iDesk

[bilbo]

Our establishment has recently installed several iDesk units, and this has been a complete disaster. I was wondering if anyone else out there has come across this company and had a similar experience.

[gwendes]

I've already discussed the issues I've had with bilbo but will list them here - it may ring some bells

 

* Power supplies are hardwired to power button so cannot replace the PSU

* DVD/HDD are BOLTED to the metal cassette - nightmare to replace these components

* Mini-switches fitted inside our desks are cheap and seem to all fail at the same time... restarting them is a fiddly, finger damaging experience!

* The VGA cables supplied were not insulated and the video was quite distorted right from the beginning. This has been resolved with new cables but some of the old cable remains!

* The PS2 extension cables are frequently seperated from the kb/mouse

* The SINGLE USB port is in a very tight spot and some USB devices don't fit.

* We've had 19 (of 40) DVD drives stop working due to a band that opens and closes the drive coming off. These have been replaced with the 'only' drive they can supply - with the same potential problem.

 

 

...wouldn't recommend to anyone!

[sahmeepee]

We had a large number of iDesks installed around the time they first came out (getting on for 5 years ago now). We haven't had much in the way of problems with them although the remaining ones are getting pretty tired now.

 

The main reason we haven't stuck with them when we replaced the suites is the lock-in to their equipment. The monitors on ours aren't on VESA mounts, so you have to buy their arm and their monitor (~£* for a normal 17" screen is the current pricing). Also the PSUs are strangely shaped small things which we haven't been able to source, so we are using cannibalised parts from the PCs we've replaced.

 

Gwendes: they are now making monitor arms with USB sockets in them to resolve one of your problems, but I think you'll be looking at the best part of £* for a full size IT suite.

 

Ours don't have mini switches in them and I'm glad - I'd much rather they all had proper network connections.

 

*price estimates removed at request of idesk

[OpsMan]

I have been Operations Manager of i-desk solutions for just over a year. In the year I have been with the company we have gone through many changes, some have been very proactive with regard to product development and a few have not been as productive as we would have wished them to be.

 

I take every customer we have have their comments very seriously, I want very much for our products and services to improve while it's within my control or ability to do so. I can only act upon customer issues if the customer comes to me, rather than posting comments on a website under a nickname. I think this site is an excellent idea, a great way to share ideas, experience and future aspirations and will ensure I take time to read as much as I can to improve the way we do things now and in the future.

 

I am honest enough to agree fully that we have made some mistakes this year but the ones I am aware of we are correcting at our cost (as it should be) but there is also some instances of comments being posted that are not entirely true, so a little unfair in my view.

 

We have hundreds of customers around the UK who are more than happy with the products and services of i-desk solutions, if they weren't we would not have been in business for so long.

 

I am offering a free site visit to any of our customers, new or old, on the south coast, in the north west or even the far east who feels there is an issue to be resolved of a problem to fix. I am also happy to send one of our engineers to any location just to carry out an equipment service free of charge but I need you to let me know where you are and what you require me to do.

 

I hope I have said enough to ensure both sides of a story are told but as I have said, if you let me know what the problem is, I will do what I can to address it, without delay.

 

One question I will ask is, how many other companies have taken the time to register for this forum, admit mistakes have been made and offered to address them free of charge where required?

 

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

[email protected]

[webman]

We don't have any i-desks, but would like to say I think this is very positive action from a manager at the company.

[tech_guy]

We don't have any i-desks, but would like to say I think this is very positive action from a manager at the company.

 

Yes, I quite agree - I just wish some of the other IT suppliers in the UK would take note.

[OpsMan]

Thanks for your comments.

 

To be very honest we have i-desk in almost 1000 locations around the UK with many of the original i-desk of years gone by now being upgraded.

 

I was at The Meadows first school yesterday in Bromsgrove, they've had their i-desk for 5 years, they are used daily and have no problems. I delivered their upgrades yesterday, they could not have been happier with the product or services.

 

It is unfortunate that we have problems from time to time but who doesn't but what I can do is assure anyone that if they contact me, I will resolve the issue.

 

Thanks again.

[gwendes]

@Opsman - PM sent. Don't think for a second that posting on a forum was the first time you had a chance to find out about the problems we've had.

[hagridsbeard]

I can only act upon customer issues if the customer comes to me, rather than posting comments on a website under a nickname.

 

This is an interesting statement to make, especially as we provided constant feedback on our issues, at the request of your sales rep, yet three months on are still left with a poor product.

 

What other company would install equipment badly and malfunctioning, leave that day with the suggestion "email in your issues and we'll get them sorted" then spend the next three months missing apointments and promising much yet delivering little.

 

A major dissapointment.

[russdev]

Hi

 

I think it is time to post a request from Steve of IDesk. At moment he is hitting his head against brick wall as there are 3 people on this forum (no idea who they are at moment so just chose this thread at random)who, despite his best efforts, have said they have issues. He has said that if they get in touch he will sort the issues out but then people refuse to get in touch.

 

I will share a few things with you. Firstly, this week i-Desk let some of sales staff go. Why? Because they were not passing user complaints up to him. So he is now trying to find what damage has been done by this lack of customer focused skills (damn, that's a good phrase).

 

So then, if you are one of the 3 with issues, then please contact him. Let's get this sorted. As it makes you look just as bad.

 

Also remember, and this is where I feel for him, it has very real consequences when got 3 people who will not come forward and say these are are issues and this is what we want doing. Because of this thread alone he has lost £20,000 pound on BETT sponsorship!

 

So let me be clear lets act like pro's, and if you have got an issue, the company is trying to do something to help you.

 

This is appeal as Steve wants to get it these issue sorted? Once I know names, I will send a pm direct to said members too see if we can get this all sorted.

 

Thank you! This has been peace negotiation message from Russell Dyas move over UN, there's new boss is in town

 

Russell

[trekmad]

I would just like to say that we have been buying i-desks for a little over 4 years now and have 82 desks on site. We have recently seen an upgrade of our original room with new cassettes and monitors and are soon preparing the upgrade of another. Over the years I have seen numerous changes and some minor problems which have been addressed and fixed to great satisfaction.

 

A timetable mess up this academic year led to us needing a 3rd ICT room at very short notice and i-desk pulled out all the stops to get us 26 desks supplied and installed within 2 weeks of placing the order.

 

Yes sometimes there are some minor issues with the product but this occurs with anything you buy these days. The fact that i-desk pull out all the stops to make sure their customers are happy with their products and fix any problems is commendable in this day and age.

 

I am also sure you can all understand that the experience a person has with a company is controlled by the quality of their sales reps. When you get a bad sales rep chaos soon follows and the fact that i-desk have let 3 of their reps go is a sure sign they mean business. Our sales rep, Eric Catton, has been superb throughout and my experience with Steve Morgan and all the installers we have had on site over the years has been fantastic.

 

Please get in contact with i-desk if you have any problems.

 

Stuart Winfield

St Edmund's College

[hagridsbeard]

To be honest, I have wondered if I've been blaming the wrong person.

 

Trying to be tactical here, but the salesperson I have been dealing with has stood many times in my ICT suite slagging off the installers and the poor workmanship, then a few hours later, has sent me a rude email proclaiming how awkward we are being, with Steve CC'd.

 

Made me wonder how much of our concerns were being fed back up.

 

Unfortunetly, regardless as to who is to blame, as a customer, we only see the product and the person who supplied, not the office politics inbetween.

[russdev]

@Hagridsbeard

 

I agree and that is why Steve is trying to sort all this out and wants to help those users who have had issues. But when people refuse to give school details over so he can fix it that is not good. As for what ever reason company is know trying to sort things out for you.

 

So please do get in touch have offered to pass on email from steve to said members so we can try and get this sorted.

 

Maybe good reason why said members have not contacted steve and if so pm or email me as we maybe able to work through these issues.

 

 

Russell

[Grommit]

We have been dealing with I-Desk for nearly four years….. After a lot of research and testing (intellidesk, desktec, Ergo etc) we found that nothing on the market is as nearly as good and as strong as the I-desk/I-Rise system..

 

So we have installed nearly 200 I-desks and I-rises on our site…

 

We are a very tough school and we have had not one problem in 4 years with the furniture aspect of the i-desk system

 

There have been some small issues with the PC’s (monitors and a dozen or so power supplies).. but EVERTYTHING has been fixed and replaced at no cost to us…

 

All we do is make a phone call and within a couple of days an i-desk engineer is onsite repairing the kit…

 

Now I am not saying that i-desk is always faulty.. it is not.. it's far from that ….. but every now and then we have a fault… just like we have a faults with our HP’s, Fujitsu’s RM’s and Dell’s….

 

Now lets compare I-desk help and support to Dell’s help and support….. …… exactly… I have never thrown my phone on the floor in rage with I-desk as I have with often with Dell and others……

 

In fact I have had nothing but good service with I-desk and our site will keep on investing in this company……. as the time, effort and money saved in having the i-desk systems on site is enormous… and this has had a positive impact on Teaching and Learning which is the bottom line..

[gwendes]

I have sent Steve a PM. My position is this - I have raised issues and an engineer from another company has responded. Twice I have had replacement parts arrive without contact followed shortly, again twice, by an engineer to fit the parts.

 

I have now arranged for this engineer to resolve the issues he can and report back on the others at the next date the room is available - the 18th December.

 

I could mention more specific problems and promises made but, for now, I'm waiting on somebody resolving the problems we have.

[Grommit]

Twice I have had replacement parts arrive without contact followed shortly, again twice, by an engineer to fit the parts.

 

 

 

This is how it works so as to not to waste the engineers time...

 

You report the fault.

 

The fault gets raised.

 

The part gets dispatched to your school

 

Engineer confirms part on site

 

Engineer then comes onsite and repairs problem and uses the part if necessary...

 

Walla... Fault fixed and no wasted time with "it needs a part, i'll have to come back" stories...

[sahmeepee]

Just to clarify in case it's necessary, we have no outstanding faults with our iDesks which need the company's attention and in general I would say I have been happy with their products.

[mp3wizzard]

I know I’m new here and still finding my way around, so apolgy's if I'm talking out of turn, but need to make a few comments about I-desks.

 

We have had I-desks for over 4 years and for 99% of the time have had excellent service from I-desk.

We too researched the market and we wanted something that was safe secure and flexible and I-desk fulfill all those needs.

Yes, we have had the odd problem, but you expect that with IT…..is that not what we professional’s expect!!

But I-desk have always responded quickly and the problem always resolved sometimes not quite as quickly as we would have wished, (That’s why they only get 99%) but always to our complete satisfaction.

 

I’d like to respond to a few points made by “Gwendes”, who I’m sure is an IT professional and must be very good at his / her job, but did you not think to do a quick google for the power supplies?

i-desk power supplies ARE standard, I’ll be pleased to send you several links for various PSU suppliers, but there’s little to choose price wise from those found on the internet or those that i-desk can supply.

And with i-desk you have the added advantage knowing that you have exactly the right product for the job.

DVD drives are NOT bolted to the cassette case, but screwed in and are easy to replace, we have done this several times without any problem or trouble.

Kids being what they are …….posting coins and all sorts of rubbish in the DVD drives means they need to be replaced, so the last lot of I-desks we bought don’t have any DVD drives.

All our I-desks have 2 USB ports to the front and our new I-desks have an additional 2 x USB to the desk top, (Attached to the monitor arm……how neat is that!)

So “Gwendes” if your “I-desk” only has one USB, and your DVD drive is BOLTED to the case, are you sure you even have I-desks??

 

i-desk like any supplier today has to be competitive and respond to problems quickly, I know from conversations I’ve had with Steve Morgan at I-desk that there have been a lot of changes at I-desk, but there’s no point in grumbling on a website like this, talk to them, tell them what the problem is and they will sort it out.

They always have for us!

 

We recently had some of the earlier I-desks upgraded , with new motherboards, memory and hard-drives and we were quoted a competitive price for i-desk to do all the work.

The work was done quickly and professionally and Steve Morgan was very helpful in making sure that everything went smoothly and without any hitches.

We are very pleased with the results.

My advice to anyone with a problem would be

Don’t grumble, pick up the phone and contact Steve Morgan….he is pleasure to do business with and gets things done!

 

We now have three rooms with a total of 60 I-desks and are so pleased are looking to have more………….

Lifes too short to worry about IT, get a life…………get i-desks

[OpsMan]

Hi,

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

I am sure the head of your school is happier knowing you take the time to contact us or CCE direct rather than post comments on the web and not contact us, CCE or me at all, after all it gets things moving forward much quicker.

 

I wish everyone would see the most important thing is that we get everything working so we can ensure the highest number of students can learn, that is what we're all in this business for isn't it?

 

Thanks again for the positive feed back.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Dos_Box]

Our establishment has recently installed several iDesk units, and this has been a complete disaster. I was wondering if anyone else out there has come across this company and had a similar experience.

 

I am now locking this thread but leaving it it in situ as an example of how a single non-descript yet damaging comment can cause chaos and potential legal consequences. Not only to the company who has had had their reputation dented but to us for allowing the kind of situation that we should be avoiding after the Sophos incident (for our newer members please just search for edugeek on The Register). I am going to say this again. If you are going to complain about a company or product then please keep it relevant. Tell us EXACTLY what the problem is and how it affects you.

Please keep in mind that corporate sabotage is not unheard of and almost anonymous posts such as this means that we must moderate our forums a lot more sternly perhaps. Anyway. The post is now locked.

 

So there.