Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:42352 comp.sys.amiga.tech:7795 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!mcdchg!ddsw1!karl From: karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: Amigas -- why the 90 day warranty? Summary: Heh, this is a CONSUMER item. Major consumer items have warranties Message-ID: <1989Oct24.193454.23743@ddsw1.MCS.COM> Date: 24 Oct 89 19:34:54 GMT References: <1989Oct15.021329.2118@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <23196@cup.portal.com> Reply-To: karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) Distribution: na Organization: Macro Computer Solutions, Inc., Mundelein, IL Lines: 82 In article <23196@cup.portal.com> Doug_B_Erdely@cup.portal.com writes: >> Until C= is confident enough to warranty their Amigas for a year, I'm not >> confident enough to buy one. I wonder how many others are waiting for >> Commodore to decide to put a real warranty on their equipment.... > > My Amiga 1000 that I have had for 3 1/2 years works just fine.. with the >90 day warranty no less. Another thing to consider is that you DON'T see a >PC with the features of the Amiga anywhere near the price. When pricing a >product the warranty period is a determining factor of retail cost. Are *YOU* >willing to pay more for a longer warranty?? So what? I also know of a half dozen people who bought A500s, and had them go back three or four times before they worked right -- and then, some time after 90 days they broke again -- this time it was on them. I don't CARE if I see a PC with the features of an Amiga at the same price. That is not the point. The Amys are neat machines, yes, but they have several shortcomings: 1) The plastic case. Yes, the PLASTIC case. It deforms easily, is broken easily, and in general gives off the impression of >toy<. The A500s and A1000s have this problem. I have not looked closely at an A2000. These machines do not sell for anywhere near a >toy< price, so I expect quality in construction all around, >including< the case. I remember at least one A1000 that had problems with the case bending because someone put a monitor on top of it! This is unheard of in the PC land, where cases are made of METAL. 2) Shoddy construction. Included here are the problems with the A500 keyboards which are reputed to short out, some things I saw in the original A1000s that didn't really turn me on (the "stacking" method on the circuit boards) and a few other points. All in all, bad news. 3) Custom components where not necessary. Specifically, floppy drives and (to a lesser extent) keyboards. The floppy drives in particular seem to be custom just so they can be (720K & 1.44MB "PC" style 3.5" drives have a diskchange signal, which the Amy needs, so why not use them?) 4) The warranty. As a commercial entity I might be interested in buying an Amy for work use. As an individual I am not -- because I cannot afford the hit that could come from a failure between 90 days and a year's time. 90 days is insufficient to prove out the hardware unless I use it every day for several hours -- and I can't be sure I'll do that. A year warranty would be likely to catch >all< the problems. This problem is exacerbated by all the custom chips and their costs, as well as the cost of repairs -- a reasonably simple problem could cost a few hundred bucks to get fixed! Say Agnes blows up. How much? Some $100 for the part, plus an hour or so tech time. Total cost of some $150 perhaps. On a $500-900 system (A500 here). Within the first 6 months of ownership? There is no chance I'm willing to accept that kind of risk. Sure, the Amy is a nice machine. It has great points. I have some complaints with the OS; it's lack of resource knowledge (ie: having to explicitly free your allocated storage before exiting) stinks, but that can be lived with (and worked around with some custom libraries which I can write). The HARWARE issues are harder to resolve, more expensive to fix when they manifest themselves. Let's take an example from the consumer market -- big-ticket stuff. A cellular phone, for example. Every unit out there I am aware of either has a one or three year warranty. They sell for somewhere around $1,000, a major investment for most people. They take a while to get fixed when they do break, and are >expensive< to fix if you're footing the bill. Yet companies are finding out more and more that even a 1 year warranty is not sufficient. 3 years is plenty long enough, and firms are increasingly offering that protection. The incremental cost increase is >not< large UNLESS THE PRODUCT BREAKS A LOT. So why is Commodore not doing something about this? Do Amigas have a horrible record in this department? If their repair record is excellent, and they have no major problems, why only a 90 day warranty -- the additional warranty's marginal cost would be minimal, right? Amys in Canada have a one year warranty. How about the US Commodore? -- Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, !ddsw1!karl) Public Access Data Line: [+1 312 566-8911], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910] Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. "Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"