GirlTech Password Journal 3 continued: the response

December 15, 2004 · Comments

I got an email back from [Radica](http://www.radicausa.com) customer support about the problems we were having with the Password Journal 3 toy we bought for Emily.

>The reviews that are online are normally people who have never contacted our company for assistance, we have had several people who have read the reviews online contact us and we are able to trouble shoot through the problems with them. There are very few instances where the unit is actually defective. I understand with children it is hard to keep them from not making noise, unfortunately for our product to work as it should a quiet room is ideal. If we made it less sensitive we would have just as many complaints about anyone being able to access the journal as oppossed to noone being able to access the journal…

There are several variables that could go into the game not acknowledging the password. You need to make sure you are in a quiet room, make sure the password being set isn’t longer than 2-3 syllables, and make sure it is being said the same exact way (avoid fluctuation) every time. Once the password is set those same three variables need to be accounted for any time you want to open the box.

Nice & friendly reply. Can’t fault the attitude. But I’m not sure what planet these folks are living on. First of all, if you get 84 reviews on a site and 75 of them are critical with an average rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars (generous, I think) what the #$@%^^ are you doing blaming the consumer?!? This [positive review](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000085JCG/103-7972965-2635841) is the funniest, even if it wasn’t meant to be funny:

>When setting a password for your journal, sit next to a piano. Hit a key on the piano that is easy for you to sing, and pick a one-syllable word to sing to that note. For example, my password was “Dog” on middle C. Then, when asked for the password, simply hit the chosen key on the piano, sing the word, and voila! It opens like a charm. Once this is done, I highly recommend that you leave the security setting on low - unless you or your child is an advanced user of the Password Journal.

Yes, she’s serious. This may work in a Stepford movie, but doubtful in a home with kids who don’t have perfect pitch.

I reminded him that not only did we try this with a talking doll (meaning that the voice would sound exactly the same each time) but we’re talking about **CHILDREN**!! There’s the “ideal environment” and then there’s reality. I asked him if they bothered testing this with children who live in reality. Haven’t heard back.

When I was looking at my Google hits earlier, I noticed I’m get a bit of traffic on the search term “password journal.” I’m the #1 result after Amazon, as a matter of fact. So even though I have no hope of getting my $20 back, I’m comforted to know that someone else who is smarter than I am (in other words, they’re doing their homework before buying) might read this and go buy something else.

Related posts: