5/27/00 1:31 am
In 11th St. bar... inspired and
uninspired at the same time. trust. what is that? absence of
paranoia. a Guinness just the right temperature in a place you feel
comfortable in. most of the photographs didn't make it. I almost
didn't make it. they nearly had me. I have been taken out so many
times...
Let me try to describe what I shall forthwith refer to as the Cradle Incident. Having obtained the Palm along with the included HotSync cradle, I made note that the transformer was only rated at 110V and that I, being the world traveler and all, should procure one which operates at voltages between 110-240V. Seeing that the cradles advertised on palm.com and elsewhere were rated so, I decided finally to buy one and take it with me to Germany. I found the very item for sale at the same price at Urban Fetch, and ordered it. To my disappointment, I discovered upon opening the package that the transformer was identical to the made-in-China, 110V-only model I already had with the original cradle, Now, I was quite sure that either false advertising had been done or that this transformer indeed was compatible with 240V and simply did not specify so on its label. In order to ascertain which of these two possibilities was operative, I bench tested the transformer by first measuring its output voltage when plugged into a normal 110V line and then into the 220V output of the step-up/down transformer I had left over from yesteryear's German MacIntosh computer setup. The results were interesting; when plugged into 240V the transformer output was a respectably regulated 5.4 V - identical to the output when plugged into 110V. However, it smoked after about 15 seconds, having heated considerably to the touch. Now I was very sure that indeed the transformer was capable only of performing at an input of 110V and thus the advertisement had promised something not delivered. So, in order to rectify the situation I first looked up the page at palm.com where I had first seen the advertisement, and seeing that 110-240V was still the norm being advertised, contacted through a series of trial-and-error phone calls the very same sales representative, Emily, with whom I had spoken just two mornings previous. I tried to make my concern intelligible to her, which was no very easy task, but she was clever enough to at last find the root of the problem: Palm Inc. sells two different models of the Palm IIIc HotSync cradle, "USA" and "International." While the advertisement page displays essentially only one product, these two differ only in the voltage range at which they operate, and this difference is hardly brought to the consumer's attention, since the description of the product ends with the spec "100-240V" in parentheses. It is only somewhere in the obscure lower left-hand corner of the page that a choice between "USA" and International" is offered, which any experienced web surfer might easily misconstrue as denoting the point of origin of the purchase (for there is a $10 difference between the two) and not an actual difference in two distinct products. Though I had not purchased the cradle from Palm, I did voice my opinion that the advertising was, though probably not intentionally so, rather misleading. From there I carried on to Urban Fetch, from whom I had bought the actual unit.
Here I must indicate that Urban
Fetch's product description for the Palm IIIc HotSync cradle mimics that of
Palm Inc. very closely - so closely, in fact, that one might reasonably assume
that it had been copied in its entirety from that source. I assumed then,
as I do now still, that neither Palm nor especially Urban Fetch intended in any
way to mislead customers; nevertheless I had made a purchase based on the technical
specifications laid down in this product description and felt I was entitled
either to a transformer that can handle the different voltages of two
continents or to a full refund. When I at length described this situation
to the sales rep at Urban Fetch, she said "the right product" would
be delivered to me later that day at a time I might freely specify, and that I
should ignore the charge of $49 that would appear on my order
confirmation. An absolutely identical cradle with 110V-only transformer
was delivered. I do feel adequately compensated, assuming this new cradle
is free, but I still am in the position of needing a transformer that will
operate at the specified voltages, as I fly to Germany for a week next
Wednesday and have no intention of going a single day without my Palm IIIc or
HotSync capability and feel it very unnecessary to carry around a weighty
additional step-down transformer.