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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!masscomp!ulowell!wanginst!wang!ephraim
From: ephraim@wang.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Multi-vendor Mac failure.
Message-ID: <450@wang.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-May-87 08:42:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: wang.450
Posted: Tue May 26 08:42:14 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 28-May-87 06:20:24 EDT
References: <1192@spice.cs.cmu.edu>
Organization: Wang Labs, Lowell MA
Lines: 48
Summary: Be fair, not rabid.

In article <1192@spice.cs.cmu.edu>, tdn@spice.cs.cmu.edu (Thomas Newton) writes:
> > Symptoms: 1) Vertical lines of sporatic dots on the screen, starting at the
> >	  right, getting more dense, and spreading to the left. . .
> 
> I would suspect the MassTech 2MB memory upgrade.  I bought a 2MB upgrade for a
> 128K Mac from these people all the way back in December of 1985, and it caused
> my Mac to have problems similar (but not identical) to the ones you described.
> After giving the turkeys THREE chances to fix the upgrade, I returned it (with
> their promise that I would get a refund and reimbursement for shipping, etc.)
> in April of 1986.  I am -still- waiting for my $1200 and hope that the federal
> bankruptcy judge will force them to make good on it (I am convinced that they
> will not return my money otherwise and that they never intended to return it).
> 
>                                         -- Thomas Newton

From your tone, it's obvious that you're p*ss*d *ff.  From your statements,
it's possible that you have some of the facts, but that being p*ss*d *ff
has fogged your brain.  Perhaps you imagine that the moguls operating
MassTech took the money and ran after screwing all the innocents they
could.  If so, you're wrong.

MassTech was a small "mom and pop" (literally!) operation.  While he was
in business, Steve (president, founder, chief engineer, and janitor) did
his best to deal fairly with customers, dealers, and vendors.  Many didn't
return the favor.  About the same time that you returned your upgrade for
a refund, MassTech expired *very* abruptly.  They were out of cash and
losing money.  On discovering this, they stopped doing business immediately,
rather than get any further into trouble.

Since then, Steve's wife
(MassTech's bookkeeper) and their lawyer have done their best to pay all of
MassTech's debts and to collect the substantial sums owed to MassTech by
unscrupulous dealers.  They could simply have left the whole mess
to the court, in which case few creditors would see anything.  Instead,
they're going to considerable effort to satisfy as many people as possible.

Your experience with MassTech hardware is atypical.  In every case I know
of where the hardware worked *initially*, and absent any further changes
in environment, it's still working.  I use my MassTech internal hard disk
every day, and I couldn't get along without it.  The writer whose article
prompted your outburst had no trouble until he upgraded his Mac.

Ephraim Vishniac
decvax!wang!ephraim

Claimer:  I wrote software for MassTech, and I lost money when they went
under.  But I'm not flaming about it, because I think they did the best
they could with limited resource in a tough market.