Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!asuvax!mcdphx!mcdchg!michael
From: michael@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com (Ron Heiby)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k
Subject: Re: Re: SCSI Disks on Delta 3000s
Message-ID: <41579@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com>
Date: 23 Jul 90 15:10:14 GMT
References: <3098@lll-lcc.UUCP>
Reply-To: michael@mcdchg.chi.il.us (Michael Bodine)
Organization: Motorola Microcomputer, Schaumburg, IL
Lines: 48

Roger Hanscom (rzh@lll-lcc.UUCP) writes:
> In <41276@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com> heiby@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com (Ron Heiby)
> writes:
> >The most common experience that our customers seem to have when
> >they try to save a few bucks by integrating their own disk drive
> >is that they are surprised by how much work it *really* would have
> >saved if they had just bought a drive from us.  All the tools are
> >there to integrate foreign drives into the system.  But, if you
> >buy ONE disk drive from a manufacturer, how likely do you think
> >they will be to act quickly to fix an incompatability in their
> >firmware?  Don't "cut off your nose to spite your face".  Take
> >the easy way out.  You'll be glad you did.
> Experience makes me want to let this one go flying by, but it sticks in
> my throat too much.
> [flame on]
> ...
> This "buy it from us at 2x, 3x, 10x .... the market price because it's
> easier" attitude is too common with vendors (particularly the three letter
> ones..ahem).  IMHO, if a customer wants to buy from the vendor (for what-
> ever reason...easier, h/w maint,, less paperwork,....etc.) fine, but a
> ...
Thanks, Roger, for indicating flame, and i don't really want to get a flame
war going here.  Stefan has a perfectly good response already, but i felt
this needed a little more discussion.  We've had lots of experience in
helping our customers integrate other vendors drives into the Delta series
systems.  We've done it A LOT!  Almost without exception we've discovered
problems with the vendors' drives and, less often, problems with our firmware
or software operating with these new drives.  Ron's point, that low volume
customers tend to get less attention from the manufacturer, is the main
problem.  Our factory has generally had enough clout to get problems fixed 
when they're doing the integration, but the drive manufacturer may take
several months, if ever, to get the fixes put into the drives they have on
the market.  And drives may be in distributor inventory, which means that
has to be used up before anything new can make it to the customer.  Lots of
problems.  When you buy from us, you've got our full backing on the drive
and its support, and that IS worth *something*.  If you can't afford to pay
whatever a system manufacturer has decided that's worth, then you MAY 
discover you actually have to pay far more to overcome the problems that
crop up.  On the other hand, you MAY discover that the drive comes from the
drive vendor identical to what you get from the system vendor and it just
plugs right in.

To sum it up, we're willing to work with people who simply will not buy
drives from us, but bad experience has taught us that we can't recommend
strongly enough to buy your drives from the same vendor from whom you buy
your system.  (I've had experience with many vendors in past lives...the
story is pretty much the same, no matter which three intials you choose
to use!)