Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 4/23/2009
Posts: 171
Location: United States
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To the President of Dynavox,
Around December 7th 2011, we received a brand new Dynavox VMax+ with EyeMax # EM005074
for my wife Charlotte, who has been battling ALS for 8 years, on a vent, completely paralyzed but for her face and eyes.
We met with Mr. Tim Dreaden at the speech therapist’s office for an evaluation, during this evaluation Mr. Dreaden clearly confirmed that my wife would gain access to the internet, email…etc.
Jenny Dumas the speech therapist at UCP (Birmingham Al) who wrote the evaluation will testify to this fact.
Looking at your current brochure, I read; “Powerfully FAST… Fully ACCESSIBLE…the TOTAL package.” The same web brochure claims; “…have the option to use the phone and web…With my high-performance Vmax+…”
Jim Shea, Vice President of Marketing for DynaVox. “Our focus is on providing total communication solutions which allow people with ALS to speak, send email, access the internet,make phone calls and use a computer through the use of assistive technology.
I am very sorry to report that the unit we received with the Windows 7 operating system falls very very short from these performance claims!
Shortly after we received the unit, it started to freeze, so Charlotte could not communicate her needs reliably…nothing had been done to the unit,
the internet access was not even turned on….
I started to look into it, wondering why a brand new unit was already freezing and unreliable, and was amazed to find out that this unit had only 1Gram of memory with Windows 7…
Windows 7 specifications call for a minimum of 1G RAM to perform… Cheap computers today ($300-$400) have 2-4G RAM…
I asked if the RAM could be increased, and was told that no it could not on this brand new unit… A unit we are supposed to keep for the next 5 years…
On 1/23/2012, I turned on the internet feature and immediately installed the Anti-Virus software we use on our other computers (F-secure) to protect this computer from internet viruses. The performance worsened dramatically.
I called your Tech support and complained of very poor performance. Your Tech rep told me that the performance degradation was caused by the fact that the anti-virus software I installed was in constant operation therefore used computer resources which caused the serious performance degradation.
He uninstalled the anti-virus software and reinstalled Microsoft Essential.
During our conversation, he confirmed that “The hardware is pretty outdated”… (his words) NO KIDDING!
The performance still far from your marketing department claims, I clearly told PJ (tech support) that the unit was not performing as advertised
and that I want to return it.
Her supervisor Jim Kaufman called me last Friday, and clearly told me that this unit was strictly a communication device and not one to go on the web… He was quite clear, mentioning that it was not to go on Facebook… that is was not to be compared to a notebook. (a direct conflict with Mr. Shea’s your VP of Marketing Dept. statement)
That same day, Ian of tech support called me and remotely accessed the computer to see if anything was wrong with the unit. He took out 3 files, and installed Malwarebyte, scanned the computer and found no malware/spyware which could have caused the poor performance.
Even after Ian’s intervention the computer is unreliable, will not awaken, and freezes.
I told Jim that I wanted to return the unit. He told me that it was not possible as the 30 day window passed…
Dynavox owes the truth to ALS patients… before anyone buys this unit, it should be CLEARLY DISCLAIMED that this unit is only a basic communication device, NOT designed to go on the web or act as a computer.
Claims of “Powerfully Fast, fully ACCESSIBLE, the TOTAL package” are GROSSLY EXAGERATED and misleading.
Your own Tech Support department admits it!
The big problem is that Medicare and my insurance company paid about $17,000 for this unit which is supposed to last us 5 years.
Selling such outdated hardware to ALS patients is a very very cruel joke.
Your marketing is clearly false advertising!
I formally request that you void this purchase with Medicare and our insurance company
and will invite your rep to pick up this most disappointing and defective unit.
An EXTREMELY disappointed customer.
Bernard R Michaud
Husband and POA of Charlotte Carlisle (pals)
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