Globalscale Technologies Advice Please?

[hungarianhc]

SethM,

I think your experiences mirror everyone's here. The occasional defective product aside, here are the two "best practices" for dealing with Globalscale (and i'm not excusing ANY of these, just making it clear what they are)

1. Expect to wait twice as long as it says
2. Expect your credit card to be charged upon order, not upon shipment.

They should just put those two points on their site 

[MarkF]

I just ordered my second plug form GlobalScale.  First one took 4 weeks.  Hopefully, I'll get it by late January when I should have more time to play.

[Valkyrie]

I ordered my SheevaPlug on 12/12/2009. It is still not shipped. We bought this to evaluate for our start-up. We have decided not to order more (if this one ever arrives) because GlobalScale Technologies misrepresented their limitations. Basically they screwed themselves out of a big order, but we're glad we found out now.

I'm guessing that DamonHD is Indian and was once (or still is) working for an outsource support company. Spelling and grammar give him away. I wouldn't take what he says to be of any value. Most Indians in outsource support do not think highly of the people they are providing services for. They consider them whiners when the customer they are paid to support politely requests the services and products they paid for. It's the support reps in India that have a sense of entitlement, not the customers. These reps want to sit at a computer, answer a phone or an email now and then and basically do nothing for their paycheck. It's a caste thing. If you are in a caste that gets the job you are in a caste that shouldn't have to lower yourself to do the work. Poor Mohandas Gandhi would be turning in his grave had he not been cremated.

The original email sent to the starter of this thread is a form email. I got the same one with a different delivery date (12/23/2009). I recently sent another email to GlobalScale Technologies support and got the same exact email again with a new expected delivery date of 1/21/2010.

The first email...
Dear XXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for your order.
Due to the demand of certain components, currently lead time noted from our website is about 2-3 weeks from the order date.
Furthermore because of the heavy holiday schedules on air carrier,
We expect to receive next lot production in by 12/23 2009.
Your order will be among the first batch to be ship once units arrive and you will receive tracking number to your email for your tracking purpose.
If you need the units prior to the estimate date and with your permission we will process full refund to you immediately.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

Support#1702
Globalscale Technologies Inc.
------------------------------------------------------------
The second email...
Dear XXXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for your order.
Due to the demand of certain components, currently lead time noted from our website is about 2-3 weeks from the order date.
We had been informed that due to the heavy holiday schedules and delay of air carrier,
Our next lot production will be delay; we expect to receive next lot
production in by 1/21/2010.
Your order will be among the first batch to be ship once units arrive and you will receive tracking number to your email for your tracking purpose.
If you need the units prior to the estimate date and with your permission we will process full refund to you immediately.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,
Support#1702
Globalscale Technologies Inc.
-------------------------------------------------------------

I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't some sort of scam/con. I know one thing, this company is not trustworthy and I'll never do business with them in the future.

[Valkyrie]

Curious. There are many people here that seem to have been billed (through their credit cards) by GlobalScale Technologies when no stock was available to ship. This may be a violation of the credit card company's merchant rules as well as The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) and the Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule in the US.

[pingtoo]

Curious. There are many people here that seem to have been billed (through their credit cards) by GlobalScale Technologies when no stock was available to ship. This may be a violation of the credit card company's merchant rules as well as The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) and the Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule in the US.

I think your email have give them the excuse to compliance to the Mail or Telephone Order Rule May I suggest you call them (or email) and start the cancellation process. I think they will do the refund since it is stated in the email. If you fell you can not trust the merchant don't wait until future. And let us know if GlobalScale is really a bad place to do business with.

[Valkyrie]

pingtoo, thank you for the guidance. I have emailed them and asked them for an explanation of the second delivery date (over 2 months from the order date) provided in the second email. Their answer will determine what steps we take.

[DamonHD]

Valkyrie

I cannot let your comment stand unchallenged.

It is racist, personally offensive, lazy, and, as it happens, entirely wrong.

And a moment's work would have revealed the errors.

Damon

[fedor]

Another satisfied Globalscale customer 

Joke

To Valkyrie:

It's interesting you got an email response from Globalscale. I got no response from the "contact us" form on their website or their email address.

The only way to find out information was for me to ring them at international call rates (I'm not in the US). Try ringing them. I know it's a pain but the lady who answers the phone may be more helpful than those generic emails.

The thing I wonder about Globalscale is this: if this is how they treat us, how much better do they treat people wanting to make a product with them? I mean, if I had a cool idea for the plug and wanted to take it to market, I'd be a bit concerned to go with Globalscale. Bad form all round I'd say. I would seriously not even want to consider partnering with them. They can't even deal with modern forms of communication.

Also, I highly doubt the legality of them charging us when they have no stock OR haven't even shipped the item.

Let us know how you go.

The silence from anyone connected with Marvell here is deafening. Does anyone care about these issues?

Wow my Karma has gone from -7 to -2. Which way will my Karma go after this post?

[Valkyrie]

Valkyrie

I cannot let your comment stand unchallenged.

It is racist, personally offensive, lazy, and, as it happens, entirely wrong.

And a moment's work would have revealed the errors.

Damon

And yours was not? Go read what you wrote. It was an insult to put it mildly.

I stand by what I posted. It all comes from personal experience and was pulled out of your own post (i.e., the sense of entitlement). The Indians who come to the US on a work Visa quickly adapt to the work ethic here (or already have it) and excel. Those that remain behind at Call Centers in India retain their current work ethic, attitude toward the customers they are paid to service and sense of entitlement. I realize this is a generalization but it has been my experience for almost every interaction (there was 1 exception with a call to a Mumbai Call Center, but unfortunately no others).

Further responses will just fuel the fire and turn into a war here and I'd prefer we end this now. Thanks.

[Valkyrie]

Another satisfied Globalscale customer 

Joke

To Valkyrie:

It's interesting you got an email response from Globalscale. I got no response from the "contact us" form on their website or their email address.

The only way to find out information was for me to ring them at international call rates (I'm not in the US). Try ringing them. I know it's a pain but the lady who answers the phone may be more helpful than those generic emails.

The thing I wonder about Globalscale is this: if this is how they treat us, how much better do they treat people wanting to make a product with them? I mean, if I had a cool idea for the plug and wanted to take it to market, I'd be a bit concerned to go with Globalscale. Bad form all round I'd say. I would seriously not even want to consider partnering with them. They can't even deal with modern forms of communication.

Also, I highly doubt the legality of them charging us when they have no stock OR haven't even shipped the item.

Let us know how you go.

The silence from anyone connected with Marvell here is deafening. Does anyone care about these issues?

Wow my Karma has gone from -7 to -2. Which way will my Karma go after this post?

No need to get hung up on "Karma" on message boards. Those that value "Karma" tend to post with the way the wind changes and you should be free to post these queries. They are valid.

I believe GlobalScale Technologies manufactures the SheevaPlug but the rights are with Marvel (from what I've read). Please, someone, correct me if I am wrong. If you had a new idea for the PlugPC you would go to Marvel, not GlobalScale. If you wanted to retail the SheevaPlug (such as NewIT) you would go to the manufacturer, GlobalScale Technologies to obtain the product to sell.

It's possible that Marvel only hosts the message board and does not maintain/administer it. But I am not sure.

[drbob49]

Strange situation.  Here in UK/Europe we have mostly used UK-based NewIT who seem to work very hard in support of plug computing - delivery is quick (less than 24 hours for me) and after sales service is excellent.  Where do they get their plugs from - Globalscale.

[Valkyrie]

Everyone seems to be very happy with NewIT. NewIT does get their SheevaPlugs from GlobalScale Technologies but they order in bulk. Unfortunately we don't want to have to use a converter.

On a side note, I just tried to visit the GlobalScale Tech website and it routed me to http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/refused.htm. Are they out of business?
EDIT: not out of business, the site is down for maintenance. I just got off the phone with them (US #, not overseas). They had someone in sales shifting the orders around based on customer calls/complaints over delays in shipping. Some people were put to the bottom because they were not "squeaky wheels". That employee was supposedly sacked as this is not the NOP for product delivery. NOP is supposed to be first in first out. (This is what I was told.)

[hageman]

I got my SheevaPlug from NewIT, and delivery was fast, about 4 days to the Netherlands. Excellent sales and aftersales. What i like about their website is that you can see how many items there are in stock. Unfortunately you can see that they are out of stock too

[MarkF]

An update: My second plug shipped from GlobalScale last night. (ordered Dec 16, shipped Jan 19)

[chole]

My Globalscale experience, for the record:

Ordered early December (credit card was charged on the 9th), got the shipment notification two days ago (Jan 19th), and arrival is expected on Jan 25th.  That's 47 days, or 6 weeks and 5 days, from charge to arrival.  I expected it to take this long from other experiences reported in this thread, so I was not particularly disappointed.  The other gadget I ordered (not from Globalscale) is about a year late -- such is the nature of bleeding edge embedded devices.

...and I just realized that I forgot to buy an SD card for it.  :O