, one day I got such a shock, the unit would not power on. I marched into Best Buy and they gave me a new unit. Helps to know the manager. (I never need the extended warranty) AH HA a new palm and a very light cradle. Come to find out they were doing a cradle replacement recall of sorts by mail. But to get to the point My "New" 505 looked like it had been thru the war! This thing had obvious wear, scratches, scuffs, even the stylus was roughed up. So back to BB I went got a New-New 505, this one was fine, but the cradle was NOTICIBLY HEAVIER. (Talk about wierd) I called palm, they claimed they only sell refurbs on their site, and they would "Look into it" I never heard from them. To this end my dad bought a refurb 505 from Palm, and you would never know it was refurbed. I also heard that some e-retailers sold demo 515's as new ones.

Bottom line keep bringin em back till you are happy.

[cliemea]

i suppose the possibility exists but isnt too likely- Int the first place it would mean that many palms are being returned without a scratch and im not sure if its even worth it to palm to do so seeing as it dosent cost them much to make them. new palms are kindof a ripoff but its worth it in the long run

[RedJava]

Hah, I thought so....
In several price-comparing web searches I learned that some stores are "authorized" plam distributors and some are not. Now, if one is not then, does that mean exactly what? That they get their stuff from the "black" market? Or that they get the fixed returns from the authorized stores, I mean, not to sound paranoid but, if I dish out for a new tech toy, legitimate Palm product, should one in exchange for another look exactly the same? I bought the first one m105 at a crc (or something like that, they since had closed their posh 6th avenue location - right by the rockefeller center) the m515 was a convenient Staples purchase which at one site in my long search for a new Palm was listed as an authorized reseller, but at another site it was not (can't) remember which site it was, but oddly enough I did not find out about this until after the purchase and return ordeal, I was simply looking for a charger and hold and behold, voila, what is the story here....

just wondering (I'm sort of a "check all the corners and sides before you dive in" type of a freak :))

p.s. dang-gone-it if I did not like the Palm so much I would not dish out all this mullah and spend my time figuring it out, and yes cliemea, I agree with you, i almost bought a clie for 100 smackaroos less than my m515, but, noooo, I had to be the loyal one, umffffghhhh :))

[pdagranny]

Selling reburbished Palms could explain what I have always thought was complete lack of quality control. Hubby and I frequently get upgrade our handhelds at the same time so we walk out of the store with multiples of the same model. We have NEVER and I mean never had the same machine. The 3 515s in the house now are all different. The screen brightness, the screen tint (yellow or blue) and the alarm volume are all different on the three machines. The same was true of the m130s, the IIIc and III line. Go figure.

pdagranny

[RedJava]

I knew I wasn't losing my mind :))

I wonder if this would be something worth mentioning to Palm, I suspect that Palm would not acknowledge the existence of the situation or deny it at best. Something similar to the M130 screen color resolution issue that came up last year. I guess this serves as caution, keep your receipts and check for the length of the warranty :))