Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!mtxinu!unisoft!hoptoad!peora!rtmvax!bilver!bill From: bill@bilver.UUCP (bill vermillion) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: to Tandy Bashing Keywords: ibm,tandy Message-ID: <528@bilver.UUCP> Date: 30 Apr 89 03:01:50 GMT References: <6885@ecsvax.UUCP> Reply-To: bill@bilver.UUCP (bill vermillion) Organization: W. J. Vermillion, Winter Park, FL Lines: 72 In article <6885@ecsvax.UUCP> msewil@ecsvax.UUCP (Charles R. Ward) writes: > >No, I'm not a Tandy rep. I direct an office that uses both IBM and >Tandy equipment. In our area (remote SE NC), we get better service >and performance from the Tandy equipment than from IBM. Sure, Tandy >can be bashed for a lot of things, but there are some excellent buys >out there if you look for them. The Tandy equipment (that I have used) isn't that bad. I have had a variety off problems, but in the past two years the service is SO BAD, that is is non-existant. eg - I have a client who has a pair of 6000's. He also has an ON-SITE SERVICE CONTRACT. About 2 months ago the primary drive started acting up. Lots of bad tracks, etc. This is on a Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday Tandy comes out, runs diagnostics on the drive, says it is fine, reformats. I install the software for the client Wednesday afternoon. As the data is being loaded in from the Bernouli box, - BAD TRACKS. Tandy is called back. They come out, decide they must order the drive (15 meg primary). Next Tuesday it is installed. FULL SEVEN DAY. Now the system start getting sporadic drive 0 not ready messages. Then one day it starts getting lots of drive 0 not ready. Half the time it can't find the proper program on shutdown so the seconday isn't mounted. Other times on boot up it won't mount. Have to manually type mount commands 6 to 10 times. (Alos happend on a Tuesday). Wednesday morning out they come. Run diagnostics. Says it is fine. Leaves. System is just as bad as ever. Tech tracks me down at another client site as he gets a call from the t6k client. I tell him it sounds like the disk controller card. He says he is busy, will have to get there Monday. He shows up Tuesday. Replaces drive (not neccesary) and controller (the culprit in my opinion). This is with an ONSITE SERVICE CONTRACT. Another example. I work for a local community college 2 days a week keeping about 11 Xenix system up and running. 7 are Tandy 3000's. My development machine started dying. Panic and a halt. Turns out the fan doesnt run and it overheats. Machine goes to repair. They keep it 4 days and return it. Same thing. Goes back. Stays THIRTEEN DAYS. They replace the fan and the power supply. Guess what. Same problem. Now we turn it on, see if the fan runs, if not, turn off try again. I have never seen so many non-repairs in my life. And computer techs who are not really competent. Now - at the same community college, we just installed our 3rd IBM-80, with another in the pipe-line. These machines have a ONE YEAR WARRANTY. For $25 extra is becomes ON SITE. Additonal years are $300 per year (that's about $1000 less than Tandy). Had a floppy go bad. Called in the morning. It was replaced in the afternoon. And IBM service is open more than just 9-5 Monday thru Friday. All the problems Joe relates were known locally at the RS stores. I have never had problems with their printers, or non-compatibility. I just can't get them serviced in a reasonable amount of time. Ten days may be okay for a home/hobby machine. But take a 3000 with Xenix and 8 users. Every day it is down is 64 productive hours GONE. One week is 320 hours (assuming you are 9-5 M-F). That can't happen in this day an age. I now stick with companies that can offer 7 day service on their machines. That includes people such as AT&T, NCR, and IBM. I'm not a new comer to Tandy machines. My Model I was my introduction to computers in late 77. And I have worked on most, and taken apart many since then. At one time I had about 8 clients on t6ks alone. Down to ONE now, and he will be out of that shortly. (I still have a pair - one is a usenet node - and the other is a spare!) Until/unless they make a major turn-around in service I won't recommend one of their machines unless it is for a home/hobby environment. -- Bill Vermillion - UUCP: {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd}!peora!rtmvax!bilver!bill : bill@bilver.UUCP