tmyers@athena.mit.edu (Tracy S Myers) (05/06/90)
Several weeks ago I posted an article about Northgate regarding the difficulty I had experienced with them. In that article I described the problems I had trying to get a definite ship date from them, the general lack of coordination between their employees in trying to get me the information, and the fact that my computer was going to be shipped at least a week later than the date they promised it would be shipped at the latest. If I kvetch about somebody, I do not like to do it behind their back. So, I sent a copy of my article and a letter describing my problems with their service to the head of the company. I also faxed a copy of both of these. I was quite surprised that a week went by without a response to my letter. I guess it usually gets worse before it gets better! I called them on the morning my machine was supposed to arrive (the revised date) to confirm that my machine was in fact in a UPS truck just crying out to be delivered into my impatient hands. Well, it seems my computer did not ship as promised again. Not only that, but again nobody informed me that there was a problem. Which is what had been pissing me off all along. I can understand reasonable delays. What I cannot tolerate is being given the runaround. After I called them, independently I got a call in response to my letter. The person who called listened to my story and said he would see what he could do. Anyway they said they would try to ship me a system that day if they could, even if they had to give me a different drive temporarily, because they were still out of stock of the drive I had ordered. After a number of calls back and forth they determined that they could not get a machine out that day, but they could get me a machine out the next with the disk drive that I had ordered. Since that would be friday, I would get it on Monday. I told them that this would be a big problem. So, they offered to send it FedEx Saturday delivery at their expense. As promised the machine arrived Saturday morning. It worked right out of the box. I was happy to see not even one styrofoam peanut in the packaging. I really like this machine. The tower case is sturdy. It is very fast (33Mhz,I was quite surprised at how fast it seemed since it was being subjectively compared to the Sun 4/330 I use at work), was completely configured, and came with a very sturdy keyboard with a very nice IBM-sh feel. I have had the machine for two weeks now, and the only problem I have had is that the hard disk activity led does not work. I called their tech support who would have walked me through checking it, but I was too busy at the time. I just wanted to let them know, and to make sure it was not anything more than a minor irritation. The NEC 3D monitor is beautiful, especially the digital controls. I would recommend this monitor to anybody. Overall, I am satisfied with Northgate. I have received several calls from them asking about the problems I had. My impression is that they are genuinely concered about the level of service they provide. Given the number of problems people have had with mail-order companies, I can recommend Northgate as a reputable vendor. I have found their system to be of high quality. Their service had a few bugs in it. But, they say they are making some changes to prevent the kind of problems I had. I feel confident that if I have any further trouble with the machine that they will be responsive to the problem. Once I finally got their attention, they went out of their way to solve the problem. All companies have problems now and again. What makes a good company is how they respond to the problems. I feel that I could recommend them without any major qualification. Just make sure that you keep on top of your order, and if you have a problem make sure they know you are dissatified. I apologize for eating up so much net bandwidth for this, but I feel that many people can benefit from this information. Tracy Myers