Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!ucsd!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!crash!pnet01!jca
From: jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: RLL controllers with MFM drives
Message-ID: <767@crash.cts.com>
Date: 25 Nov 89 19:56:24 GMT
Sender: root@crash.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA
Lines: 40

ruiu@dragos.uucp (dragos) writes:
> I dunno... my roommate arrived at work one day to find the fire deparment
> there. His WD controller board spontaneously combusted ovenight, melting a
> chunk of the motherboard with it and setting off every smoke detector in
> the place.
>
> When contacted about the possibility of getting a replacement controller,
> WD politely told him to go away - they have recently been taken over and
> are not too concerned about old products, according to the PR droid.
>
> I'll think twice before buying a WD product.

Then what you do is get around the PR droid.  I do it all the time as a
when doing my duties that involve tech support.  Of course, you have to yell
louder than Morton Downey, Jr., but often times you can get to a system
engineer that will help you out.  The marketing and PR people never know what
the hell is going on, you need to get to a system engineer and if she or he
says we don't support it, then you are screwed.  Never deal with a PR or sales
droid when dealing with an RMA or something involving tech support because
they don't know or really care.  They just want to make their commission
and/or sales quota.  But a good system engineer will want to get to the bottom
of the problem and solve it because chances are she or he will encounter it
again (Murphy's law of error propogation).
 
Now if the controller is out of warranty and just up and died, there's nothing
you can do even if the company still supports the product.  They'll either
want a swap out fee or just tell you to buy another one.

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