I've signed up and was considering a trial out have now decided against it despite the one great feature they offer over and above my favorite application Evernote. I am very partial to Evernote, a terrific note storage service which a very similar elephant icon. I'm wondering if Evernote know about Warranty Elephant and if they actually 'mind' the use of similar colours and the image. For a brief moment I thought that this was a new 'arm' of the Evernote business which can't be good.The other issues I have (probably more important than the elephant issue) are hidden away in the terms.
"You understand and agree that the Service is provided on an AS IS and AS AVAILABLE basis. Warranty Elephant™ disclaims all responsibility and liability for the availability, timeliness, security or reliability of the Service. Warranty Elephant™ also reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Service with or without notice at any time and without any liability to you." - standard disclaimer stuff yes but what's the point of putting your faith into a system that could be discontinued at any time. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of having it in the first place?
Another concern is regarding inactivity.
"After a period of inactivity, whereby a user fails to login to an account for a period of nine months, Warranty Elephant™ reserves the right to disable or terminate the account. If an account has been deactivated for inactivity, the username associated with that account may be given to another user without notice to you or such other party"
Up until now I've been using Evernote for precisely this usage however as far as I'm aware Evernote isn't able to send a reminder email at 3 months, 1 month and 1 week before your warranty expires - however I have been using Evernote for several years now and have not had any concerns about losing the data should I not log in for a period of time. Also a comforting thought is that with over 1 million registered users as at May 2009 it would be hard to imagine the service being 'discontinued'.
How comfortable would you be with using Warranty Elephant? What could the site do to increase confidence? I know what my intuition is telling me and I have learned from past experiences. I am sure the intention behind Warranty Elephant is not to 'copy' Evernote however I'd be very nervous about investing too much time and effort into a site that looks so similar and also has very little behind it. Warranty Elephant is completely free - Evernote offers both free and premium accounts. I am reminded of another personal reminder service I Want Sandy - a great system that a lot of people used with much satisfaction - suddenly in December 2008 it shut down.
Take care out there people... great 'tools' abound for sure but life is too short to invest a lot of time with systems that end up being a false economy when they bite the bullet. What happens if you do get organized and enter all your receipts into the site and then the service is discontinued? You will have to re-enter them into another system (if you can find them!). Will Warranty Elephant survive especially when they don't even offer a premium/paid service? Good luck to them but I will stick to what I know and trust - Evernote!
Recent Comments