Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:61059 rec.music.synth:14287
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!mpmst1
From: mpmst1@unix.cis.pitt.edu (metlay)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,rec.music.synth
Subject: There oughta be a law...!
Message-ID: <25562@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Date: 2 Jul 90 16:17:50 GMT
Reply-To: mpmst1@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (metlay)
Organization: Atomic City Music, a division of MysTech Productions
Lines: 66


I just received my very first home computer in the mail, a used Amiga 500
with a nice set of peripherals for what seemed like a very good price. A
good friend of mine who owns an Amiga 1000 came over to help me uncrate
it and get it set up.

GAH!

The case of the 500 main unit was bowed downward in the middle, as if it
had been stored with both ends supported and then subjected to enough
high heat to cause the plastic case to sag. The trackball had not been secured
in the box, and had been rattling back and forth over the keys for the whole
trip. But what was most gut-wrenching of all was the sight that greeted us when
we pried off the keycaps and examined the keyboard. It took us over two hours 
to render the keyboard in a condition such that it looked like it had only been
used by a gorilla with bad eating habits for three years. In the process, we
removed perhaps a sandwich-baggie full of lint, hair, eyelashes, pet hair, 
fingernail clippings, sesame seeds, congealed Coca-Cola, mustard, ketchup,
blood, stale bread crumbs, and other assorted detritus too disgusting to name
here. The computer, once thoroughly cleaned and reassembled, seemed to boot
and work well, with no malfunctioning keys (except for one contact we had 
broken ourselves in the process of cleaning), and we were able to determine
that the peripherals that had come with it all worked quite well. The final
decision was to take the Amiga to a repair shop to have its keys rechecked
and the drives cleaned and realigned, for an undetermined sum that will go
quite a ways toward lessening what a "great deal" I'd gotten....

Now, I'm not going to name the seller here. As it turns out, he had been 
literal and honest in his Email to me; he had said that the peripherals
were in excellent condition and that the computer had been trouble free;
that implied nothing about the computer itself. And for the price I paid,
even a totally dead Amiga would have still left me with a decent deal. But
I can't help but be shocked; I'm a synthesist by night, and I work with
scientific apparatus by day, and I know certain basic rules of computer 
care and sanitation that seem to have been drastically violated in the case
of my new Amiga. It speaks well of the 500 that it works well in the shape
it's in, but I'm left with a few questions:

1. What harm will a bowed main board do, if any?

2. Is it possible to buy a naked Amiga 500 on an educational discount, or
must one buy a package? If all I have to replace is the main unit....

3. Is this kind of computer abuse common among Amiga users? I certainly
hope not; those folx (well, US folx now, I guess) seem to have clearer heads
about such things than some other users I've met.

and 

4. Is there a prosecutable crime like "disgusting misuse of delicate
equipment"? YEESH! |->

Thanks for letting me rave. I just got a call from my wife; the Mac I just
bought for her off the Net to keep her away from my Amiga just arrived, and
she wants me to unpack it and set it up for her. 

Hoo boy, I can't wait. |-P

From now on, I'm buying gear from rec.music.synth,
where I can deal with people I know and trust. *sigh*

-- 
metlay                    | Marriage. Marriage, music. Marriage, music, RPGs.
                          | Marriage, music, RPGs, writing. Marriage, music,
mpmst1@unix.cis.pitt.edu  | RPGs, writing, comics. Marriage, music, RPGs,
metlay@vms.cis.pitt.edu   | writing, comics, um....oh yeah! Physics! Marriage,