MLS@s40.prime.COM (11/07/88)
Whoever posted that Atari Customer Service is helpful could not have called the same people I did! Since I have not been successful in getting the information I need from the Net, I finally called Atari directly about my Chinon disk drive problem. (See various postings previous) The girl put me on hold, talked to her technical people, then assured me that my service center was wrong. I called him back, made him call Atari himself, and then had to apologize because I was given bad information. I called Atari back and got the same girl (Is there only ONE customer service rep?) She apologized, saying that there was a miscommunication between herself and the technician. She then told me that I would have to talk to Chinon because it was not an Atari drive. After I convinced her that she was still confused, she told me that I'd have to send in my entire 1040 for replacement, not just the mechanism. When I asked why I could not turn in my external drive casing (I have already swapped the mechs and have this one in the ST itself) she said that they only swap complete units. (I was talking slowly and clearly - she sounded like she had no idea what a disk drive even was!!! She called it a hard drive three times.) She finally gave up and gave me to her technical people when I asked her if I would get a Chinon back, or maybe a Sony - the drive Atari now uses. I figured once and for all, I'd ask the technical people about a speed port on the Chinon. The clown I spoke to didn't know either. He said that only manufacturing people knew and that he was there only to answer technical questions for end users!!!! I thought mine was a technical question!!! The final resolution is this. If I don't hear from a semi intelligent Atari customer service person soon, I plan to throw my ST in the trash, sue the original center that gave me the bad drive in the first place, and buy an Amiga (That ought to get the flames going.) I am sick and tired of dealing with incompetence when it comes to my computer. It's no wonder Atari has such a bad reputation!!!!!
towns@atari.UUCP (John Townsend) (11/09/88)
in article <8811080315.AA03437@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, MLS@s40.prime.COM says: > > > Whoever posted that Atari Customer Service is helpful could not have called > the same people I did! I apologize for any problems that you had with our Customer Relations or Technical Support Dept. > I called Atari back and got the same girl (Is there only ONE customer > service rep?) She apologized, saying that there was a miscommunication > between herself and the technician. She then told me that I would > have to talk to Chinon because it was not an Atari drive. After I > convinced her that she was still confused, she told me that I'd have to > send in my entire 1040 for replacement, not just the mechanism. When I > asked why I could not turn in my external drive casing (I have already > swapped the mechs and have this one in the ST itself) she said that they > only swap complete units. (I was talking slowly and clearly - she sounded > like she had no idea what a disk drive even was!!! She called it a hard > drive three times.) > Customer Relations only does replacements on complete units. We do not swap mechanisms. This is company policy. Also, there are several Customer Service Representatives. If you call Atari again, please ask for the person's name (in both the Customer Relations and Tech Support Depts) and let us know who this person is. We would like to correct the information they are providing. This way we can improve the support we are providing. > She finally gave up and gave me to her technical people when I asked her > if I would get a Chinon back, or maybe a Sony - the drive Atari now > uses. > Our Manufacturing Facility uses a number of different mechanisms at any given time. Therefore, we cannot quote you the type of mechanism that would be in the drive returned to you. This varies depending on the drives we have in stock. > I figured once and for all, I'd ask the technical people about a speed > port on the Chinon. The clown I spoke to didn't know either. He said > that only manufacturing people knew and that he was there only to answer > technical questions for end users!!!! I thought mine was a technical > question!!! > To my knowledge there isn't an easy way to adjust the speed on the Chinon mechanisms. As you may have noticed, the mechanisms are closed units. I will check with our service dept and see if they have more information than I do. -- John Townsend Atari Corp, Technical Support