Back to Customer Care. After more than 50 minutes on hold, "Keith" answered the phone. Well, at least I know that two people, Monique and Keith, pick up phones for Customer Care. Keith told me that he could put in a request to find out whether a replacement had been shipped. The request would take 24 to 48 hours to receive a reply. "Two days to find out if the replacement had even been shipped," I asked him. By this time I was getting furious. It was Friday. I could get a reply by Sunday? No, Keith told me, they don't work on the weekends. Being as it was late Friday, then, shall I assume that the 24 to 48 hours wouldn't even start until Monday? Yes, Keith said. I should call back Tuesday.

Can't I communicate with the shipping department via email? No, Keith told me, I could not. It was all internal and he had to fill out a complicated form in order to initiate a "status check." On Tuesday, would I have to use this same number to receive the results of my status check? I'd need to clear some time on my calendar if I were going to have to spend nearly another hour on hold. Yes, I was told, this was the only way to find out the results of the status check.

And, if the results on Tuesday were that the unit had not been shipped, I'd have to call back no later than Wednesday in order to initiate another status check (results to be received by Friday) as to whether the unit had been shipped during that week at all. It's an online world. Or, at least Palm Computing, with its recently-released Palm VII would have you believe.

When you need support from 3Com, though, you find yourself on a trip back in time. Shipments move slower than the Pony Express. There's no online tracking at all, even to members of Palm Computing's so-called "Customer Care" department. Moving considerably less than "the speed of e-business," as United Parcel Service says, promises are broken and the simplest question takes Palm Computing as much as two days to answer. But, when you need a Palm device repaired, you've no place else to turn. It's Palm Computing or buy a new device. Of course, when you buy one, you can select an online retailer who will ship via next-day mail. Palm Computing could learn a few lessons in customer service from any of several hundred (thousands?) of online retailers. Will success spoil Palm Computing? Perhaps it already has begun.

Mark Messinger

David Gewirtz responds
In a short discussion I had with Palm executives, they told me that they take customer service issues very seriously and have promised a detailed response. Unfortunately, due to press timing considerations (and the executive being stuck in offsite meetings) that response didn't make it into the journal proper by press deadline.

We will be posting his response on the PowerBoards within a day or so. Stay tuned for more on this story.