Reeds Condurro Nautical Phone

[Channel Ribs]

The afternoon just gets worse, that forumite is now threatening to tell you all what a rotter I am. Even though a refund has been offered, all the guy has to do is call the local Post Office and reject delivery.

What a sorry exercise this was!

[C2 RIBS]

Martin, I have no problems with your service or the phone. As you know I am a happy customer of this and a few other items and your SIB knowledge was also a great help. If the user sends the phone back to you I guess someone would buy it through Ribnet. Been out on the water today and had the phone hooked on the consul which I would not have dreamt of doing with the Nokia which also meant I heard my clients phoning telling me they were late. Cheers.

[JSP]

I'm sorry too Martin. I had to pull out earlier on in the thread. Let me know how many phones you have left as I maybe able to shift a few

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by C2 RIBS

Been out on the water today and had the phone hooked on the consul which I would not have dreamt of doing with the Nokia which also meant I heard my clients phoning telling me they were late. Cheers.

Nice to hear

How have you found the address book? A few people wanted to be able to store all the useful numbers for coasties etc, does it make that sort of thing easy enough?

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by Blackroady

I was one who was interested , but as no price was actually posted it was always going to be price dependant. In real terms I was thinking £150 at the boat show - a load 15+ should take that down a bit , but it never seemed to happen. Price seemed to be the same as if I purchased direct & the posts seemed to indicate that the distributor was looking for as much profit as possible.

That put me off.

That did it for me too as, when I stipulated my interest, I quoted "if the price is right" or something to that effect, but nothing was quoted, or at least no real improvement on the basic price, or chargers were missing or not included , and it just didnt seem that attractive

[Channel Ribs]

This was the point at which JK came back to us all with a price:

Originally Posted by John Kennett

OK, after much discussion the best we can get is £160 with free delivery. That is the same price as Durrocom are selling them for direct, but their price doesn't include delivery. You will also get 12 months subscription to Reeds Online Almanac (which is worth £35 on its own).

One last thing, as this will be done through RIBnet there will be no VAT to reclaim.

We all know how the Reeds thing worked out!

After John mentioned VAT I got in touch and offered to have a go at the deal, so that people could get a duty paid receipt.

After talking to both Reeds (close shave there) and Durrocomm I posted a price of 149.00 for the phone with wind up charger but no almanac subscription.

No sooner had I mentioned the price of 149 Durrocomm decided that the GBP vs USD exchange rate meant the trade price had to go up, but we took one for the team and stuck with it.

There have clearly been some ups and downs associated with this new product, one that I personally was very excited to see. Reeds have not come out well and Durrocomm need to sort out their "human error" factor. BUT the phone is the star.

[JSP]

Try and keep on with it Martin. It's on my 'things to moan about until she lets me buy' list

[rickuk3]

Originally Posted by malthouse

Things are being made worse because a couple of phones have been held back by the Post Office as they are not sure of the duty paid status, so they want the recipients to pay the VAT again and use the receipt to claim it back once they have the phone.

Sadly for us one of the forumites is demanding a refund because we have not tried hard enough.

My phone was one of those that got held by the post office, I spoke to Malthouse who contacted customs & excise with the details of the package and explained that it was duty and vat paid they made a note on there system, I then rang them again and a very helpful young lady at customs and excise had all the details on her screen and gave me 2 alternatives to get the phone:- 1. She could get the phone returned to her and cancel the charge and then have it sent to me but that would take days to do.
2. I could pay the duty at my local post office and walk out with the phone then just send her (she gave me her name) the receipt and she would get a refund cheque for the full amount sent straight back to me.
I went for option 2 and spent last night setting it up and transferring my phone book, and today using it What a great phone
Malthouse could not have been more helpful and did everything he possibly could to get the phone released and minimise the inconvenience. The problems were in no way his fault he had attached all the correct paperwork and labels it was an error by the post office/customs, they just assumed the phones were not vat and duty paid as they came from the channel islands.
Malthouse gave great service and support.
Richard (a very satisfied customer)

[C2 RIBS]

Originally Posted by malthouse

Nice to hear

How have you found the address book? A few people wanted to be able to store all the useful numbers for coasties etc, does it make that sort of thing easy enough?

Martin the address book has four groups, Family, Friends Office and Others if you wish to store different groups. Looks like you can rename each one also and select a tone for each

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by rickuk3

I went for option 2 and spent last night setting it up and transferring my phone book, and today using it What a great phone

Cheers Richard, good to know you finally have it.

[bedajim]

Originally Posted by jwalker

You should name the ones who said they would but didn't. They deserve a slap. At least, give em a red face.

I was another who expressed an interest but again to make a commitment you need to know a price etc and there seemed to be some confusion over the reeds bundle and if it even came with a charger etc

So why should i have a red face and if you'd like to come and give me a slap pm me for my address I'll make sure i'm home

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by malthouse

The wind up charger is included.

I just like the idea behind the solar storage device.

I thought that was fairly clear?

Originally Posted by malthouse

The price is discounted by our winter sale to 136.80, you can get it down even lower by using a RIB netters discount code, with all of this in place and the VAT it comes to around 149 plus some postage as required.

And again, pretty clear?

We also finalised the Reeds option as a "bolt on" since most people were mainly interested in the phone alone, a good job too since no one would have got a Reeds branded version!

PS No one deserves a red anything, imho.

[John Kennett]

It certainly hasn't worked out as well as I hoped. I'm just pleased that we didn't end up in a position where Reeds had £3k of our cash when they went under!

Durrocom have certainly got scope for salvaging something from the situation though if they want to.

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by John Kennett

It certainly hasn't worked out as well as I hoped. I'm just pleased that we didn't end up in a position where Reeds had £3k of our cash when they went under!

Crikey, I will drink to that!

[The Grocer]

Is this of any use to anyone:
------QUOTE------
PRESS RELEASE

Dear Customers

REEDS NAUTICAL ONLINE ALMANACS LIMITED

Please be advised that the above company has ceased trading and has withdrawn the subscription service to the online version of Reeds Nautical Almanac (the Almanac) previously made available at www.reedsonline.com.

The Almanac content and the REEDS trade mark are owned by A&C Black and were licensed to REEDS NAUTICAL ONLINE ALMANACS in connection with the provision by the latter of the online Almanac service. We would like to make it clear that REEDS NAUTICAL ONLINE ALMANACS is an independent company and not part of A&C Black or Adlard Coles. It did not operate as part of A&C Black’s business or under our control.

While not responsible for these events nor for subscription or other sales by REEDS NAUTICAL ONLINE ALMANACS, as publishers of the print Almanac A&C Black would like to offer customers who have purchased access to the online Almanac a free copy of the 2010 Almanac upon its publication. This offer is conditional upon presentation of proof of purchase of access to the online Almanac.

Please contact customerservices@acblack.com for further information.
------END QUOTE------

I only post this as an observer, and do not not pass any opinion.

<bilgewater>
Aren't we living in interesting times?
</bilgewater>

[Cookee]

Got mine - it does what it says on the tin or so it seems without dunking it! No VAT problems either!

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by Cookee

No VAT problems either!

Happy Days

[Richardburnett]

Dear All - Let me introduce myself - I am the Business Development Director for Durrocomm Ltd - The manufacturer of the "Reeds Condurro" mobile phone. First of all let me apologies for the problems in shipping your order and assure anyone who has bought a unit that Durrocomm and Reeds are not connected (except for the agreement for Reeds Online to sell the unit - so the fact that Reeds Online has gone "belly up" does have no effect on your warranty. The unit is sold to a wide range of outward bound sports shops and the association with Reeds was an attempt to co- brand for the marine market - sadly we were not aware of the impending problems with Reeds Online. The initial order for the units was set up via the Reeds link, as always having a third party in the loop resulted in some miss understandings and delays, also probably not helped by what was happening at Reeds. We understand that Reeds were also "bundling" their own USB product with the unit - again something that we had no control over, but also appears to have caused an issue.
I am a keen watersports enthusiast (I have a small RIB and a Princess 45) and saw the need for a water resistent unit in that market - hence the launch at the London Boat show. We will have lots of new units coming to the market and I absolutely promise to share the information with Rib net first and continue to support the guys at Rib net and Alderney Marine directly and efficiently.
Any problems at all - please just drop me an email at richardb@durrocomm.com

On a personal not - if anyone need s a crew on any of the racing - I would be interested (I can bring the phones)!!

I hope this clarifies the Reeds / Durrocomm relationship!
Richard

[PeterM]

Good response Richard - While I have not purchased now I am 90% sure to in the next 2 months . Good to see a company willing to make clear contacts & the full situation obvious. Good job & good phone from what I have heard .

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by Blackroady

Good job & good phone from what I have heard .

I imagine Biff will be along soon enough to tell us what he thinks of his new phone.