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From: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Commodore loses a customer!
Keywords: stupidity
Message-ID: <6081@oberon.USC.EDU>
Date: 8 Jan 88 17:47:41 GMT
References: <517@ra.rice.edu>
Sender: nobody@oberon.USC.EDU
Reply-To: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Organization: Felsina Software, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 51

In article <517@ra.rice.edu> phil@rice.edu (William LeFebvre) writes:
|>No, not me........but a friend of mine.
|>He purchased a 2000 with an extra 3.25" drive, a 5" drive, and a bridge
|>card thru the mail-order firm "Sprite Technology".  The extra parts did
|>not come installed, but he had planned on that.  When he went to install
|>the drives, the installation instructions sent with the drive said to
|>remove a connector from the motherboard.  He did that, but one of the
|>middle pins on the board came off with the connector.  "No problem," he
|>says, "it's only a day old and still on warranty."
|>He did what the warranty said; he took his machine to a local dealer.

This is what he SHOULD have done in the first place, BEFORE opening it up.

|>They looked at it and said "it's obviously defective, but you opened the
|>case and therefore violated the warranty.  Tough luck."  

Sorry, but opening the case and doing what your friend did is EXACTLY what
will VOID a warranty, whether Commodore, IBM, Apple or whatever.  He should
have read the warranty.  That kind of work is supposed to be done at an
authorized service center or Commodore dealer.

>My friend has given up on Commodore and is going to send the machine back
>to Sprite.  Meanwhile, Sprite doesn't answer their phone (but that's a
>different story).

They should have installed the boards in the first place.  Gripe with them,
not Commodore.

>Why doesn't Commodore stand behind its product?  They can't afford to do
>this to their customers.  Is it really a violation of warranty to simply
>open the case?  I don't recall the warranty saying anything about that.

Yes, it is.

>When Commodore was faced with an obviously defective unit, they tried to
>weasel out of their responsibility by accusing the owner of breaking it
>himself. 

From your message it is clear that your friend indeed DID break it himself.
>
>My friend is going to visit his IBM dealer.  And a mutual friend of ours
>has been totally turned off of Commodore and its Amigas (she was seriously
>considering buying one).  So, Commodore loses two customers.

Note that the IBM warrantly is ALSO voided by the type of action that your
friend executed.  Many IBM dealers won't touch a machine that has been
fooled with by a customer.  In fact, many IBM dealers will require that you
take out all foreign (non-IBM) boards when you carry a machine to the
daler for repair.

-- Marco