Rating: - Simplicity of Email
If you are looking for something that handles email in its most simplistic form, this is the product for you.
I have been looking for some way to introduce the electronic age to my parents. A used PC handed down to my father is used to play solitare and nothing else! The Mailstation makes email as simple as possible. The problems other reviewers have mentioned were either: A) taken care of by Cidco or B) not encountered.
Set-up was a breeze especially with the toll-free number for dial access. The CSR for account set-up seemed partially knowledgable and getting through was not a problem. Remember that purchasing a MailStation comes with one-week of free service. I used that time to test out the process and found everything to work as advertised.
Drawbacks: The keyboard is smaller than a conventional QWERTY keyboard and the display is small. However, there is an optional "enlarge type" button that makes the small print easier on the eyes. Also, only text messages are available. No graphics, pictures, sounds, etc.
Overall, a great starter package for someone that needs basic email functionality with appropriate costs. My folks love it and feel like they are finally part of the Internet age!
Rating: - It works
The unit is basically nice albeit not really full featured if you're used to other computer applications. The server is busy a significant amount of the time, thus auto dialing misses many connections and apparently there is no auto redial if this occurs. I tried to set mine up over a weekend...right. After telling me they would put it on as soon as the computers were back up. Monday they had no record of my account. When I confronted them with the password I had been given they said it was for someone else's account...so much for security.
The zipper bag (free with 2 yr service) has not arrived. Yahoo service is still awaiting also.
Instructions are poor. Many times when dialing from a hotel, etc. you need to dial a 9 followed by a pause for an outside line. No pause symbol is given. I found on my own, however, the unit does respond to standard modem commands. Thus ,=pause and P=pulse etc etc. So don't depend on the manual for anything too important.
A good little unit that needs more support.
Rating: - service stinks
I purchased following their promises of simplicity. It was for my aging sister, to be someting less complicated then setting up a computer. The reality is they set her up initially with long distance dial-up and then corrected it after she noticed it. Then calling for further tech (help?) she was told the computers were down, call back tomarrow. Calling back, she was put on hold 45 minutes before hanging up and re-dialing. Then again on hold for 25+ minutes before giving up again. Is this help, is this simple? william
Rating: - Cidco MailStation is the worst piece of cow dung ever made!!
This machine is probably outright fraud as it was advertised and how the original box displayed all of the available YAHOO services.
These YAHOO services especially weather reports were never made available and even Yahoo was dropped and replaced by a poor replica.
The machine was programmed to autodial each morning and I was lucky if it connected one out three times. Repeated telephone calls to tech support were a waste of time as they blamed my telephone jack, my telephone wall outlet, my AC power outlet and even the phases of the moon but never took any blame for the very poor connect ratio.
A request of a partial credit of a one year prepaid service was denied because the request came in too late even though the system was not used for six months.
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