[net.micro.trs-80] Vermin in Ft. Worth

2141smh@aluxe.UUCP (henning) (08/03/84)

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From the keys of Steve Henning, AT&T Bell Labs, Reading, PA aluxe!2141smh

I saw the following under net.consumers regarding phone calls and
it tripped my memory of a similar experience regarding Tandy/TRS.

=>>I'd scream up their corporate ladder.  Don't deal with
=>>the little people that have no incentive to help customers.  Brush
=>>off the vermin and get to the meat of the problem, ask for their
=>>supervisor.

=>>mikey at trsvax

I have found that the same is true when I call Ft. Worth to get
answers from Tandy.

Example:  I wanted to know if TRS CPM+ for Model 4 would read
any commercial formats of CPM.  I was told that it would read 5
tracks or some such thing which didn't appear in vendors catalogs.
She said that is all she was told to say.  I asked who told her to
say this and asked to speak to him.  He did return my call
but was equally vague.  My understanding that if one buys TRS CPM+
so they can gain access to the world of programs out there, they are
limited to disks sold by TRS with their weird format.  Yet the
same machine can read over 6 other formats with the Montezuma
software.  I guess I am saying that sometimes the vermin go up
several levels.

Example 2: A friend has been working for 4 months to write a
termcap for his Model 4.  He called me the other day to ask a
specific question and I told him I would send him the whole
termcap which may have been written by trsvax/mikey, I am not
sure.  He had called Ft. Worth and asked the same information
and was told that only members of some vendor software group had
access to such information and that no termcap existed.   Well
that was an out-and-out lie.  He also spoke to a supervisor and
got the same song-and-dance.  The vermin seem to be really doing
their number in Ft. Worth.

hood@uiucuxc.UUCP (08/19/84)

#R:aluxe:-29300:uiucuxc:33700008:000:377
uiucuxc!hood    Aug  5 23:05:00 1984

Wait a minute...

You used a very strange example.  Why would a consa
representive of Tandy to ask about a termcap for Unix.
Why would they provide a termcap entry ?  Did they write the 
communication program ?

A side note :  If that person had called a RS Computer Center
and asked for a printout of the /etc/termcap file on the Model 16B
the matter would have been solved.