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From: stevewa@upvax.UUCP (Steve Ward)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Packard Bell doesn't really exist (long)
Message-ID: <1119@upvax.UUCP>
Date: 15 Sep 90 21:05:27 GMT
References: <1990Sep6.154721.12322@iwarp.intel.com>
Reply-To: stevewa@upvax.UUCP (Steve Ward)
Organization: University of Portland, Portland, OR
Lines: 31

I bought the Packard Bell laser printer at Costco (wholesale warehouse)
early this year.  This is a TEC based printer, like the Epson, Mannesman-
Tally, Toshiba, Facit, and many others.

Unlike the other brands, Packard Bell includes an extra meg of RAM in the
printer, for a total of 1.5MB.  So far the printer has performed flawlessly.

I had some questions (support for non-HP font cartridges, PostScript and the
like).  The toll-free auto-menu voice-mail ultra-fancy shmancy system is
indeed worthless.  However, by the time I finally got to a human, I was
told to give my name and number, and a techie would call me back within
48 hours.  By this point I'd given up, but I thought what the heck and
gave them the number.  They did indeed call back, and the fellow who talked
to me (his dime!) was very knowledgeable and helpful.

So, the answer is, it does take a while to get through all the garbage red
tape, but once you do, their people seem to know what they're talking about
pretty well.

Responses in the recent PC Magazine reliability survey seem to confirm
my theory.

I can't comment on repair problems, because I haven't had any difficulties
with the laser printer yet (fingers crossed).

Steve
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