Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!agate!violet.berkeley.edu!ephram
From: ephram@violet.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Do not order from PC BRAND.
Message-ID: <26281@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 12 Jul 89 21:56:47 GMT
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: ephram@violet.berkeley.edu ()
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 48


	Well here is my experience with PC BRAND (Chicago IL).

	I ordered a PC BRAND 386 25MHZ machine.  I had reservations
about the company's Tech support and customer service history.  I had
heard that they re-vamped those areas of their company and were now OK.

	To start, The machine that arrived was not the machine that I
ordered.  The salesperson told me that PC Brand has their own mother
board design.  I said, "oh, You do not use micronics or mylex or any of
the others?"  "No we designed our own.", They said.  BULL!   The
computer arrived and there was a Micronics 386/25 board in there , The
one with the Intel cache controller and 32/64 Kbytes of cache.  Talk
about lying to the public!  I called them up and they said that the
sales staff is told that the motherboard is their own design!  The
company is sanctioning misleading the buyer.  Its their policy!

	The next problem came when I set up the hard disk that they sold
me.  The disk has >1024 cylinders.  What this means is that Not even DOS
4.0X that can handle big disks, can use all of the cylinders.  They
supply a driver from some third party but the catch is that certain
commands will not work on the "D" drive that must be created to access
the higher cylinders.  CHKDSK will not work on the D: disk.  Well I
called customer support and They only had slower disks.  I decided
to upgrade my controller and change disk's while I was at it.  So I sent
in My 1:1 MFM controller and the Miniscribe 3085.  I await a 1:1 RLL
controller with a Toshiba disk drive.  The paperwork cleared our
purchasing Dept 3 weeks ago.  They claimed never to have gotten it.  I
FAX'ed them (I told them about it 1st) a hard copy of the PO and thought
it would be done with.  I called them up the next day and they claim
never to have received the FAX.  I can not believe that they managed to
misplace the original order and then lose the FAX!  I have speant the
last 4-5 days trying to get through to their customer support line and
all I get is either 1) Busy, or, 2) Terminal hold.

	At this point I am contemplating shipping the whole machine back
and ordering from someone else (non-mail order).  At this point I
certainly would not recommend that anybody buy from PC Brand.  The
hassle I have gone through is not worth any $ savings I might have
received.

	I'll keep the net informed as to the outcome.

We must prevent those commies from compromising the integrity of our 
precious bodily fluids.      -Gen. Jack D. Ripper
Ephram Cohen                              ephram@violet.berkeley.edu
466 44th St.  #1                          3210 Tolman Hall
Oakland, CA 94609                         Berkeley, CA  94720