Below is a message I sent to another list, with a relevant reply below. Sad
to say, this company has taken a Neanderthal stance.
Subject: Talking Voltmeter
Iomega Engineering sells a talking multimeter. Be advised, however, that
you *definitely *do *not want to tell them you are visually impaired if you
orddr one. It is their belief that blind people are not competent to operate
a
> multi-meter, and another person from a different list who had to have his
> unit
> repaired, they refused to repair it after finding out he was blind.
> Instead,
> they sent him a full refund of his purchase price.
Reply from Greg Eppley:
I'm going through that very thing with Omega right now. I received an HHM2
for my birthday this year; I've had the page on their web site bookmarked
for around 3 years, and never in all that time have they ever had anything
posted about a visually impaired warning. As of May 2nd 2005, still no
warning; that has appeared since that time, and not as a result of a
purchase of a unit for me. I contacted them about a fault in an optional
accessory part and, not knowing any such warning, mentioned I was visually
impaired; I also briefly mentioned how many years I had been working with
electronics and meters. I mentioned to them twice now that I've never -
even in my sighted years - do any risky measurements with any previous
meters - and being blind now why would I start now? If nothing else I'm
going to be even more cautious now and let a sighted person do the
measurements with my meter.
About four days later, a large, mysterious box delivered by FedEx revealed
two checks - one for $316 and one for $100. The enclosed letter revealed
this "no exceptions policy" - the $100 was a "birthday gift", and of course
the $316 was to reimburse my relative for the purchase of the meter, which
Omega expected me to return to them.
I immediately sent them a very firm email regarding the whole situation.
For one thing, just because one is "aware" a customer "has" a device is not
grounds enough to rob that person of the independence that device offers;
whether Omega "knows" I have one doesn't change the bottom line that (a) a
visually impaired person has the device and (b) that person can at some
future point, due to their own stupidity, attempt to take some legal action
against Omega as a result of injury suffered due to such incorrect use. (a)
and (b) are still the case whether Omega "knows" of such users or not, and
their attempts to "clear" sales by phone isn't going to stop a damn thing
(but then that course was most likely suggested by a bunch of legal advisors
and executives whose blood flow to their brains is cut off by neckties or
pantyhose).
As an aside to this "knowledge" of such visually impaired users, just
because I "know" something doesn't mean anything; I have free will; I worked
at a bank fairly high up in IT for many years prior to going blind, and as
such became aware of names and accounts and balances that I will never
forget. Nevertheless, just because I'm walking around out here in the world
with that knowledge means that I must exercise free will and not share that
info with anyone; the same can be said of many other practicies and policies
one picks up working most anywhere - just because you know some bits of info
doesn't mean anything unless you intentionally misuse that knowledge for
your own gain or someone else's loss; exercise your free will to not do the
wrong thing and what's the harm?
I currently don't know if I'm going to be allowed to keep my meter or not.
I'm going to fight it and have warned Omega of this, to not blow something
out of proportion that doesn't need to be, and that I will contact media
sources if they so choose to do so. Omega is trying to do nothing more than
cover their ass for being stupid enough to not post the "warning" they now
have on their site. As my purchase was made prior to any such warning, and
as my product does not appear to include the warnings they say are there, I
can't see they have a leg to stand on. Their letter speaks of this warning
being on the product and in the manual. I can't speak for the manual at
this time, but I have had both the product box and the product thoroughly
scanned by a sighted person or two and there is no such "warning" on it,
likely because it was on a warehouse shelf somewhere and not "new" stock.
At any rate, Omega is over a barrel right now - I have product and two
checks totalling $416. I have no intention but to eventually shred the
checks, but I've outlined that to Omega on a dated timeframe.
I can certainly understand Omega's caution to sell to visually impaired
customers. However, they could achieve a much better customer situation for
any visually impaired customers they become "aware" of by simply getting
their stupid legal department to draft some sort of "waiver of liability" or
something to that effect. Perhaps that's not workable due to some other
legalities with the visually impaired, but I fail to see how what they're
doing is any better or different. I've never been put into a situation like
this, where I was denied service because I'm this or that, and right now I
don't know how it's going to turn out.
Agreed with the warning that if anyone wants one of these products, I echo
loudly do not tell them you are visually impaired! I plan to continue this
practice with anything I buy in the future, irregardless of how this turns
out - never tell any product manufacturer you are blind, or God only knows
what Pandora's box you will open up.
Steve, K8SP
Steve Pollo
Lansing, MI
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