chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (07/14/89)
People following the Jasmine discussion a few weeks ago (has it been that
long? How time flies when you're hard disk is down...) might remember that
my disk crashed and I sent it to Jasmine for repair.
Today (three weeks later) I get the estimate for repair. Actually, there
were two estimates: $393 and $425. Jasmine called back and tried to increase
the repair while ComputerWare was trying to contact me.
Imagine this. They want $400 to repair a disk that's maybe three months out
of warranty that I can buy for $550 new. And it only took them three weeks
to let me know.
You can imagine my response. I won't repeat it because this is a family
network. However, I did *not* authorize repair and they're shipping my new
doorstop back to me.
I have, for a long time, been a strong Jasmine supporter. This dead disk, in
fact, was my third Jasmine. It's my last. Charging 75% of the retail price
for a repair is beyond stupid, it's criminal -- especially since Jasmine
won't sell parts to dealers. There is only one place to get Jasmine gear
serviced and they obviously know it.
Rather than continue to support this kind of corporate nastiness, I'm
declaring the drive dead and buried and I'll start over with something else.
People considering Jasmine hardware should consider this -- if it breaks,
how much will it cost you to fix it?
If there's someone out there who's a good hardware hacker and wants to take
a chance, I have a non-working hard disk (Jasmine 20, new style with
Driveware software and manual, non-functional) that you can have for $100
(or make me an offer). Anything to get it out of my sight.
chuq (just sign me disgusted)
Chuq Von Rospach =|= Editor,OtherRealms =|= Member SFWA/ASFA
chuq@apple.com =|= CI$: 73317,635 =|= AppleLink: CHUQ
[This is myself speaking. No company can control my thoughts.]
You are false data. Therefore I shall ignore you.jdevoto@Apple.COM (Jeanne A. E. DeVoto) (07/14/89)
One thing that may be reason for Jasmine to charge so much: was the
problem a bad drive mechanism? The mechanism is most of the drive's
materials cost, and while I have no idea how much the mechanism
manufacturer charges Jasmine, it's probably several hundred.
Mechanisms can sometimes be repaired, but it's a chancy operation
and often winds up costing more than a new mechanism.
Not that any of this is any comfort, but it may help explain why
the repair charge is so huge. (I will say that if a drive's only
three months out of warranty, I'd prefer to replace the mechanism
for free or at a loss, rather than alienate a customer. But that's
just me.)
====== jeanne a. e. devoto =================================================
Usenet: jdevoto@apple.com | You may not distribute this article under a
jdevoto@well.UUCP | compilation copyright without my permission.
____________________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer: I doubt anyone in Apple Corporate | CI$ 72411,165
knows what Usenet is, let alone what I post. |keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) (07/14/89)
In article <33121@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: >People following the Jasmine discussion a few weeks ago (has it been that >long? How time flies when you're hard disk is down...) might remember that >my disk crashed and I sent it to Jasmine for repair. > >Today (three weeks later) I get the estimate for repair. Actually, there >were two estimates: $393 and $425. Jasmine called back and tried to increase >the repair while ComputerWare was trying to contact me. > >Imagine this. They want $400 to repair a disk that's maybe three months out >of warranty that I can buy for $550 new. And it only took them three weeks >to let me know. Don't get too riled about this. That would border on hypocrrisy. Apple's service providers aren't that much better in terms of timeliness or price. Coupled with our sub-average 90-day waranty, and customers are pretty pissed off at us, too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keith Rollin --- Apple Computer, Inc. --- Developer Technical Support INTERNET: keith@apple.com UUCP: {decwrl, hoptoad, nsc, sun, amdahl}!apple!keith "Argue for your Apple, and sure enough, it's yours" - Keith Rollin, Contusions
pff@thumper.bellcore.com (Peter Ferris) (07/17/89)
Greetings Chuq, et al; It's been over a month since I sent both of the defective Jasmine 140 InnerDrives back for repair. So far, I haven't heard a word. I did learn a valuable lesson though. From now on I encourage all buyers of Mac hardware in my area to specify Apple drives. I realize these are not necessarily perfect nor OEM'd by Apple, but when I recently called Apple about about a defective Seagate drive, it was replaced immediately - I had the replacement installed within 48 hours after calling Apple. Apple cares, Apple listens. Sorry Jasmine, NEVER again. Ya know, I used to recommend Jasmine. A friend runs a BBS in Tulsa and has had at least one (and I believe 2) Jasmine drives (when Jasmine first hit the HD market) running non-stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a few years now. I received a bit of e-mail from Internet folks on the subject. Frankly, MOST of the storys were the "I had a similiar experience when...". Some people said that they liked their Jasmine drives and / or service, but of those, more than half said admittedly they hadn't needed service RECENTLY (in the past year). Another factor in my recommending Jasmine was that they offered a large chunk of real estate - 140MB drive when for awhile 80MB was the most Apple offered. Now Apple offers a 160MB drive. The two that I have personal experience with seem to work like a champ! It seems to me as if Jasmine's sales has blossomed far ahead of it's service, a common but unfortunate management error in high tech items. Upper management must consist of more salesmen and bean counters then techs. BTW: Jasmine did send a loaner drive, ransomed against my corporate Amex card. They felt that one (1) external 20MB drive was a fair loaner for two internal 140's. Not to worry - they didn't send any SCSI cabling or power cable either. In keeping with my current experiences with Jasmine, the loaner drive failed within a week. Bravo. The problems of all failed drives seems to be the same - failure to SCSI ID (mount). The failed drives were used in different Macs, in different environments, by users with very different levels of Mac expertise. To put this in some sort of perspective: I've been using Macs heavily since the Lisa (eh?!). While I'm no software guru, I know my way around, and I am fairly familar with the hardware aspect of things. Formal education aside, I'm an Apple certified tech. I'm not bragging, just establishing my competence in working with the stuff - lest anyone think - gee, maybe this guy is hooking it up wrong..., etc. Possible, but very unprobable! Needless to say, I could go on (as could you, Chuq!) about my unpleasant experiences with Jasmine. As each day passes and the users are replacing their Jasmine drives with Apple product, Jasmine will have a harder time extracating themselves from the damage they've done to my users, and the sour taste left in my mouth. Good luck to all users of Jasmine drives - may you never need service. Best Regards, Pete Ferris Bell Communications Research pff@thumper.bellcore.com GEnie: P.FERRIS AppleLink:N1009
chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (07/18/89)
>It's been over a month since I sent both of the defective Jasmine 140 >InnerDrives back for repair. So far, I haven't heard a word. I did learn a >valuable lesson though. From now on I encourage all buyers of Mac hardware in >my area to specify Apple drives. I talked at some length to the ComputerWare people, which is where I bought my Jasmine doorstop. They looked at three or four possibilities to help me out (none of them revenue generating for them I might add). They also mentioned a couple of interesting factlets. First, if you bought your Jasmine through them and it is under warranty and you don't need data recovery, they'll swap you with a new drive from inventory and then fight Jasmine for a replacement with you completely out of the loop. (Hurrah ComputerWare!). Second, they've stopped selling Jasmine -- they have not removed it from their price lists and hope it is temporary (if Jasmine can get its act together and fix things up) but right now, they're not replacing inventory or pushing the hardware. Part of the reason was the continuing service hassles they get from jasmine in getting things fixed. They're also having trouble getting inventory out of Jasmine (which has all sorts of other implications). I can only say nice, really nice things about ComputerWare. They have on multiple occasions gone out of their way to make things right. Their staff is intelligent, friendly and knowledgable. Their prices are good. And they're there when things break -- even if it isn't their fault, they'll do what they can. One *other* factlet about Jasmine. When I brought this up on CompuServe, the Jasmine person justified the $400 repair cost as being because the drive mechanism is so expensive -- and then pointed out that I could, instead, buy a brand new Jasmine 20 with a two year warranty for only $422 -- a special Jasmine offer to CompuServe MAUG members. What a deal. chuq Chuq Von Rospach =|= Editor,OtherRealms =|= Member SFWA/ASFA chuq@apple.com =|= CI$: 73317,635 =|= AppleLink: CHUQ [This is myself speaking. No company can control my thoughts.]
rob@uokmax.UUCP (Robert K Shull) (07/19/89)
In article <33257@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: >One *other* factlet about Jasmine. When I brought this up on CompuServe, the >Jasmine person justified the $400 repair cost as being because the drive >mechanism is so expensive -- and then pointed out that I could, instead, buy >a brand new Jasmine 20 with a two year warranty for only $422 -- a special >Jasmine offer to CompuServe MAUG members. What a deal. This blaming of "mechanism cost" to justify ridiculous repair rates sounds very familiar. CMS used the same justification for asking $900 to repair my 100 meg internal (Rodime mechanism, $1050 new). They claimed that they were just passing Rodime's charges on. Interesting, since Rodime charged me $270 to fix the drive (flat rate, swap with a rebuilt). BTW, Rodime said they'll fix any drive they manufacture, even if purchased through a reseller. I don't have their number, but they're in Boca Raton, Flordia. Robert -- Robert K. Shull sun!texsun!uokmax!rob
chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (07/22/89)
>Today (three weeks later) I get the estimate for repair. >You can imagine my response. I won't repeat it because this is a family >network. However, I did *not* authorize repair and they're shipping my new >doorstop back to me. I know this is getting depressing (or at least boring) but to keep people informed -- Jasmine was informed monday to return the drive to ComputerWare unrepaired. They confirmed that it was shipped monday. It is now Friday, and ComputerWare hasn't seen it yet (they warned me about this. "shipped today" implies it was sent to shipping -- where it's been known to sit for up to two weeks). So my drive has been dead over a month, is still dead, will be dead indefinitely, and I don't even know when I'll get it back because it's lost in some pigeonhole at Jasmine. I'm glad that disk drives aren't a critical part of a computer system. If I was depending on this for my livelihood, I might be upset. Chuq Von Rospach =|= Editor,OtherRealms =|= Member SFWA/ASFA chuq@apple.com =|= CI$: 73317,635 =|= AppleLink: CHUQ [This is myself speaking. No company can control my thoughts.]
roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (07/25/89)
In article <33121@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: > Jasmine won't sell parts to dealers. There is only one place to get > Jasmine gear serviced and they obviously know it. Is this a new thing? Some time ago, a power supply in one of our (many) Jasmine drives died. I called Jasmine and after convincing the tech there that I knew what I was doing (i.e. I surmised that the power supply died because my DVM showed 115 AC in but no +5 DC out, with no load attached) they were glad to sell me the power supply. I don't remember what it cost, but it was quite reasonable. -- Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 {att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu "The connector is the network"