[bksvol-discuss] ot Fw: [blindusersLG] (Please read) Blind individual in need of technology assistance.

MessageHello.  Fellow listers, I received this message from another list and I 
thought I should post it to as many lists as I am a part of to see if someone 
may be able to help this individual.  Thanks in advance for reading.  

Monica Svopa 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Arthur Nolden 
To: BlindusersLGVXPhones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: [blindusersLG] (Please read) Blind individual in need of 
technology assistance.





Hello Jay,

There ought to be alot of folks here who might have answers for you.  As you 
requsted, I'm passing your message along to two blindness-related groups.

Art
New Port Richey, Florida.

=======.

  To: 
  Subject: [blindusersLG] (Please read) Blind individual in need of technology 
assistance.


  Hello-

  I am a blind college student from Northeastern Pennsylvania. I am having 
problems with assistive technology thus I am posting this message to as many 
places online as possible. This message is quite long so please feel free to 
disregard it if you would like. However, if you or anyone can help me in this 
matter, feel free to contact me. If possible, please also send this message to 
any mailing lists or individuals whom you think may be able to help.



  My story involves the pacmate PDA by freedom scientific I own and the many 
many problems I've had with it, both hardware and software but mostly hardware.

  I owned a Braille lite during my high school years and it served me well 
until it unfortunately started to function strangely around the middle of 2004. 
I was in college at the time and needed something to take notes with, luckily 
my local Blindness and Visual services agency were willing to purchase a note 
taker for me. I have always used Jaws for windows as my screen reader so it was 
logical that I would gravitate towards the Pacmate. What also lead me towards 
this product was the ability to install third party applications such as aol 
instant messenger, audio recorders, drivers for using wireless and Ethernet 
compact flash cards etc. For example, I used the linksys wcf54g card which 
supported W p a security which was the setting my network was set to. Back to 
the pacmate, things started going wrong even before the order went through for 
the unit. A computer consultant met with me, showed me a unit then I went on 
the FS website and told them what I wanted. For example, they recommended a 
modem, I told them I wouldn't be needing it, figured it would save them some 
money you know? So they end up going ahead, ignoring all of my 
requests/recommendations and going with what the consultant wanted to order. I 
even ended up receiving an e-mail with her order recommendation, to which I 
responded with my own recommendations, this was right before the order was 
finalized and as I said above, I was ignored. I luckily saved the last e-mail I 
sent, so here are the specifications with my comments in parentheses--



  Note taker: PacMate BX 420 note taker

  To include Software and Hardware Product Maintenance Agreement



  (I received this and this agreement runs out in September and as it stands 
now, I will not renew it.)



  10 MPS Ethernet Card



  (Received it, package did not include all hardware in order to use card even 
though package was sealed when received.)



  Spare Battery



  (The battery is for older pacmate units, I advised people of this many many 
times, I did not receive the battery but it was paid for.)



  Mobile Planet 56K Modem with Bluetooth



  (Received a modem which came in a bubble rapped package with no cd or any 
info on how to use it. I think it was by socket communications)



  SanDisk 1GB compact flash storage card



  (Received it, will explain below)



  Carry Case



  (Received laptop style case which came with unit, had to eventually purchase 
separate case in order to use unit when it was inside case)



  Software



  (All software was paid for but only software included with pacmate was 
received such as pacmate documentation cd, pocket pc cd etc. The following was 
not received)



  PocketPrint CE

  SyncExpress

  Resco Audio Recorder

  Pocket Backup



  Items were received in late 2004.



  I contacted the consultant after all of this was discovered as well as 
talking with my BVS case worker. The consultant never responded to my e-mails 
or calls and my contact at BVS basically told me there was nothing she could do 
since everything was already paid for. At the time, I was finishing my 
undergraduate degree and did not have much more time to keep e-mailing and 
calling and to speak frankly, begging it seemed to me, for them to help me.

  When I first started out, the pacmate seemed to work fine. The Ethernet card 
was by socket communications and included a strange cable with internet jack at 
one end and a strange connector at the other. It also included a laptop PCMCIA 
adapter and that's it. The instructions didn't really tell how to insert what I 
thought at the time was the card. The cable seemed the right size for the cf 
slot and it did actually fit but the pacmate didn't recognize it or anything. 
Please keep in mind this was my first experience with anything like this, I've 
always been a desktop/Braille lite user. After a while, the first compact flash 
slot stopped recognizing the sandisk 1gig card. In calling freedom scientific 
tech support, they told me the Ethernet package was to include a cable, the 
laptop adapter and also a small cf card to fit between the cable and pacmate. I 
told them it did not include such a card and they kept insisting I should 
search for it. Now this happened a few months after I received everything, my 
original box and packaging were put away in a closet in my dorm room the 
evening I received the unit and barely touched, only used to extract the cds, 
manuals etc. Needless to say, the tech support person and I almost got in to an 
argument about the non existent cf card. Finally I changed the subject to 
something else, which was the right most advance button on the Braille display 
and the whiz wheel. The right button would move the display but I wouldn't get 
the physical click feedback that I would get with the other buttons and the 
right whizwheel took a few pressings of it up/down in order for it to move the 
display. The display worked fine for a while when it was received, this 
happened soon after. Also the unit was acting strangely, it froze/crashed every 
so often when turned on, requiring a hard reset and reinstalling of programs 
and changing default settings etc, which takes time. When resetting the unit, 
it would sometimes reset fine, sometimes I would have to disconnect the display 
in order for it to reset. The display also, after a time of use, would freeze 
and stop following the speech. Or sometimes, it would not come up at all when 
the unit was turned on and it had to be disconnected then reconnected.  I sent 
the units back to FS after spending time filling out support forms and getting 
material authorization numbers. I also sent back all of my cards. They 
contacted me and told me it would cost in the $200 range to get some bent pins 
in the cf slots fixed, since it wasn't covered under my agreement for some 
reason. I paid it, I had no choice. Now if you remember, this was all thanks to 
me not having the proper parts for that Ethernet card. I would still like to 
know why on earth it seems like tech support did not believe me, that card was 
not included in the package. And in case you are wondering, yes, I did have 
sighted assistance throughout this, looking for the card, sending everything 
back etc. I received the units back a while later, the braille display was not 
fixed. So I sent the braille display out again. It got fixed. Now the pm worked 
fine for I'd say 4 or 5 months or so. In october/november of last year, the 
same problems started to happen. Now I would like to tell you right up front, I 
take good care of all of the equipment I own, keep them clean, keep them in 
their cases etc etc. I never miss use computer equipment. These problems 
started happening with the first slot, even though the units were kept in the 
case I purchased. Oh and also when i received the unit back the first 
time,freedom scientific advised that I throw away my cards, the modem, parts of 
the Ethernet card, the 1 gig sandisk card. I did so and had to buy new cards. I 
purchased a 4gig flash card to use. I also purchased the linksys wcf54g 
wireless card as well as the socket communications EA2912 Ethernet card. The 
linksys stopped detecting my network in the first slot for no reason whatsoever 
after a while so I then used the second slot. Last month, I upgraded to pacmate 
4.0 firmware. The unit kept freezing even more then usual, for example when 
leaving the unit off for up to a day or even a few hours, turn it on, hear the 
start up click then it would freeze. Sunday evening (may 14th), I was trying to 
backup files to my flash card from the unit, suddenly the second slot stopped 
recognizing cards. Now since the unit kept freezing, I did not restore a backup 
from the sprite backup program I had installed, left the unit at default 
settings. I fiddled with the switch on the cf card to switch partitions, 
nothing was recognized. The Braille display started then displaying random 6 
dot Braille sells, even in the middle of a hard reset.



  (A quick note here, I never have forced cards in to the cf slots, I'd put 
them in until they clicked in to place and remove them gently etc. Some I left 
in for a few days at a time, wireless card for example and some I would remove 
after use, the memory card. I read all manuals and followed all directions in 
using the cards)



  I called freedom scientific Monday (may 15th). I gave them a piece of my 
mind, though in a nice way. I told them what was going on, how frustrated I was 
and even that I would be willing to downgrade to a Braille lite or other 
machine, I'd rather have a working unit for taking notes in classes even if I 
couldn't transfer files to the pc. They sort of dodged around what I was 
telling them, made me fill out the forms needed to send back the units and that 
was that. I asked if they would at least consider replacing the unit, they said 
they would try to fix this one. Again. What if I perhaps have the 1 in 10 
thousandth badly built units?

  I am predicting that when I receive the pacmate and display back, they will 
tell me to throw out all of my cards, just like they did last time. Then I will 
have to buy new ones again. Then perhaps in a while, this may happen again.

  At this point, it seems no one will listen to me. Not freedom scientific when 
all I am asking for is a unit to be replaced and not blindness and visual 
services since they are slowly now helping me out with grad school preparation 
and my case worker told me over the phone the other day that she didn't want to 
hear about it. What are my options? I'm not really sure.

  I was thinking of buying a laptop in the next few months, somehow 
transferring programs over to it from my desktop because someone told me it 
could be done and using that. I type faster in Braille then I do on a pc 
keyboard for taking notes in classes or from a reader so I'd have to purchase a 
blue tooth Braille keyboard that I found some info about online that is suppose 
to let you type in grade 1/2 in windows. I don't know much about this keyboard 
since there seems to be limited information online about it but it may be able 
to solve my problem of having a reliable machine with storage and other 
capabilities that will last, not break down and let me type using the braille 
language.

  Now is it worth it, trying to find a laptop, one with features that let you 
turn off the screen/mouse/wireless, or a normal one and buy an extra high 
capacity battery in order to get a decent amount of time from it? I don't know. 
In doing that, I will also probably not have any access to a Braille display 
and in taking notes, I usually have speech turned off and use Braille to keep 
track of where I am in a document.

  I am moving to Pittsburgh for grad school in mid august so either before then 
or during august, I'd like to get a hold of a working machine that will let me 
take notes in classes or from someone reading me something. Other features like 
internet would be nice but if I can backup my documents to pc, that would be ok 
with me.

  As I said, I'm not sure if I want to do the laptop thing because it seems 
quite complicated. In fact, when I receive the pacmate back, I don't even know 
if I will use it, I may just sell it, who knows. As you can see, I am at my 
wits end. I am frustrated and confused. I am saddened by how I've been treated 
by these so called people who are suppose to help me.

  In terms of computer usage,i'd say I am an advanced, if not a power user, I 
have been using both dos and windows systems for around 10 years now. I love 
jaws for windows and use it on a daily basis, it's a great product. Frankly, I 
did not expect these problems with the pacmate to happen. In talking to a few 
other blind individuals who own a pacmate, they told me they have no problems 
at all which i find sort of hard to believe.

  Well that is my story. I apologize for the length and wordy quality of the 
above information, however I think it hopefully summorizes my unfortunate 
experiences.

  If there is anything anyone can think of, even if it's the smallest bit of 
information, please get in touch with me. My contact information is below in my 
signature and if anyone would like to speak to me over the phone or you know 
someone who may want to speak to me about this situation, let me know and I 
will provide my cell phone number.

  I thank you sincerely for reading this and have a good day.

  Regards

  Jay Pellis

  ----------

  Jay Pellis

  E-mail: jalucard@xxxxxxxxxxxx







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