Hail, John Gallagher, Pulsedata and all... I note with interest that, while Pulsedata staff respond to a whole range of minutiae on this list, John's enquiry about when GPS Version 3 will be available from them here in the UK has brought forth nothing at all.
As you'll have picked up, I bought Version 2 on the assurances that Version 3 would be available by the end of July, and that it wouldn't cost me anything extra. I rang Pulsedata last week to check quite when I could expect Version 3, having gathered from membership of the GPS list that everything for the UK would, indeed, be ready round about now. When I was told by Pulsedata last week that Version 3 wouldn't be available until September, I asked why I'd been told that it would be available by now. I'm not just kicking out at Pulsedata, because I complained that the publicity wasn't reflected by actuality when I bought Version 1, but was persuaded to be patient and wait for upgrading. My complaint, however, was made directly to the member of staff who came to train me when I bought my initial BrailleNote package. It was also him who told me, on further enquiry a couple of months or so ago, that Version 2 was worth buying on its own account, and would entitle me to Version 3 at no extra cost. Well, as I've said previously, Version 2 has been a massive disappointment. When I found out about the GPS users' list, therefore, I was tremendously encouraged to read everything there about the improvement that Version 3 seemed to offer. And, so, I was getting worried by last week that I'd heard nothing further about receiving Version 3. As I say, I wanted to know why I'd been given the July date, and was promised a return call. That call took over a week to come, by which time a different member of staff wasn't prepared to give me any date whatsoever. Again, I said I wanted to know why I'd been given the earlier misinformation. No response other than utter prevarication. List members might be interested to know, though, that both my wife (who took a call yesterday when I was out) and I both got the definite impression that, although I was still, indeed, being offered Version 3 at no extra cost over and above that for Version 2 (whenever that might be!), that was most definitely because I'd kicked up a fuss, including sufficient to involve Mike May of Sendero; that is, that the member of Pulsedata's UK staff who gave me the July assurance was also talking out of turn on that one, too (though without saying as much, of course). Other than via this and the GPS users' lists I know only one BrailleNote user, who previously used other specialist equipment. He likes the BrailleNote, he told me; but, when it comes time to buy something new, he won't be sticking with it. Why? Because of the practice of Pulsedata's customer relations! I do know how he feels. On top of everything else, no one from Pulsedata has seen fit to reply to my own last posting, either. 'Bye for now, John Goddard.
