Hello Vicky and list, Thanks for your very informative post.
I thought the PK was closer to $4,000 rather than $5,000. Wow! I guess I'll need to rethink getting one! If it were closer to $4,000, it would be priced closer to the competition! I guess I'll worry more about upgrading my BN and getting the battery replaced this time. My state doesn't have sales tax and whenever I have purchased anything from out of state, I'm never assessed the tax when buying out of state. Apparently that loop hole has been closed if one lives in a sales tax state.
Do take care and thanks again! Jim Aldrich At 08:42 PM 11/05/2004 , you wrote:
Hi All, Well, as I mentioned yesterday, I did indeed call PDH about the maintenance agreements, as well as purchasing the BrailleNote PK. And, seeing as I kind of like to know what to expect when making phone calls, I figured I would pass my experience in purchasing the PK along. When one first calls there, they get an opportunity to enter the extension of the person to whom they want to speak, or to enter the number one to get to the company directory. And, grin, I did use that latter option a couple of times on subsequent calls. I wasn't too bright, though, and inadvertently entered one of the letters of the first name of the person I had talked with before incorrectly, thus getting transferred to someone else. And, I had to make that same mistake twice before I realized what I had done. Both PDH folks were very nice about it, though, and I got accomplished what I was trying to take care of. On my first call, though, I just stayed on the line and waited for more options and took the one for sales inquiries, or something like that. Next, I asked the person in sales/customer service I spoke with if she was the one I would give my info to, should I decide to purchase the PK right then, and she said she was. Still further, I asked about the possibility of receiving an e-mail confirmation, should I decide to purchase the PK. And, I was told that could be done. This was something that made me very happy indeed, as I'll keep an e-mail message right where I can find and access it much easier than an invoice on a piece of paper. However, guess the person's e-mail has been down, so it will be Monday before I get that confirmation. Next, I asked about the extended warranty and software maintenance agreement. And, I was told the following: the extended warranty for the PK is $400.00, but one gets a $10 percent discount off that if they buy it at the time of purchase, thus making it $360.00 at time of purchase. The software maintenance agreement with purchase is $145.00 for the electronic version, meaning if one just downloads it from the web, or $180.00 to receive it on a CF card. It is $195.00 for an electronic SMA if purchased later on, and $230.00 if purchased later on a CF card. Now, the PK itself is $4,995.00, plus $45.00 shipping. Then, too, although I didn't realize it at the time, but seeing as I live in a state where PDH has dealers, then the six percent state sales tax for the state of Indiana is also charged on the PK and the shipping, but apparently not on the extended warranty and SMA. And, although I was just a bit surprised to have this $302.40 added on as part of my credit card charge, I wasn't unhappy at all, as now I don't have to scramble to change my state tax withholding to pay that sales tax myself. However, someone making a purchase and maybe kind of cutting things close on the credit card might want to be aware of the possibility of sales tax being charged, as it is something that doesn't always happen when buying adaptive equipment from out of state. And, finally, I was told that they didn't have any PK to ship right now, but were expecting more of them in next week. And, that's not a problem, as I'm happy to wait a bit until more become available. ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
