Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!gatech!prism!russ From: russ@prism.gatech.EDU (Russell Shackelford) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: 251 Wierdness (summary) Summary: responses, that's why! Keywords: who's in charge at Seagate anyway? Message-ID: <978@hydra.gatech.EDU> Date: 11 Jul 89 15:08:59 GMT References: <962@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1156@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology Lines: 82 In article <1156@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>, davidsen@sungod.crd.ge.com (William Davidsen) writes: > In article <962@hydra.gatech.EDU> russ@prism.gatech.EDU (Russell Shackelford) writes: > | couple of weeks ago, i got on the net and whined for help about my > | ST-251 working just fine BUT not booting the machine like it should. > | > | responses indicated that there's LOTS of unhappy st-251 owners in this > | world. > > Seagate sells more hard disks than all others combined (source: > _Computer Retailer_) and I'm sure they have more unhappy customers than > anyone else, just as GM has more unhappy owners than Yugo. There are > also millions of us who are putting together systems with Seagates and > not complaining. > > | i do NOT know what the truth is in my situation. i did determine that > | the resisistor pack had not been removed from the second HD, so i fixed > | that and have had no problems since. > > But you're knocking Seagate again, aren't you? > > | PS: does Seagate have anything to say about this? Do they care? > | Do they issue tech/service updates? Does it matter to them that > | myself and others are now very leary of their products? Does anybody > | know? > > Why badmouth the company because you have one disk with problems > (which you admit was installed incorrectly)? Every company makes some > bad disks, ask anyone who sells a few thousand. i was AMAZED at how many responses i got from people who had experienced the SAME symptoms with the SAME model of seagate drive. these people reported VARIOUS diagnoses/fixes to problems that were clearly drive- related! furthermore, there was no apparent straightforward way to diagnose WHICH of the various problems caused the identical symptom! MANY of these people explicitly commented that they had NEVER had any problems with hard disks before. There were also many comments to the effect that Seagate customer support is a bad Joke. In short, there seemed to be MANY people who layed down good money for an ST-251 and had major disruptions to their lives as a result. TO me, this warrants asking questions about the parent company and whether or not that company gives a damn, does anything to help users who are STUCK with a bad product from them, etc. Please observe that I did NOT post a detailed summary of the MANY angry comments about Seagate. I simply summarized the various diagnoses and asked if Seagate CARED about the fact that they had many many upset users. I HOPE their attitude is better than YOURS! To be frank, I just DON'T understand the point of your "Seagate is BIG and lotsa people are satisfied" argument. So what's the point? Unhappy Yugo owners prove that people with GM cars that fall apart should be GLAD? If Seagate is so damn big and successful, then one would think that they could do a better job of supporting their customers and of building thoroughly tested products than anyone else. You seem to take the attitude that they're big so give'm a break. I don't get it. Also, the Seagate was NOT installed improperly, the other drive was. And, I have determined that this was NOT the problem. The problem STILL occurs with the 251 being the only drive in the system. So, I spent $300+ on a drive that has given 1 year of very troubled service. And you thing that I somehow deserve this? I suppose you think I'm LUCKY because Big Seagate agreed to take my money and sell me something. If you've ever had system problems on a machine that you DEPEND on, I would assume that you would be sympathetic to others whose lives are similarly disrupted. I'm sorry, but I just don;t understand your attitude! I certainly hope that if you find yourself in a jam, you'll get responses from net people that are a great deal more sympathetic and constructive than the snippy little "serves you right" message that you sent to me! What's your problem? -- Russell Shackelford School of Information and Computer Science Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332 russ@prism.gatech.edu (404) 834-4759