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From: Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Have Apple & Quantum got their act togeth
Message-ID: <27203.25457118@cmhgate.FIDONET.ORG>
Date: 24 Oct 89 07:08:33 GMT
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Marsh Gosnell writes:
 
>I have read all the horror stories about the problems with Quantum
>drives. Is this limited to a particular batch of drives and corrected
>(finally) in machines being manufactured now?  People don't seem happy
>with the Quantum ROM fix from the standpoint of both noise and
>performance.
>
>Is this what I have to look forward to if I buy a machine with a hard
>disk in it from Apple?
>  Marsh Gosnell  mkg@lzsc.att.com
 
 
Funny, I don't have a bit of trouble with my Jasmine DD40, which is the
same HDA as Apple uses.....
 
Obviously, what you have to look forward to if you buy an Apple hard drive 
is, most importantly, a 90 day warranty on the very same mechanism 3d
party vendors give a 2 to 5 year warranty on.  Sure, Apple's extended
their warranties on certain 40 and 80 meg drives, up to October 1991--but
ONLY after _much_ teeth-gnashing, complaining from users, and heavy
discussion with their lawyers (who apparently came to the conclusion, very 
slowly, that Apple had better do something voluntarily or else be held
liable in a class-action suit--isn't it so comforting to know that the
company you bought your computer from only provides a decent warranty and
factory customer support as a last resort??).  My Jasmine drive, shipped
to my home in June 1989, came with a warranty through June 1991 as a
_feature_.  (If anyone cares, this replaces a DD45 that gave up the ghost
for the third time in 9 months, so Jasmine gave me a brand-new 40 and a
new warranty to compensate for the fact that I got a few megs less storage 
out of the deal.)
 
Also, if you buy an Apple drive, you get their WONDERFUL dealer support,
which usually includes dealers saying the magic words "we don't know
anything about that, it's $1200 to swap you to a new 40 meg drive" or some 
such nonsense.  Let me take a poll here:  how many people on the net have
had the infamous Apple 40 and 80 drive problem, have taken their machines
to their dealers for the factory fix, and have encountered either blank
stares or repairmen mumbling "three weeks to the bench, then we'll have to 
order the part if we don't have it"?  How many people are tired of dealer
service where the tech might know the name of the screwdriver he uses to
unscrew your Mac, but wouldn't know a soldering iron if it was plugged in
and sitting on his chair?  Dealer service consists of _a lot_ of board
swapping at great customer expense to fix problems that a competent tech,
if available, could fix with a soldering iron and a few minutes time. 
Alas, such a competent tech person is rarely available.  Hence, customer
end up spending a lot of money at Apple dealers for service.
 
Can you divine my opinion on this issue?  8-)  Buy the basic, BASIC, box
from Apple, and shop around for everything else.  Get a third party hard
drive.  Your mouse goes kapooey?  Get a third party pointing device.  SEs
on up don't come with keyboards--look at the third-party keyboards before
you agree to buy the Apple brand.  Getting a modular Mac?  Best check out
those third party displays and video boards to see if anyone else offers a 
better deal.  Need more RAM?  Well, if you buy from Apple, they charge
$999 list for a two meg upgrade with a 90 day warranty.  Installation not
included.  Obviously, no one pays that $999, but SIMM vendors are all over 
the place who will sell you two megs for $168 to $210 or so; even adding
in Apple dealer installation at $40, you're still way ahead.  And those
SIMMs come with anywhere from a 5-year to a lifetime warranty.  I kinda
wish Apple would sell a IIci without RAM and drop the price $500.  I mean, 
who the hell can use a 1 meg RAM, one floppy setup?  If they sell RAM for
$999 for two megs, then that IIci should cost $500 less with no memory,
right?  If you gotta buy memory anyway, why not have the option to buy it
all and save a few bucks?  "Aha," you say, "that's not the Apple way.  The 
machines must be usable out of the box."  A IIci with one meg RAM =
usable?  Usable, perhaps, but not feasible.  Just as I'd rather buy my
hard drive from someone else, I'd also rather buy my RAM--ALL of it--from
someone else and save the money.
 
Flames in e-mail, please.  I like Apple products, and I like my Mac, but I 
don't have to like the way they do business.  And I don't have to like
_everything_ they sell.  A blind follower, I'll never be.  Except, of
course, for Honda.  (bow, scrape, genuflect.)
 
--Adam--

--  
Adam Frix via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH
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