Phil’s Diary - [Blog @ http://www.philsdiary.net/]
Before I get into full swing, let me explain what Dension’s IceLink plus is. If you’ve got an Ipod it’s a nifty way of plugging it into your car stereo. It’s more than just a sounds connection though, because this cable relays messages the other way, so that your stereo can control the ipod, skipping tracks, playlists, pausing or stopping the ipod, as well as charging it if required.
Up until this morning Dension had a support forum on their website, over at http://support.dension.com/forum/. As of this morning that support forum is closed.
The reasons they give for the closure is that the support questions would be better handled by their formal support mechanisms.
The forums showed a number of users having problems with this newly released “plus” version of IceLink, with problems updating it’s firmware, accesing it’s menus, lockups and backlight issues.
I’ve personally suffered from 2 of these problems. I’ve had two lockups in a the couple of days after I installed it, but not since. My Ipod’s backlight cannot be activated by the key shortcut once it’s been docked with the IceLink, it needs to be rebooted first. I’ve not tried updating the firmware, for all the problems I’ve read, but at least I can access the setup menus.
It’s my opinion that the product was released prematurely. It’s clear that the firmware is less than bug free, not stable, and the features listed aren’t fully written for all stereos.
In my cynical view I think this closure is very little to do with support. I think Dension are embarrased, and would rather problems came to light out of the public view. At present there is no replacement forum, that is coming next month with a third party company opening a new forum. I think the delay between dension closing their forum and the opening of this new one really highlights how embarrased they are.
It’s a bit late now though, the product has been released, it’s been sold, short of a highly costly and embarrasing recall there’s not much they can do short of trying to fix the problems while keeping the problems out of the public view.
It’s a good product and works nicely when it works, but for the price (over £100), I’d have expected something a little less error prone.
Posted by Phil on January 27, 2005 07:21 AM | Categories: Technology
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I'm having similar problems.. I can't UPDATE MY DAMN FIRMWARE from 2.01 to 2.05.... sometimes I can control my IPOD when it's docked... most of the time I cannot.. about 95% I can't. It's all weird, sometimes it disconnects and sometimes I have to turn the key on and off before it is recognized.. I am happy when it works but this firmware is a bunch of crap.. RELEASE 1 FILE and MAKE IT PLAY... also I shouldn't need to plug the IPOD into the care to update the firmware.. what kind of crap is that... Oh well I'm going to bitch some more to DENSION as I have more gripes to left fly.
Posted by: Ray at February 16, 2005 4:29 AM
These problems extend beyond the IceLink. I recently bought a DH100ix with DMP3C, which took me 7 days to get working correctly. I had raised a trouble ticket on Dension's support site and after receiving no help from there I went to the forum.
I also posted an honest review of my product on their forum, in the Reviews section.
They say that their forum was attracting too many support related issues and that they were closing the forum so issues would be sent directly to their support team instead. My experience of Dension Support is that they don't respond to their support calls, therefore forcing their customers to frustratedly seek help on the forums, where it has to be said, many useful fixes could be found.
If they replied to their support calls, even with daily progress updates, I'm sure the general feeling on the forums would have been more positive.
PS. There is already an unofficial Dension forum at http://dension.ob-n.co.uk/forums/ where you may find help.
Cheers.
Posted by: J Phillips at January 31, 2005 3:00 PM
So open your own unofficial forum.....
Posted by: Phil at January 28, 2005 11:31 AM