japplega@csm9a.UUCP (Joe Applegate) (04/26/89)
My Personal Experiances with Tandy
Chapter 1
In 1980 I bought my first home computer... a 16K Radio Shack Color Computer
for $599... within two months I added disk drives and a printer to the
system for an additional $299 + $499... this installment of my personal
experiances with Tandy deal with this computer... future installments will
deal with the Model 100 and 1000A that I subsequently bought from Tandy.
Pehaps this will help some of you understand why I make such an effort to
discourage others from buying Tandy computers!
At first I was in hog heaven with my little computer... though certainly
far from the VM system I was working with on the job, IT WAS MINE!
But it took little time to realise the need for dependable storage (and
a cassette is far from dependable) and hardcopy... so off I went to my
neighborhood Radio Shack for more goodies...
There really was only one choice for a disk... but the choice of printers
was huge AND EXPENSIVE... the salesman assured me that for a Coco all I really
needed was a Line Printer VII, which even though it had no lower case descenders
it did have an interface for the Coco and was the cheapest printer.
Within a week, this printer started dropping line feeds several times per
page... I was not amused... I took it back to the RS and after 4 weeks it came
back with a tag that said they could not duplicate the problem... we put it
on a Coco in the store and it skipped line feeds... I then asked if I could
just get another printer... but no! My 30 days was now up!... so again it
went to the shop... and again came back with a tag that said they could not
duplicate the problem... by this time the store mgr. had been changed and all
the clerks were new (Tandy seemed to go through them every week!)...
Once again I demonstrated there was a real problem and sent in the printer...
after 6 weeks it came back tagged as repaired... when I got home, guess what!
It still skipped!!! I took it back and was told it was now out of warentee and
would cost a minimum of $150 to fix! It still sits in my closet as a proof
of Tandy's lousy service and the poor quality of their printers...
Eventually I had my Coco (grey case E board) upgraded to 32K and when OS9
came out I wanted to run it as well... so I tried to do the E board mod myself
It didn't work... I asked some of the local hackers from our users group...
they checked my work and even re-did some of it... it still only had 32K
(I had the diagnostics pack that checks all 64K)... finally I ripped out the
chips I had put in and replaced them with new one minus jumpers and sent it
to Tandy... it came back with 32K.. OS9 would not boot!!!
Upon demonstrating this to the salesclerk he sent it back... after 3 trips
it still came back with 32K only! finally, someone in the Users group
identified it as an EE board ran a different jumper and I had 64K... I am
still using this system... BUT WHY COULDN'T TANDY IDENTIFY THEIR OWN
BOARD!
Let alone the fact that they charged me $150 for a machine that already had
4164's in it and which they never did make into a 64K machine!!!!
These stories are typical of the tales of woe that many Coco owners recite
as to dealing with Tandy... I could tell of worse problems that others in
our User Group encountered but I chose to keep this to my personal experiances.
One final story... simply because I was involved in it...
When DynaCalc for OS9 came out I had a really hard time getting it... I went
to a computer center and asked for it and when I told them it was a spreadsheet
for OS9 they tried to sell me a 1000! I told them I already had a computer
and I wanted the spreadsheet that Tandy sold for it, NOT A NEW COMPUTER!
They then said that it was probably a very poor spreadsheet cause it was
on a Coco and that I really needed a PC... this was not the way to endear
oneself to a Coco User Group President and the developer of several Coco
products on the market! Particularly when the product in question WAS A TANDY
PRODUCT!
So we did a survey... I had three other guys go around with me to various
RS and Computer Centers asking for a spreadsheet for the Coco (there were
two in the catalog and almost every store had spectaculator (which I admit
was junk, but still was a spreadsheet))... another group would go in the
same store and ask for a Pascal (Pascal-09 was in the catalog!)...
Out of 30 stores only one would say that there was a spreadsheet... and every
one tried to sell the existing customer a new computer!
We wrote up this information and submitted it to several Coco magazines...
all of which forwarded it to Ed Juge
and he responded that his personnel could not know every product!
[and they can't look in a catalog I suppose!]
[To be continued]
Joe Applegatebownesrm@beowulf.UUCP (Uncle Keptin Comrade Dr. Bobwrench) (04/26/89)
I've about had it with these rantings.....Here's the solutions that would have solved this guy's problems: > it did have an interface for the Coco and was the cheapest printer. You do get what you pay for.....Buy a cheap printer from anyone else (since this is made not by RS, but by Citizen) and you'll have the same problem. RS just marks things up a little more. They make none of their own printers. > Once again I demonstrated there was a real problem and sent in the printer... > after 6 weeks it came back tagged as repaired... when I got home, guess what! > It still skipped!!! I took it back and was told it was now out of warentee and > would cost a minimum of $150 to fix! It still sits in my closet as a proof > of Tandy's lousy service and the poor quality of their printers... > One phone call in a reasonable tone of voice with the reciepts to the Regional Service Manager would have taken care of this problem for you. If you can prove that the Service center was unable to fix the problem in warranty, they would have gotten you a new printer. Motto: When you have a service problem, deal with the service center. They have the facilities to deal with customers, they just discourage it because the world is full of assholes which are best left dealing with salescritters. As a Field service rep, I oftern called customers having a problem I couldn't identify and only then (sometimes ) could find the problem. If you still had problems and could not get them to fix it, you could have asked for the unit to be shipped to another service center or even Ft. Worth to be fixed. Happens all the time, especially with strange problems. > Eventually I had my Coco (grey case E board) upgraded to 32K and when OS9 > came out I wanted to run it as well... so I tried to do the E board mod myself > It didn't work... I asked some of the local hackers from our users group... > they checked my work and even re-did some of it... it still only had 32K > (I had the diagnostics pack that checks all 64K)... finally I ripped out the > chips I had put in and replaced them with new one minus jumpers and sent it > to Tandy... it came back with 32K.. OS9 would not boot!!! > > Let alone the fact that they charged me $150 for a machine that already had > 4164's in it and which they never did make into a 64K machine!!!! > Did Tandy do the 32K upgrade? If they did, those were 4164's that one half of the chip had failed. RS saved considerable $$ by buying these 32K DRAMS. Often one could set them up as 64K, but with unpredictable results due to single bit errors high in RAM. > > Out of 30 stores only one would say that there was a spreadsheet... and every > one tried to sell the existing customer a new computer! > Easy to explain. Computer bigotry. Coco's are game computers and that is how they were/are designed and marketed. The salescritters want to get business systems sold because they make more money. BTW: What prevented you from pointing it out to the salesperson in the catalog? Sounds like an urge to be cantankerous and to justify your bitching. If you walked in and told him/her the catalog #, they (before they recognized you on sight and transferred) would have been happy to dig one out or order it for you. > and he responded that his personnel could not know every product! > [and they can't look in a catalog I suppose!] > see above. Bob The opinions expressed herein are mine and not those of my former employer, whose stock purchase plan paid my way through college. -- "Reading legal mush can turn your brain to guacamole" Bob Bownes, aka iii, aka captain comrade doktor bobwrench 3 A Pinehurst Ave, Albany, New York, 12203, (518)-482-8798 voice bownesrm@beowulf.uucp {uunet!crdgw1,rutgers!brspyr1}!beowulf!bownesrm
dmt@mtunb.ATT.COM (Dave Tutelman) (04/27/89)
In article <1356@beowulf.UUCP> bownesrm@beowulf.UUCP (Uncle Keptin Comrade Dr. Bobwrench) writes: > > I've about had it with these rantings.....Here's the solutions >that would have solved this guy's [Joe Applegate's] problems: >... >RS just marks things up a little more. They make none of their own printers. >... > Motto: When you have a >service problem, deal with the service center. They have the facilities to deal >with customers, they just discourage it because the world is full of assholes >which are best left dealing with salescritters. see below^^^^^^^^ The ONLY reason I ever deal with Tandy is convenience. I am aware of their high markup and ignoramus salescritters, but occasionally it's worth it because there are several within easy bicycle range. Now Bob tells me: (1) yeah, I'm paying a premium, but don't worry be happy, and (2) I must give up the convenience of dealing with the local store if I want to make anything happen. There goes the ONE motivation I ever had for patronizing Radio Schlock. Bob makes Joe's case almost as effectively as Joe did. By the way, I hope Bob's characterization of Tandy's customers (flagged in his remarks) is not the way Tandy views their customers. That's a sure-fire prescription for business failure. +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dave Tutelman | | Physical - AT&T Bell Labs - Middletown, NJ | | Logical - ...att!mtunb!dmt | | Audible - (201) 957 6583 | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Disclaimer: The above is my opinion. I don't know my employer's opinion on the subject, or even whether it exists.