Customer Reviews

EarthLink Mailstation Cidco DET1 Mivo 100 E-mail Appliance

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

MailStation by Cidco is among the most rewarding purchases I have ever made. Every bit of necessary technological and practical information was available on the Amazon.com site. Both CIDCO and Amazon.com had made me aware that the machine's maker would also be its sole service provider.

MailStation was a Christmas gift to my mother (age 83) who has NEVER even turned on a computer and uses the "hunt and peck" typing method. Since the very simple installation with CIDCO personnel via their (800) number on Christmas Eve, there have been daily messages to children and grandchildren. She and my dad (age 89) are thrilled and feeling very connected. A better present could not have been found.

If there is any criticism, it is that perhaps MailStation could have even fewer functions, making for more simplicity of operation. However, this compact, well-designed wonder brought with it a leap into tomorrow for a couple who thought they couldn't.

My son purchased a mailstation to send and receive email from camp. It works great! He discovered that in addition, he can send faxes from the unit, something which is not stated on the cover of the box or in any of the publicity information we have seen! You just type your message,enter the fax number, and it is sent for you. Another good feature is that he can use it for letters and taking notes, then print it when he gets home. The machine allows you to select to print in email format with headers, or in letter format (without headers). What a great value for the money! We all think it is much more versatile than the several-hundred-dollar Palm Pilots, as you can get the sports scores and stock prices, it has the address book feature, and it also has a REAL keyboard.

Bought this for my parents. They LOVE it! They have never even sat down to a PC. If you can operate an ATM, then you can use this device. Love the graphical menu system. Another review complained about not being able to use your own ISP. They should have gone to the FAQ section where this is discussed.

I bought this access device when I was having trouble with another type of access and didn't want to miss email from overseas friends. The cost was reasonable and the service cost acceptable at about 10$/mo. The screen is a little small, but that adds to the portability of the appliance. A directory of local access numbers allows the travellor to keep in touch with family on line. An internal memory and battery backup allows one to write email letters when ever and where ever one wishes, and send them when a phone line is available. Although there is a brightness adjustment and the screen can be positioned for better viewing, I found that it was difficult to visualize it in the low ambiance lighting of a reading lamp. The set up process is basically of the simplist type; plug it into an outlet and into the phone site and start. A free 7 days of use allows the beginner to get used to the device before subscribing to the service, but watch out. The programmed access number is long distance for anyone outside of California. This is easily remedied by following included instructions for programing access for local numbers found in the directory included among the other literature accompanying the device. Although the literature suggests that Yahoo service is included, there is no way of accessing a Yahoo email account if you already have one, and the only services provided the Mailstation by Yahoo are simple headline news, some financial reports, horoscopes, weather reports, and scant TV listings. Mostly one line notes. The device includes a calandar, but the date book does not flag important entries on the message screen as some computer calandars will; one must look them up just as with a wall or desk calendar. This is strictly an email thing. There is no surfing the web capacity, for which the non-computer user might prefer a WebTV which is a little more complete in this respect. The address book has entry sites for name, email, fax, phone, etc. and is able to enter the full email address for an addressee with just the first few letters of the name. Message length is a little short, at least for someone as wordy as I am, but would probably suit the average correspondant. It is also limited with respect to attachments: In short it doesn't do them. Photos are out, as are message attachements. Here again, if this is an important part of your emailing needs, I'd go with a computer or a WebTV. The device can be programed to check for email on a schedule every four, eight, twelve, or twenty four hours according to any selected starting time, but I found that it interupted other telephone devices, even dialing during one of my phone calls with a friend, a rather obnoxious noise. When I have my other device up and running again, I will probably give this to a friend with 5 kids. She and they can make use of the email access, while her husband uses the household's only computer for work projects.

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.

A message to those who are critizizing Amazon.com for "not including" the information about the ISP required for this product. If you read the FAQ, you will find the information you claim Amazon.com has not supplied:

"Who will be my Internet service provider when using the MailStation? Cidco uses a proprietary system requiring you to sign up and pay a monthly fee ($9.95 at press time). Your e-mail domain server will be @mymailstation.com. If you have an e-mail account through another ISP, you can forward your e-mail from your other accounts to your MailStation."

I wonder about those of you who manage to "search the entire site" and still cannot find this information. In any case, the ease of this product outweighs any costliness you incur by having to use Cidco's e-mail service. You might be able to get a cheaper connection, but then you lose the ease-of-use and again must resort to using a computer.

Really practicle and useful product. I actually prefer to send and receive email on the MailStation over my PC. Simple, easy and low cost. Makes a great gift to people that have never started using email.

We recently purchased a ... MailStation for a relative who did not want full Internet access. We went ahead with the purchase despite our own skepticism, with the promise upon purchase that she would be able to access messages via a toll-free number at no additional charge. (There are no local access numbers available in our relative's rural location.) Our relative chose to then pay upfront for the 12-month service plan of [price], for some nominal savings over the regular [price] per month service charge.

On February 2, our relative received an e-mail from Cidco, announcing the company was terminating free use of the toll-free dial-up number for existing customers effective April 30. Cidco explained the reason for the move was "an effort to maintain low service plan prices for all of our customers" and "the cost of supporting this (toll-free) dial-up number is significant."

Calls to surly customer service reps at Cidco confirmed that our relative is now left with the Hobson's choice of placing long distance toll calls to the nearest "local" dial-up access number, or pay [price] per month to continue using the 800 number after April 30. Of course, having paid in advance for 12 months of service is additional salt on the wound.

Don't take my word for it...before you buy a Mailstation, call and ask the customer service department about this for yourself (while you're at it, count the minutes it takes for a response). Color us VERY disatisfied.

MailStation was wonderful for the first 1.5 years of service under CIDCO. Bought it for my computer-illiterate 77 year old mother so she could keep in touch with family members now scattered around the world. She is totally averse to computers (it took a few years to even get comfortable tapping numbers into a microwave oven), but she took to the MailStation right off. I was very impressed.

Then, ~8 months ago, CIDCO was bought by Earthlink. It has been astounding how that company has managed to foul it up.

They have changed phone numbers, network numbers and then sent out INCORRECT instructions to customers to reprogram their machines, as if customers of such an appliance have any idea at all what they are talking about. Earthlink, for some reason, thinks MailStation users are hip 20-something folk.

There have been at least 3 major configuration problems due to Earthlink [changing] around ... the system. Each has taken weeks to resolve. My poor mother has actually had to struggle with tech support people who walked her through the reprogramming INCORRECTLY 3 TIMES (after the usual 45 minute holding period). The 4th time, some guy says "oh no, that's not right -- you need a 4 digit number there, not a 6 digit number" after the previous people had said "No, you need this 6 digit number there". And the 4-digit guy was correct, meaning the first 3 people were not.

There have been billing problems (all fouled up), references to web sites where I could supposedly fix things for her that don't even recognize the "mailstation.com" domain, e-mails sent to her not delivered, e-mails delivered multiple times, and incomprehensible notifications that her "account" is full.

This last one is fascinating. Her unit is text only, thus if someone sends her a message with an attachment, the attachment is retained at the server. She has no way of accessing it.

Since Earthlink took over, these attachments are apparently accumulated until her mailbox is "full", whereupon Earthlink sends her a message telling her to delete them. However, she has no mechanism for deleting them, because the box that sits on her desk hasn't the capability. This shows that Earthlink not only doesn't know who their customers are but isn't really clear on the system itself.

So this wonderful gadget she was so pleased with has now turned into a source of anxiety for her; For an "appliance" like this, with the customers it was targeted to, to change things just for the sake of changing things, is totally unacceptable. Stability and reliability are the only important criteria to consider...

I purchased the Mailstation in Dec, 2000. It was a neat product that perfectly met my wife's needs. She also liked the news headlines, weather forecast and stock quotes. Just after the warranty expired (of course) she connected the Mailstation to the wrong power supply and fried the unit. I went out and purchased another for her. But this one was different.
- no news, weather or stock info available
- Cidco is now owned by Earthlink (groan!)
Initially, I called the number to get set up on this machine, hoping that my wife's old email address could be used on the new machine - several support people were adamant that this would be impossible - I MUST use a new email address. OK, fine.
Once configured by Earthlink, the machine could NEVER get email. Repeated calls to amazingly incompetent support personnel yeilded NO results. At one point, I was finally able to convince someone that the account they gave me wasn't recognized by their servers. Repeated promises that this would be fixed within the hour - no change. THE PRODUCT HAS NEVER WORKED WITH EARTHLINK SETTINGS!!! NO ONE AT EARTHLINK CAN MAKE IT WORK!!!

I finally went out on the Web and found a group of hackers that explained how to program the device to use my ISP, and then it works fine. But periodically, Earthlink sends an "update" to my Mailstation that resets everything to the Earthlink settings (WHICH HAVE NEVER WORKED!!!). The "hack" wipes out memory, so all email addresses, inbox, outbox, etc are all wiped out when this happens.

Mama is NOT happy. "And if Mama ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy!"