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Weaknees Experience
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Posted by: timwindsor

I just bought an upgrade package from Weaknees and thought I should post my comments.

First, the product itself was very well-packaged and arrived on time, two days after I placed my order.

However, to my surprise -- especially given the gushing reviews I have read here -- the service was somewhat lacking.

Specifically:

1. Three specific questions submitted by email (2) and phone (1) have, to this moment, gone unanswered. The last question, detailed below, was rather urgent and left via voicemail more than 7 hours ago.

2.. The package arrived *without* the promised torx tools. Without these, I would have been SOL. Luckily, I'm a Mac Powerbook owner from way back and had the correct drivers on hand. I left this information in my message to the company 7 hours ago, and have heard nothing back -- not so much as a "sorry, we're idiots!" or, "cool, you actually owned a Powerbook Duo!"

3. The instructions were missing key information about setting the jumpers for the second (slave) drive, which I had purchased. This was key. I bought this package precisely because I'm an idiot as far as technology goes and, I thought, Weaknees was the solution. Their step-by-step directions would make sure I made no mistakes. Well, first of all, there was a tiny slip of paper addressing a major error in the printed directions (the position of the jumper on the main drive) rather than the simpler reprinting of the five-page lasered directions. And then there was no explicit discussion of what to do with the jumper on the new second drive. i left a message with the company within mormal business hours and hoped for the 15-minutes-or-less answer I've read about on these forums.

Nothing.

Thank God for Google in this instance! I was able to find the answer online.

[Inserted for other Googlers dealing with this: samsung jumper tivo slave = no jumper necessary.]

I'm not posting this to bust Weaknees' chops. For all I know, they decided to take a well-deserved vacation this week. However, I found their support and documentation to be less than superb.

I'm willing to chalk this up to my dumb luck. And I'm a huge supporter of any company supporting my TiVo habit. But I post this to temper the Weaknees tickertape parade just a bit.

Bottom line: the drive works like a charm, the price was fair, the packaging was perfect, the delivery was on-time, but the support is a bit, um, meh.

Posted by: weaknees

Tim--

We very much appreciate all of the comments about our products and services---posts like yours keep us on our toes.

I must say that we looked through our email three times and did not see any email from you today. Email is absolutely the best way to get a hold of us--we answer it 7 days a week. Might it be that you misspelled our email address (happens very frequently)? We apologize for your inability to get a hold of us; it should not be difficult.

With respect to your missing Torx tools: This is a no-brainer. We can overnight a set to you tomorrow or, if you are in a rush, we can reimburse you for the cost of a couple of screwdrivers. Please email us HERE.

With respect to the jumpers: You should have received a separate addenum to the instructions that specifically references the jumpers, and we set all of our jumpers before we ship, so our customers never have to deal with jumpers on our drives.

Finally, we apologize about our failure to return your call... Your complaints are 100% justified, and we can only say this: We don't have a call center, in part because of cost and in part because our customers would not be handled well if calls were answered by random customer service reps (even if well trained). As a result, when we get many calls at once (which happens), some end up in voicemail...and when it gets late, we listen to east coast calls the following day.

Sorry for the public apology--for any lingering issues, please do try to email us again.

Michael

Posted by: timwindsor

Thanks for the reply.

Again, this is not meant to be a trashing of what is clearly a great company/service for the TiVo community. Just my individual experience.

The Torx tools might have been a huge issue for many users. I was lucky to have the tools on hand.

My emails were replies to tivo@weaknees.com, sent from my mac.com address.

I still think the manual could be clearer on the issue of jumper settings for the second drive (very explicit on the original drive).

I don't want to create the wrong impression, though. I think that your product is great. It's offered at a fair price. And it will undoubtedly make my TiVoing experience much better.

I just think you need to look more closely at your instruction materials. The torx MIA was just a packaging error.

Thanks for enhancing the TiVo experience.

Posted by: timwindsor

>> With respect to the jumpers: You should have received a separate addenum to the instructions that specifically references the jumpers, and we set all of our jumpers before we ship, so our customers never have to deal with jumpers on our drives.

>>>

If I'd only known this...

Maybe a sticker on the drive packaging would help. Or just a mention on the documentation.

The fact that there was a jumper in the package made me think that I needed to use it somehow.

Again, I'm just an average user. UNIX geniuses are welcome to chortle at my ignorance.

:-)