leslie@pixadv.UUCP (leslie) (07/03/84)
Subject: Radio Shack Repair Policy Newsgroups: net.micro.trs80 I find that Radio Shack is very unfair as to repairs. I have a model 1 with 2 non radio shack disk drives. I unpacked it from my recent move and discovered the drives were not working. I took it to Radio Shack who charged me $25 to check the keyboard and expansion interface. They would not even plug in the drives to see if had connected it properly! I finally took it to an independant repair place which will check out the drives. ( I can not take it to where I bought the drives as they were mail ordered. Has anyone else had a bad time with Radio Shack repair?
perl@rdin.UUCP (Robert Perlberg) (07/11/84)
<> ============== From: leslie@pixadv.UUCP (leslie) Has anyone else had a bad time with Radio Shack repair? ============== GOD am I glad you asked that question! I bought my Model III over three years ago when they first came out. I bought it new with both disk drives already installed. The top drive failed the first night. I brought it back to the store (not a computer center) to be sent back for repair. When it came back from repair, I tried it out in the store. The top drive still didn't work! Back it went. This time, it worked. But not for long. A few weeks later, the drive acted up again and I brought it back. This time, when it came back from repair and I tried it out in the store, it wouldn't even boot! Back it went. When it came back, it worked OK, but they sort of tricked me. The top drive was the one that was always giving me trouble so that's the one I checked. I later discovered that they had switched the two drives around! Six months later, the bottom drive (the one that used to be the top drive) gave out. I demanded and got a new computer. (The computer center refused to replace the flakey drive with a new drive, so the salesman ordered a new computer.) After all that, I now realize that trs-80's, even when they do work, are Edsels compared to anything I can get today for less than what I payed for my MIII. (((SIGH))) Robert Perlberg Resource Dynamics Inc. New York philabs!rdin!perl
dwhitney@uok.UUCP (07/12/84)
#R:pixadv:-1100:uok:20500009:000:1061 uok!dwhitney Jul 12 11:08:00 1984 I don't understand why you are upset with Radio Shack's refusal to repair/test NON Radio Shack equipment. That is part of the price you pay for mail-order services; the distinct Lack of service you can frequently encounter. Should Panasonic service an RCA TV? Would you expect Apple to repair a Radio Shack? Now I'm not one to heap praise on Radio Shack, they've made their share of mistakes, but by the same token lets give credit where credit is due. In my dealings with them, I have found them to be agreeable and tolerable in the extreme, although it did take a little jumping and screaming when I purchased a printer from them which did not function properly. Having been in this computer routine since high school, you learn quickly just how valid the expression "caveat emptor" really is; mail order is a bubbling cauldron of uncertainty. And I don't blame RS one bit for refusing to service the foreign equipment and more than I would blame an Apple dealer who refused to service my Radio Shack system..... David Whitney ctvax!uokvax!uok!dwhitney
jpm@bnl.UUCP (John McNamee) (07/13/84)
[Please bear with strange text formatting. I am on a bad terminal right now and have resorted to /bin/ed since our EMACS clone doesn't work] How can you expect Radio Shack to deal with alien hardware? The Radio Shack people are trained ONLY in their stuff. They have NO IDEA how your brand XYZ drive works (or doesn't work). If RS takes payment for services they must provide "professional" quality, and they can't do that on hardware they know nothing about (as other postings have shown they have enough trouble dealing properly with their own stuff). Your case goes to prove that unless you can support yourself you should pay the extra money and get your hardware & software from a local dealer who can support you. RS charges more than ABC Discount Hardware because they provide lots of support on the local level. You get what you pay for. (FYI, I have owned a Model 1 for over 4 years and have been very happy with it. I just got a Tandy 2000 and I am again impressed with how much local help is available to me when I have problems.) -- John McNamee ..!decvax!philabs!sbcs!bnl!jpm jpm@Bnl.Arpa
perl@rdin.UUCP (Robert Perlberg) (07/17/84)
<> I disagree that Radio Shack repair people should take an "I'm dumb about that 'cause it's not RS" attitude. While I would not expect an RS repair person to be able to fix a problem with or caused by a piece of non-RS equipment, I would expect him to at least spend a few minutes debugging the system to see if the problem is indeed being caused by the non-RS equipment. If, for example, you bought a computer with an RS-232 port and it wouldn't work with your VT100 terminal, would you consider it a problem with your computer's RS-232 port, or would you complacently accept the repair person's diagnosis that, since the VT100 is non-RS, you have no right to expect it to work? If you think the latter is valid, then why should the industry bother standardizing anything? The thing that burns me up about my experience is that the computer center obviously didn't care about my problem at all. It didn't involve any non-RS equipment and the system was brand new. This and many other experiences with RS bring one word to mind: CHEAP! RS is just too damn cheap to put any amount into giving more than a patronizing amount of service, and their prices, with or without the service, are just plain too high. Robert Perlberg Resource Dynamics Inc. New York philabs!rdin!perl
2141smh@aluxe.UUCP (henning) (07/21/84)
**** **** From the keys of Steve Henning, AT&T Bell Labs, Reading, PA aluxe!2141smh =>> I disagree that Radio Shack repair people should take an "I'm =>> dumb about that 'cause it's not RS" attitude. While I would =>> not expect an RS repair person to be able to fix a problem with =>> or caused by a piece of non-RS equipment, I would expect him =>> to at least spend a few minutes debugging the system to see if =>> the problem is indeed being caused by the non-RS equipment. =>> This and many other experiences with RS bring =>> one word to mind: CHEAP! =>> =>> Robert Perlberg Lets say that RS agreed to fix your equipment and found that you had made the mailorder conversion and found that they could not repair it per the manual without disconnecting some mysterious wire which so happened made the mailorder conversion work. Then they put the machine back together and charged you for taking it apart and putting it back together would you pay or would you be CHEAP. One more step, if they did fix it but your mailorder goody died in the process, would you sue RS for screwing up you mailorder goody. They certainly could not fix your mailorder goody. Let's look in the mirror and see who is CHEAP.
shawn@mit-eddie.UUCP (Shawn McKay) (07/22/84)
I also have had a history of bad problems with radio (s)hack repair, I finally have come to accept that if you wan't to have a TRS-80 of ANY KIND, and you wan't repair, BUY THE SPECS. If they can't sell you the specs to repair it your self, don't buy it. Cause radio (s)hack repair is a JOKE. Yours In Hacking, -- Shawn
mwm@ea.UUCP (07/24/84)
#R:pixadv:-1100:ea:8000001:000:2033 ea!mwm Jul 23 16:46:00 1984 /***** ea:net.micro.trs- / aluxe!2141smh / 10:38 pm Jul 20, 1984 */ Lets say that RS agreed to fix your equipment and found that you had made the mailorder conversion and found that they could not repair it per the manual without disconnecting some mysterious wire which so happened made the mailorder conversion work. Then they put the machine back together and charged you for taking it apart and putting it back together would you pay or would you be CHEAP. One more step, if they did fix it but your mailorder goody died in the process, would you sue RS for screwing up you mailorder goody. They certainly could not fix your mailorder goody. Let's look in the mirror and see who is CHEAP. /* ---------- */ Gee, neat. That's exactly what happened to me once. I took a non-booting mod I in that had an LC hack on it (put in before RS had theirs). Their response: rip my parts off the board, *put in a new board*, and claim that the LC hack was the problem. I got back my parts and a new cpu board. My response: I paid them. Then I threatened to sue them to get an LC hack back - either theirs or mine, on either board, I didn't care. They backed down and fixed the real problem with the original board, plus putting my LC hack back. Does that make me CHEAP - demanding that I get what I pay for? This action also got me on the shit list at the local CC, and they started such neat tactics as jacking up prices to me, returning my system with the video misaligned (that wasn't new, it just got more regular), and leaving my system on the shelf for weeks at a time. On the other hand, they tended to fix things quickly when they were all RS hardware (it's real fast to swap out cpu boards), and at good prices. I finally realized that RS was like IBM - as long as you stuck with their stuff, you were ok. Try to make the system do something that RS hadn't blessed (either software or hardware), and you lose. I eventually gave up and bought a system I could expand (it's currently a 416K z80/68000 dual CPU box). <mike
greggt@ncoast.UUCP (07/24/84)
It would be dumb if any Radio
Shack repair person said that it was the
problem of the VT100 without looking
at the type of connection you have to
it or the RS-232. It may be the fact
you are hooking it up wrong (no null
modem).
True some Radio Shack stores
have bad attitudes towards the
customer (more in the computer centers
than just regular stores), but most
of the time it is the customer who
brings it upon himself.
I suggest trying a regular
store sometime. They have more time for
the customers and seem to help out
more.
--
Gregg Thompson
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