Beware of globalpositiongsystems.co.uk

Inspiron8500 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 28, 2004 Posts: 15

I ordered the Haicom 204e installed and worked fine until the magnet in the receiver wiped my hard drive!!!!!! globalpositioningsystems.co.uk deny any link nor do they give any warning there is a magnet in the unit.

They were very rude to me when I told them what happened!

Do not buy these units and do not expect thier customer service to help if you have problems.

dmac

lbendlin · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 5:19 pm Post subject:

Ahm... most all of the serial GPS receivers come with a magnet at their base (so they could be positioned on the roof if need be)... Not necessarily the reseller''s fault. Of course that doesn''t give them the right to be rude about it.
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Lutz

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Darren · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 6:07 pm Post subject:

Where did you mount the receiver that it affected the Hard Drive?

The nature of HDD's is such that they are very suceptible to strong magnets causing damage, the tolerances on the read/write heads and platter are very small indeed, any deviation caused by a strong magnetic field would destroy the platter in seconds.
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Darren Griffin

lbendlin · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 6:41 pm Post subject:

remember, we once had a guy who used a magnetic mount. All was well until he used that in combination with his CF Microdrive... For a few seconds...
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Darren · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 6:58 pm Post subject:

Ah yes, but that was a magnetic PDA mount, that's just plain silly ;)
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Darren Griffin

Inspiron8500 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 28, 2004 Posts: 15

The guy at globalpositioning systems basically laughed at me and said that magnets cannot hard drives. We all know this is not the case. There is no warning on the box or in the manuals that these units contain magnets. As they are designed to be used with PDA's and Laptops I find it unbeleivable that there is no warning.

I do not doubt there is a perfectly practical use for the magnet but it is irresponsible for the manufacturer and retailer not to provide warnings baring in mind the devices these machines are to be used with.

I did not mount the mouse on the hard drive it was just resting on the palmrest while I was setting it up. It just so happened the HD is directly under the palmrest. The result a loss of 40gb worth of data.

It would be nice for GPS to understand this potentially disasterous oversight and prevent furture data loss, but instead a cocky ';technical support' guy who is 'unaware' that magnets damage storage devices.

Basically he called me a liar and suggested I do not know how to use a computer. Happy customers keep on ordering but new customers be aware when making your choice if things do go wrong, which lets face it some of the time they do, you won't get anyhelp from these guys at globalpositioningsystems.

Dave · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:26 am Post subject: Re: Globalpositionsystems.co.uk

icsys · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:46 am Post subject:

Why not post in the globalpositioningsystems forum... see what responses you get (if any).
If nothing else you will warn others of a potential problem.

Inspiron8500 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 28, 2004 Posts: 15

Hi guys thanks for your posts. I did try to warn others by posting in other parts of the forum but they were removed by PocketGPS staff because 'i made my point' here :-(

gracar · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:19 am Post subject:

The manufacturer issues no warning in the manual or in the product literature - hard disc gets wiped and phone retailer - does anyone really expect ANY retailer to accept responsibility? I don't think so.

I didn't get a warning with my watch, my Toshiba PCMIA hard disc and probably a lot of other things - if it sticks to metal and not my hand it is magnetic and gets treated as such.

I fully accept that all support staff in all retailers should, at all times, match the politeness of the customer.
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Graham

simon pitts · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:29 am Post subject:

Whilst it is not our policy to discuss individual cases on open forums I feel in this case it might be useful to offer some additional information.

We are of course concerned when any of our customers experience a problem with a product that we have sold and endeavour to resolve any issues arising. In this case our technical support operator terminated the call with this customer after receiving verbal abuse including offensive language of a personal nature. We strive to help all of our customers and offer the best service we can. We will not however expose our staff to the type of behaviour exhibited by this customer.

We have passed details of this particular case to the manufacturer. The initial response is that it is unlikely that the flux density of the magnet is sufficient to effect the operation of a fully functioning hard disk drive. We are awaiting a full analysis from them.

Simon Pitts
Director
www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk
simon.pitts@spotlightguides.co.uk

Inspiron8500 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 28, 2004 Posts: 15

Gracar thank you for your comment. I think you fail to realise that I was not aware this product had a magnet full stop! As you may witness the globalpositioningsystems website does not mention this device is magnetic nor does the box or the manual. It did not stick to my laptop so I was unaware of the damage it was causing.

Further to that the support person called me 'stupid' for suggesting magnets cause damage to hard drives, which I think we have proved in our discussions that this is not the case. Which brings me on to the official comment from GPS. I find it extremely insulting and unproffessional of yourselves to make slanderous comments in this public arena. I terminated the call myself and was polite the whole way through. For you to make up stories about me being abusive is wrong. Or has the technician made this up as an excuse for his rudeness? May I ask what I was meant to have said???

If you are not to warn customers of the dangers of magnets you could at least make clear the device is magnetic.

Had I known the device was magnetic I wuold not have placed it anywhere near my computer when setting the product up.

Can you please confirm in writing the report from Haicom. I assume you have my address on your database. May I also suggest that we both contact the drive manufacturer to establish the damage the Haicom mouse could cause if exposed to the hard drive.

lbendlin · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2004 3:17 pm Post subject:

As many users have reported very few of the packages for serial GPS receivers (and for external antennas, for that matter) state that they contain fairly strong magnets.

While the reason for that magnet is clear (to stick it to the metallic roof) it would certainly help if that fact would be made more prominent on the packaging and in the manuals for these devices.

We will take this into account for future reviews that we do on serial receivers and other gear that may have a magnet inside.
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Lutz

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Inspiron8500 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 28, 2004 Posts: 15

Thank for your reply. As well as informing people in reviews retailers need to stop providing false information. Globalpositioningsystems.co.uk still maintain that the magnets are safe and do not cause damage to hard drives. The tech support guy didn't even know himself that magnets cause damage.

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