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From: dlee@dtoa1.dt.navy.mil (Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Packard Bell doesn't really exist (long)
Message-ID: <3450@oasys.dt.navy.mil>
Date: 14 Sep 90 16:15:36 GMT
References: <1990Sep6.154721.12322@iwarp.intel.com>
Sender: news@oasys.dt.navy.mil
Reply-To: dlee@dtoa1.dt.navy.mil (David Lee)
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Organization: David Taylor Research Center, Bethesda, MD
Lines: 38


Dwight:  Regarding your troubles with Packard Bell... I was going to
buy a 286 based Packard Bell this past Christmas from Price Club here
in the Washington, DC area. A situation much similar to yours. The cost
and the machines' capability was the best deal around. After much price
comparison, I decided to get the Packard Bell for Christmas. Talking
with the salesmen changed my mind.. he said that returns on Packard Bell
was running about 40% from customers and that the Vendex Headstart unit
was a better deal even though it cost about $200.00 more. Well.. I said
to myself this guy must think I stupid!! After much additional shopping
around I decided the guy was better nice and must know what he's talking
about and since Price club workers are not on commission what's he got
to gain. Eventually I ended up buying the Vendex..

 How this relates to your problem is as follows... My oldest is in college,
second year student who claims he's outgrown the IBM PC Junior (640K ram)
for school and needs a bigger machine..ie. can't run his fancy games due
to lack of VGA color monitor capability. He really only needs word processing
capability for college at this stage. Well, this summer he looked around
for a system and settled on the Packard Bell 386SX unit at Price Club. I
told him to be careful, but he said it was a great deal.. $1900.00 for 2 meg
ram and an 84 meg hard disc, VGA color monitor with 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 inch
high density floppy discs drives. He did buy one last month before he went
back to school. Well as you've said, the toll free help number is useless..
he called several times for minor information, it is a computer recorded
message setup for touch tone telephones. You key in certain codes depending
upon your problem; if you want to talk to a "live" person, call back on
a number where you pay the charges between the hours of 7 to 8  pm EST. My
son decided to ignore this service. The biggest problem he had was with the
color monitor. We returned the monitor twice and the cpu once.. there is
a faint but discernable thin purple line at the edge of the crt screen. It
is not very noticable when the screen is filled with a picture, but is very
annoying when the DOS cursor is the only object on the screen. We finally
decided that it was just the way it is... perhaps software adjustable or
poor graphics board design??? I had heard from some of the computers types
in my office that Packard Bell should be avoid as their computers are made
up of "non-standard" boards... Your notice does not leave me with a feeling
in terms of my son having trouble free use with his Packard Bell...