Customer Reviews

Peek Pronto Mobile Messaging Device with Lifetime Service Included (Grey)

5 star:		(92)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Used to really like the Peek. It was simple, satisfied my needs, and was very affordable. Unfortunately, they went through a transition that really soured me to their product. One day my Peek simply stopped working and then they blamed it on another company. They made us purchase a replacement (although at a low cost) and then it took them 3 weeks (plus) to get us back up and running. For some, this is no big deal and you move on, but for me, it was simply unacceptable. What made the situation really bad, wasn't the outage and the amateur response, it was the total lack of communication that followed the outage.

The company simply didn't tell their users what was going on.

This was a powerful signal that they don't understand their core customer. We simply needed to know how long we were going to out of service and they simply refused to tell us.

To that end , they shut down their phone lines and didn't accept people calling in. You could only email (from another computer or device), and then that would take days for them to respond.

Overall, as long as the system is working, it is OK. But as soon as there is trouble - forget it. The company just inst robust enough, or professional enough to make it through a rough patch.

You have been warned, from a once avid Peekster.

I thought that this would be perfect product for me. I don't need a phone, I just need access to my email. I bought the lifetime contract, used the device for a few days, and I'm returning it today.

I like the idea, and I wish a better product were out there to fill this niche. Here are my complaints:

- The keys are too hard to press, and the space bar is too small
- "Push" email is not instant as advertised -- it still takes about 3-6 minutes for me to get email from my servers.
- The screen isn't easy to read. The color schemes are ugly and the resolution is bad.
- The scroll wheel needs to be improved.
- I wish this had real IMAP support -- it doesn't sync with the IMAP servers.

Thanks anyway, Peek. I do think this device fills a niche nicely, but I wish it were better designed. Good luck!

I wrote my first review of this product when I had only had it a short time. I should have waited. I purchased the product in March; in September it began to lose its ability to hold a battery charge. Customer service was notified; they recommended tests which were duly performed. Although the tests seemingly proved the battery was not at fault, they sent another battery. I installed it. There was no improvement in performance. Again I notified customer service; they did not respond. From December until March I charged that battery daily and did the best I could while e-mailing customer service. Nothing. I e-mailed Armol Sarva, the head honcho (I guess) who was always e-mailing soliciting happy funtime Peek stories. No response. My warranty ran out. Finally someone using Sarva's email wrote back. "Sorry. Can't help you." I wrote again. For several weeks e-mails were exchanged with me saying "but if the battery is okay, then isn't something wrong with the unit?" Sarva's response was to then question the connectivity of the area. I live in a large city -- Jacksonville, FL -- and never experienced connectivity issues before. He then said he could send me a refurbished peek for xxx dollars. I said no, I want my own Peek fixed. He said, "Can't help you. Wouldn't be worth it to test one unit when we are developing new products." My question "But if the current product doesn't work, how is the next one going to work?" went unanswered. It was always "can't help you." I suggested that if the problem was really due to connectivity, then other Peek users in Jacksonville should have reported it, so it couldn't be connectivity. He just shrugged that off and referred me to the forum. The forum was not very helpful but there was some advice on changing preferences to obtain longer battery life. I tried that and the whole unit then went nuts, refusing to turn off the "new e-mail indicator" even after new e-mail had been opened, read and deleted. So basically I turned it off and stuck it in a drawer where I don't have to look at it anymore. My original review for this product was a 5. It is now a 1. Once you pay for that "lifetime" they really don't care any more. I'm sorry I ever said anything good about this product. And as to the product's attributes, what good does it do to have an affordable, easily transportable unit if it doesn't work and the company blows you off when you ask what the heck is wrong with it?

OK Unlimited Peek service for a one time fee of $300?!?!?! You're going to save a ton of money vs a phone company with this, and depending on your needs, that may be just perfectly fine. I'm a teenager, so I primarily use this for texting. You simply cannot beat this deal: unlimited texting for $50 quarterly, with a good device that actually has a QWERTY. AT&T's GoPhone doesn't even come close. I love this device, it's so cheap! I really don't know how the company can make money but they've been around for a couple years now so I guess they're doing OK. The texting and email rocks, with minimal delay. You get a real static number now, so if someone texts you, it's not some weird routing number, it's normal and they can actually save it to initiate the conversation. I have only one bone to pick with the device: the rubbery material that it's made of. I use this thing VERY heavily, I usually get only a day plus some change out of it whereas others may get a day and a half to 2 days. The keyboard doesn't wear very well. Some of the corners of the keys chipped off but, especially the spacebar, but it doesn't effect typing, and I type with my nails on the thing, so when the nails slip, if they catch the corner, it's bound to happen. Hopefully the next version will have a plastic keyboard.

Pros:
-Nice device
-Minimal delay to receive messages
-No more routing numbers for texting!
-Price is unbeatable
-Keyboard feels nice with good travel and feedback
-Extremely easy to navigate, if you're lost, just hit the back button a few times and you're back in the Inbox view no matter what.

Cons:

-Heavy usage will show some wear on the device
-Scroll Wheel on the side of the device. This isn't really a big deal to me, but I would prefer something more in the blackberry ball department.
-Sometimes chokes up when receiving 2 or more messages at the same time (as in it'll be asleep and when you go to wake it up, it might stay black, until vibrating and receiving the messages.) it's really no big deal, but for really impatient people it may be.

Bought a Peek Pronto with Lifetime Service 3-17-2011 from Amazon, got it and find out it won't connect to the network - because all "old" Peek devices including the Peek Pronto I received are disconnected from their service and a new model needs to be bought from Peek - I'm in the process of trying to get a new model ... but you have to check the monthly service fee - now $20/mo. Put in a code for a replacement for the device $7.95 including shipping... Will update this to let buyers know about the "lifetime service" from this Amazon product. No reviews since 17 months ... why would Peek and Amazon sell a nonfunctional product without informing the consumer?

Please note dates on all five star reviews... they are all before Oct 2010. This company does not honor their lifetime service and there is no way to contact them other than email or their support page which they do not even answer. I paid for the new peek 9 and when I received it it was working because it was on the per month service. The day before it was switched back to the lifetime service was the last time it worked. I now have lifetime service with a device with no signal and I can not get the peek customer service to activate it. So I've been ripped off and if someone does start a class action suit I would like to be included.

My Peek and the fine folks at Peek-they call themselves Peeksters-have introduced a whole new side of the Internet to me which is revealing and disturbing all at the same time. I, as well as everyone else on the planet, have long suspected what highway robbers the major wireless carriers are and this was only truly understood by me when I first started to work with my Peek.

A text message is just an e-mail that is limited to 140 characters. You can send a text to your daughter or your husband or anyone by simply typing in their 10 digit telephone number in the to: box of your gmail or yahoo or hotmail account and pressing send. Chances are that you are now sitting at your computer: try it right now to your own cell phone. If your carrier is in compliance (and most but not all are) you will at this moment be freed from the hokey, shadowy, slimy world that are the wireless companies.

This is the premise that the folks at Peek have based their business model upon. They are the counter culture mobile e-mail and text message based company. But there is a price that you as a consumer must pay. If you own an iPhone or a Blackberry then you must play the Internet game under their rules and pay them money to do so at a hefty price.

With Peek the price to play the Internet is minimal but the learning curve to use text based e-mail can be a bit steep. Need to know movie showtimes, or traffic issues, or directions, or the weather picture off the satellite, or sports scores, or breaking news? You can do all of that in e-mail. You can even, in a very limited but useful way, surf the internet with e-mail, but you need to learn the language. You need to know what words to send to what addresses and once you accomplish that the Peek can do the absolute critical things that you really need in a mobile device.

The folks at Peek pride themselves in the fact that their gadget is bone simple, and it is. Your grandma can use a Peek in about two minutes. But you, the clever, savvy consumer, can take that simple gadget and turn it into a highly sophisticated information and communication device. All you need to do is learn the language of e-mail.

Buy this lifetime deal. It will start to pay you back in less than a year. You will be freed. You will never go back.

I can't believe Amazon.com is selling this device and service. I spent $300 for this thing and it doesn't work anymore. The company crashed yet the company's website is STILL SELLING THEM!! The BBB gave them an, 'F' grade. I've sent two emails to Getpeek.com about my prob it's been 4 months no response no replacement Peek

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT! LET'S DO IT FOLKS!

This product will not work. Only Peek9's will work - the newer version of the Peek. I would, however, strongly recommend AGAINST purchasing any Peek. The customer service is awful and impossible to get through to. The company discontinued service for existing Peek user leaving them with worthless devices and only an offer to purchase a new one (granted at a very reduced price). No refund of activation fee, no warning that service would just die, nothing. There are reports of huge problems activating the new Peeks. The company seems to be run on a shoestring and I doubt they will be around for very long.

Updated 12/13/10 - Peek Inc is basically a fraud. You buy the junky messenger and the falasy of lifetime service, which really just doesn't work anyway. Unfortunatley by the time I figured it all out, it was too late to undo the deal. I complained to Peek many times and eventually they just shut off my service.

$350 down the drain.

Is pretty much impossible to get them to show up for small claims court because they're a foreign corporation.

Also you need to read the terms of service that are hidden on the Peek website. They pretty much say " we'll shut you off if we fell like it, you can't sue us, you can't participate in class action and you can go screw yourself if you don't like the crappy service after you buy it - hahahahaa sucker!" It's illegal, but who wants to wate 30 hours of time going after them for $300, in a case that they won't even show up for?

Take my advice and pass this one by!

****if you have one of these, you need to file a complaint with the NY State's Attorney General*****

Best of luck to you all!