Interactive Education

[woody]

Anybody had a bad experience with this crew?

We were interested in their GeneeUs (notice the spelling) voting system.

1. We invited them in to come and demo it. A sales person rang back and arranged a date. The first date available was over a month off. This was in January.

2. Call from sales person same day as Demo was to go ahead. I had broke my back trying to get as many staff to come to the after school demo. She said she could not come because her Laptop HD had stopped working. (The thought - bring another laptop came to mind. Or even install them on one of ours.) Anyway, new appointment made - had to wait three weeks for that. Now in February.

3. The demo was less than inspiring. However, the handsets looked good, software looked good, and the price couldn't be beaten by competitors. Another important factor was that the handsets had numberical buttons on as well as alphabetical. The Promethian ones only seemed to have alphabetical buttons.

4. Day after, we put an order in for the handsets. The next week was february half term. Towards the end of feb half term, I got a call on my mobile from the Sales person. She asked if we had put an order in yet because the hand sets were going fast and she had ours reserved but hadn't received an order. I ring her back on the Monday back in school. She apologized and said they had received the order, but we would have to wait for the second batch to be manufactured. What happened to our reserverd ones?

5. After two more phone calls, 2 months of waiting, and a not-so-very happy Maths teacher, the handsets finally came. Excitedly, we got them out of the box and installed the software. Not much documentation. The handsets just kept saying 'no network'.

6. Rand up the phone number on the website. Asked for technical support. Told me they would ring me back.

7. 10 minutes later I get a call on my mobile from a call centre somewhere not in the UK. Struggled to understand what was being said, but finally managed to follow instructions to no avail. Was told to ring Interactive Education back up because I didn't have the latest version of the remote test software which I needed to register the hand sets to the receiver. (didn't realise I had to do this in the first place due to no documentation.)

8. Rang interactive education up and explained to the rep what had happened. After asking her not to get the Indian guy to ring me back because he had told me to ring her for the latest software, she went away and then came back to get the address to send the software out to us. Seeing as the remote test software was only 4.5mb I asked if she could just email it to me. She didn't know if she could so she was going to ask someone else. And I asked her to post it anyway.

Phew. If you've got this far, thanks for sticking with me. Question: At what point would you have given up and told them where to stick their voting handset?

I would be interested to here if anyone has had a similar experience.

[plexer]

After they cancelled the first demo?

Ben

[ChrisC]

Yea, or after the initial trouble with the reserved handsets.

Chris

[Snuffkins]

As you say the voting system is one of the cheapest i've seen so it's almost worth putting up with hassle just too save some pennies for the school(or maybe not)...

On the bottom of the reciever there should be a little sticker that has a number written on it? On the instructions that should have been on the CD it shows you how to change the channel number on the handsets? If you change the channel number to the number on the bottom of the reciever your handsets should start working through the reciever. They weren't configured for us when we got some, but we just guessed that the number on the bottom was the channel and we were lucky that it was, lol.

There will be better instructions soon and i know that doesn't help you now. But we're going to be a case study and provide them with what we think other schools need in order to get them working trouble free. So actually knowing were to get the channel number is a start i guess, lol.

Although something that works out the box would be nice lol.

[woody]

Snuffkins, please can you send me the instruction manual so that I can change the channel numbers then please? mwood@nctc.cumbria.sch.uk

The number on the bottom of the receiver is '4'. Does this sound right to you?

[Snuffkins]

I've sent the instructions across it's the last page you need.
Yup if there's a 4 on the bottom that should be right. See
the instructions say you can configure the Reciever channel
but i can't see how. And when i told them the channel number
is pre-configured and it's written on a sticker they said they
thought they would all be set to zero?

I'm sure with a bit of help they'll get there in the end...

[woody]

I finally got them to send me an updatd version of the Remote Setup software which allows you to change the channel number of the receiver and also change the timeout on the remote handsets.

Thanks for the instructions!

[Snuffkins]

Who did you get to send you an updated version? Cause i wan't it, lol.

[woody]

Snuffkins: Sent to your email address!

[danIT]

we bought quizdom off them, impressed with the service, we had to rearrange appointment after appointment but that was our fault. Luckily the salesman we had on our patch had to pass our school on the way home so it was ideal for us and for him, mabye we were just lucky, no probs so far! touch wood

[maark]

Had bad experience with this lot - got them to do flip desk room for us with 30 machines. Salesman promised us lots of stuff then left the company week before desks due to arrive. Other contacts at company not much use. Ended up putting monitors in desks ourselves and havng to use power strips on the floor instead of integrated which is a mess. Would not go anywhere near them again.
Moral - get everything in writing that a saleman promises you for installation,
Mark

[NavIE]

Hello All,

Can i introduce myself, my name is Nav im the technical IT manager at Interactive Education.

Firstly i would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to the customers regarding the technical issues they have been facing. I am very concerned about the level of technical service received in the past, i would like to assure you all that the technical department is currently under new management and all queries will be answered and resolved.

The voting system has recently had the software upgraded and we have carried out further tests and can confidently say that the system is stable. We have alot more support for the software, you can find a virtual tour on our website (www.interactive-education.co.uk) which explains how to create activites, create answer and question slides etc It also includes a very useful break down of setting up the clasess. I also have a walk thru video tutorial of setting up and using geneeus. Please contact me if you require this (username and password required to login to interactive website).

We have a lot of happy customers in the UK and abroad and would appreciate it if you contact me if you have any problems with any of the IE products or you can speak to the customer services manager Tracey Hickinbottom on the same number.

Nav Singh
0870 043 4024
Nav.Singh@interactive-education.co.uk

[NavIE]

Response to the post by maark

Had bad experience with this lot - got them to do flip desk room for us with 30 machines. Salesman promised us lots of stuff then left the company week before desks due to arrive. Other contacts at company not much use. Ended up putting monitors in desks ourselves and havng to use power strips on the floor instead of integrated which is a mess. Would not go anywhere near them again.
Moral - get everything in writing that a saleman promises you for installation,
Mark

Mark,

Can you please call me regards to this issue you have been having. Are you sure you have the right company as we havent had any one from our sales team leaving. Can you tell me which other contacts you have had bad experiences with? If you can call me we can find out what issues you are facing and can promise to get a resolution for you.

TEL : 0870 043 4024 - Interactive Education - Technical Support