Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!motcsd!motsj1!mcdchg!att!cbnewsc!stuart From: stuart@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (S. D. Ericson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Jasmine Service - an Oxymoron Summary: Bad Jasmine Service Refund? Message-ID: <13436@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> Date: 9 Feb 90 15:25:23 GMT Distribution: na Organization: The Great Underground Empire (60187) Lines: 103 Hello netters, I am going to tell my ongoing tale of my service dealings with Jasmine. Bit first, for those of you who don't want to hear any more of that, I have a few questions, which I will gladly summarize to the net: 1) Have any of you had bad experiences with Jasmine? - I would like to compile a list of unsatified users and their complaints. 2) If I can get my money back from them, where should I invest it? Notes: I'd like an internal drive for a IIcx, 80MB or larger, and I like the speed of the Quantums. What about LaCie's famous software and a bare drive? 3) Any hints as to how I can get Jasmine to give me a refund? Please mail to me, Stuart Ericson, using the addresses: USEnet: ...!att!ihlpa!stuart ARPA: stuart@ihlpa.att.com And now, back to the story... Last May (89) I was on the search for an internal quantum drive, by recommendations from the net. Unfortunately, I thought Jasmine gave the best price&software for such a drive. That summer, I began to get the well-known quantum problems, and learned to make backups VERY frequently (many kudos to MicroSeeds for Redux!). Finally, in September (4 months) the drive failed completely. It took about a week and 40 dollars in long-distance calling to get through for a return authorization. I left many messages, but they never returned any calls. Finally I managed to get through to a technician, just for the return authorization. I was also able to talk them into giving me a loaner drive. After I received the loaner, I began to believe in their service and support after all, they were even able to ship the loaner to me within a week of the earthquake. But the good feeling didn't last long. Soon the loaner drive itself was failing - it was one of their bad Rodime-based drives. Once again, I found it necessary to back up the drive after EVERY use of the machine. I called Jasmine thinking I could get a replacement loaner. I was informed that I was lucky to have a loaner, and if I sent the one I had back, it could be weeks before I had another. And they didn't know how long it would be before MY drive was fixed. So with their help I learned that sometimes I could revive the drive with use of a hairdryer - it warmed the sticking grease. But that solution was not perfect. Eventually, the hairdryer trick didn't work. A another 10 or 20 dollars in call attempts to Jasmine got me the next solution: if you can ever get the drive going, DO NOT TURN IT OFF. As luck would have it, after repeated attempts, the drive did start up, and I've had it on ever since. By now it was december, and I was anxious to get a reliable, full-size, fast drive back into my machine. I spent a more time and money getting through to Jasmine, and they finally game me an estimate: probably in January. I tried to express my frustration, so they said they would expidite the fix. Because they had held my drive for 3 months, and it was going to be another month, I tried to pursue another avenue: refunding or upgrading to another drive. They promised to call me back, but once again I had to put in the time and money to get through. After a while, I gave up and decided to wait for January. By the January fifteenth, I was anxious and spent more time and money trying to get through. Eventually I received a message on my answering machine stating that they were sorry, but it was going to be another 4 weeks! I was infuriated -- this was an EXPIDITED repair? This is the fifth month that they have been holding my drive, and I have spent at least one hundred dollars on phone calls, shipping and other related expenses to get my drive fixed WHILE UNDER WARRANTY! I gave up. It was time to get a refund. Their warantee states that Jasmine has the option to either fix or replace, and if they cannot fix it, they can give a full refund of the purchase price. Well, I figured, if they cannot fix or replace the drive in four months, they cannot fix it at all, so I should get a refund. So I called and left a message to that fact, and asked for a refund. Surprizingly, the next day, Tim Timon, manager of techinical support, called back to tell me how he had suddenly expidited the repair and assured me that the drive would be sent out next week. Well, I no longer trusted the word 'expidited', and I do not trust Jasmine. If they do send me the drive next week, and it failed, would it be another 5 months before they fixed it again? To top it off, Tim told me that my warrantee would not be charged for the time the drive was in service. In other words, they are not confident of their service - my drive will NOT come back with a 2-year warrantee, but about a year and a half. Ridiculous! So I asked again about a refund. He said that he wasn't authorized to give me a refund, and referred me to Rose Williams. I was able to leave a message briefly stating my case and asking for a refund. We shall see how this turns out... I would be grateful for any suggestions as to how to get a refund - I want to get away from this company! Again, I also would like to hear other stories of Jasmine troubles, as well as suggestions as to where I should go for RELIABLE drives and service. Stuart Stuart Ericson AT&T Bell Laboratories USEnet: att!ihlpa!stuart IH 1C215 ARPA: stuart@ihlpa.att.com 2000 N. Naperville Road Voice: (708) 979-4491 Naperville, Il 60566-7033