Home > Consumer Reviews > EarthLink Mivo 250 Cordless E-mail Appliance

Perhaps the best way to review this product is to reproduce in part my letter to custormer service about it:

I was given this address by mailstation customer service.

I am writing to request a refund for the mailstation 250 I purchased for my mother in March of this year, together with all monthly charges to date.

The machine is nothing but trouble. She has never once received an email from a friend of family member because AT NO TIME WAS SHE OFFERED A LOCAL NUMBER WITH A LOCAL SERVER. Further, after several attempts to contact customer service, IT WAS APPARENT THERE IS VERY LITTLE SUPPORT FOR THIS PRODUCT AND WAIT TIMES WERE WILDLY UNREASONABLE. To date, everyone involved has invested many hours attempting to make this grossly defective product work without any help from earthlink.

We give up. We want the money back. We would be delighted to return the machine.

Because the server in her area of Los Altos Hills NEVER was available, she has yet to receive a single email aside from those automatically generated by earthlink; annoying and repetitive statements welcoming her to earthlink. Furthermore, there was no customer service to help her. She was either disconnected or there was no answer from tech support after wait periods exceeding 25 minutes, and in one case, 50 minutes.

My mother is elderly and has struggled many hours enlisting friends and neighbors to teach her to operate the 250 without success. When I visited her this weekend I realized why. The server failed to respond over and over and over, and the machine itself was more complicated to operate than the mail program of a computer, less intuitive, and difficult to view and figure out. NOT what had been advertised; the ideal way for older people to learn to send and receive email.

I wish to speak with someone in person about this. Please call me at the number below.

I think this is a great idea, and thats all. I bought the 250 and had nothing but trouble with it. After 5 hours on the phone with customer support, I decided to take it back and get a refund. I ended up buying the mailstation 120 and it has been great, no trouble at all. This was a gift for my elderly grandmother, and she has used it almost every day since, and she loves it!!

I AGREE WITH THE WOMAN WHO SAID "POOR DESIGN. WORSE PERFORMANCE" I TOO WOULD LIKE A REFUND ON THE MAILSTATION 250. THIS MACHINE WAS NOTHING BUT A NUISENCE.......COSTS LOTS OF $$$$$$$$ AND SANITY!!!!! WE HAVE THE MACHINE ALL READY TO BE SHIPPED BACK FOR A REFUND!!!! PLEASE GET AHOLD OF ME FOR I CANNOT GET AHOLD OF THE "EASY TO REACH" CUSTOMER SERVICE. THANK YOU --- PLEASE EMAIL WITHIN THE NEXT 7 DAYS! MY ADVICE TO YOU READERS DONT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID!!!!

I would rather not bother with virus protection at home, so the mailstation is perfect. I get Internet at work and use computer at home for other activities. I let the employer worry about virus protection updates.

My 94 year-old grandmother is afraid to use a computer-too complicated, but the Mailstation has been GREAT for her and she says she uses it far more than she would have ever imagined. Setup was a little difficult in terms of the dial in numbers, but once that was established she's been e-mailing like a pro. I don't know how long she waits for customer service, she has a few numbers she works with and has mentioned something about it being hard to get a person on the line - but she does absolutely love the machine and thinks its one of the most useful gifts she's ever received - she got it for her 90th birthday.