hybl@mbph.UUCP (Albert Hybl Dept of Biophysics SM) (07/28/89)
I would like to acquire an AT&T 3B1 with 2Meg RAM on the mother board, a 67 Meg hard disk, keyboard and mouse, etc. (Are there any available with the AT&T warranty?) I am also interested in obtaining a combo board for the above system. Please e-mail information of what is available and from whom. If you have some or all of the items for sale, please include your asking price. I will summarize the responses, if there are more than I need. Thanks in advance, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Albert Hybl, PhD. Office UUCP: uunet!mimsy!mbph!hybl Department of Biophysics Home UUCP: uunet!mimsy!mbph!hybl!ah University of Maryland CoSy: ahybl School of Medicine Baltimore, MD 21201 Phone: (301) 328-7940 (Office) ----------------------------------------------------------------------
jan@bagend.UUCP (Jan Isley) (07/31/89)
In article <602@mbph.UUCP> hybl@mbph.UUCP (Albert Hybl Dept of Biophysics SM) writes: > >I would like to acquire an AT&T 3B1 with 2Meg RAM on the mother >board, a 67 Meg hard disk, keyboard and mouse, etc. (Are there >any available with the AT&T warranty?) I am also interested >in obtaining a combo board for the above system. Let me remind everyone one more time. AT&T no longer provides warranty service for any 7300|Unix PC|3B1. No matter where or when you buy|bought it, no warranty. The only exception to this is if you buy certain phone systems *from* AT&T that use a 3B1 as a controller. In that case, you don't really know that you have a computer since it is a phone system and not usable by you as a computer. How do I know this you ask? I work for Discovery Electronics, an AT&T VAR and one of the very few places left to buy a Unix PC. I have talked to just about everyone at AT&T who has now or has had anything to do with these systems for the last several years. There is no longer a product manager for the Unix PC. By her own admission, the last person to hold that position was a not very glorified clerk. AT&T will still very gladly sell system software for the Unix PC, but they will not even support that. If you call the Tech Support Hotline with a question about "supported" software that is well within the "90 day" warranty period, you will not get to talk to an engineer without first giving someone a credit card number and authorizing them to charge it at a rate of $150 per hour with absolutely no assurance that you will then get to talk to a support engineer who has ever even used a Unix PC. If, after talking to an engineer, it is determined that the problem is in fact related to the "supported software", the engineer *may* reverse the charges to your credit card. You can buy a service agreement from AT&T. You better be sitting down when they tell you how much they charge for it, especially for one with lots of memory and a big disk. For *much* less than a one year service contract I can sell you a spare computer. If a warranty is important to you, you better buy one from a vendor who will support you because I can promise you from experience that AT&T will not, at least not on this machine. Discovery Electronics does have these machines for sale and we provide a 90 day warranty. Some of our customers are very happy, some are not, statistics sort of works that way, doesn't it. If you buy a computer from us, I am your support and your warranty. Try to find someone at AT&T to say that. AT&T's position is that for every Unix PC sold, they loose a sale for a 386. Yes, that is preposterous, but that is their official position and they are sticking to it. Certain unnamed AT&T big shots have even *suggested* that we should *loose* our remaining stock of Unix PCs. They would not be more specific. For support of a CURRENT, SUPPORTED product, I do not believe that you can beat AT&T, period. When they move on to new product lines .... I do not have all the answers and as I said, not all of our customers are happy, but some people expect too much of a system that is showing its age, technoligically speaking, and some people just are not going to be happy unless their computer walks on water and gives change. I remember one customer who demanded that I replace his hard disk because it had 6 bad blocks on it. He got his money back. It was easier than putting up with someone who was clearly going to be a royal pain in the ... Jan Isley, follower of Zen, picker of nit jan@bagend | gatech!bagend!jan | (404) 434-1335 home | (404) 425-5700 work
john@banzai.UUCP (John Canning) (08/07/89)
In article <804@bagend.UUCP> jan@bagend.UUCP (Jan Isley) writes: > >AT&T no longer provides warranty service for any 7300|Unix PC|3B1. > Over the past two months, we've sold several 3B1 computers, which we purchased from our AT&T distributor in January. Three of these machines have had hard drive & mother board problems. We have had no trouble getting the machines serviced under their warranty. If VARS or other authorized AT&T resellers are having trouble with the hotline and getting warranty service, AT&T provides what they call a Resellar Assist Line (I call it the idiot's hotline) 800-231-7863. This number is used to report bad techs or other AT&T employees who try to give you a run around. We recently received an updated statement on AT&T's warranty policies. They said that they will support a discontinued product's warranty from one year from when the machine is discontinued.
jan@bagend.UUCP (Jan Isley) (08/07/89)
In article <1292@banzai.UUCP> john@banzai.UUCP (John Canning) writes: >In article <804@bagend.UUCP> jan@bagend.UUCP (Jan Isley) writes: >>AT&T no longer provides warranty service for any 7300|Unix PC|3B1. >Over the past two months, we've sold several 3B1 computers, which we >purchased from our AT&T distributor in January. Three of these >machines have had hard drive & mother board problems. We have had >no trouble getting the machines serviced under their warranty. I do not remember exactly when it started, but I we had customers calling to say that their local AT&T service center had declined to do offer warranty work on their system. I think it was in March. Through April and May, we had customers who did get warranty work and customers who did not. We had one customer who called AT&T about his battery. They replaced his motherboard, which quit working 2 days later. When he called them back, AT&T tried to bill him for the work done a week before, and refused to fix his motherboard, which was working fine before they replaced it. >If VARS or other authorized AT&T resellers are having trouble with >the hotline and getting warranty service, AT&T provides what they >call a Resellar Assist Line (I call it the idiot's hotline) >800-231-7863. This number is used to report bad techs or other >AT&T employees who try to give you a run around. Have not tried this number yet. I will though, thanks. I have talked the the Unix PC product manager (now transfered) many times. She told me that warranty work was absolutely no longer supported. >We recently received an updated statement on AT&T's warranty policies. >They said that they will support a discontinued product's warranty from >one year from when the machine is discontinued. Anyone remember exactly when the Unix PC was officially discontinued? This all reminds me of the signature line in some mail I got last week from someone who worked at AT&T and could not get them to work on *her* 7300... AT&T, the communications company, except internally of course. Jan --- jan@bagend | gatech!bagend!jan | h (404)434-1335 | w (404)425-5700 Humankind cannot bear very much reality. T. S. Eliot
jcm@mtunb.ATT.COM (was-John McMillan) (08/07/89)
In article <827@bagend.UUCP> jan@bagend.UUCP (Jan Isley) writes: : >This all reminds me of the signature line in some mail I got last week >from someone who worked at AT&T and could not get them to work on *her* >7300... AT&T, the communications company, except internally of course. As we receive AT&T INTERNAL SERVICE on our many-many 3B1's on an ongoing and prompt basis, the above comment should be reconsidered. (For its sexist highlighting, alone! MANY of our staff and 3B1 users are female.) If she is having problems with internal support, perhaps she needs help with PROCESS. I've almost always found MANY staff who are enthusiastic about helping one with learning the ropes. (And some who are enthusiastic about giving enough rope !-) john mcmillan -- att!mtunb!jcm
ned@pebbles.cad.mcc.com (Ned Nowotny) (08/08/89)
In article <1590@mtunb.ATT.COM> you write: >In article <827@bagend.UUCP> jan@bagend.UUCP (Jan Isley) writes: >: >>This all reminds me of the signature line in some mail I got last week >>from someone who worked at AT&T and could not get them to work on *her* >>7300... AT&T, the communications company, except internally of course. > >As we receive AT&T INTERNAL SERVICE on our many-many 3B1's on an ongoing >and prompt basis, the above comment should be reconsidered. (For its >sexist highlighting, alone! MANY of our staff and 3B1 users are female.) Excuse me, but I don't see anything sexist in saying that AT&T would not work on her (highlighted or otherwise) 3b1. It seems reasonable that the sense of the comment is to say that AT&T is not even willing to work on 3b1's *owned* by their own employees. Whether the comment is true or not, it is not sexist. The owner of the computer is a woman and it is her computer. It is precisely this sort of knee-jerk feminism that keeps people shouting slogans rather than discussing issues. Language is easy enough to confuse without laying a whole new set of supposed ulterior motives and intentions on the user. Next time, communicate, but don't pontificate. (Ack! Another slogan. It appears I am not without sin myself. Oh, well...) Ned Nowotny, MCC CAD Program, Box 200195, Austin, TX 78720 Ph: (512) 338-3715 ARPA: ned@mcc.com UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!milano!cadillac!ned ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We have ways to make you scream." - Intel advertisement in the June 1989 DDJ.
ignatz@chinet.chi.il.us (Dave Ihnat) (08/09/89)
In article <1590@mtunb.ATT.COM> jcm@mtunb.UUCP (John McMillan) writes: >In article <827@bagend.UUCP> jan@bagend.UUCP (Jan Isley) writes: >: >>This all reminds me of the signature line in some mail I got last week >>from someone who worked at AT&T and could not get them to work on *her* >>7300... AT&T, the communications company, except internally of course. > >As we receive AT&T INTERNAL SERVICE on our many-many 3B1's on an ongoing >and prompt basis, the above comment should be reconsidered. (For its >sexist highlighting, alone! MANY of our staff and 3B1 users are female.) If you'll read it, you'll find that the emphasis is not to make the point that it was a 'her', but that it was emphasizing that she was an AT&T employee and couldn't even get service. Whether or not this was a correct assertion, only the original AT&T employee who posted can affirm or deny; but this is NOT a sexist highlight. Dave Ihnat ignatz@homebru.chi.il.us (preferred return address) ignatz@chinet.chi.il.us