Easy Come, Easy Go

Well, my time with the ER850 was short-lived; the speaker didn't work and had to be returned. I purchased the unit off eBay; it was brand new, and came from an authorized Ectaco reseller, so it's covered by the 1-year warranty. Getting it replaced is easy, I just have to return the unit to their New York office and they'll ship me out a new one. Of course that takes time; the unit has to be sent back to them (5-6 business days) and then they have to send me another unit (probably 5-6 business days), so it'll be awhile before I can play with it again. I had to pay for the shipping back to them ($26 from Canada to NYC), but they'll cover the shipping back to me.

Normally I'd be ticked that I got something that didn't work and had to ship it back, but it helps me write this review since I've now experienced dealing with their support people. I sent an initial email and received a response about 2 minutes later advising me to call their support line, and explaining that I'd likely have to return the unit to them for exchange. I called the number and immediately spoke to someone (it was early in the morning, so they weren't very busy). I called again later in the day to verify the return address and I was on hold for 15 mins before speaking to someone. My only frustration is that I have to wait until they receive the unit before they'll send another one. Many electronic companies will ship a new unit if they know the old one is being returned, but they take your credit card and will charge it the cost of a new unit if they don't receive the old unit back in 15-20 days (depends on the company). Ectaco doesn't offer a service like that - maybe it's something they should consider.

Damn, I just checked the Ectaco website and they dropped the price of the ER850 from $580 to $440, and you get a free accessory kit ($110 value) included. Looks like I ordered mine a week too soon (I paid $469 on eBay, including shipping to Canada). Well, that's a bummer. Interesting; I just checked the price again and it's gone back up to $580. It appears Ectaco drops and raises their prices every once and awhile, so it's probably worth signing up for their email service that notifies you when the price drops below your set amount.

Gord

It has arrived - the ER850!

I had been looking for an English-Russian translator for awhile (not a person, but a device), and it finally came today! I started a few months ago, and almost immediately came across the ECTACO website, which carries tons of interesting translators, from the cheap, to the expensive. I was also immediately drawn to the ER850 (ER standing for English/Russian, and the 850 being the model number). It had a ton of interesting features, but it cost $580 US. That's a lot of money, so I wanted to do some research before buying one.

I checked Amazon and there weren't any reviews of the device (which is the first time I've experienced that), so I set out to search Google. Type in "ECTACO ER850" into Google and you'll get tons of hits, but they're pretty much all the same thing; websites looking to get you the best price on the device. Yeah, great... but I don't know if I want it yet! How about tossing an unbiased review my way first? Nope, I couldn't find one.

Well, after sitting on my butt for months I decided I would order one. I looked around for a decent price, and ended up finding one on eBay. I placed my order, and paid for it the next day. Shipping was done via FedEx to me in Canada, and it arrived less than a week later. Yippee!

Frustrated that I couldn't find a decent review of the ER850, and all the things it can do, I decided I'll write my own. Sure, I bought it without reading a comprehensive review, but now you don't have to. I founded TVShowsOnDVD.com in 2001, and since then I've written roughly 800 DVD reviews, but this is the first time I've written a thorough review of an electronic gadget, and it's my first translator. I'll put this through my own tests, and provide you with some photos and videos of the ER850 in action.

What do I have to gain from this? Well, not a whole lot, but I hope you find it useful, and it'll help you decide whether the ER850 is something you're interested in buying. Of course most of the material I expect to post will be focused on the ER850, but I'm almost certain the information would also apply to other members of the 850 family, like the EP850 (English/Polish), or the ES850 (English/Spanish). The models are all the same, it's just the languages that are different.

до свидания,
Gord