Ectaco
Reviews and Complaints

about 6 yrs ago I bought a translator from this company. That was ok but in 2019 I wanted a replacement battery. I was only offered new products so I left it. Since then I have had a stream of sales spam from them every day and I sick of it. There unsubscribe does not activate and gmail filter does not get rid of it either no matter how many configured filters I put. The address is new+ (then a figure which keeps changing) @ectaco.com As the figure changes it means it's a different address essentially. I have emailed the Company directly with no response. A disreputable organisation.
K

I would like to give my experience with Ectaco Inc. and the I travl 2 also look them up at the BBB and complaints on line.
In Oct of 2015 I bought an I travl 2 that was suppose to have Spanish in it.
I paid to have it delivered asap as I was leaving for Peru for 6 weeks and was counting on it.
They did not load the program into it.
I called the company and they hung up on me a few times.
Then I left messages I wanted a RMA # to return the phone as it was not what they advertized.
Which they ignored.
It didnt even come with an owners manual. I took months to get a digital copy.
So I filed a claim with PayPal and won the dispute but I was in Peru and the phone was in Michigan.
I called Paypal 3 times from Peru and explained I was in Peru till the 1st week in Dec. and ALL 3 times they said it was OK to mail it when I got home.
When I got home in December I was informed I could not send it back now.
Because I was over the 10 day time frame to send it back. Even though their people told me when I called from Peru 3 times I could send it when I got home.
Paypal ask “ if they would program the phone” would I keep it, I said Ok. What a mistake.
I got the phone back and it had English/German, , , English/French, , , , English/Italian, , , English/Russian, , English/Polish and English/Portuguese on top of the English /Spanish I paid for.
Now they sell these languages do you think they were nice and gave them to me?
Then I had to change phone service because turns out you cant put any sim card in it and it work, like they advertized.
Then the screen went out so I sent it back in again. At my expense.
When I got it back I was getting ready to go to Peru in June so I put my Peru sim card in the other doc only to find out it did not work.
So I called and left a message before I went to Peru about the phone and I would send it back when I got home.
I started using this phone in December so in 6 months all this has happened.
I tried to log into my Paypal account but someone else s info was logged in Stetson777 which turns out to be one of the people selling these pieces of junk on Ebay.
So that proves that they switched my phone.
I called them before I sent the phone back and they said they would send me a new one because of the problems I have been having. Another lie.
On July 22, 2016 I mailed it back in. And contacted Paypal again.
I contacted PayPal on the 25th but got no copy of the letter they were suppose to be sending Ectaco to replace my phone with a new one. Which Cara assured me was going to happen.
So after no letter I called again after trying to ask on line, , what a joke.
SO then Ken tells me he is going to send a letter and me a copy.
Which he did.
But he sure didn’t put much effort into it.
Then I get an email from ECTACO saying my phone is damaged. They said 2 pins were broken in the sim dock?
They just worked on this phone putting a screen in it, , , , They broke it when taking the phone apart !
I would not recommend ECTACO Inc to anyone.
Save your money
Leonard VanDerPloeg Jr.

I will be filing a complaint with the BBB, the Federal Exchange Commission and the Attorney Generals Office in NY on top of posting this everywhere on the net.

Let’s cut to the chase. Here is a link to the New York Attorney General Office (Ectaco’s office is in New York) for anyone who is foolish enough to buy an Ectaco product.

http://www.ag.ny.gov/complaint-forms

Ectaco gets 1 star because 0 is not an option. This product flat out doesn’t work as advertised and the company knowingly sells products that don't work.

I purchased the Partner Lux2 translator for Thai-English directly from Ectaco.com. It arrived promtly but I immediately noticed less than stellar craftsmanship with the product. Hardware concerns soon faded as I quickly discovered that the product CAN'T PERFORM MOST of the translation functions that the company claims.

Photo Translator and C-Pen Scanning – Ectaco’s website claims these can translate to or from any language you purchase, but both the User Manual and subsequent emails from Ectaco state that this feature only works with European languages. TOTALLY USELESS FOR ANY NON-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE!

Text Translation - Ectaco’s website and the User Manual claim you can type any text you want and have it translated right away to or from the language you purchase. The keyboard contains Thai characters but some language other than Thai (not sure what language it was) appears on the screen when you type. Ectaco acknowledged via email that this feature only works with European languages. TOTALLY USELESS FOR ANY NON-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE!

Voice Translator - I can't say this feature doesn't work at all but it does a fairly poor job. I spoke to an Ectaco rep who told me that this feature simply uses Google voice translator. I PAID $300 TO USE FREE GOOGLE TRANSLATE?!?

After receiving the product, I emailed the company and left voice mail messages every day for about 2 weeks attempting to get the defective product replaced or returned. Finally, after threatening to place complaints with the New York Attorney General Office (Ectaco is in New York) the company finally agreed to give me a full refund but they have yet to give me a method to return the product as their return policy for defective products states.

Complaints have been placed with the state Attorney General Office in both New York and my home state and my credit card dispute is currently ongoing.

Summary – Most of the main features don’t work at all! The ones that do work aren’t that good and are simply using services offered for FREE online. As bad as this product is the company is even worse! They basically hope you'll get tired of complaining and eventually go away. Don’t waste your money on this product unless you have extra money that you don't need. In that case just send it to me instead. I'll at least try to make you feel good about throwing your money away.

I want to warn you about a "Bait and Switch" scam by ectaco.com. I ordered from the ectaco.com website the SpeechGuard TLX 31 language deal. My credit card was charged $799.00. After waiting over a week, I called and I was informed by the sales rep that the SpeechGuard was no longer manufactured. He talked me into taking the LUX 2 instead. I tried it and found it was garbage. I called for an RMA number and the sales rep was belligerent and insulting. He tried to bully me into keeping the order. The SpeechGuard TLX 31 deal is still on the website to entrap other buyers. Before buying from this company, check out the many complaints on the BBB website.

Customer service lied about return policy and would not let us return their 400 dollar electronic dictionary. i called over 20 times only to be put on hold for enless amounts of time. the worst customer service i have ever dealt with. this is a scam.

Below is an account of my experience with Ectaco International. I believe this company is out to scam people. I am still waiting after two months for the "chip" to make my translator work.

Thank you for posting my complaint on your site.

Michael Shea

This letter is to inform you of a company doing business Ectaco International, Inc.

On 12-12-05 I called Ectaco International to order their model TL-2G Greek language translator. At the time I gave my credit card number I was told that I would have my unit before Christmas. This did not happen and so I called the company on 12-26-2005 and was told I would have my unit within the next few days. I received the unit on 12-28-05 only to find it to be defective and would not function properly. I again called Ectaco International and told them of the problem with the translator. They told me send back the unit and they would replace it with a unit that works. I packaged my unit and sent it back next day air at a cost of $40.00. I also explained to Ectaco that I ordered this in December as I had a trip planned to Greece on 1-12-06 and needed it by then and that they needed to send me my new unit overnight or next day air to which they agreed. After a week of waiting I called to find out that they had sent it out ground. I received it the day before I left on my trip. On the plane I discovered that the unit was also defective in exactly the same way. After use of just a few minutes it freezes up and ceases functioning. I spent three weeks in Greece carry a piece of dead weight around with me. Upon returning to the US I again called Ectaco and spoke with a Mr. Boris Krol who first acted like he hadn't heard of any problems with this particular unit. He then promised me on 2-7-06 that he would ship out a new chip for the translator and I would have it by 2-10-06. On 2-22-06, after not recieving the chip I called again and again spoke with Mr. Boris Krol. He assured my that the chip would get shipped right out and I would again have it by thursday 2-23-06. On friday 2-24-06 I called again and was told that it was shipped fedex 2nd day air. I asked for the tracking number and while he was on the phone I went online and tracked the package through the FedEx website. I found out that the tracking number was not a valid tracking number. When I told Mr. Krol that the tracking number was invalid I started getting all sorts double talk. He said that I would get the chip by Friday (2-24-06) even though he knew the tracking number was not real. He told me that he would get ahold of his shipping department and get this cleared up and call me back. He never called back. I again called today on 2-27-06 and Mr. Krol told me as soon as he heard from FedEx and got the chip back from them he would then ship it out to me. I told him that I should not have to wait until Ectaco and FedEx figure something out and that he needed to ship the "new chip" (if one really does exist) out immediately or I will file a complaint with the New York State Attorney Generals office. I also asked for the name of the president or ceo of Ectaco and was given a name of a Mr. Joel Edmunds. When I asked to speak with him or to be placed into his voicemail I was refused. I hung up and called back and asked for Mr. Edmunds and was denied a voicemail or an e-mail address. I was told I could send a fax, which I refused and again asked for Mr. Edmunds voicemail or email address and was again refused.

At this point it is very obvious that one of two things are happening; 1) they don't have such a "new chip" and are trying to buy time or 2) they are a fraudulent company and have screwed me out of $349.99.

I would like a reply to this email and also acknowledgement that your office will contact Ectaco International, Inc. or a form that I may fill out a formal complaint with guaranteed action of some sort from the NY Attorney's General office. I believe something as simple as a phone inquiry from your office could provide a solution. All I want is what I paid for From: Michael

The representative of Ectaco, who spoke in Russian managed to convince a 77 YEAR OLD RETIREE, who hardly speaks English, that this “product” would help in learning and understanding English. Since the Ectaco representative never explained the return policy while talking to the elder customer (my father in law), my wife and I requested this information from a sales representative who informed us about the 7 days available for the evaluation of the product, and NEVER MENTIONED A 6.5% RESTOCKING FEE. When the merchandise was delivered, it became clear that the PRODUCTS WERE DEFECTIVE. First, all attempts to scan anything with “Ectaco C-Pen scanner” failed. Then, no one could understand the voice of the “Deluxe ER850” – it completely failed in voice synthesis in both Russian and English. Finally, instead of sending a Russian electronic book (a promised bonus), Ectaco managed to send one in Polish! On the day 6 of the “7 day evaluation period” we called Ectaco, explained that we did not want this merchandise, received an RMA number, and sent it back via UPS. Simultaneously, we started a dispute regarding the restocking fee, which was not been revealed to the customer prior to the purchase. Moreover, how could my father-in-law understand Ectaco’s policy if he was solicited in Russian, but the fine print with the policy on the invoice was written in English? FINALLY, ECTACO REFUSED (stated in the UPS tracking report) TO ACCEPT THE MERCHANDISE WITH RMA# WHITHIN CUSTOMER EVALUATION PERIOD, and sent a letter to the Credit Card Company stated that customers did not contact Ectaco for RMA number, and that the merchandise was never returned. This case, which is currently under investigation by a Credit Card Company, clearly demonstrates that customers have difficulties in returning unwanted and defective merchandise even when following Ectaco’s rules. We feel that both English and Russian speaking customers should be aware of all of Ectaco’s practices that we faced recently. Think twice before placing your orders.

Be careful if you intend to buy something from this company as I got scammed with one of their products, Voice Translator EnglishRussian for Pocket PC. They claim that the software can translate your voice from English to Russian and the way around but it never worked. I contacted them and after back and forth of emails I was told that the software it was not compatible with my Pocket PC. So I asked for a refund but was told it was not possible, it is against their policies, then I asked for a replacement, a software that works even if the price was less. They replied that I had to buy the software as a discount price. After more haggling they sent me a key for a dictionary but it never worked. So I gave up. I filed a complain against them on BBB Canada, they reviewed it and contacted the company, I am waiting, it may take a few weeks.

So think twice before buying something from this company, you'd better find one who at least has the decency of giving your money back on products that don't work.